Castle in the City

9

I went underwater and swam to the other side of the pool. I was trying to increase my speed by swimming more often. I also wanted to expand my breathing because, like my mother, I had asthma. It made it a bit more difficult for me to hold my breath underwater than Nico who had great lungs, and I wanted to get better at it.

I swam to the top of the pool and was frightened when I saw Damien looking down at me. "You scared the shit out of me!" I complained while placing my right hand over my heart, which was pounding rapidly.

"My fault," he smiled while climbing into the pool.

"How was your day?" I found myself asking.

He sighed, "Long. Yours?"

"Same," I nodded. "How are you finding working at my dad's company?"

Damien answered, "Boring. He has his secretary giving me papers to file. I want the action, you know!"

I chuckled, "What action?"

"I'm interested in marketing and sales. Ideally, I'd like to be a manager at either," he answered. "Your dad, however, said that he had to see my potential first. I was supposed to be doing things related to marketing or sales, not this stupid shit his secretary has me doing now."

"Maybe Nico and I could try to talk to him," I suggested, but Damien shook his head.

He sighed, "I'm telling you the same thing I told Nico: I wanna do this by myself. Mr.Carter was already nice enough to give me an opportunity to work at his company. I just have to bare through this on my own for three months, and, hopefully, he's impressed with my work by the time he comes back."

"But-" I got out before he cut me off.

"No, City, but thanks. I wanna get it done on my own," he shook his head. "If it wasn't for Rico, I wouldn't even have met any of you, and I would have been struggling on my own like I was meant to."

I frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Just cause I have expensive shit doesn't make me rich," he chuckled. "All of that comes either from Uncle Rico as a gift or from me working and buying it. If it weren't for my uncle, God knows where I'd be in life."

I shook my head, "I don't understand." I had always thought Damien had a good amount of wealth because of the things he had. He also went out to expensive places with my brother and cousins, so I never once questioned whether he could've been from a lower class.

Damien ran a hand through his hair as he let out a deep breath. He then looked in my eyes for a moment with an intensity I had never seen before. It was almost as if he was searching for something...trust, maybe. He broke eye contact and stared at the other side of the pool.

"If you beat me to the other side of the pool, I'll tell you," he bargained.

While smiling, I agreed, "Bet."

We both began swimming to the other side of the pool, and for a moment, he was winning. That was until I decided to push myself more than I ever did, and I was able to reach the end before he could.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that," he chuckled, and I chuckled as well because I wasn't expecting to swim that fast either. "Remember when I told you my name is Damien Castle?" I nodded in response as I anticipated where his story was going. "I haven't told anyone that in about seven years."

I chuckled, "What?"

Damien took my hands in his, stared deeply into my eyes, and asked, "Can I trust you with this secret, Sagacity?" I had never heard him call me by first name, and the way my name rolled off his tongue made me want to lounge into his arms and attack his lips.

"Yes," I blushed as I stared into his eyes, showing him that I meant what I said.

Damien sighed, "My pops ran a gang he called the Castle Kingdom. They were very dangerous men with a lot of blood on their hands. Along with that came a lot of enemies. About seven years ago, some enemies assassinated the entire gang, including my father, but they wouldn't stop there. They wanted to wipe out every bloodline they could find. My mother and I fled and were in hideout, but one night she went out for groceries and never came back. I was left on my own with no one to turn to. Then I remembered my mom mentioning to me that she had a young brother named Rico and where he lived. After a week of living on my own, I ran out of supplies. With the little money I had, I tracked Rico down and he allowed me to stay with him. I was in hiding until a year later when Rico said everything died down. I got my name changed to Damien Cill, Rico's last name. Your dad actually helped with that in a way that the name Castle could never be traced back to me."

I knew that my father was still the leader of the Mafia, but he was much more of a powerful man that people respected rather than feared because he expanded his empire through deals that satisfied everyone. My father was open to telling Nico and me about his past and about all the bad he did before my mother was able to change him for the better.  He didn't want for Nico nor me to follow in the same path.

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that," I said sincerely as I continued to look into his eyes. I could tell that he was battling with a lot of emotions. He wasn't over what happened in his past, and I didn't expect him to be. "I won't tell anyone."

"Good," he nodded. "Not even Nico, Aria, nor Justin knows about this."

While slightly tilting my head to the side and frowning, I asked, "Why tell me? You're much closer to them than you are to me."

Damien sighed, "I wish I knew, City."

I nodded in understanding. I was grateful that he chose to open up to me, especially about something so important. It gave me hope that there was something different about me...and that maybe...maybe we've never been friends because we were feeling the same thing for each other.

But that was silly. Completely silly.