“This is what happens when you wait too long to get married,” my mother shouted only seconds after I’d walked in the door. “You start working for the mob.”
“I don’t think that necessarily follows.” I knew I shouldn’t have gone to Satya Auntie’s store with Bella’s wedding dress, but the bridal shop couldn’t accommodate the extensive alterations necessary to make the dress less revealing in the short time before the wedding. I knew Satya Auntie could do it, but I had to give Bella’s name, and of course, she’d looked the family up. That meant no stone had been left unturned.
“Of course it does.” Dad let out a long breath. “If you were married, you would have a house and a mortgage and a steady office job to help pay for it. You would be coming home every night to cook a nice dinner for your husband. And you would be having babies to keep you busy instead of running around working for criminals.”
“To be fair, I haven’t seen any criminal behavior,” I said. “They haven’t done anything that made me think they were anything other than a nice, normal family.”
“Satya Auntie said they were going to throw you into the ocean to be eaten by fish.” Dad couldn’t get an idiom right to save his life. He’d come to America when he was twelve years old, and it was the only aspect of the English language he couldn’t grasp. He was a literal thinker. Rain was water, not cats and dogs. Nothing was rocket science except rocket science itself.
“She’s overdramatizing.” I put my bag on the counter near the door in case I had to make a quick getaway.
“You will stop this at once,” he said. “Tell them your father said you can’t work there anymore. If they give you a hard time, I will speak to them. I won’t have my daughter getting involved with organized crime.”
Wouldn’t that be special. My dad driving up to a mob boss’s mansion to tell him he didn’t want his daughter working with his family. At least the fishes and I wouldn’t be alone.
“I’m almost thirty, Dad. I can handle my own affairs. Why don’t you trust me to make my own decisions? You were never involved in my life growing up. Why do you care now?”
“He always cared,” Nikhil said in the faux sympathetic voice that always made my skin crawl. He was the spitting image of my dad but younger and with my mother’s thick hair. He’d taken to wearing a hideous mustache and beard that looked like something had died on his face, but I kept that to myself.
“I don’t recall asking your opinion.” I couldn’t look at him. He just loved coming home to see me squirm.
“You haven’t been yourself lately.” Nikhil shook his head and sighed. “You’ve gone off the rails. We just want you to go back to being who you were—sweet, good, quiet, respectful. Listen to the people who know what’s best for you.”
“Shut up, Nick.” I was sick of him and his officious, condescending attitude, sick of him thinking he knew anything about me. Where was he when I was struggling at school? Where was he when I needed a big brother, or even a friend? “Why are you here anyway?”
“To make sure you do the right thing.”
“And that would be what? Telling the head of a Mafia family I’m going to bail on his daughter’s wedding? Do you know how much money he’s paying me to see it through? You can’t even count that high.”
Nikhil swallowed hard. He couldn’t stand being bested in any way. “We’ve found a perfect match for you. He’s a dermatologist and he’s looking for a wife. The family all agrees this is the best thing for you.”
“Single and has a job. That’s a pretty low bar,” I said. “Personality. Interests. Political views. Sense of humor. Pets. Hobbies. Character. Intelligence. Values. None of those matter?”
“Not when you’ve lost all sense of who you are.” Nikhil leaned forward. “Not when the family honor is at stake.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “Did I go to sleep and wake up in the wrong century? The family honor? Since when does our family have honor? And in what universe did you ever think I would agree to something like this?”
It struck me at that moment that Bella and I were in the same position. I wasn’t going to marry a man I didn’t love, and I couldn’t let her do it, either.
“I’m leaving.” I grabbed my bag. “Don’t wait up because I won’t be back.”
“Simi, wait,” Mom called out. “Nikhil went too far. He’ll apologize.”
“Why would I apologize?” Nikhil spat out. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
I left them to what would inevitably turn into yet another fight, and stormed out of the house. I was frustrated and furious and had nowhere to go. My basement suite was basically uninhabitable because Rose had thrown a few buckets of water on the floor to make it look extra damaged for the insurance adjuster’s upcoming visit. Gage was at Chloe’s place and I didn’t want to disturb them. I couldn’t stay with relatives without becoming the subject of the gossip mill yet again, and in my current mood I wouldn’t be good company for any of my friends. I needed a couch to crash on and an outlet for my anger. Who could weather my storm?
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?I held it together until Jack opened his hotel room door.
Whack. My hands thudded against his chest, fingers curling into thick, hard muscle as I pushed him back. He was wearing pajama pants and nothing else. I could see every ripple of his six-pack abs, the deep lines of his V cuts, and the soft trail of hair leading from his navel below his waistband. Damn him for being so fine. “You knew who they were.”
To his credit, he didn’t even pretend not to understand. “Does it matter? It’s your only way to save Chloe.” He reached over and pushed the door closed behind me.
“I suspected Mr. Angelini wasn’t on the up-and-up,” I continued to rant. “Good guys don’t act as fences for stolen jewelry or show up at a charity ball with gold-toothed bodyguards and radiating evilness. But the Chicago Outfit? Seriously? No wonder they shot at us in the boat. And of course they have killer Bee drones and two layers of security at their house. They’re not worried about theft; they’re worried about other mobsters or the FBI showing up and taking them all out in a hail of bullets, just like they’re going to do to us.”
“That only happens in the movies,” he said.
“Movies are based on real life.”
“In real life, ponies aren’t pink and can’t fly,” he pointed out.
“You didn’t give us all the information.” I shoved him again, but he didn’t move. “No one would have signed up if they knew we were going to steal from the mob.”
“Then it’s a good thing they don’t know.”
“They will know,” I said. “Because I’m going to tell them. I won’t keep secrets and I won’t put anyone at risk. We could have been killed today. Bella is being forced into the marriage, and her psycho fiancé showed up at the bridal dress shop. Chloe and I attacked him, something we would never have done if we’d known he was in the Mafia.”