Chapter 5

I lunged for the chain. Cara swung her arm down and hurled the pendant against the stone hearth.

The jade shattered. One piece skittered under the coffee table. Another landed on the rug by the toe of my shoe. I could still see the Virgin’s folded hands on it.

“No.”

I could hardly draw a breath. For years I’d kept that tiny thing safe, and she’d broken it in less time than it took me to say her name.

Now Cara was looking down at the pieces as casually as if she’d dropped an ice cube.

“You’re a fucking animal.”

I slapped her hard enough to send her stumbling into the arm of the couch. For a second she just stood there, one hand to her cheek, staring at me.

“You bitch.” Her voice rose. “Get her on the floor. Beat the shit out of her.”

Her friends looked at one another. Nobody moved until Cara said, “A million dollars to whoever does the best job.”

The woman who’d told Cara to remember her once she got married caught my arm first. I pulled free, but somebody grabbed me from behind. A fist caught me under the ribs. I doubled over, and a kick behind the knee put me on the floor.

“You just hit the future wife of a man who runs Brooklyn for the Bellandis,” someone said. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

I planted a hand on the rug to push myself up. A heel came down on my wrist.

“All this over a necklace,” another woman said. “Go sleep with whoever bought you the first one. I’m sure he’ll get you another.”

“First you go after her man, then you hit her in her own house?” someone said behind me. “You got a death wish?”

The piece with the Virgin’s hands was still there, caught in the rug between a muddy footprint and a cigarette burn. I stretched my fingers toward it. The woman standing on my wrist pressed down harder.

“You’re going to regret this,” I said.

For a moment, the room went quiet. Then someone laughed, and the rest of them joined in.

“Who are you going to call?” a man asked. “Nico? He’s the one who signs your checks.”

“You keep the man’s books,” somebody else said. “You’re lucky he lets you in the building.”

Someone put a knee between my shoulder blades and forced my cheek down against the rug.

“Stay there,” she said. “You’ve got a lot to learn about knowing your place.”

I heard Cara’s heels on the floor. She stopped in front of me, took a fistful of my hair, and pulled until I had to look up at her. There was a red mark across her cheek where I’d hit her.

“Regret it?” she said. “I’ve never regretted a damn thing in my life.”

She leaned in close enough that I could smell the liquor on her breath.

“Go on, then. Show me what you’re going to do about it.”

An engine roared up the drive. Cara’s grip slackened.

Headlights swept across the living room wall. Through the front windows, I saw a black sedan brake at the foot of the steps. A second pulled in behind it, then a third. Farther down the drive, engines were still coming through the open gate.