Sometimes all you want to do is pull the covers over your head and pray the truth out of existence.
Tex THE NEXT MORNING came too soon. Sunlight flickered through the dark curtains, landing on my face. My body ached, my bones felt brittle, and I"d lost all feeling in my left arm.
Mo snuggled closer to my body.
My body decided it liked it and pressed against hers.
I told it to stop.
But yeah, it had a mind of its own.
Besides, when you fit so perfectly with someone, it"s kind of hard not to want to fuse the pieces together. With a sigh, I pried myself away from her, the tingling sensation in my arm reminding me of the loss of her body.
The chat with Nixon the day before hadn"t gone well. My uncle had suddenly decided to go off the map. All the Sicilians were currently in flight to the states for The Commission, and he"d disappeared like the b.i.t.c.h he was.
Sergio, aka s.h.i.t for brains, even tried tracing the cell number and it was disconnected, meaning only one thing, he"d heard about The Commission and he knew what my next move was.
Mother freaking splendid news.
The meeting of the powers wasn"t to take place for another week-we needed everyone to get adjusted. And Nixon had cheerfully given Luca and Frank the job of making sure no shots accidently misfired, yeah I didn"t envy them.
Mo made a little noise in her sleep and flipped onto her back.
G.o.d, she was beautiful.
G.o.d, I was an a.s.shole for not telling her that every d.a.m.n day.
Someone knocked softly on the door then opened it. Trace"s head poked through, staring at a calm Mo and then glaring at me.
"Whoa." I held my hands up in innocence. "I was staring at her, not aiming a gun."
"You choose her,"
Trace whispered. "When it comes to making a choice, you always choose love, screw blood."
"Are you drunk?" I took a few steps towards her.
"No." A tear streamed down her cheek. "I just... you need to know, in the end... your life is about choices, they either make or break you, don"t let your past destroy your future."
"And if it already has oh wise one?
And by the way this is weird, I haven"t even had breakfast, how are you even able to think this early?"
Trace"s brown eyes narrowed, with a flip of her dark hair she shrugged. "I"m an Abandonato. I"m always watching."
"Vacation," I muttered. "You should try it-you know away from the boss."
"Tex,"
Trace snapped.
"I"m serious. When the time comes it"s not about what Nixon wants, it"s what"s best for her." With that, she closed the door, leaving me confused as h.e.l.l and a bit curious as to what she put in her Cheerios to make her so awake at seven a.m.
d.a.m.n Nixon had his hands full with that one, always had, always will.
I took one last look at Mo and left the room making my way to the kitchen for some breakfast.
Trace was sitting calmly at the table eating, what do ya know, her Cheerios. Chase was in the process of stealing the box from her fingers while Mil hit him on the head with a newspaper, you know like owners do to their dogs when they p.i.s.s on their shoes, and Nixon, he was deep in conversation with Sergio, Luca, and Frank.
"Did I sleep in or something?" I yawned gaining everyone"s attention.
"Ahh, the beast"s awake." Luca smirked.
"Says the trained house cat." I flipped him off. I"d never been afraid of Luca. h.e.l.l, if anything, he should be afraid of me, of what I represented.
He ignored my slight to his scariness and shrugged, taking a long sip of his coffee.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and joined everyone in the kitchen. Nixon was the first to speak.
"We"ll do it at The Spot."
"The meeting?" I clarified.
Nixon nodded and leaned back in his chair.
"We can control the environment there."
"And what exactly are we hoping to accomplish?" I asked.
"What we always aim to accomplish." Frank ran a shaky hand through his silver hair. "Peace."
Just then Chase fell out of his chair on account of Mil pushing him, just as Trace freed the box of Cheerios and made a run for the pantry.
"Can"t even control our own breakfast, but world domination and peace, good luck with that." I snickered.
Luca licked his lips, his cold eyes watched me drink my coffee as though memorizing each movement. "You will help us."
"And if I don"t?"
"I"ll shoot you." Luca picked a piece of lint off his suit and glanced back at Nixon. "It really is a lovely day.
Why don"t you take Tracey out for a nice morning walk? We have time to plan later."
"My death," I grumbled.
"What other choice do you have?"
A muscle popped in Nixon"s jaw.
"Either you stand with us or you stand with them. You stand with us, they try to kill you but at least we protect you. You stand with them, they still try to kill you, and in the end we have to."
"And why"s that?" I licked my lips.
"Why the h.e.l.l would you have to kill me if I took my rightful place? Because really, that"s the only messed up piece to this entire puzzle! I killed my own father, so why shouldn"t I take his spot? What makes you, Nixon, any better than me?
What makes what I have to do any less d.a.m.ning than what all of you did when you became the head of the family?"
The entire room fell silent.
Even Chase and Mil stopped fighting.
"You truly do not know," Frank finally whispered. "Do you, son?"
I set my coffee onto the table and wiped my face with my hands. "Know, what?"
Frank placed his hand across mine, mumbling a prayer in Italian before whispering, "You have a sister."
The room went red, and then black, and then red again. "What does that have to do with me?"
"d.a.m.n near everything." Luca snorted. "I think it"s time we adjourn, let Tex savor the fact that he still has some family worth seeking out..."
I was still stunned when Frank put his hand on my shoulder and whispered, "Blood always wins."
Mo.
My sister.
Nixon.
Holy s.h.i.t.
Choices.
They"d been leaving hints all along.
They were going to make me choose. One look at Nixon said it all- because I knew he would choose Mo every single time-if he"d never met her, he would choose her.
Just like I would choose my sister.
To protect her, I would join the devil.
To protect her, I would fight my friends.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
Being in the Mafia is like playing house. Everything is fine until someone pulls out a gun.
Mo BY THE TIME I made it down to breakfast it was more like lunch. Chase and Mil had left a note that they"d gone out shooting and Nixon was just getting ready to take Trace to the grocery store.
Weird.
How normal we all seemed.
But nothing about our family was normal, which I was reminded of yet again when Nixon strapped ammo to the inside of his ankle.
"Where"s Tex?" I cleared my throat and crossed my arms.
Nixon and Trace shared a tense look.
With a curse Nixon mumbled, "h.e.l.l if I care."
Trace smacked him in the shoulder, but he just shook his head and gently took her arm, leading her out of the house.
"We"ll be back this afternoon,"
Nixon called. "I left plenty of men and you do still have Tex here with you, so all should be well, you know, unless he"s asked to choose-"
"Nixon!" Trace yelled his name so loud even I was shocked, she never yelled. Ever.
He blushed slightly and ducked his head as they walked out the door. Okay, that was weird.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and grabbed a granola bar from the pantry. It was a really pretty day, no way was I staying inside while everyone else was out doing something. I was sick of being babied, even if I did get shot, it wasn"t like I"d almost died or anything.
I ate the granola bar and choked down the coffee, then limped towards the back door.
"Going somewhere?" Sergio asked, peeking out from behind the newspaper.
"h.e.l.l." I smiled sweetly. "Care to join me?"
His gaze unwavering he simply answered. "Too late."
I shrugged and shouldered open the door limping across the back yard. The tree, just like everything else, looked harmless.
I"d spent years climbing that tree.
I imagined I was a princess in a tower, just waiting for my prince to come rescue me. It didn"t help that Nixon always told me stories about princesses in towers convincing me that I was like the girls in the story-it"s kind of how the whole Mafia princess thing came into play. Tex thought it was hilarious and teased me about it relentlessly when we were little.
Yeah, I"d kill to have him tease me right now.