Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
I try to keep myself busy with a personal project. As I chat with Lilly on Facetime—relieved to talk about random, regular stuff—I go through old photo albums. My idea is to create something for Mother's or Father’s Day, maybe both, or perhaps a joint Christmas gift for Mom and Dad. I’ll review the albums, pick out the best shots, maybe touch them up, and then compile them into something beautiful.
“I think I’m done with dating,” Lilly says as I flip the pages, going further and further back in time. I’m sitting cross-legged on my bed, my phone propped on my side table.
“Oh, yeah?” I say, smiling. It’s not the first time she’s made lofty claims like this.
“What’s even the point? All guys want is one thing… I know I sound like a cliché.”
“No, I’m with you,” I mutter.
“Theoretically—or are you speaking from some new experience you haven’t told me about?” She says, her tone curious.
I give her my usual response—an eye roll of epic proportions. Luckily, the idea of me dating is so alien to her that she doesn’t think to chase it up. It means I don’t have to lie to her. I’m not sure how I’d explain what happened with my uncle. Too much has transpired since the standoff in the club. I don’t even feel like the same Arriana anymore.
“How’s the project going?” she asks.
“Okay. I’ve just reached the photos from before we left for California.”
“Awesome. That’s a cool gift idea.”
“Thanks.”
I flip through the shots of one of my early birthdays. I don’t recognize a lot of the people. Many of them look exactly like the guys I saw in the club, though, when Nico took me to apologize—slicked back hair, leather jackets, gold jewelry. They look like mobsters. There’s no mistaking it.
A gasp escapes me when I spot him. Am I losing my mind? I stand in the foreground, but the photographer didn’t use pull focus so that I can make out everything in the background. Two boys have got their arms around each other, grinning. I don’t recognize one. But the second boy looks exactly like a kid's version of Enzo.
“Is something wrong?” Lilly asks.
I don’t want to let her in on this. She’s got her own life, her own problems.
“Just…” I shake my head. “Lilly, I’m sorry. I have to go. Uh, Dad’s calling me for dinner. I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” I hate lying to her. “Everything’s fine. Really. Speak soon.”
“Okay…”
I end the call, take the photo from the plastic covering, and turn on my desk lamp. I shine the light on it, remembering Enzo in his office, looking at his features. The eyes are the same—the shape of his smile, the douchebag smarminess of it. Thinking of a kid that way isn’t nice, but I know who he’ll become.
That’s Enzo. At my birthday party. I’m sure of it. I need to talk to Mom and Dad.
CHAPTER 14
NICO
“How are things with Arria?” Lucy says, looking across the living room at me, her laptop screen reflected in her reading glasses.
I’m sitting in the living room, supposedly watching TV but actually counting down the seconds until it’s time to drive to dinner with Dominic. My nerves are making my gut tight, honestly. I could take it if it were just my life on the line, but it’s Lucy’s—my friend’s—life. And Arria’s, my… I don’t know.
“Huh?”
Lucy frowns at me. “That seems like an evasion. Something’s going on between you two, isn’t it?”
“We’re going in circles,” I groan. “I’ve got enough to worry about. I don’t need to have conversations like this as well.”
She sighs. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just want you to be careful.”
“You kissed Giancarlo in her house, Lucy.”
Lucy takes off her glasses, cleans them, then replaces them slowly. It’s her way of buying herself a few seconds to register what I just said. Friends become good at reading each other. “You’re getting defensive.”
“I don’t want to talk about me and Arria,” I snap. “Tonight’s going to be complicated enough as it is without getting into that.”
“So, there is something to get into?”
“Just quit it, Lucy.”
I’m standing in the elevator, taking slow breaths, just like I used to before a job. When I meet with Dominic, I’m going to have to push the past few days out of my head. I’m going to have to pretend I’ve never tasted my niece’s lips, never fantasized about her, never gotten myself off or talked dirty with her. To avoid all that, I have to pretend I never felt a surge of pride and respect watching her with Destiny; I must ignore her maternal instinct that heats my blood. Every emotion she's awakened in me needs to be squashed so my cold side can navigate what comes next.
The elevator door opens. As expected, a mafioso is waiting for me. His name is Tony. His flat face perpetually wears an angry look. He doesn’t look happy to see me, which makes sense. He was one of the three men Dominic set on me that night—one man I handled with relative ease.