Page 78 of Tainted Love

“There…” I breathe. “See? I told you I could do it.”

He sighs with annoyance but looks back at me with pride. “Come on…”

He scoops me up and I embrace the much-needed break, wrapping my arms around his neck as he carries me with him back into the kitchen.

I look at the table as he sets me down to find small, metal pieces scattered about on top. He travels back to the hall to grab the crutch and hands it to me when he returns.

“What are you doing down here?” I ask him.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Again? What, I’m not exhausting enough for you, Mr. Hart?” I tease.

“Oh, no.” He grins. “You are very exhausting, Ms. Vaughn. My insomnia is related to something else entirely.”

I eye the parts scattered on the table. “And your solution is… what exactly?”

“Cleaning my gun.”

He takes a piece in hand — a thin metal tube slightly larger than a toothpick — along with a white cloth, splotched black with grease.

I blink and the metallic pieces assemble in my head. “Ah, I see.” I snatch a tiny spring off the table and squeeze it between my fingertips once before Dante takes it away and sets it back down where I got it. “There are so many springs…” I note.

“Yes, there are.”

“Do they all have different names?”

“Yes, they do.”

I point to the one he took from me. “What’s that one called?”

“The trigger spring.”

I shift to the next one, this one several inches long but just as narrow. “And this one?”

“The firing pin spring,” he answers.

“That one?” I point to another small one, only a centimeter or two larger than the first one.

He licks his smiling lips. “That is the extractor depressor plunger spring.”

“You just made that one up!”

“I really didn’t.” He chuckles and sets the cloth down on the table.

I point to another. “And what’s—”

“Lucy…” He folds his hands in front of him and stares at me beneath the harsh kitchen lamp. “What are you doing?”

I pull my hand away. “Learning.”

“Why?” he asks, accusation crossing his eyes.

I swallow to wet my dry throat. “Because I can’t sleep either and I’m pretty sure the reason why I can’t is the same reason why you can’t, too.”

Dante flexes his jaw. “I don’t know about that.”

“Yes, you do.”

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