I smile at her and help Gavino get my things down. Nico carries two of my bags and I drag the last one, struggling to keep up with the group. Karah gets Fynn inside while Gavino and Nico disappear upstairs, leaving me alone with Olivia.
“I’m guessing this is your first time here,” Olivia says.
“How can you tell?”
“You’re looking around like I did when I first saw this place, which wasn’t that long ago.” She laughs and she’s right, I am staring around at the lavish interior. Oil paintings hang on the walls and thick carpets cover rich hardwood floors. A chandelier dangles in the foyer casting rainbow light all over, and dark hallways pierce into the deep parts of the house.
It’s everything I never had. I grew up in a tiny two-bedroom rancher that my parents bought together before my dad split and left my mom barely able to afford the monthly mortgage payments. Even back then, I knew we were poor and that I was different from a lot of my peers at school. I decided early on that I had to try harder than anyone else if I wanted to get into a decent college and help my mother survive, and I was obsessive about my grades. I’ve been driven my whole life, struggling to help Mom cook and clean, to save as much money as we can, to get by on barely enough from paycheck to paycheck. I’ve been working my whole life, from the day I turned sixteen to the day I graduated my Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
And now I have the gig of a lifetime with the chance to change everything, and I can’t seem to enjoy it. Not in this place. It reeks of comfort and privilege, everything that was denied me and my mother, and I hate Fynn even more for it. These rich criminal bastards get everything, while my mother and I are good people but have absolutely nothing.
It’s sickening.
They stomp their boots on our throats, and we’re supposed to thank them for it.
“Let’s take you to your room,” Olivia says softly, gently guiding me by the arm. “Casso told me that you’re allowed to have free rein of Villa Bruno, but you are strictly not allowed to leave the premises without permission. Casso is the Don of the Famiglia, by the way, did anyone tell you that? It’s pretty new so you might not know. Anyway, the rules are for your safety too, by the way, so try to follow them. The boys hate it when we break the rules. They’re all bark… and some bite, honestly, so definitely be careful. Did Fynn mention the troubles? I’m sure he did. But yeah, it’s pretty nice here, you’ll meet everyone soon enough. Feel free to enjoy the pool, the workout rooms, the game rooms, whatever you want.” She takes me up the steps, down a series of halls, and stops outside of a door on the eastern wing. “And here we are.”
My room is lavish: a living area bigger than my mother’s house plus two bedrooms and two bathrooms. My bags are already placed at the foot of a monstrous king-sized bed surrounded by oiled wood and fancy black and white photographs.
“I’ll let you get settled,” Olivia says but hesitates in the doorway. “Listen, I know this is a lot. If you ever want to talk or just need someone to spend time with, don’t hesitate to find me, okay?” She smiles sweetly and hurries off, leaving me alone.
She seems nice and I like her right away, but I can’t stop thinking about Fynn and this house and my life and everything that my mother has had to go through just to survive.
While these people rob and murder and sell drugs and live like kings and princes.
I sit down on the end of the bed and the dam inside my chest breaks.
All that fear and anger and rage, rage against my father, rage against men like Fynn, it shatters inside of me like shrapnel.
Tears spill down my cheeks as I pull my knees to my chest and sob hard into my hands.
God, this is bad. I’m crying already and I’ve been here for, like, ten minutes.
But I feel so lost right now. I’m far from home and trapped in a den of hungry lions. Karah and Olivia seem nice—but everyone else looks at me like I’m some kind of interloper or spy in their midst. And to make it worse, Fynn’s so attractive it makes my stomach twist into knots, and somehow, I’m supposed to work closely with him, touching his body, helping him strengthen his legs again. It’s a nightmare and I’m afraid I won’t ever wake up.
I have to remember why I’m here. Mom gave everything to me and now it’s time to give something back. Even if these bastards eat me alive, I’m going to make damn sure they give my mother what she deserves. That money’s going to change her life.