Deathless & Divided (The Chicago War #1) Read Online Free Page B

they were just kids, Dino surrounded himself with them.
    “You’re angry with me,” Dino murmured, keeping his gaze locked on the man standing at the altar.
    “Very.”
    “You needed to come home,” her brother said, completely unaffected. “It was time. You’re a grown woman, Lily. It’s time to accept what that means to la famiglia .”
    Lily barely held back from scoffing.
    The priest surely wouldn’t appreciate that.
    “ La famiglia , Dino? What has the family ever done for me?”
    “Raised you.”
    “Raised me?”
    The question came out as a sharp whisper. Dino winced in response. Lily took a little bit of satisfaction in that.
    “Us,” Dino corrected quickly.
    “No, la famiglia turned us into orphans. And since when is my life of any importance to the Outfit, Dino?”
    “It just is, little one.”
    Lily’s teeth grinded at his casual use of that pet name.
    Again.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Dino said softly. “Whatever you think I’m doing is unimportant. What I am doing is for your best benefit, Lily. Trust me.”
    “I don’t know anything about what you’re doing, Dino.”
    “Well, you’re probably not going to like it either way. Nonetheless, I’m trying to save you a lot of trouble and heartache if you would just give me the chance to do so.”
    Nothing her brother said made sense.
    Lily was over the runaround.
    “I’m a grown—”
    “You’re a mafia child,” Dino interjected swiftly. “You’re a born and bred DeLuca. You’re a woman, sure, but you also know what that means. You don’t get to make the choices here, Lily. Follow the rules and everything will be fine.”
    Rules .
    She shuddered in the pew, disgusted at the thought of what her brother’s vague words could possibly mean.
    “I’ve let you run away long enough,” Dino said, his mouth tugging down into a frown. “It’s time for you to come back to the family and do what we need you to do, now.”
    Lily’s heart stopped as she looked her stoic brother over. “What does that even mean?”
    “I’ve let you run away long enough,” he repeated simply.
    Lily didn’t want to be immersed in their world. As a child, she hadn’t been given a choice. As an adult, it should be only hers. She was not some pretty Mafioso principessa for her brothers to show off and dangle in front of others’ eyes.
    She was her .
    It was her life.
    “Dino—”
    Lily’s words were drowned out by the sound of the congregation standing.
    “Please,” Lily heard Father Garner say from the altar as she also stood, “… join me in a Mea Culpa to cleanse our souls and minds for the beginning of this Mass.”
    Dino smirked. “Funny how that works. It’s automatically assumed we’ve sinned—that we’re all sinners in need of repenting. We’re not even given the option to be saints.”
    “We are sinners,” Lily muttered.
    Their whole family was full of them.
    Dino shrugged. “We are.”
    “Confíteor Deo omnipoténti, et vobis, fratres, quia peccávi nimis …”
    “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned …” The words echoed through the church from two-hundred or more voices. It was almost melodic in effect, healing to some, she knew. A way of asking for forgiveness alongside everyone else so you didn’t have to do it alone.
    For some, it was the confession they would never give otherwise.
    “ Cogitatióne, verbo, ópere et omissióne ,” Dino murmured in perfect Latin.
    “In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,” Lily said along with the congregation to follow the priest’s words in English.
    Something in the corner of her eye caught Lily’s attention. Subtly, so it still seemed as if she were staring at the front, Lily turned her head and glanced to the side. Across the aisle stood a man she hadn’t noticed earlier. With his head slightly bowed and his lips moving along with the prayer, it looked as though he was fully