Page 115 of A Taste Of Darkness

“That’s not true.” My eyes fell to the floor, noting how clean it was. “Now, would you like to try this again?”

“Try what again?”

“Who sent you after Sterlie?” I expected him to say that they were after Arlo like I’d been told in Palermo, but boy was I wrong.

Finally, Pino looked at me, fear in his eyes. “I’m not going to tell you. You’re not the boss of me, and I’m ready to die with that secret.”

“Actually.” I took out my phone and showed him the picture of my deceased father to which Pino’s eyes almost popped right out of his head. “When I said I was busy, I meant busy taking over. So, yes, Pino, I am the boss of you. Your option is now between telling me who sent you and going back home, or dying because you refused to answer your boss's question.”

Pino sighed. He definitely took the news better than I thought he would.

“Adriana,” he replied, and this time it was my turn to act as if hearing her name wasn’t a shock to me. “Adriana wanted to scare that girl of yours.”

59

EYES CLOSED

Sterlie Adams

I just finished up my last equation for the sizes of my new design and wanted to reach for my phone and send Milo a picture so he could double-check the math, when all of a sudden, I was hit with the worst headache of my life.

I could feel it build up these past hours, but I brushed it off as coming from doing math rather than having an actual headache. Math did things to my brain that I didn’t like, but this was far from the usual pain I felt whenever I had to multiply numbers that I didn’t understand.

I got off the floor, barely able to keep my balance as I made my way into the bathroom to get an Advil.

My stomach grumbled, eyes going in and out of focus as I struggled to open the Advil bottle. Just as I had it open, my head was stinging worse than before, causing me to lose my balance. Then suddenly, everything was black.

60

HEARTBEATS IN DARKNESS

Milo Marucci

Michael came walking into my apartment, already shaking his head so I knew he couldn’t get in touch with Adriana.

I’d been sending Sterlie hundreds of messages and tried calling her just as often, but all those attempts to reach her stayed unanswered.

At first, I thought she fell asleep, but after I’d called her phone for the tenth time, that couldn’t have been the case. She would’ve woken up from the sound of her phone ringing, and I knew she wouldn’t have put it on mute because she never did.

I went home to see if, by chance, Sterlie decided to sneak into my apartment to surprise me when I came home later, but she wasn’t there.

Two of my cousins were on their way to check her apartment, which I should’ve done, but Michael wouldn’t let me. He said I was in no condition to face my sister if she broke into Sterlie’s apartment to harm her.

He was right.

While I wasn’t going to let anything happen to Sterlie, I wasn’t in the right headspace to call the right shots.

If I faced my sister, I would’ve killed her on the spot without demanding an explanation, without considering anything else.

Maybe Adriana was being blackmailed into doing this, and then I’d never know until something very bad happened to Sterlie… if it didn’t already.

My heart was hammering inside of my chest, my stomach bubbling up with the need to vomit.

If something happened to her… Oh, God, if something happened to her.

My breathing quickened, and my hands jumped to cover my heart. Thumpthumpthump. It was beating so fast, too fast.

“Sir?” The voice of my bodyguard spoke in the distance. “Sir, are you alright?”

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