Crown of Sins - Chaelisa

-Chapter Eleven-

*Roseanne's POV*

I may be taking my sweet ass time in answering Lisa. But I already know I don't have much of a choice.

Still, I debate with myself. I listen to the arguments my dad would make with me if he were here. He was never a rat. Not once. He didn't play ball with the feds. But he also wasn't put into a situation like this.

Fucking Tate.

I anticipate what Caleb will say, what Jennie will debate. I try to look at it from every single angle that I can think of. And still...after too long of Lisa patiently waiting as I watch her the entire time, still I know what I knew right away. What I knew the moment she finished making her offer.

"Whatever it means for me, I can't let my entire family—blood and not—go under because of the cocky fucking mistakes of my stupid fucking baby brother," I finally tell Lisa.

I don't expect her to understand what family means to me. How it crosses lines of ancestry and any other barrier to form unbreakable bonds. But that's okay. She doesn't have to get it. I just want her to know my reason before I sign too much away to her.

Even if it doesn't matter, if it changes nothing and does no good. I want her to know what's led to my decision.

"I'll do it," I agree.

"It's a deal."

Stupid—my possible downfall—or not, it's stone now. I don't go back on deals. Ever.

And then Lisa is smiling. Her grin stretches so wide that her eyes crinkle, and there's a gap between her teeth where just the tip of her tongue rests between top and bottom sets. Holy shit, I've never seen her face so open, so...perfect.

I have to squeeze my thighs together as tight as they can compress to keep myself from squirming in reaction. That smile is doing things to me, things Caleb's never done.

"But," I add—bringing her lips right back down into the flat line they were moments ago. "No one can know." She wants to argue, I can see it. So I rush to correct myself, "No one outside of uniform," I amend.

I mean it. And I want her to understand what it means for me, what it would mean if she broke my one request in the deal. I will her to understand with my eyes, as I look back and forth between hers.

She nods.

And it's better than shaking hands. So I flash her the same kind of smile back that she just gave me, lifting my chin and biting the corner of my mouth. Somehow my chest gets closer to her. My breath coming shallower and quicker.

Every part of me wants her to reach out, to grab me by the back of the neck and crush me against her. I have to blink away the images, the desire I'm about to drown in.

Oh this might be a terrible idea.