Page 31 of In the Dark

I stayed quiet. My aunt was truly struggling with the weight of Paolo’s absence. She maintained a controlled grace, a porcelain mask of dignity that hadn’t slipped once, but she knew the truth like I did: the Irish were at the gates, the bank accounts were dwindling, and our only hope was currently bleeding through a black shirt in a penthouse across town.

My aunt specifically had mastered the art of not falling apart in public—or in private, for that matter. She’d worn a black fascinator tilted just so, veil covering eyes that were rimmed red but dry. Her dress was simple, but she wore a string of pearls that looked like they cost a fortune.

She’d been the one who held Monte close as he mourned his brother, who’d sat down with me to go over the cost of the burial and modeled the fact that we had to keep it together.

It was obvious she’d do that by any means necessary, even if it meant scolding her children and giving me up to the Knights.

“Did anyone approach you, Jas?” my aunt asked, changing the subject.

“Tía,” I started, “no one was worried about me.”

“No. No. No.” She shook her head vigorously at me. “That’s not true. The word is getting around. People know now, and you must keep that in mind. We all must.” She gave her daughters a look before meeting my eyes again. “You will never make a good wife. You have the same fire I do, mija, but you will have to try.” She sighed like she couldn’t take the thought of all this. “It should have been Maribel.”

“I’ll be ready to go with him in a week.” I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I can be the wife he needs me to be.”

“But a child?” my aunt whispered with tears in her eyes, and Annarose and Maribel knew to stop joking then. One of them took my aunt’s hand and whispered it would be okay.

“I’ll figure it out.” Perla didn’t look convinced until I scooted closer to her and took her other hand in mine too. “A Ruiz never shows weakness, because we don’t have one. Right?”

Ruizes were never weak. But as I waited for an answer my aunt never gave, I realized we were something much more dangerous.

We were desperate.

7

Jasmina

EVERYONE CLOSE TO THE family came to Paolo’s for one last hurrah that night. Hours of food and drinking, low music and laughter.

I wasn’t in the mood to converse and kept to myself mostly. I walked the house like it was a memory. To me, it sort of was.

I’d lived in it with my own parents until they were murdered. The house was gigantic and extravagant, which I’m sure is why Paolo took it over after my parents died, but I moved out to Tía Perla and Tío Monte’s home.

It was for the best. Their home was where I wanted to be with my cousins and them, but as I turned down the upstairs hallways, I remembered how I used to love running up and down them.

I didn’t get to spend much more time reminiscing, though, as Perla called me back downstairs to say goodbye to our last guest.

“Ay.” My aunt looked around in dismay, and Monte walked up to her to wrap an arm around her. “He was never tidy, was he? I’ll have the cleaners come tomorrow.”

“We should go through some of the cards. Make sure nothing out of the ordinary is in there.” Monte gave me a look. We didn’t need any more surprises.

“I can stay back and do that.”

“You sure?” he asked and then waved to some of our armed security. “Stay back with—”

“No. I’m fine.” I waved them off. “You know I’m fine. I’d like to be alone here for a bit, and then I’ll meet you all at dinner.” I placed a soft hand on his arm.

Everyone was meeting to have a few drinks at the local bar. It might not have been respectable as a tradition, but we needed an outlet after listening to cheap condolences and empty promises through the night. We’d rubbed elbows with those who had killed him and laughed with others who’d wanted him dead, and that was about as traditional as we could be at this point.

I was marrying a Diamond. That had to be good enough.

And when I told them to go with my cousins one more time, my aunt smiled. “Gracias, mi corazón. Paolo and Lex were a burden, no? But our weight all the same.”

Didn’t I know it?

“They shouldn’t have done what they did.” Going after Jameson’s daughter had been a death sentence. They’d been greedy and stupid and selfish.

“Left us always to clean up his mess, didn’t he?” Uncle Monte glanced at the books on Paolo’s shelf. “What a dumbass venture that was.”