Page 56 of Vicious Little Princess

“That’s not exactly letting it go.”

“It’s the best you’re gonna get,” I warned her.

She rolled her eyes, but told him, “Deal.”

“Now that’s sorted, I need you both to tone it down majorly before you go in there. And do not, under any circumstances, touch him. Not even holding his hand,” I told them.

“Okay,” Caterina murmured, pain playing on her features.

Nico scrubbed his hand over his face, then gave a nod.

We headed back into the room, Nico and Caterina following after me to find Julian scanning the room intensely.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My phone. I need my phone.”

“It was crushed during the crash,” Nico told him. “We’ll get you another one by tomorrow morning.”

“No. I need—I can’t be without it. Lying here in this bed, in this room, nothing to focus on except—I can’t… I fuckingcan’t!”He grabbed the IV about to pull it out, but Caterina called out, “Stop, it’s okay! Here, sweetheart.” She walked to him then and pulled a phone out of the inner pocket of her turquoise leather jacket, telling him, “I cloned your old one. Everything is on here as you like it. It’s not the same snazzy cobalt-blue glittering case, but that can easily be remedied.” Off our startled looks, she explained, “He told me how it is with him and his social media stuff, so I figured once we found him, he’d need it.”

Julian beamed out at her. “Thank you, Cat. Thank you so much.”

She smiled at him. “This is what it means to be mine.”

Nico and I exchanged a look at her uttering a version of our words to her. Our promise, in essence, to be good to her and take care of her as one of us.

She put the phone down on the covers within his reach, keeping well to the no-touching rule I’d laid down outside. She also pulled out a charger and plugged it in, then draped the cable carefully over the small cupboard beside his bed.

Julian turned on the phone, then looked up at her. “What’s the password?”

“Carver Babes.”

He chuckled.

Actually laughed in spite of everything.

Because of her.

Last time he’d suffered through something like this, we hadn’t had Caterina with us. But now that we did, it had me realizing that it could be different, that it could be easier to pull him through it. She added a different energy to our dynamic and that could be exactly what was needed to help him.

He scrolled on his phone for a few moments, before telling her, “This is perfect, everything just how I remember it.” He held it to him protectively as he looked out at us and said, “Thank you to all of you for getting me out of there. I know it can’t have been easy. Was there a price I need to be aware of?”

His gaze went to Nico as he asked that last part, who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. “Not to worry. Everything is as it should be.”

“N, when you get cryptic, it’s rarely a good thing.”

“There was opportunity to be found in the challenge that the takedown tonight posed.”

“Yeah, that’s not really veering away from the whole ominous nature of it all.”

“How about if I told you that I made lemonade from lemons?”

Julian shook his head. “Not at all. Nico, if there’s—”

“It’s fine. Everything will be fine. What I need is for you to concentrate on getting better. Physically first, then the rest afterward. Okay? I really need that from you.”

“Nico,” I spoke, not liking him pushing Julian. It was too early for that.

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