Page 19 of Savage Mafia King

"Is it true you were staying with Marcus last night?"

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"So it's true?" she exclaims, loud enough that she attracts glances from a couple of people around us. I shoot a look this way and that, and then raise my eyebrows at her.

"Yes, it's true," I admit. "But I don't want to talk about it here..."

"Are the two of you... I mean, are youreallytogether?"

I know what she's asking. She's asking if I took her up on the suggestion to actually do something a little reckless, a little dangerous—if I've actually gotten myself involved with him beyond the point of no return.

I jerk my head in a quick nod, and she clasps her hands over her mouth in shock.

"Holy shit!" she hisses. "I didn't... you really..."

"Yeah, I really did," I reply, gesturing for her to keep her voice down. "But how did you know about that? I mean, me staying with him last night?"

"I heard some girls talking about it this morning," she explains as she stirs a packet of sweetener into her coffee.

"Which girls?"

"Oh, some of the freshman I'm tutoring," she replies. "Before I came to work with them, they were gossiping about the two of you."

I frown. How the hell would anyone know what has been going on between us? Unless they were staking out his house, that is...

I lean in closer and lower my voice even more. "Have you heard of someone called Castellano? Nico Castellano?"

She furrows her brow, pondering the question. "It rings a bell," she mutters. "I think... I think I might have been in a class with a Castellano a few semesters ago, but not a Nico. Why?"

"Because apparently that's who's been spreading what's going on between Marcus and me around campus."

"That's a good thing though, right? I mean... you want people to believe that the two of you are really together..."

"Yeah, sure, but I don't want them knowing about every little thing that's happening between us," I point out. "I need my privacy. And so does he. The last thing we want is for everyone to know our business, it's just not right."

"Hmph. I guess so. You want me to have a look through my old class lists, see if I can find anything?"

"That would be amazing, thank you."

"I got you, Isabella. You know that."

I smile at her. "I know you do, babe. I really appreciate it."

She returns my grin. And then, she wiggles her eyebrows at me pointedly. "So?"

"So what?"

"So you going to tell me what it was like to hook up with Marcus Silva?" she asks.

I laugh, but I can feel the flush spreading to my cheeks already. "It's not like we... hooked up, exactly."

"But something happened?"

"Something happened, yeah."

"Then I want the details!" she exclaims. "Come on, I've been in a total dry spell recently, it's the least you can do."

I laugh but decide I can at least give her a little of what happened. But as we talk, at the back of my mind, all I can think about is this Castellano thing. It rings a bell, and I'm sure there's something else going on here. I just need to work out where I've seen the name before.

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