Chapter 12
Jasmina
I LOOKED DOWN AT my cutoff jean shorts and loose-fitting gray sweater that I’d crocheted myself as I followed my soon-to-be husband out of my room, trying my best to keep my emotions from spiraling out of control.
“I don’t care about eating anything when you’re accusing my family of shady business—”
“Paolo was always shady with everything he did, Jas. Don’t act like you don’t know that.”
I hated the way my gut twisted and dropped. Fucking Paolo had always done what was best for him and for Lex first rather than thinking of anyone else.
“You better have some actual proof.”
“Wouldn’t throw out an accusation without the facts to back it up, Viper.”
I gritted my teeth together, thinking of whether or not I could trust what Callahan said and what seeing the evidence would mean.
I didn’t want to endure finding out the truth.
I didn’t want to unearth more shit on Paolo that I would have to tell my family.
“I’ll never forgive his ass,” I grumbled more to myself, but Callahan heard it.
“You don’t have to forgive him,” he said back softly.
I saw his jaw ticking like he was thinking of something or someone else.
“Just because a person is gone doesn’t mean they get a pass for all they did to you.
It just means you can choose how and if you want to move on from it without their influence. ”
Someone had hurt Callahan, it seemed, in the same way my uncle probably was going to hurt me with what I found out about him. Yet, I couldn’t ask Callahan about that now.
His words were burrowing deep in my heart and making my eyes water in a way that wasn’t at all like me. I blinked rapidly and told myself I would figure out the destruction that Paolo caused and rectify it. That’s why I was here rather than Maribel. Rather than Annarose.
That’s what made me put one foot in front of the other. “We’ll see once the evidence is in front of me,” I told him as I smoothed the sweater I had on and winced at the fact that I hadn’t even tried to put on presentable clothes. “Promise to give me all the facts and be honest?”
He stopped and turned to face me, his eyes so piercing as he caught my gaze. “I do promise you that for the next two years, Jas. This might be for your family and for mine, but I’m never going to take you for a fool or lie to you like you are one; I know you’re not.”
I nodded and chewed my cheek, trying not to get emotional at the way he was at least trying to build trust, at the way he was giving me his word like I was his equal rather than a prisoner of his.
It felt different than what I was used to, and I hated that I found I was hungry for it, hungry for someone to see that I was more valuable than Paolo had ever given me credit for.
I focused on Callahan and his dark jeans and black T-shirt, trying to change the subject before I fell off a cliff of thinking this man was actually worth my time.
“Right. Good. Since we have that cleared up, in the next two years, you think you’ll maybe wear something a bit more casual, like you can relax around me? ” I wrinkled my nose at him.
“This is casual,” he said like he was affronted.
“Oh please.” I waved a hand between us. “Dark jeans?” I lifted a brow as I started to walk down the hallway with him again. “Those aren’t comfortable at all.”
“As opposed to shorts that barely cover your legs and a thin sweater that is so baggy it’s basically falling off?”
“Well, at least I have a tank on underneath, and … Crap, forgot to wear a—” I felt my cheeks reddening as I stopped immediately.
“What?” Callahan looked me up and down, and as if on cue, my nipples hardened and his eyes laser focused on them.
“Viper …” He licked his lips. “Please tell me you’re not going to be dressing like this for the next two years.”
I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s going to be my house, too, Callahan. I can wear what I want.”
“It is your house already,” he corrected me, rocking back on his heels and putting his hands in his pockets like he needed them caged.
“So, guess I can wear what I want, right?”
“There’re men milling around.”
“All men you trust through and through.”
“With you in an outfit like that? I wouldn’t trust a fucking soul.”
“Is that a compliment now instead of insulting my attire?”
“Jesus, Jas. It was never an insult.” He sighed as if he was frustrated that I was always picking a fight with him. “You see the worst in everything I say.”
“Shouldn’t I? We were never nice to one another.”
“Could have fooled me. You seemed nice as hell when I slept with you a year ago.”
“That was before—”
“And this is now. I wasn’t insulting your attire, just saying it’s hard for others to focus with you in it.”
“Good, because I’m proud of this sweater,” I announced like we were just exchanging facts about one another now.
And maybe we were. Maybe I felt like Callahan had his own demons and we could be cordial enough for two years to weather all the demons of ours together.
“This yarn is the softest thing I’ve ever touched.
” I held out my arm and pointed, and he frowned like he wasn’t sure I was offering.
“You made it?” He seemed intrigued that I could but didn’t move toward me at all. It was like he was holding himself back.
I nodded. “I have a few other skills rather than being just your wife.”
“Oh, I’m aware of your other skills, Viper.”
He still hadn’t touched my arm, so I held it out further. “Come on, feel it. I don’t bite.”
He chuckled and combed one large hand of his through his hair before sighing at the ceiling. “You do bite, Viper. The scar on my back is proof of that, but you’re standing in front of me without a bra on asking me to touch you. Feels like a trap, but I’m almost willing to take the risk.”
I shook my head slowly, keeping my gaze on his. “I’m just trying to extend an olive branch for now. We can’t be enemies for two years.”
“I never wanted to be your enemy in the first place,” he grumbled, and then smoothed a hand down my arm over the fabric and back up again to the collar, where he dragged his fingers against my skin. “It’s soft, but not the softest thing I’ve ever touched.”
The insinuation was there. The temptation too.
But Callahan was quick to move his hand back down my arm again until it met my hand, where he wove his fingers through mine.
Then he took a step back and was walking again, pulling me down another hall as he chuckled.
He brought my hand up to his lips and brushed them over the back of my hand like I was somehow precious to him as he said, “Let’s try to get through this night without turning into enemies again, huh? ”
I hummed, trying not to read into his words or into the fact that his palm was warming mine and I wasn’t pulling away.
Why did he have to charm me while leading me to my family’s indiscretions? I held up our hands in the dim light and murmured to him, “Just don’t give me another reason to stab you then, Callahan.”
He smiled his stupid perfect smile, and of course my body almost shivered at seeing it.
This is how I’d have to feel for two years, I guess. Like I was enjoying the company of a man who should be my enemy but seemed to be telling me that my uncle had always been the one lying to me.
Uncle Paolo better not have done this. I grumbled a swear toward the ground.
It was directed at Paolo because we all knew where his resting place was.
Perla and Monte had told me why the Diamonds went after Paolo, and I understood those reasons.
They wanted our East Coast, and they wanted to make an example of Paolo after Paolo had tried to take Fran.
That, I believed.
Paolo mouthed off and had made the fatal mistake of falling in love with Lex, who had been Jameson’s wife before he’d met Mia. They’d found true love, and Jameson couldn’t deal with that, Monte had said, but Paolo had also tried to get Fran for Lex. That was the fatal error … but trafficking?
He absolutely wouldn’t. And yet, something a lot like doubt rattled in my bones.
As much as I hated to admit it, Callahan and Jameson were smart. The Knight empire grew daily with the businesses they controlled.
And now, I was at the mercy of my stupid fiancé just to find out what my uncle was doing without telling me. I stared at his broad back as I followed him through another million hallways and down a flight of stairs to an extravagant garage filled with expensive vehicles.
“Jesus,” I muttered at the excess.
“Nope. They’re all mine,” Callahan said with all the confidence in the world.
“Not something to be proud of.”
He turned to study me, his face falling. “You don’t like cars?”
“I like one car for what I need. The rest is showing off.”
“Or the rest is what I wanted.” He shrugged. “I don’t buy materialistic things for others. But I deserve them for myself if that’s what I want, no?”
“I … well, I guess.”
“Exactly. So I got them rather than worrying about other peoples’ opinions.”
My point was that it was excessive, but somehow he’d flipped it and made it about enjoying himself. It was a concept I don’t think I really considered until that moment.
He didn’t unlock any of the doors until he’d woven through a few and opened the passenger side of a sleek black one for me.
Then, we drove in silence. The questions I had, I didn’t want answers from him. He would twist even more about my family, and I didn’t want to hear his side. I wanted cold, hard evidence and nothing else.
I took in the beauty of the little community he called home. The lawns were immaculate. The people walking up and down the sidewalks looked put together. Some waved to him, and he even rolled down his window at one point to say hi back.
But when he pulled into a large parking lot, the sign above the building didn’t read police station.
I gave him a look, and he said, “We’re eating first.”
“Take me to a drive-through, then. I don’t want to go to a sit-down with you.” I cracked my neck, trying to release some tension.
“Damn it, Jas. Why are you gearing up to fight with me over this?”
“How do you know I’m about to fight?”
“Because you crack your neck every single time you’re going to. It’s what gave you away the night you burned down my building.”
“What?”
“It’s how I knew it was you. You did that same thing the first time I met you.”
“You seem to remember a lot about me.”
“I remember everything about you, Viper.” He sighed. “Even when I try not to.”
And then my stupid stomach had to go and defy me.
“Seems your stomach agrees we should eat first too. Let’s just have a meal.” The smell of food wafting into the car vents was divine, but I didn’t care.
“I’m not in the mood to eat,” I whispered, and that was actually true.
He made a soft sound, sucking on his teeth as his eyes searched mine, looking for the crack in my armor. And maybe he found it, because then he sighed. “Why don’t we have dinner, and we’ll be civil. You can discuss whatever you want before we go down to the station.”
“I’m not exactly hungry with what I have ahead of me at that station.”
He sighed again. “You won’t be in the mood to eat after either.”
Why did I demand evidence I didn’t want to freaking see? It was like asking for a damn meal I didn’t want at all.
“Well, how about we take our chances?” I said, with no emotion.
I didn’t want to give him a single piece of myself when I was this vulnerable.
I had to sift through my feelings, had to recalibrate my whole thought process on my family if what he was saying was true.
I needed to scrub the filth of my family’s secrets off my soul and build a better plan.
“I think I’ll just wait,” he said simply. Then, he leaned back in his leather seat and settled in like he wasn’t going to be leaving any time soon.
“Wait for what?”
“For you to change your mind. About whatever you’re spinning up in that brilliant, dangerous head of yours.”
I crossed my arms, tucking my hands away so he couldn’t see the tremor in my fingers while I looked toward the ceiling. “You’ll be waiting a long time.”
“It’s been five days, Viper.” I hated that his nickname for me was starting to sound almost normal.
His jaw ticked, too, showing he was really irritated, like he might actually care.
A sign of the simmering frustration beneath his cool exterior.
“You’re losing weight. And you don’t have much to lose. ”
“Worried about the bride you’re holding prisoner?” I asked, the bitterness continuing to leak through.
The temperature in the car plummeted. Callahan gripped the steering wheel so hard I saw his knuckles turn white, and suddenly the fire was back in his eyes. Raw. Violent. “Holding prisoner? You agreed to this shit just like I did,” he growled.
“I didn’t agree to finding out my uncle might be a monster,” I hissed, my composure finally snapping.
I knew dealing drugs and weapons weren’t any better.
But as I became more involved in laundering our money and argued about it with Paolo, he reminded me we moved guns and drugs to those who came looking for them, and I told myself that made it okay.
But a heartbeat changes the math. You can’t trade in mothers and daughters and still call yourself a merchant.
Dealing to the willing was a trade; selling the unwilling was a line I never thought we’d cross.
Either way, we were probably all going to hell.
“You knew he was a monster all along.”
I ignored that fact because I didn’t want to accept it. “Yeah, well, I didn’t agree to having meals with you and playing house with a man who thinks he owns me.”
“I do fucking own you.”
“And yet you can’t get me to fucking eat? What a good owner you are.”
“Jesus Christ. Do you hear how ridiculous you’re being?”
I shrugged. “Not as ridiculous as a grown man thinking he can force someone to eat.”
He growled like he’d had enough. Good. I’d had enough of his shit too. “What will it take to get you to go in there for some food?”
Well, that was easy. “I want two months to plan the wedding.”
“You want more time to plan this stupid wedding? Fine,” he practically bellowed. “But you’re eating the whole-ass plate of food I order when we get in there.”
“Two months, Callahan. No changing your mind.” I had to be sure.
“I swear to God, I should have let you drown in that water,” he grumbled. “We’ll discuss it inside.”
Of course he had to use it as leverage. “Whatever,” I spat, trying to open my damn door. Of course, he’d locked it. “Oh my God. I hate you, you know that?” I told him.
He rolled his eyes and got out, slamming his door extra hard before he came to my side.
Asshole.