“It hasn’t been a month,” Janella says flatly, her gaze vacant.
“Agreed,” he mocks her voice, spittle flying from his lips. “Fuck off. You’re not in fucking charge, in case you forgot.Iam. And your little payment didn’t go as far as I’d hoped. Cost of living, Nellie, you know how things—”
“You spent it all? Already?” her words sharpen into an accusation.
“Don’t you fucking look at me like that. I need more. Just give it to me.”
Janella’s hands are in quivering fists at her sides. I’ve seen her like this before. I thought she was past it. I’m a fucking idiot.
She says it so softly, I have to read her lips, “I don’t have more.”
“BULLSHIT!” Driscoll screams in her face, his face turning puce. I see red. In that blur, I only hear Janella ushering her customers out. Her employees, too. She steps around him and gets everyone else to safety.
What about her?
“You’re a Yuris whore,” he spits. “You’re fucking swimming in.”
“I gave you everything I had,” she maintains, not backing down. A look at her frame tells me it’s costing her spine everything not to break. “My savings. I gave it all to you.”
Driscoll gestures madly, like he’d like to literally shake sense into her. “Then take it from him!”
If he so much as lays a hand on her…
“I will never give you his money. You don’t get to have anything of his. Not money, and not information about his family. Not afuckingthing.” My rose is all thorns now.
“Don’t be so fucking selfish,” Driscoll wheezes. “You think you can just—”
“I did what you asked.” She lifts her chin, her gaze stony. “I gave you the money to keep you from hurting the people I love. I protected them from you.”
“Protected them?” Driscoll’s face contorts with fury.
“You’re a coward when it comes down to it. I used to think you’re a monster, but you’re right. You’re just a desperate man who got my sister shot because I wouldn’t spy for you. You’re pathetic, and that’s why you do whatever you have to. And you get fucked up after, so you don’t have to live with any of it.” Her voice cracks, so beautifully human. “You never saw me. But I’ve always been paying attention, Dad.”
Tears begin to stream down her rosy cheeks.
The sight tears me up inside.
What happens next, I don’t expect any more than fucking Driscoll.
Janella reaches into her pocket, and I recognize the stationery. It’s mine—the Yuri vigil monogrammed at the top. The scrawl on it is hers.
“Do you remember how you threw in my face that Iosif bought me?” She nods slowly, gathering her courage. It’s there for her to gather. It’s always been inside of her. “He wasn’t the only one there. And my husband… The killer, as you call him? He’s a jealous man. A vicious one. He knows his enemies. AllYuris do. Which means I know many, many secrets now. Secrets you were never careful with.”
She shakes her head at her father, as if he’s disappointed her.
That’s the least of what he’s done.
“Tell me, Dad. What happens in your circle when someone finds out you can’t be trusted?”
How does it feel for her to inspire fear in her father’s eyes?
Regardless, pride for her surges through me in dizzying waves.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” Her eyes go wide with feigned innocence. “So, Joseph won’t be pissed you cut a deal with his daughter’s boyfriend to skim money from his operations? What about Mick? Do you think he’ll turn the other cheek when he finds out you told the Chens where to find him when he ran out of town? I can only imagine what the Zakharovs would do to erase the shame of being associated with you.”
He balks at her, like he doesn’t recognize her.
