Page 59 of Relentless Oath

But being ignored gave me space to deal with the constant violence I was exposed to at my father’s hands. After just a few months with my father, I’d seen enough dead bodies to last me a lifetime.

I heard him when he and his men brought someone back to the house to teach them a lesson, and I would hide. I didn’t like hearing the screams.

One time, my father had taken a glass bird sitting on a case and stabbed a guy with it. A part of it had lodged in the guy’s chest and the other part hit the floor. It wasn’t until it fell to the floor and crashed right at my feet in my hiding space, that I realized that it had belonged to my mother.

I remember my father walking off to fetch one of his clean-up guys. He’d left the man there, bleeding and unconscious on the floor. I approached the man, avoiding looking at his face, and pulled the glass piece from his chest.

I would never forget the feeling of pulling the glass from the man’s flesh.

Younger me had almost thrown up, but I was more afraid of losing that one thing that reminded me of my mother than I was of pulling a piece of glass out of a dead man.

I didn’t have access to glue or anything else, so I taped the glass bird back together. I placed it in my room, a space that was too large for me, but which appeased my dad’s need to make himself look important.

The family business had been slowly fading over the years, along with my father’s power and influence. By the time he died, he was a shell of who he had once been. Broken. Tired. Powerless.

But not me. I was far from any of those things. He had wanted to raise a monster and that’s who I had become.

When he took his last breath, I had stepped away from his bed, walked to my room, and packed my things along with the bird. It was the first piece that had started my collection of beautiful, broken, things.

“I don’t need to win,” Matteo said. “I just need to beat you.”

We stared at each other, me wondering why he was here, and him staring at me with a look in his eyes I didn’t recognize. I could see him choosing his next words carefully. That was wise.

“Look, it looks like you’re in a lot of trouble and I’m good at making trouble go away. Get me back in good with the family. We can combine resources and really take over the city, Dario. Now that most people think you’re dead, this is the perfect time to wipe away the competition. Get them while they’re not looking. Come on, man. The whole city….just think about it.”

He seemed to be practically drooling at the thought.

“City?” I scoffed. “I have most of the state’s finest in my back pocket. Why would I team up with you?”

“Because I know your real reason for kidnapping Mya. And I wonder how she would feel if she knew your secret too.” He looked so pleased with himself.

“Oh, really. What’s my big secret?”

“That’s it’s your fault her sweet little Jason is dead.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Mya

I sat stifflyacross from Dario and his brother, Matteo.

Matteo was talking, as he had been nonstop for the past ten minutes. He only stopped talking long enough to inhale a bit of food and toss back a drink.

We were all sitting at the restaurant that was attached to the far back end of the marina. It wasn’t a five-star dining establishment, but it had a lot of character. It would have been a place I would have enjoyed coming to under different circumstances.

Very different circumstances…starting with the present company.

I didn’t want to be near Dario or his crude brother right now. I was still seething from what Dario had said earlier. He was baiting me.

He only gave me breadcrumbs…bits and pieces, and then expected me to just trust him. I couldn’t and I wouldn’t. There was no way.

His brother picked up a chicken wing, sucked the meat off it and gave me a toothy smile. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend to be Miss Manners.

I was still trying to get over last night’s scare and my argument with Dario.

“So how are you liking married life?”

“This is my second marriage. I’m not exactly a novice.”

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