“Declan, it’s fine. It was just a question. What’s the matter with you?” I asked him.
He sighed and finally sat down. Brushing his hands through his hair he looked up at me before looking away. “I need to tell you something and I don’t want to.”
“Okay…”
“I don’t want to because I’m afraid you’ll run.”
“Let me guess, you’re a vampire,” I joked, but he didn’t crack a smile. “Declan?” I asked, worried now.
He waved over a waitress and said, “I want everyone out, now.”
She nodded quickly as she moved over to the other customers, who each gathered their things and left. More than a few of them were disgruntled, but no one could do anything about it as she ushered them out into the rain.
“Do you own the place? You can’t just—”
“Coraline.” He sighed. “I don’t own the diner, but I do own this neighborhood. They know enough to not argue.”
“Okay, you’re scaring me now,” I said softly as he took my hand.
“Ask me why they left?” He frowned squeezing my hand gently.
For some reason I didn’t want to.
“Coraline, ask me.”
“Why…why did they leave?”
“Because I’m a Callahan, and going against me could cost them their lives.”
“What—”
“You were born here, Coraline. You must have heard the stories. The Irish mob owns Chicago. All the drugs and the murders stems from one crime family.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Declan, what are you saying? Your family has done so much for this city. New playgrounds, rebuilding hospitals, donating food–”
“Just for our image. So that people like you could never believe that it was us. So that you would never think that the same people feeding bread to the homeless are the very ones who are giving them the best heroin at bottom dollar prices.”
“Declan, this isn’t funny.” I pulled my hand away from his.
He stared down at his empty hands and closed them into fists before he looked up at me. “When we were down in Cancun, the day you went shopping, I killed a man by the name of Emilio Guerra—No, I tortured and killed him for stealing cocaine from us, and selling it to a gang called the Seven Bloods of Southbend. Otis is part of that gang. I met you in the hospital that day because I went there to get information from him.”
My heart was beating so quickly, as the blood rushed to my head, and everything started to spin. I slid out of the booth slowly. Knocking my umbrella against the ground, I stumbled forward.
He grabbed on to me. “Coraline—”
“Don’t touch me!” I pushed him away as hard as I could. I hadn’t realized that I was crying until I tried to look at him and he was just a blur. “How could you do this?”
“Coraline—”
“No! You don’t come in, sweep a girl off her feet and then, when she’s falling for you, tell her that you’re not only part of the mafia but that you’re also a fucking murderer!” I screamed at him, still unable to believe any of it.
But it made sense.
The money.
The guards he had in Cancun.
The way everyone looked at us when we were at church. I’d thought it was me. But it was him. It all made sense.
“What happens to me?” I froze as my eyes widened. “You just told me the biggest secret in your family closet, so what happens to me?”
“I would never hurt you, Cora,” he said as he took another step towards me. I stepped back.
“But you’re not in charge.” My hand went to head as I tried to stop the world from spinning. “When we were in Cancun, you said you needed to do an errand for your uncle…your uncle who you went into the bathroom with you yesterday, and you came back with a cut on your lip. You said you’d broken up a fight between your cousins. That was a lie, wasn’t it?”
He nodded.
“He hit you because of me. He’s the one who’s in charge.”
Again he nodded.
“What did he say? What happens to me?”
He didn’t speak.
“Declan!”
“He told me that you would walk away, and that when that happens he can never trust you.”
I laughed just to stop myself from crying. My hand covered my mouth as I backed away from him.
“Coraline, I’d kill myself before I ever hurt you.”
“And that would stop him? He’s the head of the mafia; if you don’t kill me ,I’m sure he’ll find someone else. So my options are to be with you or die?”
He closed his eyes and nodded as though it pained him.
“You know, when I met you. I thought I was that I was the luckiest girl in the world. I thought that there was no way a guy like you could be interested in me. Oh my God…I must have looked so dumb.” I walked to the door. “I don’t know what will happen to me tomorrow, I just know that I can’t look at you today.” I ran out of the diner and into the rain. I didn’t care that my clothes were almost instantly drenched, I just needed to get away from him.
“Coraline, please!” he yelled as he chased after me, but I got into my car as quickly as I could. My hands were shaking as I tried to put the key into the ignition.
“Coraline! Coraline, don’t run. Please don’t run away from me again.” He banged on my window and I made sure all my doors were locked.
“Coraline, I love you!” he yelled and I paused as I looked back up at him
He was completely soaked in the rain that was now coming down even harder. Like a hail of bullets my mind mocked.
He kept looking at me….begging me to open the door.
“I know you’re scared, I would be too. But you know me, the real me. For a second remember…just remember how amazing it felt to hold on to each other. To make love to each other. Remember that and trust me enough to come back. Give me a chance, please. I will never hurt you.”
The tears in my eyes burned as I shook my head, even though my hand reached for the door handle.
I didn’t know him.
He was a liar.
“Please stay away from me,” I replied as I drove away from him and allowed myself to cry.
DECLAN
I sat in the diner for three hours hoping she would come back.
She didn’t.
So I drove to the bar where Liam was waiting. The place was empty when I got there, with the exception of Liam who sat at the bar with an unopened bottle of brandy in front of him.
“You’re going to need your own,” I told him as I reached for the bottle and grabbed a glass from behind the counter.
“Someone’s going to have to drive your sorry ass home,” he whispered drinking water instead.
“I thought brothers never let brothers drink alone.” I poured a shot and knocked it back, savoring the way it burned before I poured myself another.
“I make exceptions for the heartbroken.”
I tried to smile. “I’m not heartbroken. She meant nothing. I mean how could she? We didn’t even know each other for that long.”
He glanced around the bar, then at me. “Who are you trying to feed that bullshit to? I don’t buy that and neither do you.”