I can’t catch my breath. “Cash,” I try. “I—”
I don’t know what to do. I’m here with Leo, and Cash is in the most dangerous place on earth. Caroline Constantine owns Bishop’s Landing and most of the people in it. If she brought enough of them to our house, they would have all the power.
This is what it must be like to be crumpled up and thrown away. I feel folded in. Caved. Discarded, though I came here on my own.
If Aunt Caroline takes our dad away, then all of this will have been for nothing. I took the strap for Leo. Took his cock down my throat. Bandaged his wounds. It will all be meaningless.
Part of me shrinks away from that thought, disgusted. Those things we did—they meant something. But Leo and I signed a deal, and emotions weren’t part of it. It’s confusing. I don’t know which way is up.
“Are you okay, Hales?”
“Yes,” I squeak, then clap my hand over my mouth to keep in the sobs. I’ve gotten better at keeping them silent while I’m here. It comes in handy right now. I have to let this out some way or another, but it’s not going to be in front of my brother. “I’m going to be fine. What’s our plan?”
I wish Petra was here to swoop in and arrange things with drill-sergeant precision. You never had to worry about finding your place when your sister was in charge. She had the answers to every question. Her word was law.
There’s only one person I know—other than Petra—who always has an answer.
That person is Leo Morelli.
The flush that spreads from my neck down makes me back away from the window. I cannot fantasize about a mortal enemy of our family when he’s the reason Aunt Caroline is after my dad in the first place.
That obnoxious, relentless voice in my head spins up. Leo Morelli didn’t start this.
No. Of course he didn’t. The feud between the Morellis and the Constantines started long before Leo came to my dad with his contract. Leo is making moves in a game that’s older than both of us.
“Hales?” Cash’s voice sounds far away, but my thoughts are too frantic, too loud. Aunt Caroline is the one who’s had a problem all these years. Aunt Caroline is the one who wanted my dad to be different. Leo chose him because Aunt Caroline has always kept him on the outside. She wouldn’t help him, and that left us vulnerable to Leo. I can’t untangle what it means. I can’t find the thread that gets us out of this.
Leo was supposed to be the threat. Not Aunt Caroline.
“I’ll come home. We’ll figure it out. It’ll be better if I—”
“No.” Cash’s voice is so decisive that it shocks me into silence. “I’m handling it. You have to stay there, with him.”
There’s such venom in his voice that it seeps through the phone. “Cash, there has to be something—”
“Stay where you are.” He’s forcing the words through gritted teeth. Cash is never this angry. Never at the mercy of his emotions like this. Of the two of us, he’s the real Constantine. Cool under pressure. Delightful at parties. He doesn’t get pissed and speak to people like this. “Keep Leo Morelli away. That’s all you have to do.”
18
Haley
I’m a mess.
Keeping it together, at least outwardly, is the best and only option. I can’t have a screaming, panicking meltdown. That’s not me. And it won’t get me anywhere. It definitely won’t get Aunt Caroline to leave my dad alone. It won’t help Cash. We’ll still be in trouble.
If it was summer, I would go for a run to clear my head. I would run until the pattern of my footfalls put everything back in order again. But it’s winter. I’m certain Leo has a gym here, but the logistics make me want to go back to bed. Calling Mrs. Page for clothes. Finding it. Running on a treadmill, which I’m certain is a preview of hell.
No.
Instead, I shower. Dry my hair. Smooth some product over it that makes it slightly sleeker. Slightly shinier. Stare at myself in the mirror while I try to get my brain to work.
A pink box waits for me when I step back into the room. More new clothes, these ones even softer than the previous outfit. I put on the underthings and black leggings and long-sleeved shirt and stare into the bottom of the box. There is no humiliating lingerie. Not a scrap of