Page 3 of In the Dark

Disgusting.

And catastrophically off-limits.

“Interesting.” Callahan dragged out the word, but his eyes stayed on mine even as I stepped back. “You afraid of a Diamond, Jas?”

“She’s got nothing to be afraid of,” my uncle spat, his pride louder than Callahan’s insinuation. But his pride also made him stupid by showing my hand much too quickly. “She could gut you in a second: one of the best fighters I have in all the family.”

The statement had Callahan tilting his head, as if he was now confused. “But your boyfriend was—”

“My date,” I clarified. “Tomás was just overexcited. There was no need to correct him.”

“And Tomás is waiting for us inside,” Paolo said as he motioned me toward the door.

Callahan lifted a brow as if to challenge my uncle’s ushering me. You going to heel like the dog he’s acting like you are?

I didn’t take my eyes off him. “Yes, Tío Paolo, I’ll be right there in a minute.”

I’m not a dog. I make my own decisions.

My uncle scoffed a little but didn’t say more as he walked away, leaving us. Yet, I knew the sound he made well. He didn’t want me fucking around at all with Callahan Knight, but he needed to trust me if he was going to have me around more.

My Uncle Paolo had two brothers, Sanchez and Monte. Supposedly, they were all assholes, but I could only confirm that Paolo was. Sanchez was my father, a man who danced with my mother and me in the kitchen and tucked me in every night he could until he’d died in front of me when I was six.

My parents were left to bleed out in our living room, and I’d been the one that found them. Not that I remembered much of that night. I don’t think my memory wanted to.

Ever since, Monte and his wife had raised me. My aunt mostly handled the nurturing, or lack thereof. Monte listened to my aunt. And Paolo … well, Paolo ran the family business and knew I was made for it the day my parents died. He didn’t ask for my cousins when he came to visit, he asked for me. Instead, my cousins were my aunt’s babies, and she treated them like it.

Paolo saw something in me. Maybe it was the monster in the girl, or maybe it was fear that I masked as strength.

Either way, he knew I was destined to be an asset the day my parents’ blood stained my socks.

I could defend myself, fight, run numbers, and stare down any man who thought they could control me.

And God help me, I was proud of it. But pride was a lethal motivator as I glared at the back of my uncle’s head while we stepped back inside.

“You don’t look like a Ruiz,” Cal murmured as he rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“Well, I’ve met Paolo. And Monte. They’re a lot less appealing.”

I shouldn’t have smiled, but I found myself chuckling. “I didn’t picture you to be a Knight either.”

“You didn’t know who I was?” He looked affronted.

“Should I?”

“Well, my brother and I are all over media outlets—”

“I don’t care to read them.”

He nodded and waited for a beat before saying, “You’re very interesting, Jas.”

“Jasmina … actually, Ms. Ruiz.”

His eyes were bright in the moonlight as he murmured, “Should I ask you to call me Mr. Knight then too?”

“I don’t intend to call you anything after this conversation, as we won’t be talking.”