Misty
EIGHT YEARS AGO
“ M arisela, I need you to stop arguing with me. I’ll only be gone a few hours. Keep your head down and stay out of trouble. I’ll be back before you know it.” My brother adjusts his tie for the fourth time in the last few minutes, making it even more crooked than it was before.
I knock his hands away and step in front of him, drawing his eyes from his reflection in the mirror as I redo his simple knot. “Adam, this isn’t funny. Getting involved with the mob isn’t going to solve our problems!”
“Neither is sticking around here, Mari. If I don’t start making some money soon, we’re gonna be on the streets. It’s bad enough your counselor has been poking around. You’re barely seventeen. They can take you and put you in the system for a year. Is that what you want?” he asks. His tone is full of exasperation, words quavering with hopeless anger at our situation .
For as long as I can remember, it’s been Adam and me against the world. Our parents were drug addicts who didn’t give a shit about us, let alone about giving us a better life. Thanks to Adam managing to find us food and clothes, we've always scraped by without raising too much suspicion about our living conditions.
The system would have no doubt separated us. And my brother, the best man I’ll ever know, has always made sure that never happened. No matter the lengths he’s had to go through to ensure we always have what we need.
“No,” I say quietly, finishing his knot and adjusting his collar. “I just wish you’d let me help. I can get a job and ? —”
“We’ve talked about this, Mari. I want you to focus on school.” He cups my cheeks, leaning his forehead on mine as our matching blue-green gazes lock. “Focus on getting as many scholarships as you can. You’re going to get out of this place and become a big hot-shot doctor someday.”
His words twist and tighten my intestines. There’s so much pressure to have a better future, when I could be helping us now.
As his hands fall away, my gaze journeys down the length of his navy Kiton suit that could pay for at least three months’ worth of our rent. “How did you even get involved with the Morronis, Adam?”
My brother checks his watch, a knock-off Rolex that looks like it’s seen better days up close but looks expensive from far away. “The less you know, the better. He’s going to be here any second. You should go to your room. Don’t you have homework or something you should be doing?”
His nerves are frazzled, and the telltale signs of stress are beginning to show on his features. Sweat beads at his hairline, and his eyes keep bouncing from me to the door to his watch.
“I want to know who you’re leaving with, Adam. I don’t like this. Why would they even employ you? You’re young and know nothing about their world. I’m sorry to say this, but you’re not exactly bodyguard material,” I jest, my tone a little lighter as I reach out and pinch his skinny arm. He looks like he’s days from wasting away, always making sure there’s enough food for me—even if that means he goes without a meal for a day or two.
He laughs. It’s hollow and short-lived as a knock interrupts whatever he’s about to say in return.
“Marisela, go. Now,” he pleads.
But I’m already halfway to the door, pulling it open before Adam can stop me.
It feels like time stops as a set of burnished bronze eyes fall from a frame well over six feet tall—tan, olive skin, a head of thick, dark hair, and the most chiseled jawline I’ve ever seen make up the man standing on the other side of the threshold.
“Well, well. Look at those beautiful eyes—misty, like the sea at dawn.” The man chuckles as he leans against the doorframe and drags his eyes down the length of my body. I feel like a fly who’s just been caught in a spider's web .
A very gorgeous spider, who looks like a mythological deity.
Dumbstruck by his ethereal beauty, my mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water before I stupidly reply, “Do you like the sea?” My brows furrow as I realize how dopey I sound, white knuckling the door like it’s a lifeline.
He winks, and my insides flutter like a thousand butterflies have just escaped their cocoons and are shaking their newly formed wings for the first time. “In another life, it would have been my greatest love.”
I want to be your greatest love. The thought flickers through my mind, voiceless. I’m only a teenager. I’ve never been in love. I’ve never even had a boyfriend. But this man—this God—whoever he is, I want to be his everything.
I want to ask him if he knows my name literally means ‘star of the sea’, but the softness his eyes hold for me hardens as he looks over Adam in the suit. “Acceptable.” His voice is rougher when he speaks this time—booming into the small space of our one-bedroom apartment and echoing off the bare walls. “Ready to go?”
Adam’s footsteps approach from behind, and though I don’t want to pull my eyes from the man before me, as my brother’s hand finds the small of my back, my head whips to the side to see a look of disapproval stretched across his face. “Lock the door behind us. Don’t let anyone in while I’m gone. If Howie comes by hollering about the rent, pretend like you aren’t home. Do you understand?”
I nod sheepishly, cheeks growing warm as Adam speaks to me as though I’m a small child. My eyes flit back to the man taking up the entire space of the doorframe. His muscles ripple beneath his button-down shirt, threatening to tear the fabric beneath his suit jacket, as he pulls out his phone.
“Take care of my brother.” I try to sound threatening. He laughs in return, fingers flying over the screen without paying me any attention other than his uncaring chuckle.
“Can I have a second with my sister, Luca? Please?”
Luca.
Of course, his name is just as sexy as he is.
Luca makes a sound that lands somewhere between a grunt and a huff before turning and leaving without another word. I watch him go, very nearly calling out after him.
Adam’s fingers wrap around my bicep, and only then do I realize I’m halfway over the threshold in pursuit of Luca. My foot hits the floor with a defeated thud, and I allow my brother to pull me back into our tiny apartment.
“Don’t even think about it, Mari.” His warning is sharp as his fingers dig into my skin. “I don’t want you getting caught up in this.”
“I don’t want you caught up in it either, Adam. Everyone knows how dangerous the Morronis are. For all you know, you could be walking into a room where they don’t expect you to make it out alive! And they won’t care! You mean nothing to them!” I rip my arm from his grasp and launch myself into his arms, hugging his waist. “You mean everything to me. You’re all I have. Maybe…maybe I could ? —”
“Don’t even finish that sentence. You’re my little sister. It’s my job to take care of you, not the other way around.” He squeezes me tightly before gently pushing me away.
“Everyone knows how easy it is for a woman to make money these days. If I can make myself invaluable ? —”
“Stop! Mari, just stop. Please. We’re just talking in circles, and I have to go. I’ll be back later tonight, okay? Do your homework. And get those dark thoughts out of your pretty little head.” He knocks his knuckles against my forehead before heading out the door. “You’re not going to sell yourself. Over my cold, dead body.”