Page 65 of The Last Vendetta

This time, she took the initiative to grab my hand and hold it. “We will.”

We. I liked the sound of that. In the face of death, she stood with me. And at the risk of causing so much upheaval with the relationship we'd dared to forge, she didn’t seem eager to step back and let me figure this out on my own, either.

21

GIULIA

Saying that I wanted to help Renzo was easier said than done. I didn’t know how to help. I wasn’t sure what to do next.

My mother expected me to come home, but I had no inclination to return after seeing Cecilia like that. While it was shocking, I wasn’t dismayed and traumatized. It had been harder to find Father dead in his bed than stumbling upon Cecilia bleeding out on the floor.

She wasn’t a stranger, but she wasn’t anyone I was close to, either.

As cruel as it was to think it, that was just the way things worked in our world.

“What did she mean?” I wondered aloud. Instead of trying to guess what I should do next, I latched on to the stupefying shock of Cecilia lashing out at me like that.

“I don’t know if she did mean anything,” Renzo said. “She was a second away from death.”

“You think she said that like a delusion? Hallucinating as her body shut down?”

He nodded, but his brow remained furrowed. “Maybe.”

“Now what?”

His slight huff of a laugh charmed me.

“You’re fucking amazing.”

I raised my brows. “How so?”

“You just take it as it comes. Seeing a woman stabbed to death, and you’re still so… practical.”

“I prefer to think of myself as pragmatic.” I gave up my hold on his hand to turn and watch him drive. Even in this action, he looked so dominant, so rugged and in charge. His arm flexed as he shifted the gearstick, and I wondered if I would find everything he did sexy.

Or, perhaps it’s easier to let my mind go to the gutter and lust for him instead of facing the threat of mortality that always seems so near.

“We’ll go somewhere safe while I look into this affair she had.”

I blinked, stunned yet not. He was taking charge—as expected. He was bringing me somewhere with him—unexpectedly.

“You’re not taking me home?”

He deadpanned at me. “So Isabella can lock you up until your wedding?”

“She would not…”

He raised his brows in a challenge.

I winced. She might attempt that. “But taking me somewhere else would only make her more eager to act out.”

Sobering quickly, he frowned at me. “Would she use your sisters as leverage to get you to do what she says?”

My stomach twisted at that thought, but I shook my head. “Uncle Dario is there. He’ll watch over them. And Francis, my guard, he’ll keep an eye on them.”

Renzo nodded. “Then it’ll be my pleasure to keep you close and let Isabella freak out about being out of control that much longer.”

He reached a small yet stately residence within the hour. As we rode there, we discussed who Cecilia could have had an affair with. Who could have killed her. Why these things were happening when they did.

---