Morina thought I was something I wasn’t, and I had to prove her wrong. We needed a united front when we went out in public, and she had to trust I would do right by the company. The only way to do that was by winning her over.
My father would have illegally wormed his way out of this one. There would have been fear, coercion, and threats.
I wanted this to be of her own free will. A business traction we both agreed on.
“Why can’t we have a singing house, Uncle Cade?” Ivy pointed to the movie.
Cade glanced up from his phone and his hand fell to her curly head, rubbing back and forth. “That’s not real, Ivy.”
“But aren’t we going to see a real castle tomorrow?” Her voice was high with concern.
Morina glanced at both me and Cade like we were going to ruin the experience. “Well, the princess castles are real, of course,” I corrected before Cade could kill her dream. He wouldn’t pick up on the social cues. He’d grown up too isolated from them. “And Uncle Cade made sure you’re going to get to them as quickly as possible tomorrow.”
Cade muttered when Ivy went back to watching the movie. “The theme park has some high security. We’ll have to get fingerprints into my tablet tonight. I’m working the system though. I’ve also sent a message to the CEO. If they see it, we’ll be good. Worst case scenario, you call him.”
“Call him for what, Cade? To get my niece into a park? That’s a little ridiculous.”
“Not ridiculous, Uncle Bastian,” Ivy singsonged.
We all winced. The girl had the uncanny ability to be listening even when she wasn’t. She’d grow up a fantastic multitasker.
We watched more of the movie, and Ivy’s eyes drifted shut as she snuggled next to Morina. Cade meandered off to grab his laptop and retired to another room.
Morina lifted her head to stare at me. “Why do you even have the CEO’s number?”
Morina didn’t understand that I was a man that had most people’s numbers, especially if they were in the business of making money. “He was a friend of my father’s.”
“What exactly did your father do, Bastian?”
The question made me tense. The muscles in my neck that were rarely ever this relaxed coiled tight again. “We were all in the business of growing businesses.”
“Or protecting your own, right?”
“Does it matter?”
She leaned in close. “I think if you’re doing something illegal and threatening companies like my grandma said your dad used to, it does matter. I have to marry you and be tied to you for six months. You want this to be believable and for me to understand your intentions?” She glanced down at Ivy. “Are we safe around you?”
“More safe than you would benotaround me. Your food truck was ransacked with you in it.” I held back a wince at the reminder.
Morina was like one of these naive princesses in the cartoons. She knew something was up and yet I swear she avoided it at all costs. She avoided everything except maybe goading me.
“Ivy is a sweet kid.” She tugged at the little girl’s curls softly.
“Yes, and she’ll remain a sweet kid.” My voice was low. Was she insinuating I would hurt my niece?
“I’m just saying, if something happened to any of you because you were all doing something illegal–”
“Morina, my father did illegal dealings long before I was born.”
She kept staring at Ivy. “So, you are all the mob? I’m marrying into the mob instead of getting further away from it.”
“It’s not what we consider ourselves anymore.” I pulled at the back of my neck and looked toward the ceiling, searching for the right words. “I’m cleaning up his businesses slowly. We’ve got families too. We’re products of this shitty life he brought us into but I’m on the cusp of having everything clean. I just need…”
I couldn’t tell her I needed to confirm that no illegal imports were coming into her grandmother’s company, even as she stared at me, completely willing to listen. She was studying me, her dark blue eyes swimming with questions.
“I need you to trust me. We need to work as a team.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “So, I need to read that packet.”