Page 44 of Killer Love

Gio looks over at me, his lips once again curling as he slides his hand off her shoulder and back into his pocket. “This morning, I noticed that Rosalie was acting… strange. Not her typical, jubilant self. I thought that maybe one of our guests did something to upset her. So, I waited until after they left before confronting her about it and when I did…” He pauses and tilts his head. “Her answer was quite unexpected.”

She looks up at me. Her bright eyes sit obscured behind long lashes, but I still read them clearly.

Gio knows. He knows everything.

“Rosalie,” he says, staring at me, “would you like to tell Sofia what you told me?”

She stays silent, barely able to hold herself together let alone speak.

He turns and looks down at her. “Rosalie.”

“Leave her alone,” I say, the words spilling out before I can stop them.

“What did you just say?” His voice grates across his vocal cords, giving it a hard, impatient edge.

“I said, leave her alone.”

Gio smirks, genuinely surprised that I had the nerve to repeat it. “Okay, then. I’ll tell you myself.” He steps closer, drifting toward me like a ghost. “She told me that she saw Luka Lutrova assaulting you in the laundry room yesterday. Is that true?”

I pause, blissfully feeling his Russian hands on me again, but I force the sensation away. “He…”

“She thought to tell me immediately,” he continues, his face dropping, “but then… you told her not to. Now, why would you want to protect him like that?”

My voice falls, refusing to leave my throat, but I don’t know what I’d say even if I could. “It…”

“Say it. I want to hear it from you.”

I close my eyes as the darkness settles in.

“Sofia…” He leans in to whisper in my ear. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that my son has his eyes?”

Chapter 15

Luka

Giovani Zappia ordered a hit on me.

I blink at Yuri, meeting his stunned face once more. “Are you sure?” I ask Fox.

He nods and flexes his bicep to coax a little more blood to fall to the warehouse floor. “Positive.”

I furrow my brow, feeling a cold ache forming deep within my brain. One minute Gio’s calling us family and passing booze around and the next he’s sending an assassin to kill me? It doesn’t make any fucking sense.

Unless…

“When were you sent here?” I ask.

“Giovani made contact yesterday afternoon,” Fox answers. “Shortly after, I was assigned to the job. I flew in this morning.”

“Yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

If Gio planned this in advance, he would have gotten in touch with Snake Eyes long before then. This was last minute. A sudden, gut reaction to something big.

“This hit…” I choose my words carefully, “was it just me?”

Fox nods. “He wanted it to look like an outside job so no one would suspect the Zappias of being involved. They sent me with evidence that would lead to the Petrovin family. I was supposed to make it look like retaliation for you killing Hans.”

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