Page 35 of A Taste Of Darkness

The guy only slapped me, so that shouldn’t have left more than a bit of reddened skin. Hopefully.

“It’s not my blood,” I said, whispering. Without realizing it at first, I brought my hands to his stomach and held onto his dress shirt for dear life.

I didn’t know why I did it. Perhaps because touching anything of Milo’s brought a strange sense of comfort to me. Or maybe because I thought if I just held on to him, I couldn’t tip back and fall. Either way, Milo didn’t seem to mind the wrinkles I was causing, or that the blood that I thought was dried by now, rubbed off on his white shirt. Or the fact that I almost entirely pulled his dress shirt out from his pants.

He just stared at me, relieved that it wasn’t my blood.

“Let’s get you upstairs, my love,” Milo said softly, already reaching for my hands to intertwine one with his.

I sucked in a breath, eyes widening for a moment as I repeated his new name for me in my head on a loop.

Wow, I must’ve been so out of it because there was no way Milo Marucci just called me my love.

Milo called for my dog, who surprisingly obliged. She usually ignored everyone’s orders but mine.

19

ELEVEN YEARS TOO LATE

Milo Marucci

They’d gone too far.

Watching Sterlie and scaring her was one thing, attacking her was another.

They must’ve attacked her. It was the only logical explanation for her appearance. The blood splatters on her body didn’t look like she was in an accident, especially when she insisted it wasn’t her blood.

I doubted she witnessed a murder and somehow got covered in the victim’s blood. And surely, she wouldn’t look as ghostly as she did when I first spotted her in the lobby if she only witnessed a murder. After all, I knew she’d killed a man before. Or at least helped get the job done.

As soon as we were in my penthouse, I led Sterlie into one of the bathrooms so she could rinse off that blood. I didn’t need a blood sample to figure out who dared lay their hands on her as they’d unmask themselves soon enough.

Once I got my hands on that person, not even God could save them.

Sterlie stood in front of the shower, fully clothed, staring blankly ahead. If I had to guess, there wasn’t a single thought in her head.

“Can I get you anything?” I asked, keeping a certain amount of distance between us. The last thing I wanted to do was make her feel as if I was intruding on her personal space.

“I shot someone,” she mumbled, ignoring my question. “Twice.”

“It’s okay.”

Sterlie shook her head, though her eyes continued to focus on the tiles of my shower. “I stabbed through his hand and pinned him right to a tree.”

“And he deserved it.” I made my way around Sterlie, standing right before her. I still kept a bit of distance, though. “Do you not want to take a shower, cuore mio?”

She sighed at the same time as her eyes met mine. Eyes that I once thought were as deep as an ocean were now hollow.

Once again, Sterlie ignored my question. “Who is Luca?”

My breath got caught in my lungs.

“You know him, right?” Sterlie closed the space between us, standing almost so close to me that her body touched mine. “That guy asked where Luca is, but I don’t know who that guy is or why these people think I do.”

The emptiness in her eyes vanished, though the ocean didn’t return. Instead, her eyes filled with something heavy. Something sad.

While I was glad she didn’t, right now, I wished she remembered. Remembered the day we met, what happened, and why they knew who to go after just to find me.

She’d never remember, though, and that was a good thing. In some ways anyway.

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