“Is that a nice way of saying your brother will hit me if I turn police accomplice?”
Her cheeks pinken. I’m glad Nico’s not here—he took the baby and disappeared after one of the staff arrived with my bags. If he were around, I have a feeling that big brute would glare at me like he’s about to break my neck. And he just might do it. That man hovers around his wife and child like a stiff breeze might hurt them.
“No, I don’t think Casso’s going to touch you at all. I don’t know what you expected coming here, but honestly, Olivia, what happened between our families was ten years ago.” She spreads her hands and tries to smile. “We want to put that all behind us.”
I stand there seething. Arms crossed over my chest. “You were, what, twelve? Thirteen?”
“Twelve,” she whispers and chews her lip. God, she’s pretty. I can tell what Nico sees in her, except her whole family’s model gorgeous. Isn’t that some kind of joke? They’re killers and criminals and drug dealers and pimps and yet they look like they’d fit in with the cast of any high-end telenovela.
“You were twelve. I was fifteen. Doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but it’s a big one.”
“You and Casso knew each other.” She states it as a fact.
“Yes, we knew each other.”
“You went to the same school. That private place, what was it called?”
I look away and ball my fists and try not to smash one of the tasteful vases lined up on the dresser. “Yes, we did. Miller Academy.”
“I understand you have strong feelings about my brother. I know this must be difficult—”
“You have no clue how I feel.”
She nods slightly. “Okay, I get that, and you’re probably right, but hear me out. My relationship with Nico wasn’t always perfect. In the beginning, what we had was just—it was convenience. I married him to avoid getting shipped away, and he married me… well, he had his own reasons. But we grew something between us, and now we’re stronger than I ever thought we could be.”
I pace back and forth. My shoes clack against the floor and I pause at the window. Outside, red rock rolls into the distance, like we’re on the surface of Mars. I could escape, climb out, drop to the ground, and run into the desert. I’d be dead in a day and they might never find my body. There are no visible walls out there, but it’s a prison all the same.
“I don’t know what you and your husband went through, but don’t presume to suggest that it will happen with your brother and me. You don’t know what went down between us. You don’t understand.”
“Olivia, we’re going to be sisters. I just want to try to make things as comfortable for you as I can.”
I whirl on her. This naive, stupid little girl. She wants to make me comfortable? That’s bullshit. She’s the one that craves comfort—because if I give in to my situation and act nice and play along and smile and bat my pretty eyes then she won’t have to deal with the truth of all this. That I’m a captive, that my life is a miserable joke. That I’m going to marry a man that I despise.
No, she doesn’t give a damn about me. None of them do.
“If you care, then go get me a gun and let me blow my fucking brains out.”
She rears back like I slapped her and I wish I had. I get a sick pleasure from hurting her, and a voice deep down in my chest admonishes me for that. I should try to be better, and to be fair, Karah is trying here. She’s been kinder than anyone else has so far. I shouldn’t blame her for what Papa and her brother chose.
And yet I’m too raw to stop myself.
“You don’t mean that.” Her eyes are wide and she’s not sure, but god, yes, I do mean it. I don’t think I could bring myself to pull the trigger but some dark and broken part of me would rather be dead than have to be alive as Casso’s wife.
“I was just sentenced to a lifetime living with a man I hate. Truly hate, not just the little schoolgirl hate, the sort of anger you feel at a boy that teases you on the playground, but a deep hate. I’ve been carrying this emotion inside of me for ten years, Karah, and it’s rotting me. He hurt me once so badly that I never got over it. I swore I’d never see him again, no matter what. And now I’m supposed to smile and laugh and have his fucking babies.” I shiver at the idea of touching him, kissing him, fucking him. “This is a nightmare. So please don’t sit there and act like you have any clue what I’m going through.”