Cole(87)

She met my gaze, maybe for the first time ever. The sadness in her eyes—it should have moved me. It didn’t. I had no compassion for her.

“Liam gave me a key to the house, and after he died, they asked me to check on you every now and then. I didn’t know why. I thought they were worried about you, and that seemed so kind of them.”

Who is them? The Bertals?

She moved the washcloth up my arm. I closed my eyes, clinging to her words to block out the burning sensations.

“We weren’t a part of them,” she said. “Bea always wanted her kids out of the family business. She said it was foolishness. The only way out was a hot bullet, she used to say. I didn’t know she did their bookkeeping, not until she died and everyone got their inheritances. Liam got the biggest one. She loved him the most, and there’s another part coming to you.” She looked up, a half-smile on her face. It was so haunted, it didn’t look like a smile at all. “If you get out of this alive, I mean.”

She rested her hand on my forehead and moved my hair to the side. “I’ll get you out of here alive. I promise, Addison. I’ll do it for Liam.” Her voice grew watery. “I have to make my son proud, because I know he’s ashamed of me. He has to be. I would be. I am.” Her eyes grew fierce. “I swear I had no idea why they wanted me to watch you. They never said a word. I was just supposed to report if something weird happened, and you moving to The Mauricio was weird. That’s when I found out.”

Found out what? My mouth opened. I tried speaking. Still nothing.

“They think Liam—no, they know Liam had a Bertal as a patient. It was before they realized Liam was estranged from us. Everything went to the shitter after that.” She met my eyes again. “There was a war going on back then, and they couldn’t determine whose side Liam was on.” She swallowed before adding, “The trouble started when Cole Mauricio came back. There’d been peace for a while, but he killed four of our men. That was it then.”

I remembered what Cole had said. “They sent four men… They died. I lived… I came back, and I killed more.”

“We got pulled into a war we didn’t want, not at first. We were pissed. Oh yeah. They were pissed. And more of our men died. That Carter Reed, he killed almost all of us. The families all thought he was coming after us, like—”

–like they had for Cole’s family. They killed my dad first… My mom was the next week. Then his three brothers. His older sister. His two younger sisters, the twins. One after another, week after week.

I wasn’t crying, not for her. Her hand went to my neck, and she began to wash there. The tears that slid down and fell on the top of her hand were for Cole, for the man whose family she’d helped murder.

A seed started to grow in me. It was small, but it was powerful. It was my hate for this family, the one Liam came from.

“Anyway.” She huffed, clearing her throat. Her hand lingered on my collarbone, but I didn’t think she really saw me. “They’re worried now that you told. That’s why we sued you. I didn’t want to. We knew Liam bought that home with his inheritance. We had no say in that money. Bea made sure of it. But they needed access to your bank accounts. That was the whole reason, and they have computer guys. I don’t get it. They tried to explain it, but none of it made sense to me. They just wanted your bank statements, see if you got paid off by Mauricio, if that was why you were living in his building.”

Who was they?! I wanted to know their names, their positions. I wanted to know everything.

“They couldn’t find anything, said there were no suspicious transactions.”

What? No. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t defend myself. Instead my hands curled into fists, and my nails cut into my skin. The pain lessened some of the other pain. I kept digging them in.

“I kept telling them no,” Carol said, pleading now. “I know you have every right to hate me, too, but I still love my boy. I wouldn’t have done that to you, but they made us. They threatened us, threatened the rest of our kids. We had to. I’m so sorry, Addison. We had to.”

She sat back, her hand falling to her lap. She held the washcloth, and it formed a wet spot on her pants. She didn’t seem aware of it. “When they couldn’t find any incriminating transactions, they went through the house. I tried to tell them there’d be nothing. I knew you took everything personal with you, or it went to your parents.”

New horror filled me. I opened my mouth, trying to ask if she’d told them that, but only a whispered scream burst out.