Page 15 of The Golden Hour

Finn broods silently. Waves crash below us—a tumultuous suck and rush as the storm closes in. Absorbed in the ocean’s song, I almost don’t hear his soft question.

“Where have you been the last six years?”

Drifting. Hiding. Surviving.

I hedge, “I’ve lived in a lot of places.”

Finn eyes me like he wants to press, but instead asks, “If you hadn’t run, what would you be doing now?”

A hard question, and not a comfortable one to answer. “Sometimes I think if I’d stayed much longer, I would have become who they wanted me to be. The lifestyle is very… seductive to young women. I’d likely be married to a man of her choosing. Or maybe gone to law school, if that’s what she wanted for me.” I take a steadying breath. “Or, if I proved myself of no use to the family, I’d be dead for real. Probably of an accidental drug overdose. I lost a second cousin that way shortly after he came out as gay.”

“Jesus,” he hisses.

A sudden thought makes my stomach turn, pulling my gaze to his face. “When you hired those investigators, did you do it directly?”

He scans my wide eyes. “I’m not stupid. I did it through a dummy corporation that can’t be traced back to me.”

My relief mixes with appreciation for his cleverness. “Good. You’re not on their radar, then.”

The eerie sky makes the blue of his eyes so vivid I have to look away. They see too much but understand so little. I’ve given him the merest glimpse into the darkness. Enough, I hope, from deterring a nose-dive into the abyss.

Then he says, “I’m not going to quit.”

I close my eyes, seeking relief from the icy wind, but also to hide my reaction to his words.

“Please,” I murmur. “Don’t do this.”

Until now, I hadn’t realized this wasn’t just about what Molly wanted, but about what I want, as well. I barely know this man, but I don’t want him anywhere near my murderous family. They will end him, quietly and convincingly. A freak accident. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time. An event that could never be traced back to the family.

I’ve seen it too many times before.

“I’ve tried, you know,” he says, muted voice almost lost in the wind, “to forgive. Or at least to accept and move on like my mom and sisters have. But there’s something inside me that can’t let go. My father was the same. Mom used to call him Sir Charles as a joke, because he had this inflexible nobility to him. He was the guy who stood up—every time—in defense of the defenseless, with no care for his own safety.”

A dim memory surfaces. “He was a firefighter, right? A chief?”

Finn nods. “He was a good man. The best kind of man, a hero. And look where it got him. So like I said, I’m not going to stop.”

“You’re not like them, Finn. This isn’t what your dad would have wanted.”

The second the words are out, I know I’ve made a mistake.

He stands, facing me with his shoulders bunched and rage pouring out of him. “You don’t know shit about what he would have wanted, Callisto Avellino, and you don’t know shit about me. But I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

I flinch as he leans down, then freeze as his lips graze my forehead.

“I’m no fucking hero, princess, and neither are you.”

9

The second time I scare Callisto makes me feel no better than the first. Worse, even, because when she told me about what happened to her uncle, and I could see the old, familiar grief in her eyes, I was still an asshole to her.

I could blame jet lag, or the less-than-warm receptions from my mom and aunt, but the truth is more basic. And more damning.

I still want to sink my teeth into her skin and rut into her body like a caveman. I have no idea why, but if anything, I want her more now that I know who she is. Like she’s a focal point my body and mind can finally agree on, a merging of my inner life with my physical needs.

I loathe everything she comes from and represents, and her I’m an innocent victim act makes me want to throw something. Because it has to be an act. No way she grew up suckling at the Avellino teat and came out halfway decent. In fact, maybe she’s a Trojan horse. A game piece on the Avellino chess board, sent to monitor my mom and make sure she doesn’t make waves for Vivian’s upcoming campaign.

The thought sends a chill down my spine. If it’s true, then my actions today might have put my mom in danger. For the first time, I’m relieved she told me to kick rocks, because it means there’s nothing for Callisto to report.

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