Page 37 of Vicious Little Princess

“Yeah, although not at this particular moment. When we’d found Julian and all hell wasn’t breaking loose among the two families with the search for Angelo. But witnessing this, I couldn’t hold it off.”

I frowned as I took his words in. “Why didn’t he just come to me himself?”

“Because Nico doesn’t feel that sort of thing… in a conventional way.”

“You’re saying he doesn’t feel guilt and remorse?”

“He compartmentalizes it.”

That was an intriguing notion, albeit more than just a little disturbing.

“No, that’s not the right way to go about it for you,” Milo spoke, obviously realizing where my mind was headed.

“How do you—”

“It hurts him, Caterina. It fucking hurts him.”

“I—”

“Look, we’ll continue this later, once we get you to a doctor. We can rule out the physical and deal with this weight of the rest, the emotional and mental toll that what happened in the garage has taken on you.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I said, walking to the sink and starting to brush my teeth. Again.

“Yeah?” he said. “Is that right?”

I murmured an affirmative response as I continued brushing, getting that nasty taste out of my mouth.

I’d just finished up and turned back around when I watched Milo storming out of the bathroom and back into my bedroom.

Then he bellowed in that deep voice of his that carried through a hell of a lot, “Nico!”

I shook my head in disbelief as I walked into the bedroom. “Seriously? Calling in the big guns?”

“His obsession may have caused me and Julian a lot of worry over the years, but it does have its upsides. And this is one of them. His neurotic need to ensure your wellbeing won’t allow you to just blow this off. He won’t stand for this.”

“Jeez, it’s not—”

Nico blew into the room in the next moment, his eyes darting around every which way, on high alert. “What is it? What’s happened?”

I shoved my hand through my hair as Milo relayed what had happened, what he’d walked in on.

And then Nico was pointing at my bed. “Get into that bed right now and sleep.”

“What? No. I can’t. We need to focus on finding Julian.”

“That’s your final answer?”

I started as that dangerous tone of his came to the surface. “What are you—”

“Is. That. Your. Final. Answer?”

“Yes!” I yelled back at his infuriating question.

“Fine,” he muttered.

And then he strode out of the room.

“Where is he going?” I asked Milo.

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