Page 16 of Shades of Loyalty
Other women—I don’t have time for them. Which is seriously annoying, considering I got Jennifer sitting here.
This family business takes up most of my time, so until now, I haven’t considered dating women.
One, because I don’t have time, and second—try explaining to your date that you’re a mafia boss. Yeah, that’d be pretty fucked up, right?
“I’m listening,” Mom replies. Her eyes wander over to Jennifer once, but her focus stays on me.
Jennifer hasn’t said a single word to my mother yet, so I’m just hoping she’ll trust my mother enough to let her pick up Mary, her daughter.
Even if my mother and her daughter just spend a little time together, I’m sure she’ll be anxious about it.
Who wouldn’t be? We’re all strangers, after all.
“Jennifer is not my girlfriend, if that’s what you think,” I make it clear that I’m not intending anything romantic with her.
Yet my mom knows about our rules: never hurt any women or children. And that’s why I’m sure she’ll understand the dilemma I’m in.
“She saw something this morning. You know, when Hayden and I were… doing our job.” I sigh, remembering what my dad always tells me.
Never tell any woman about what we do, even if it’s your own mother.
It’s not an act of disrespect or discrimination; it’s an act of safety. If anyone finds out about what our family does and they question us, the women won’t be able to say anything, even if they’d want to.
It’s to protect them.
If the police would believe them if they’d say they’re innocent? Nobody knows. But we’re not planning to find out, either.
What we do know, though, is that the police can’t capture women who have never been involved in anything, and as long as they stay out of our business, they’ll be fine.
They can’t fuck someone over without any evidence. It’s why our family business is only showcased below a “family” home.
This mansion is home to the Caruso family. My parents, my siblings, my nephew, cousins. There are exceptions, such as Hayden.
Only the closest members of our business are allowed to stay here—or even allowed to know about the existence of this building.
We handle all the business shit in our basement. There’s a tunnel of rooms, including a huge storage room, shooting targets, practice rooms and drug labs.
It’s safe. It’s foolproof. The police have tried searching our mansion, but they never found the entrance to our basement.
And fuck, I need it to stay that way. It’s how my family survives. The Caruso family has been in the news before.
They tried calling us “dangerous gang”, “mafia” all that bullshit. Yet, they never had helpful evidence. Only evidence they had was other gangs putting shit upon us.
I’m still questioning how the police found out about the location of our mansion, but honestly—I didn’t care enough to do research on that.
My mom looks at me and nods in response. I gulp. “Listen, mom… she saw everything happen. This never happened before and I—” Before I talk too much, I shut myself up and squeeze my eyes shut, my hands curled into fists. I can’t do this.
Not in front of Jennifer, especially. Fuck. If something is actually hard for me, it’s showing my feelings.
It comforts me to talk to my mother, but since I’ve grown up, it got much harder. It mentally haunts me. It makes me feel weak.
“I don’t know what to do.” I admit. It’s not too much information about what happened.
Just enough.
Having Jennifer know about Roy’s death is enough. My mother doesn’t have to know.
This is fucking bullshit. I’ve always known what to do. In every situation, I knew how to handle everything. My dad is counting on me, after all.
