Chapter Fourteen Adriana
Ifound myself at one of my favorite parks, waiting for my sister. I would make my way back to the safehouse before it got dark. If I needed to explain, I would just tell Tristan I needed some fresh air.
It was true. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
But The Fens had a chill that night, the kind that seeped into your bones and made you question your choices. I leaned against an ancient oak, my arms crossed over my chest as I tried to steady my racing heart. The tunic dress I wore offered little warmth against the biting air and the lining of my coat felt too thin, but then again, comfort wasn”t the priority tonight. Meeting Carmen here, away from Tristan”s protective gaze, felt like a betrayal of sorts—yet it was one I convinced myself was necessary.
A rustle in the underbrush signaled her arrival before she stepped into view. Carmen, ever the image of reckless poise, approached with her signature confident stride. Her attire for the night was stylishly understated, a blazer hugging her shoulders, the fabric whispering power and secrets with every move.
”Adriana,” she greeted, her voice low and controlled, betraying nothing of the urgency that must have driven her here.
I had called her to tell her we needed to sort things out…and she had agreed, but told me we couldn’t do that over the phone.
“Where is he?” she asked, looking around. “Should you be out by yourself?”
“Yeah, I think I can deal with going for a walk,” I said, sounding a little more annoyed than I wanted to.
“Does he think so?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. “Hi, Carm.”
We didn”t hug. Instead, we stood there for a heartbeat too long, our eyes locking in silent conversation. The shadows of The Fens seemed to lean in, eavesdropping on the tension that knotted between us. We were sisters, bound by blood and secrets, yet the space that separated us was filled with unasked questions and ungiven answers.
”Let”s walk,” I suggested, my voice barely above the whisper of the leaves around us.
Side by side, we started down the path, the gravel crunching beneath our shoes the only evidence of our clandestine rendezvous. Our arms brushed occasionally, a fleeting touch in the night that served as a reminder of the bond we shared—a bond that tonight, would be tested once again.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
“So many things. How did you get out of the Callahan estate?”
“Kieran gave me a ride,” she said, looking away from me. “He’s nice.”
I looked at her for a long second. “You didn’t…”
“Sleep with him? No. We talked. That’s all,” Carmen cut me off, her fiery red hair catching the moonlight as she turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were serious, and I felt a small wave of relief wash over me.
”You know we can”t afford any more complications,” I said, my words coming out more like a plea than a rebuke, my hand on my bump.
“Yeah, don’t worry,” she said. “He’s hot, but I definitely don’t want to get involved with a Callahan.”
”Good,” I replied, my voice coming out more hushed than I”d intended. The conversation sank into an uncomfortable silence, and I couldn”t help but feel a pang of guilt. We used to share everything. Now, we barely shared words that weren”t laced with bitterness or uncertainty.
Our silhouettes, swallowed by the gloom, disappeared and reappeared intermittently under the wan light of the streetlamps lining the path. The night was eerily quiet, save for the distant car horns and the occasional whisperings of the wind.
“I’m sorry I just left you there when Dad was acting unhinged. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Are you joking?” Carmen asked. “Ade, you’re pregnant. You have to look after yourself. Dad is being totally crazy, and he was being crazy then. I was fine. The danger had passed. Also, it was really funny that you stole the Mustang. Are you going to give it back?”
“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “I’ll drive it when I go home for brunch next time.”
She snorted a laugh, the sound breaking through the tension like a breath of fresh air. ”I”d pay to see that,” she said.
We walked on in comfortable silence, both lost in our thoughts and the sounds of the night. I knew we”d have to return to reality soon, but for these few moments, it felt like it was just Carmen and me again, before the Callahans, before the mafia life had defined us.
”I know our lives have taken turns we never planned for, Carm,” I began, wringing my hands together. My gaze rested on the twinkling stars overhead. ”I haven”t exactly been the best sister and...”
”No,” she cut me off, her voice surprisingly gentle. ”Don’t do that. It’s not your fault. You’ve always looked out for me. You got the raw end of this deal. You’re just lucky you fell in love with him.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” I said.
“And maybe,” Carmen continued, a sardonic twist to her lips, “who knows? Maybe he’ll turn out to be a good guy. Stranger things have happened.”
I laughed then, a short burst of sound that echoed in the quiet night. ”You really believe that?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, tugging at the loose ends of her blazer in an unusual display of uncertainty. ”But I”ve seen the way he looks at you, Adriana. Tristan’s got it bad.”
A pang of something—affection, perhaps even hope—echoed in my chest at her words.
”Yeah,” I murmured, absentmindedly rubbing my bump. ”Maybe. But Tristan isn”t just any guy—he”s a Callahan.”
“And you’re an Orsini.” Carmen countered, an unmistakable edge to her voice. “Don’t forget that. We’re not pushovers.”
“About that,” I said. “We need to talk about Dad.”
She nodded, looking ahead, her hands in the pockets of her blazer. “Yeah, we do.”
”I’m afraid he’s losing it, Carm,” I said without preamble, the night air carrying my words away as if they were dangerous to hold onto for too long. ”His patience is wearing thin, and I can”t shake the feeling that he”s about to do something drastic.”
Carmen let out a breath, her gaze fixed on the path ahead. ”You”re not wrong. Mom’s been trying to rein him in, keep his temper from boiling over. But it”s like holding back a storm with your hands—eventually, the dam”s going to break.”
”Is there anything we can do?” I asked, though a part of me dreaded the answer. If dad was teetering on the edge, it would take more than just careful words to pull him back.
”Mother”s doing what she can. She”s got that way about her, you know? Always smoothing over the cracks before they can turn into canyons. And she’s obviously super invested in making sure nothing happens to you. But…” Carmen”s voice held a note of admiration, but it was laced with something darker, something akin to resignation.
“What?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out whose side Mom is on,” she said. “Except her own.”
I nodded, my mind spinning with unsaid thoughts and fears. Silvio”s impatience wasn”t new, but the intensity of it—that was what worried me. A cornered animal was dangerous, but a cornered kingpin? That was catastrophic.
“Mom would never hurt us.”
“Neither would Dad. And yet here we are, talking about how unhinged he’s been acting,” she said. “The fact that he would never physically hurt us doesn’t mean shit when the stakes are this high.”
I sighed. She was probably right. ”I just hope she can hold him together,” I murmured, my heart clenching at the thought of everything—and everyone—that could be caught in the crossfire of dad’s breaking point.
”Hope might be all we have left,” Carmen replied, her sharp profile softened by the moonlight. ”But hope doesn”t bulletproof the windows, Adriana.”
And in that moment, with the weight of our family”s legacy pressing down on us, I felt the cold grip of fear tighten around my heart.
“You don’t think he’d literally shoot at us, do you?” I asked.
“I didn’t think so before, but now, honestly, I have no idea what he would do…” she said, then trailed off, craning her neck to look behind us.
“What?”
Her gaze was locked on something over my shoulder, her body tensing subtly beside me.
I didn”t need to look back to know what—or who—had caught her attention. The familiar prickle of being watched had been our shadow as much as the ones cast by the streetlights. I turned my head just enough to confirm our suspicions: two men in nondescript suits were trying too hard to blend into the scenery, their eyes trained on us with an intensity that didn’t quite match the casual strollers one would expect at this time of night.
”Law enforcement?” I murmured, keeping my voice level, betraying none of the adrenaline that had started to seep into my veins.
”Or someone else’s pawns,” she replied, her red hair glinting under the intermittent glow of a passing lamppost. ”Either way, they”re not here for a midnight stroll.”
“Should we run?”
“No, there’s too many people here,” she said. “We’ll be protected by the crowd. I’ll drive you back wherever you need to go, we just need to make sure we’re never alone.”
“Great,” I said, feeling guilty for not even telling Tristan I was going out.
We continued walking, keeping our pace even and our expressions neutral, but the thrumming of my heart belied the calm appearance we presented. This was no mere coincidence; it was a calculated move in a game where every player held secrets like aces up their sleeves.
”But since you wanted to talk about Dad,” Carmen said, her words laced with a hint of steel, ”have you heard about his secret meetings?”
”Not really. I’ve been preoccupied with other things,” I confessed, my hand falling to my bump. ”But if he”s stepping out of line, I need to know.”
”Right now, his moves are as clear as mud,” she said, frustration edging her tone. ”But if I know anything about our father, it”s that he”s playing a long game. We just don”t know yet if it”s for us or against us.”
”Apparently he’s always had more faces than the church has saints,” I said, my mind racing. ”And if he”s meeting with outsiders, then it”s either a new alliance or a knife waiting for our backs.”
”Exactly.” Carmen”s fingers tightened around my arm. ”We need to be careful, kid. If he senses that we”re onto him, there”s no telling what he might do.”
”Then we”ll have to be smarter and sharper,” I declared, the resolve in my voice slicing through the tension that enveloped us. ”Let”s keep our friends close, and our enemies within striking distance.”
“I don’t know if I can bring myself to think of Dad as an enemy yet.”
I nodded, my throat dry. “Yeah, that’s fair,” I said.
Night draped the fern-bordered pathway in a cloak of shadows as Carmen and I walked in silence, our footsteps soft against the gravel. The air was cool, almost biting, but it was nothing compared to the chill of the game we were tangled in.
Carmen”s next words were low, almost lost in the rustle of leaves. ”For what it’s worth, Dad doesn’t seem to be the one messing with his own turf, Ade. But he is definitely off balance—someone’s been hitting our laundering operations hard. And he misses you a lot. I’ve heard him talk to Mom about it, and he’s asked me to talk to you about it, too. So I guess…consider that what I’m doing now.”
”Let me guess, he”s missing the way I kept the books tidy?” I replied with a wry twist of my lips. ”If he wanted me to play the good accountant, maybe he shouldn”t have used kidnapping as a recruitment strategy.”
”Always the sharp tongue,” Carmen chuckled, but her eyes held a glint of pride. ”You should come back and be snarky with Dad. I’m sure he’d love that.”
The night”s embrace grew colder around me as Carmen and I moved through the ferns, our footsteps mingling with the distant city hum. I could feel the weight of our lineage, a cloak that was both armor and target.
“My concern is Tristan,” I said. “I mean, Dad doesn’t want to hurt me, right? He doesn’t want to hurt his grandchildren. But what about the Callahans? After Malachy died, how does it benefit him to have his grandchildren as Callahans instead of Orsinis?”
Carmen paused, her gaze meeting mine in a moment of silent understanding before she replied. “I’ve been wrestling with the same question, Ade. He”s never been fond of the Callahans but if he”s planning to harm them…” She trailed off, the implication hanging heavy in the air between us.
“I won’t let that happen,” I stated, my voice firm despite the worry gnawing at my insides. “Tristan and our children are not pawns to be sacrificed.”
Carmen frowned. “Well, he would never hurt the twins,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Right. Just kill their dad,” I said, my hand protectively on my stomach as we walked.
”Yes, there”s that,” Carmen said, her voice softening. ”But Adriana, you need to remember something. Dad has always taken a detour around direct conflict. If there”s a power play in progress, he”ll be looking to secure alliances, not start a war.”
”Secure alliances,” I echoed, my heart pounding as I mulled over her words. ”But with whom?”
”That”s the million-dollar question,” Carmen replied, her gaze shifting back towards the path ahead of us. “And I’m afraid I don’t have enough information to answer it.”
As we neared the end of the fern-lined path, the moonlight cast eerie shadows on the ground, mirroring the turmoil within me. A rustle to my left had me tensing, but it was just a night creature scurrying away, as if sensing the storm brewing around us.
”Let”s head back,” Carmen suggested, already turning. ”I’m tired, and I assume you have to be back before Tristan gets home or you’ll turn into a pumpkin.”
“Yeah,” I said. “What about the cops?”
Carmen craned her neck to look back again. “Yeah, don’t worry about them,” she said. “They’re always watching anyway.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” she said, shrugging. She didn’t sound sure at all.
I tried not to let it get to me, but as we quietly got in the car, I knew one thing for sure.
Things were getting worse.
We were being watched, Dad was getting crazier, and Tristan’s men were betraying him.
And if I wasn’t careful, Tristan would be the one paying for it.
But…I would do anything I could to make sure he got out of this alive.