Page 60 of Twilight Mask

“If this were up to me? I’d ditch the girl and throw myself into the war. You know, the thing you’ve been wanting for, like, forever.” She walks into the other room and sits down on the couch, legs crossed underneath her.

I pace around the coffee table. “I’m not ditching her. That’s not happening.”

“You’re really into this girl, aren’t you?”

“It’s not just some fling. At least, it’s turning into something a lot more.”

Valentina’s expression is hard to read. I know she’s not happy about my relationship and I can’t really blame her for that, but I like to think I’ve earned a little bit of goodwill from her at this point. She should know that I’m not doing this to hurt her.

“This girl is going to break your heart,” she says very softly. I stop pacing and face her, arms crossed over my chest.

“You can’t know that.”

“Come on, Marco. She’s a Bianco.” Valentina’s lip curls. “I understand that she’s not very involved in their business, and I don’t think she participated in the war with my father at all, but it doesn’t change anything. She’s Bianco, which means Bianco interests will always come first. Sooner or later, your secret’s going to get out, and you’ll both have to choose. She’ll choose family, and where will that leave you?”

I don’t want to hear this. I really don’t want to agree with her either. But what she’s saying rings true, at least to an extent. Laura isn’t going to fuck me over when things get hard, but what Valentina’s saying is exactly what I’ve been thinking from the start: sooner or later, this is going to crash and burn. We’ll have to make a choice, and Laura’s entire life is subsidized by her family’s connections and power. She’s not going to give up her basement, her studio, her fucking art, for some guy. No matter how good the sex is. No matter how close we’re beginning to get to each other.

“Maybe you’re right,” I tell her, “but I’m still going to try.”

Valentina sighs and leans back. “Since when did you become such a fucking romantic?”

“Since I met Laura.”

She groans and rolls her eyes. “That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Shouldn’t you be happy for me?” I sit on the other end of the couch, and Valentina has the good manners to look pained.

“I am happy for you, which is why I’m not out blowing up your spot and screaming my head off, but you know this is hard for me to get over. I mean, she’s a fucking Bianco. Her dad murdered my dad.”

“And I want her family to pay for what they did. I still believe the Bianco Famiglia is too big and too powerful, and I want to cut their knees out from under them. But Laura isn’t the Famiglia.”

Valentina doesn’t look like she agrees. We sit in strained, uncomfortable silence, and I wish things could be different. I wish Valentina didn’t have every reason in the world to hate the Biancos, and I wish I could make her see that whatever I have with Laura is a good thing, outside of my feud with the Famiglia.

But that isn’t reasonable, and in the end, Valentina finishes her coffee and leaves early. “I just need to think about this for a while,” she says at the door. “I love you like a brother, Marco, and you saved my life. But I really need to think.”

“Take your time. Do what you need to do. I’m still here for you, Val.”

She shakes her head and walks away, leaving me alone in my own place for the first time in a while, and feeling every echoing inch of the empty rooms.

Chapter 28

Laura

Marco’s waiting for me in the parking lot of his condo building. I park next to his BMW and get out, and when he comes over to escort me over to the passenger side, I shake my head and lean into him.

“Actually, I was thinking that I’d drive.”

His eyebrows raise. “You don’t know where we’re going.”

“That’s why they invented GPS.” I get up on my toes and kiss him gently, trying not to grin too big. “Come on. Let me drive. I’ve barely been back on the road.”

He reluctantly hands me the keys. “Just go easy.”

I can’t take it anymore. I crack up and brush him off as I head over to the passenger side. He looks totally relieved as he gets in behind the wheel.

“You’re too easy to wind up sometimes,” I say as he pulls out.

We planned this date the second we were apart. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going, but he said I’d like it, and I’m at the point where I don’t really care what we do, so long as we do it together.

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