clear my throat, and try again. “When I was twelve, I saw my parents betrayed and killed, and I knew they’d come for me next. So I ran away from home.”
Nothing. No reaction except for Noah crossing and uncrossing his boots on the table.
Antony shoots me a questioning look. I give the slightest shake of my head. I can’t talk about the coffin. Not now. Not with that hardness in Eli’s eyes. I might be stripped bare, but I wouldn’t flay my own skin off in supplication. This story is as close to the truth as I’m willing to get.
“Daddy wanted me to take over his empire. He trained me from the day I was born to manage the vast underground networks he used for illicit trade. He taught me himself, and he would let me hide in the closet or under his desk when he held meetings with subordinates or enemies. I got my obsession with ancient Rome from him. But this knowledge came with a price. He couldn’t allow me to enroll in a normal school. He kept me shut away in the house, and when I attended events with him, it was always in elaborate disguises. Antony was one of the few friends I had who he allowed to see my real face.”
“Why?” Noah’s back is ramrod straight, his posture perfect. That’s Noah Marlowe for you, all buttoned up and perfectly put-together – a mask with perfect edges but made of glass that will shatter in an instant.
“Daddy knew that to be a woman in his world meant I’d become a pawn to be moved around the chessboard and sacrificed at will. Vultures would circle, trying to take my power and carve up our empire amongst themselves. He didn’t want that for me, so he kept me to himself so I’d become strong. Daddy barely let me leave the house – I didn’t have friends. Antony was the only person outside the house who I was allowed to talk to.”
I swallow again. “Daddy trained me to be a queen. On the chessboard, the queen is the ultimate weapon, but only because the player has to be prepared to sacrifice her if the reward was high enough. My eventual marriage would seal an alliance with another important crime family and allow me to hold on to our empire, and Daddy didn’t want to show me off on the market too soon. When the king was removed from the table, I knew I’d be collateral damage. The man who killed my parents wanted control of my father’s empire – they couldn’t yet marry me, and they couldn’t risk keeping me alive.”
“You sound like you know who took out your parents?”
I nod. “His name’s Brutus. He’s my uncle, and he was my father’s tribune – his lieutenant, second in command. But he and Daddy disagreed on certain aspects of the family business. Brutus wanted to get out of the antiquities trade and move into human trafficking – there’s more money in it and a bigger local client base. Daddy wouldn’t hear of it – it went against his fucked-up moral code. Next thing, my parents end up dead and Brutus is the new Imperator of the August empire. It doesn’t take Eli’s Sherlock Holmes orgasm face to put the pieces together.”
Antony shakes his head at me, warning me that I’m saying too much. But I can’t. I’m falling to pieces under the intensity of Noah’s curiosity and Gabriel’s storm-filled silence and Eli’s rage.
“When they were killed, I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I just knew I had to get away from my crumbling family before my uncle came for me. So I went to Antony, who’s always looked after me. Antony owns a fight club called The Colosseum in Tartarus Oaks that brings in a lot of money for the three crime families of Emerald Beach, so he’ll always be safe. He showed me a newspaper article about the disappearance of the Malloy family – a mother, father, and their blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter who looked uncannily like me.”
Antony moves from the door to the chair opposite the sofa, flopping down with his huge feet hanging over the end. He flips open his jacket, letting the guys see the gun strapped there. I notice Noah staring at him with a weird expression on his face, almost like he’s trying to work something out.
My cousin strokes the weapon like a lover. “I knew we could use Claudia’s resemblance