Breaking Hollywood [CAMREN]

Chapter 26

Lauren

"I'm sorry, what?" Reeling from what she just said, I reach out for something to hold on to, but there's nothing but air.

"Lauren, do you need to sit down?"

"Uh, yeah. I think so."

I walk over to the sofa on wobbly legs and sit down on the edge, fingers gripping it.

Camz stays standing by the window. The light frames her, making her look incandescent. And beautiful. So very beautiful.

She's not looking at me. Her dark eyes are on the floor.

Her words keep echoing around in my head.

"I used to sleep with women for money."

"And my parents are in prison for drug trafficking, racketeering, and murder."

I thought her parents were dead. Apparently not.

She's not saying anything. I think she's waiting for me to speak.

Honestly, I don't know what to say.

But I go with the latter, as that seems more important. "So, your parents aren't dead. They're in prison," I say in a quiet voice.

"Yes." Her voice is rough.

"Both of them?"

"Yes."

"How? Why?"

"It's a long story."

"I've got all the time in the world."

Her eyes finally meet mine. Emotions are running riot in them. It makes me ache for her.

She looks away from me. "My dad is originally from Cuba. He was born into the Russo crime family."

She glances at me, a question in her eyes, and I shake my head, not familiar with their name.

"My grandfather was the head of the family, my dad his eldest son. And my grandfather built up a business relationship with a Jewish mob boss who pretty much ran Las Vegas. My grandfather sent my dad out to Vegas to secure the deal with the Jews, and he was to head up the running of it.

"My dad met my mother, who was the niece of the Jewish mob boss. She worked in one of his casinos. They got married. I was born a few years later. Tate, five years after that. Together, they ran several casinos. Or so I thought. The casinos were a front for the money laundering and drugs they were filtering through the casinos."

She comes and sits down on the sofa chair beside me. I shift to face her.

"I knew they weren't squeaky clean. I knew my dad's family history. I knew they did some dodgy dealings. Kids would say stuff about them to me at school. The police came calling at home a few times. But, honestly, I didn't know the true extent of it. I didn't know they were mixed up in drugs or...that they'd killed people.

"I was seventeen when the house was raided, and my parents were arrested. It was the middle of the night. Harry and I were dragged from our beds, put into the back of a police car, and driven to a boys' home ran by social services. We weren't told anything. We only knew what we read in the newspapers in the following days. They wouldn't let us see our parents. Harry was devastated. Then, I heard that my mom and dad were being charged with racketeering and the murder of several people. I knew that Harry and I were never going home. At seventeen, about to turn eighteen in six months' time, I was smart enough to know that I'd stay in the boys' home, and with Harry being twelve, they would try to rehome him.

"I'd just lost my parents. I wasn't going to lose Harry as well. So, we left. My parents' assets had been frozen by the government, but I had some savings in my account. So, I withdrew everything I had, and I bought two bus tickets to Los Angeles. I thought the idea of living near the beach sounded good. So, we rode the bus here, and I decided to change our surname to Cabello in case anyone came looking for us."