Eleanor
Father’s mansion waits at the top of the hill, a brick and stone monstrosity. Its shadow falls over Leonardo’s SUV, darkening the windshield and making it impossible to see the fury in his hazel eyes.
“Sure you want to do this alone?” he asks. He’s not talking about what’s in the house. He’s talking about the half a dozen guards I’ve talked him into leaving outside with him.
“I don’t think a Price guard will pull the trigger on Richard’s daughter.”
“Is that a joke?” His eyebrows meet like a pair of thunderclouds. “You fucking joking right now, princess?”
“I told you never to call me that.”
“Right, well, you tell me a lot of things. Not calling you that’s gonna be as easy as you not getting into trouble.”
I sigh, looking around at the two SUVs parked behind us full of armed guards he insisted on bringing along for the ride. “Don’t you think the invasion force is overkill?”
“Overkill’s how you stay alive in this business.”
“Tell you what, if you’re nice and stay out here, I’ll let you say ‘I told you so’ if father’s guards open fire.”
He huffs, a puff of steam in the early morning air. “You need me, you call me.”
I nod.
I start the climb up the driveway, aware of Leonardo’s eyes and the eyes of a half-dozen armed men. I feel perfectly safe since this is the house I grew up in. Father’s men won't shoot on sight.
Before I can second guess myself, the main gates open. A black Town Car glides out like a serpent, sleek and dangerous. I duck behind a hedge, and my father’s driver doesn’t see me as he accelerates away from the estate, from my sister. She’s inside waiting for me.
I follow her, nervous energy pushing me up the drive. I can still feel Leonardo watching me from the bottom of the hill, and I fight the urge to turn back.
The guard house is the first test, but they know me. They see what they expect to see, an obedient daughter of a ruthless father, home at last.
“Your father didn’t tell us you’d be coming,” says one, frowning from the open door.
I smile. “I’m surprising him.”
“He’s gone out for the morning.”
“Never mind, I’ll just say hello to Juliet then. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to stop me from visiting my own family,” I add with an edge to my voice.
He shrugs, lifts a pack of smokes to his lips, and returns to his seat.
I slip into the house. I turn the corner and see Juliet at the top of the stairs. She looks paper white and paper thin, fragile as ash.
“Eleanor?”
The first sentence out of my mouth is snapped and curt. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
She looks at me blankly, with none of her usual joy. “Father took my phone away.”
“Controlling ass,” I say, and Juliet raises a brow at my language. I think my new crime family must be rubbing off on me.
“I can’t believe he let you in,” she says.
“Father doesn't know I’m here.”
She follows me into the empty dining room, into cavernous hallways.
We stop in a narrow room, my mother’s room.
She used to play here with us when she was still alive.
Juliet’s done her best to bring some of the sunshine back, but it still feels like a tomb.
Still, it’s the one place father never comes, so it’s the safest place to talk.
“If father finds you here, he really won’t be happy. He’s convinced you’re not upholding your end of the bargain with the Rosettis. He’s even been talking about doing business with another group instead.”
“The Albanians.”
“Yes,” she replies, her voice a dull echo in the empty room.
“Bastard.” Heat rises in my chest, burning like the fire Leonardo would set to this place. Father sold me off for that precious business deal, and now he’s found himself something better. He has no use for me, so he’s just abandoning me.
Juliet is watching me, her brows knit with worry. “He’s getting worse, Eleanor. He’s desperate. Obsessed. You have to leave before he gets back. If he catches you here, he might not let you go.”
I picture my possessive husband outside, itching for a fight, and I laugh. I actually laugh. “There’s no way Leonardo will allow that.”
She shivers, misunderstanding. “I’m so sorry you’re stuck with those…those criminals. They sound even worse than father.”
I grip her shoulder, feeling the delicate bones under my fingers. She’s weightless and whisper thin. “You can’t stay here.”
“Where else would I go?”
“With me. The Rosettis can protect you until—”
She shakes her head, and her braid swings against her back. She must have put it in this morning without her maid’s help; it’s loose and messy, with none its usual neatness. “Father would never allow it.” Panic rises in her voice.
“Father doesn’t get to control you.”
“You want the Rosettis to control me instead?”
That hits home. I want to deny it, to say I’m free with them, so much safer than here, but then I remember Leonardo’s rules. And how much trouble I get into if I try to do something as simple as a shopping trip. And how I had to beg to come and visit my own sister.
Juliet crosses her arms, wraps them tight around herself, then unwinds. She’s pacing and trying to be brave. “I can’t go. Not yet.”
“You can’t stay.”
“I’ll be fine.”
I hate how much I can see myself in her eyes.
“It’s too dangerous to stay, Juliet. Who knows what he’ll do to you?
Who he’ll sell you off to? And he’s taken your phone now?
He’s out of control. Listen, you don’t have to come to the Rosettis if you don’t want, you don’t owe them anything.
But they have money and power. Connections.
They can help you disappear, if that’s what you want. They promised me.”
“Who promised you?”
“Leonardo. And he is a man who keeps his promises.”
She bites her lip, hesitating like she always does. “Just one more day. I need to pack some things.”
“You don’t need anything. We can buy you clothes, shoes, whatever you need.”
She gives me a stern look. “Not everything can be bought, Eleanor. You should know that. I need to grab my photos and seashells and other personal things, because once I leave this place, I’m never coming back.”
I know the look she’s giving me. She’s done her best to soften her resolve, to seem gentle and sweet, but I see it for what it is.
Her decision is made. She’s always been braver than I give her credit for.
I give in and watch the tension leave her face.
I want to wrap her up and steal her away, but I don’t.
Not yet. “I’ll be back in the morning. We’ll leave then. ”
She brightens. I can see she wants the extra time. She needs to feel like she has a choice in all this. “Love you.”
I pull her in close. “Love you more, little sis.”
She lets me go, and I feel colder for it. I hate the thought of leaving her, but I know I won’t change her mind. Not this time. I should be proud. She’s stronger than I ever let her be, but the thought of losing her pulls me in two.
I fish my cell phone out of my pocket and hand it to her. “If anything changes, let me know. Call me on Leonardo's number.”
She nods, eyes bright. Her resolve seems solid, but I worry. I don’t trust the situation. I don’t trust father. I don’t trust a universe that’s let us both end up in cages. She’s so small and she’s so determined and I’m not sure which worries me more.
“Eleanor?”
“Yeah?”
“Tell me the truth this time. Do you… like him?”
I stare, blindsided by the question. Of course she would ask—the girl who sees everything. I pause a moment too long, because my sister reads me as easily as she did when we were children.
“He’s a Rosetti, Juliet.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I freeze. It’s on the tip of my tongue to admit that I like him, but that can’t be true. What am I doing? The ground shifts under me, opening up. My sister, the insightful dreamer, the gentle artist who sees more than I can admit to, cuts me down with one question.
I think of Leonardo outside, loud and furious and ready for anything.
The way he always is. He should be a stranger, but he’s not.
I feel like I’ve known him forever, like he’s known me.
He’s impulsive and unfiltered, and I swore I couldn’t stand him, but something is shifting inside me, and I’m scared of what it means.
I don’t know how to put it into words, so I don’t try.
I let Juliet believe what she believes. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Wait for me.”
I pull away, past the wide hallways and out through the guard house.
The guards watch me, but I’m already halfway down the drive before one of them shouts.
It won’t be long before they reach father and tell him everything.
I pick up my pace and almost crash into a man in a suit when he jumps in my way.
He stares me down, then pulls a phone from his pocket and starts dialing.
I’m gone before he gets an answer.
I slow as I reach the road, expecting Leonardo to come tearing up the drive with the guards in tow. He doesn’t. But the SUV is still there. He’s still there. He’s waiting, and I’m out of time.
He jumps out when he sees me and pulls open the door.
“You took too fucking long,” he says.
It sounds like an accusation, but there’s relief in his voice.
I look back at the house, as if I might see Juliet from here. I don’t. I think of the way she looked at me, the way she cut through my lies with a simple question. Do you like him?
“Did you ever have the feeling you might be wrong about everything?” I ask as Leonardo pulls me in for a kiss.
“Nope.”
I push on his chest. “Arrogant so-and-so.”
He laughs. “So we leaving now, or you planning to get us both shot first?”
“Do I get to say I told you so?”
He jerks his thumb toward the passenger side. “Nope.”
The mansion disappears behind a bend in the road as we pull away.