Chapter 2

A used ampoule fell out of my pocket. My mother saw it and quickly kicked it under the sofa. "More headache medicine, I assume. There are a lot of guests today, so don't take it out where people can see it."

Everyone watched her do it, but nobody cared, because in their eyes this was just another one of my little performances.

Lucian came over and smoothed my hair back. "The Family announcement is today. Be sincere about this. Once Elena isn't angry anymore, I'll still take you home tonight and our engagement stands. Be good."

The moment he finished, Elena threw a maid's apron at me. "There's nothing else in the house, so just make do with this, Cassie."

She led me into a bedroom herself, but she had deliberately left a freshly opened box of ultra-thin condoms on the table. The bed was covered with toys of every kind and lingerie, and my own things had been dumped in the trash.

Beside the trash can was a hotel welcome card. Registered guests: Lucian, Elena.

The date was the day the organization was attacked. The old estate I was holding came under fire from a rival crew, and the communication lines were cut. One of my men risked his life to send the last transmission to Lucian. I thought help would come fast. What came instead was word that he was dealing with something more difficult.

He arrived before dawn, exhausted, held me tight and apologized in a low voice, swore he would never fail me, swore that after the wedding he would make up for every debt twice over. It turned out that the urgent Family business that night was one long good night with Elena.

I crushed the card in my fist, and the pain in my chest felt like bleeding. "How long has this been going on?"

"Don't ask things that hurt everyone." He lowered his voice. "Elena has been through so much. Spending more time with her is me making amends on your behalf."

My voice shook when I asked, "Making amends in bed?"

Marcus strode over and pulled the card out of my hand, trying to settle me down. "It's ordinary courtesy between Family members. Lucian has stood by you for seven years. We've all seen how much he loves you."

All I could think was how absurd those years of company had been.

Elena leaned against Lucian's shoulder, idly stroking the key to the Family vault at her throat. "Whenever I was unhappy, Lucian would fly out to my hiding place in secret to be with me. He said you were too rigid, Cassie. Boring."

That summer, my mother and I had gone out to the street to find food. Elena said she was too hungry to walk any farther, so I told her to wait right there. Three minutes, that was all. And when I came back, she was gone.

For a full year the Family used every underworld contact it had to search for her, and there was nothing. Afterward my mother bought me clothes and toys, crying while she told me it wasn't my fault. My father dropped his business and watched me constantly, terrified I would do something to myself. Marcus ordered that no one in the Family was ever to bring it up again. I was naive enough to think they were sparing me the guilt because it hurt them to see me suffer. All of it was a carefully woven lie.

I looked at Elena. "You came back a long time ago, didn't you?" My mother pushed her behind her back. "That's all in the past. Stop asking."

Lucian stroked Elena's hair, his voice extraordinarily soft. "From now on this house runs the way you say it does. Nobody will dare mistreat you again."

When Elena nodded, the ring on her hand clicked against the necklace. That necklace was the key to the vault, the thing I had begged for countless times and never gotten. Lucian always said I was too green to manage the organization's internal affairs.

The last time, I made a deal with him. If I could land the European arms contract, he would take me into the vault. He gave a short laugh. "It'll all be yours once we're married. There's no rush." But what actually belonged to me was every filthy, exhausting job the organization had.

My father looked at me, stone-faced. "Don't fight your sister over something this small. The love we give you doesn't hinge on it."

"Everything in there is money I saved over the years." The organization had needed nothing but cash during the expansion, and the older savings were long spent. What sat in that vault now was what I had earned negotiating deals day and night.

Lucian used to say it would be a fund for our children someday, and then he turned around and used it to buy Elena a new car and a new house.

"It's Family property. Anyone should be able to use it." Lucian said it like it was the most reasonable thing in the world. "All of it is me making amends for you. You keep saying you love me and love your family. Can't you show even this much tolerance?"

That sentence sickened me until the room tipped and my vision blurred. When I came back to myself, my last ampoule had somehow fallen out.

Elena picked up the painkiller and pretended to be puzzled. "Cassie, you actually went out and bought this just to sell the act?"

"Give that back." I moved fast. The ampoule slipped free and shattered on the floor.

My mother shielded Elena instantly, her voice full of blame. "Are you insane? What if you'd hurt her!"

"That's the medicine keeping me alive." I braced myself on the table, shaking all over.

"A little ache here and there. Grit your teeth and it passes," my father snapped.

Elena bent to gather the pieces, sniffling. "Don't be angry, Cassie. I'll pick it up for you." But the liquid had already soaked into the carpet. Not one drop was left.

Lucian watched the whole thing and gently wiped her tears away. "Don't touch that filthy stuff. I'll have someone buy Cassie more later."