Page 56 of Taboo Flames

I drive quickly out of the compound, wondering how exactly I’m going to ask Fabio about Gio without coming out and admitting that I’m being nosy.

As soon as I get home, I slip into my room, fire up my laptop, and type Gio’s name into the search bar. There’s not much information about him on the internet.

There’s only something about an orphanage.

Too pumped with energy to stay in my room, I carry my laptop to the kitchen just to have something to do with my hands.

I drop the laptop on the kitchen island and start mixing a bowl of dough mix.

The only person I know who can give me the information I need is my twin.

So, without a second thought, I video call him to drive home the urgency of my call.

“What’s wrong?” he asks as soon as the call connects.

“It’s about Gio,” I say.

His eyes narrow at me. “What happened to your neck?”

I immediately slap a hand to cover my neck. I completely forgot about the light bruising Gio’s hands left behind.

“It’s nothing,” I say, waving a hand dismissively.

“That doesn’t look like nothing to me, Aurora. What the fuck did that asshole do to you?” he barks angrily. I can see the violence brewing in his eyes, and I know I have to deflect it before he ends up doing something stupid, like picking a fight with Gio.

I have no desire to pick sides in a fight between my brother and my… I don’t know exactly what Gio is to me, but he is something.

“It’s complicated, Fabio. I promise. But Gio would never hurt me. Not on purpose. You have to believe me.”

“If I find out that he hurt you, I’ll kill him, Aurora,” Fabio says fiercely. “I don’t care what kind of relationship you have with him. I will never let anyone get away with hurting you."

I just nod, not wanting to push him further.

“Anyway, you said this was about Gio?” he asks.

I swallow, unsure of how to bring it up or even if I still want to bring it up, considering the evidence on my neck.

“Something happened last night, and I know it ties back to his past,” I say. “You know something, Fabio. Something I obviously don’t know.”

“I told you to stay out of it,” Fabio says with a sigh.

“I don’t have any plan to,” I tell him honestly. “Even if you don’t tell me, I’m going to keep digging, and I’ll eventually find out. So you might as well just tell me now and save us both the trouble.”

“It’s better you let him tell you about it.”

“That’s the thing, Fabio,” I say in frustration. “I don’t think he’s ever going to.”

Not when he’s trying his damn best to prove our relationship is merely physical. The man is as closed off as a clam.

“There’s probably a reason for that,” Fabio says stubbornly. “Why don’t you take the hint?”

I glare at him. “If you’re not going to tell me, then I’m hanging up to go and do some sleuthing of my own.”

“Wait, wait,” he says as I reach for the end call button.

“So?” I probe.

“I don’t know everything. All I know is his father was a drug addict wastrel, and his mother just up and disappeared,” Fabio tells me. “He lived in an orphanage for a while before he ended up the same way most boys do. On the streets of Sicily.”

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