Ten

"What the hell was that all about?" Willa demanded.

"I'm done with their bullshit." Clea left her pumps by the door and headed toward the couch. "Meshach can't wipe his ass without consulting the Elders and Shadrack would rather force someone into assisting him instead of wiping his own fucking ass!

"Being a Cantrell has come to mean being abused, balked and otherwise controlled at every turn and I'm sick of it! My family is Galen and Tryphaena. I have forty-nine families who look up to me as their Queen, shortly to be joined by Abednego. I don't need to call the Cantrells 'family' to feel fulfilled."

"You should feel lucky you have family! I was orphaned when I was thirteen!"

"Oh, boo-fucking-hoo! At least you had time with your parents! And I bet they were proud of you, too! I haven't seen my mother since I told her I loved Galen! I'm willing to bet you my entire store that they disposed of her in hopes that I wouldn't marry him—or worse, she somehow crossed Shadrack!

"My father…dear Goddess, my father! Why the hell does he have to be so fucked? Seventeen years he hides from me that he's my father, and even after he tells me, he goes on acting like he's nothing more than my Ataman to preserve his reputation!"

Willa spotted a box of tissue on an end table and set it down between them as she landed on the couch. "You've hit it exactly."

"What?" Clea blew her nose.

"Uncle Shad. He's the cause of everything." Willa seemed to realize a tear was running down her cheek and hastily swiped it away. "He became a tyrant, so Uncle Meshach began to rely on the Elders so he'd seem more democratic. He did hell-knows-what to my parents, so I was an orphan by thirteen. He may have banished your mother after he discovered Uncle Meshach was your father. He made us hate each other and ourselves, so that you clung harder to your husband's clan and made me think of giving up my Romani heritage altogether."

She paused until Clea looked at her, until tears were running down both their cheeks.

"Uncle Shadrack has turned romanipen into a cult instead of something to be proud of."

oOoOoOo

"Was she serious?"

"I don't know." Galen cracked a bottle of O'Doul's for himself and passed Timo a bottle of Miller Light and the wine key. "She seemed dead serious. Why go through all those formalities if she was just trying to get Shad to knock it off?"

"Damn," Timo muttered. He contemplated the bottle as he laid the wine key aside. "What's the point, though? He'll never change his mind. He practically swore on his mother's grave."

"The point is that Clea is tired of living under Shadrack's oppression, even though she's not under his direct influence." Galen sipped his beer. "Although, when you think about it, every member of First and Second Cantrell is under Shadrack's influence. If he had left well enough alone, Abednego wouldn't have gone gadjo, Meshach wouldn't be running to the Elders to help him make every move and Clan Cantrell would still be united.

"My clan loved her from the moment I crowned her Queen. They have been nothing but cordial, gentle and kind. Everything she ever deserved from her birth clan, in truth."

Timo and Galen were quiet for a long time. When Timo spoke again, the King knew what was coming.

"What happened when you kidnapped Clea?"

He sighed. "I suppose there's no harm in telling you. Not when there's no way out of your esponsales." Galen glanced up. "What's her name?"

"Magdalena. But everybody calls her Maggie."

Galen nodded. "I don't know where Maiya was that night…and after seventeen years, I don't think I want to know. But Clea was alone and nobody saw me slip into the house.

"She started thrashing and almost screamed, but I sat on her back, grabbed her around the mouth and whispered my name. I made her promise to not do anything unless I told her and she laid there quietly as I grabbed a roll of duct tape. I used several layers—wrapped all the way around her mouth and eyes before tying her off at the wrists and ankles. When I finished, I wrapped her in a sheet and threw a pillowcase over her head before putting her in the trunk.

"We drove…I don't remember where anymore. Out of Miami …maybe all the way up to Cocoa Beach. I checked into a hotel and paid them to give me a room far away from the rest of the guests. It was easy smuggling her inside. No one in the elevator at that time of the morning."

"And then what?"

"What do you think?" He smirked and finished his beer. "If you want to make Magdalena untouchable, you have to make her yours. Take what's precious to her, to every Romani girl. Understand?"

Timo looked slightly confused. "I…think so?"

Galen snorted. "Look, there's no way to put this politely. If you want her, screw her 'til her eyeballs fall out. Take her virginity and she can only marry you. And make sure you do marry her shortly afterward. Otherwise, her parents might get the notion in their heads that they have to purify her and you're back where you started from."

"What will happen to Willa?"

"Shadrack can't force her into an esponsales where one party is already married. If he decides to take it out on her, though, I'm sure Clea won't hesitate to scoop her up and add her to our rapidly growing vitsa."

Timo gave his bottle one last look before he drained it. "Promise you'll keep her safe."

"You have my word."