Page 2

Della

Rushing all the way up the stairs and down the hallway, I was out of breath when I got to the room. Slamming the door, I leaned back against it. He kissed me! And…I kissed him back. My body trembled a bit. Damn, that was powerful. Yes, I’d wanted him to kiss me a few times already but I was also relieved that he never tried. The reason for that? I still felt out of place. Like I didn’t belong. Until I had answers to the confusion my life now was, I shouldn’t be involved with a man. Especially one in a mafia family. Not that Dante appeared to be dangerous in any way. No, it would just be more trouble for me to be in.

I already looked like a criminal, having worked for a notorious crime organization. I never would have believed it in a million years. Then the Walkers showed me information on Deacon and Olivia. The man they called Ace had a lot of files on his laptop. I sat there reading it off and on for a day. Some of it had been too much for me to face and I had to get up and rush to the bathroom to throw up a couple of times. It literally made me sick. Many things I believed for years…were fantasies and lies apparently. Periwinkle had been a total front for a large crime operation. One that broke every moral and legal rule.

It also made me feel guilty, like I had aided those two in their criminal activities. I guess without knowing it, I had done that very thing. But I do know I never handled any sales records for drugs, guns and certainly not for actual human beings! It sickened me and I admit I had trouble accepting it all. To have been right there all along while she had destroyed people’s lives? Took from them, stole from them, killed them? And when it was happening, I just happily worked in the offices? Crunched numbers and kept an eye on the bottom line, so to speak. How could that be? I wouldn’t believe me either. Who could be so blind? So easily fooled and manipulated to not ever see this seedy side to the business.

But the lies didn't stop with the criminal life, did they? I was related to the Walkers. However, my family never relayed that information to me when I was younger. Why had this Gracie moved away from her home town and never looked back? If she had been my grandmother, why didn’t I remember her? For all I knew, we had no family as that was the impression I got. I do not remember any mention of them or seeing any family photos. My father had been from the town we lived in. He’d been an only child and after his parents passed, he had no real family either. My mother had been a Walker as far as I could discern. So after my mom married him, her maiden name would have disappeared I assume. But it had been more than that I think. It seemed to be a total estrangement from the entire Walker clan. Did it have anything to do with Olivia? Had she scared them away?

Jarrett had told us the story of how, at a young age, Olivia had burned her family home down, killing her parents and a sister. I now wondered if that had anything to do with this Gracie leaving like she had?

When I was sixteen, Olivia or O as they called her had shown up and said she was related to me. She had been contacted by the local authorities and told that she was my only living relative. Funny thing, now that I thought about it, I never knew back then who she really was or how I’d been related to her. I had been a teen and in shock for the first few months as my life had changed drastically. I had suddenly lost my parents and was living a new life. I never thought to ask her the details of family… I just accepted it. After another year went by, she sent me to college. For me, that had been a couple of years of busy schooling, studies and tests. When I graduated, she brought me back and gave me the title of Managing Accountant for her companies. Only it had been over five different businesses. I stayed busy, that was for certain. This preoccupation with my duties could have been why I never suspected criminal intent or knew about this war they had going with the Walkers.

That didn’t stop me from feeling like a fool for being so blind and naive. Everything she told me had been a lie. Except for the part about being related to me. That had been true. I believed for all these years that my parents died in a car crash that had been ruled an accident. Nope, another lie. I read the report Ace showed me. Someone had pushed their vehicle off the road and they went over a cliff.

What I couldn’t figure out was…why? Why did she take me in to give me a home and an education? Being the cold blooded killer they now tell me she was…Why did she keep me alive? Talon and Liv Walker told me of her hatred for all the Walkers. I had been one, yet she never showed me anything but kindness. No, she wasn’t overly affectionate, but she did buy me clothes and trinkets. Hugged me frequently whenever I came home from college. Birthday gifts, holidays and the like. It all seemed natural for her to be like my doting Aunt Olivia really. When all along she had been this monster? She had been a killer? I saw all the accounts of her crimes in those files. Drug running, human trafficking, running prostitution rings, illegal gambling halls and the list went on.

I wanted to know the truth about me and how I fit into it.

The only one left to give me any answers would be Deacon…perhaps? Then again, he might not know. He was only a few years older than me, so at the time he had been away at college when I came along. Recently, he had claimed not to know that Valencia wasn’t his sister. However, Deacon had always been an enigma to me. Always cracking jokes and seeming to be carefree, yet he would be intense at times. Sullen and moody. I never feared him, but our guards did. He would come and go often when Olivia was alive. Never staying long and yes, I knew of him being in the FBI. Olivia stated many times how proud she had been of him. I also never saw any radical behavior from him. Except for when he and Valencia would argue. And that hadn’t occurred until after Olivia died.

Now, he was somewhere in the wind. Dante’s father had released him. Although I could possibly trace him. I knew all the places he might be. Unless he had gone into deep hiding. The Walker clan was still looking for him and he knew they were. The things he had done to them had been more unbelievable, horrible truths for me. Searching for their location in order to drop missiles on them? A whole family with women and children. He had kidnapped several of them and had some beaten up by biker gangs. I couldn’t really blame them for wanting justice.

Deacon himself had been another lie. I had believed that Deacon had been awesome. I looked up to him and often felt proud to be working for him. As a real superstar in the bureau, he had awards of merit and was considered to be a top agent. So smart and capable. He ended whole crime empires and stopped foreign threats. He invented some software programs that were monumentally impressive in the tech world as well. A hero… Just like his mother had always bragged about.

Yet, he turned out to be nothing but a lowdown, disgusting criminal just like her.

I released a long breath and stopped in my tracks. I had been pacing in the room and I didn't even realize it. Why should I care why Olivia lied to me? She was never who she seemed to be. Deacon wasn’t either. I had to face the fact that I might never get real answers. And it was all done now…I couldn’t change any of it. I was alone in the world. Hadn’t that been what Valencia said? If she hadn’t placed me in that crypt I would have been alone.

I wondered about her as well. How much did Valencia really know? I admit, I had been clueless about the dark side of Olivia’s business. I now remembered there were a few things that had been unsettling. Like all the Russian guards. Olivia simply said they were for protection. She had a lot of money and had made some deals that other large corporations were not pleased with. She needed protection and her companies needed protection as well. The moving around was to keep us safe from some bad people in the business world and to be present in the businesses themselves. So after she explained that to me, it made sense. She always had a good, sensible answer for any question I had. So to realize now that it had been lies to cover an insidious, bloody reality, it troubled me greatly. I lived in a bubble created by Olivia ever since I was a teen and I wasn’t even aware of it.

Yes, I still felt stupid. I had seen some odd things that were unsettling, but I never guessed she had been a crime boss of all things. Basically, Olivia just took me in and groomed me to be what I was…an employee that did her taxes and kept the books for her. The legal books. I realized now that there had to be another set of books I had never laid eyes on. Ledgers of corruption, illegal cash and many dark deals.

What if that had been it? Her twisted sense of Walker Justice . Take me in after killing my family to make me her servant for her family? Somehow, it made sense. Especially after I witnessed a small bit of video taken of her after they caught her. Ace showed me the three minute film. I barely recognized her. The infamous O, her hair a mess, her face all blotchy looking, her voice high pitched. Telling them she would win this game of survival. Ranting about how she had gotten rid of so many people so easily and they would be next. Offing them had been the actual words she’d used. She looked truly insane. Truly evil.

How could I have not seen the truth?

I looked around at the luxurious room I’d been staying in. The Descalias were well off and this whole grand estate showed that. However, Olivia had been too. I had grown accustomed to nice accommodations. Not that it mattered to me. I had my own savings. As her top accountant, I was paid a good salary by Olivia. I never had to spend it, beyond clothes, luggage and daily stuff. I did invest in stocks and other areas. I had a knack for it as I lived by numbers. So my assets were set. I never had to rely on anyone for a job again. Nothing super rich, but good enough for me to live on for a long time if I wanted.

No, what mattered now was to decide where I went from here. What to do with my life. But first, I needed to find Dante and tell him I was sorry for… I paused. For running away? For not knowing who the hell I was? For wondering why I even existed? He had been so good to me since I arrived. He kept me company and made sure I wasn’t alone. The man was funny as hell too. Always making me laugh when I otherwise would have no reason to feel happy.

Really though, why would he want me? A girl left in an old crypt, who didn’t really know who she was?

I did like the kiss though and didn’t take exception to it. He surprised me. After hearing what Zia had said. Then his dad showing up? It also didn’t feel like he was just hitting on me. I kissed him back too. Pausing, I remembered what he had said. That he wanted something serious with me, not a fling.

I suddenly realized I had just run away from the man that could be my future.