Page 17 of Souls and Sorrows

Neither did our mother, I suppose.

Maybe she’s why he turned out that way.

“Visiting your old friend?” I ask him after the silence stretches for far too long, tossing my hair over my shoulder. “What would the ol’ ball and chain think about you going to see the man she put in prison?”

“I imagine she’d feel the same as she would about you visiting him.” Kal cocks his head to one side. “But she doesn’t know, does she?”

“I don’t have to give her a play-by-play of my life.”

“A courtesy check-in every once in a while would be nice though. Especially when you evade Vitus’s guards at some bar two weeks ago, and the last Elena thing knows, you’re taking the stairs up to Fiero and Cosetta Tallerico’s home, and no one’s heard from you since.”

The breaths stall in my throat, dying out like the last sputtering of a broken car exhaust. My eyes cut to his. “You told her where I went?”

Kal’s face remains expressionless. I can’t imagine what it would be like to receive a terminal diagnosis from this man—his lack of bedside manner is probably what ended his medical career so early on.

Realization dawns on me the longer he stares, and my shoulders slump. “She’s tracking me.”

Of course, he wouldn’t tell her that he helped me clean something up, but I can almost guarantee that the tracking was his idea for her. A way to ease his conscience, since I have him keeping my secrets.

As if he can read where my thoughts have traveled, he rolls his eyes. “You have GPS on your phone, Ariana. Anyone in the world who wants to could find you.”

His words sound vaguely threatening, but there’s something else too. Something laced in the tone and shining in his gaze.

A warning.

“Elena is worried about you,” he says.

“So worried that she couldn’t even bother to come find me herself? If she has GPS on me, she can see where I’m at.”

His nostrils flare. “Actually, I insisted on coming. Just in case you’d managed to get yourself carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey. I imagine Vitus must be quite cross with you.”

In truth, I haven’t seen him since that day at the theater. I’m sure he’s planning something awful in retaliation though. Especially since his parents still haven’t turned up.

Squaring my shoulders, I shrug and run my hands over the A-line skirt blowing against my thighs in the breeze. “Nope, I think I’ll leave the carving to you and Elena. Isn’t that kind of your thing?”

Surprise flickers across his sharp features, its presence fleeting. As if I don’t know all the raunchy details of his sex life and the kinky shit they’re into.

Sisters talk.

At least… we used to.

Kal looks at me for a long, long time, staring as if he could see through to my soul. I wonder if evil looks different when you’re on the other side of it or if being tainted yourself makes it all taste the same.

Finally, he gives a small shake of his head, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black trench coat.

“Be careful,” he says, pressing his lips together. “The path of vengeance is a slippery slope.”

5

“Two nights outin less than a month. Must be some sort of record for you.”

Turning my head toward the adenoidal voice, I lift my complimentary beer in greeting as the firm’s managing partner takes the stool next to me.

“Yes, it seems some people are overestimating my desire to mingle.”

I’ve been here half an hour waiting for him to show, and have been offered drinks more times than I can keep track—by both men and women as they trickle in and out of the dance floor.

Most attorneys will host meetings in offices or even the local courthouse. Some even make house calls, but the bar setting is certainly a first for me. One of the largest partners for the premier law firm in the region, Jay Cupid is known for his innovative ideas and utilizing ways to lessen his carbon footprint. This is his version of upcycling.

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