Page 74 of Ares

“Exactly what it sounds like, I’ve… changed… my… mind. I’m not doing it.”

Her lips tighten. “You told me you’d take care of it.”

When my brother went missing five years ago, I knew something bad had happened. Then last year when his rotted corpse was pulled from the watery grave in a Florida swamp, my worst fears were realized.

Following Joey’s funeral, my mother and I had shared a rare moment of affection. She had dramatically cried in my arms and pleaded with me to ease her pain. At the time, I didn’t know how. I couldn’t bring Joey back. I couldn’t change what happened. No, but you could avenge his death. Just like you took care of Donnie. We bonded in our grief, finally united by something, and it was all I’d ever wanted from my mother. Love.

But standing here now, it all makes sense. This was never about retaliation for Joey’s death but about my mother manipulating me into doing her bidding.

Another one of her games.

How could I be so stupid in not realizing this sooner?

Oh God, how I hate her.

She let Donnie rape me.

She didn’t believe me when I confided in her.

But in a moment of weakness following Joey’s death, I’d pushed it all aside when she’d dangled the affection I craved in front of me, and like a junkie, I’d sold my soul for a hit.

“Ares is a decent guy, he didn’t do this,” I say adamantly. “And I won’t be responsible for taking an innocent man’s life.”

Before she can say anything else, Connor, fiancé extraordinaire, walks into the room. He’s wearing suit pants and a button-up that’s too tight. Gold gleams on his fingers, and his oily ginger hair is slicked back off his forehead, exposing his receding hairline.

I don’t like Connor. He thinks he’s Mr. All That, but he’s so not.

There is something a little slimy about him.

But he’s a perfect fit for my mother. They’re both as delusional and classless as the other.

In a perfect world, they’d fall into a big well of their hatefulness and disappear.

“You’re just in time, Connor,” she says. “Rory says she’s changed her mind.”

“About what?” He takes mom’s cigarette from her hand and sits on the couch. He spreads his arms along the back, parts his legs like he’s king of the house, and gives me a smug look that gives me goosebumps.

Mom lights herself a new cigarette. “Apparently, she’s changed her mind about taking care of that Ares prick.”

He pauses the cigarette at his lips. “Are you fucking kidding? You know what I had to do to get that information, and now you’re telling me you’re backing out?”

“I think your information is wrong.”

Connor stands, turning red with sudden fury. He doesn’t appreciate being told he’s wrong.

He points the burning cigarette at me. “You listen to me, kid. I’m a big fucking deal around here, and I’ve got connections coming out of my asshole, so when I tell you something, you had better believe that it is one hundred percent fact. This Ares asshole was the hitman of choice for the De Kysa family. You remember them? They’re the biggest mafia in these parts, and they spill blood all over these streets for whatever goddamn reason they want. They ordered the hit, and Ares completed the job. My contacts say so. So don’t you fucking dare doubt it. That cunt killed our Joey. You can take that to the fucking bank.”

Our Joey.

That’s rich.

He didn’t even know Joey, and the only reason he is being so adamant about this is to win favor with my mother.

My mother’s beauty does the most stupid things to men.

“Why would they want Joey dead? It doesn’t make sense,” I say.

In the corner of my eye, I see mom shift restlessly and turn away to stare out the window.

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