Page 249 of The Devil's Fire

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to have a chat with some people.” He replied, and that was when I noticed the change in his outfit, figuring out what kind of ‘chatting’ it was going to be.

“Well, do you know where Luca is? I need to talk to him, Gio, too.”

“They’re right behind you.”

I approached them, feeling nervous that they wouldn’t accept my apology. Coming to a stop in front of them, they both wore blank expressions, making me even more nervous.

“I just want to say I’m sorry. For everything.” I said. I chewed on my lip when neither of them said anything, and I was ready to accept that they were still mad at me and be on my way.

Then Luca let out a sigh.

“Come here.” He said and embraced me, bringing a smile to my face as I returned his hug. “As long as you’re okay.”

“I will be.” I assured him. Luca gave me a soft smile as he let go of me. I turned to look at Giovanni, who now had his arms crossed as he stared at me.

“You owe me an apology.”

“I just said I was sorry.” I replied in confusion, but he shook his head.

“You walked into me at the LuxePalace, and you didn’t say sorry. So, where’s my apology?” Giovanni practically demanded, and I dropped my jaw.

“I did!” I exclaimed, frowning at him.

“I didn’t hear you.”

“That’s not my problem! I said sorry, and you were just straight-up rude. Who says to a stranger, ‘Watch where you’re going’?” I said, trying to imitate his voice, and he frowned at me.

“I’m a whole foot taller than you. How the fuck did you miss me?”

“I was distracted! Why do you always have to be so grumpy?” I scowled at him.

“Maybe if you had the courtesy to look where you’re going, I wouldn’t have to channel my inner grumpiness. Manners, ever heard of them? They’re not just for show, you know.”

I gasped.

“Oh, hell no!”

“Here we go again.” Luca sighed and shook his head as he watched us continue to bicker back and forth like we used to.

eighty-two

Damiano

“If it turns out to be true, then we can go ahead with our plan as we wanted to from the beginning. We know Gaetano wants access to the weaponry, like that wasn’t fucking obvious.” Raffaele rolled his eyes. “We now know his associates and how he works. I say let us just go ahead and kill him like we always wanted and take over his territories. He’s a bastard, but damn, he knows how to make money and make an even bigger demand for the products.”

“It’s not that simple anymore.” I told him. Leaning back in my seat, I closed my eyes as we headed to the storage facility, accompanied by Luca and Giovanni.

“Oh, right, Althaia. Maybe she doesn’t care?” He wondered.

“Are you that dense?” Giovanni shot him a look to see if he was serious.

“We know Cara won’t care.” Raffaele replied, thinking he made a valid point.

“Cara was abused, almost beaten to death. Althaia wasn’t.” I reminded him.

Gaetano was only using Cara to gain access to my weaponry, and I was taking advantage of it as well, making him believe he could.

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