Page 7 of Catching His Runaway

Santino snorts as he moves to stand. “I’m not blind or stupid, Val. I know a poor investment when I see one. Take all the offense you’d like, but I’m not trying to be charitable here.”

While she sputters at his insult, I snort.

Good to see Santino is thinking clearly. He’s never been the handout kind of guy to begin with. If she thinks she’ll be able to slip out of our lives once more with ease, then she’s got another thing coming.

Rounding the desk, he ignores the glare she sends in his direction.”While you’re at it, why not catch up with Urzo when he gets back with his wife? Oh, and you’ve got a niece, too. With all the time you’ve got here, don’t worry about rushing to catch up on the years. Take your sweet time.” Sending us away with words, he leaves, under the assumption of returning to his picnic.

Valeria doesn’t take his words too well. She growls her frustrations and yanks out of my grip. Moving to stand, she stares at me like I’m a brick wall in her path.

Now that I’ve got an order, I don’t stop her when she moves past me. Instead, I turn onto my heel and mold into her shadow, stalking right behind her to make sure she stays out of trouble.

3

Valeria

My room isn’t the way I left it. The posters on the walls have been torn down, replaced by boring bare white walls. The bed has a blanket, but it’s bunched up at the foot of it. Belongings are scattered along the carpet, and if I breathe in deeply enough, I smell blood.

Behind me, I feel the heat of Tommy’s chest radiating against my back. Despite knowing this is someone else’s room now, he didn’t bother to give me any sort of warning. Not that I’m owed one, but it would’ve been nice.

“Are you going to step inside, or keep staring?” There’s a shift in his voice, something deeper. Now that we’re alone, I realize my brother might have an influence on how he acts around me.

“This is someone’s room,” I state obviously, turning to glare up at him.

His nostrils flare, and he moves. Lifting his hands, he plants them on the door frame and stretches, blocking off any openings of escape. Now, I guess I only have one option. Stand here while he’s touching my back, or step inside.

“It’smine,” he reveals, catching me off guard. He takes one unbothered step forward, leaving my body no choice but to stumble forward.

Watching as he steps in and shuts the door, I immediately look around for anything to defend myself with. If it’s his room, I’m sure there’s a gun tucked away under his mattress.

“Touch anything, and you’ll regret it,” he warns in passing. Moving to the mattress with the disheveled blanket, he sinks down.

I’d describe him as loosening up a bit if he wasn’t so adamant about staring me down. Even now, his eyes don’t budge. His chest swells with an inhale, and for a few seconds, an eerie silence passes during our stare down.

Terrifyingly, I can’t tell what he’s thinking as he stares at me. Before, I could see the anger and the years of it collecting. Now, when he looks calm, I feel like this is more dangerous than before.

I wish I had my knife. It’s probably still lodged in the dirt outside.

He sniffs nonchalantly, his brows soon coming together. “I tried looking for you. The amount of time I spent in here searching for any clues, any hints of where you could’ve gone, I figured I might as well move my stuff in, you know?.” Rolling his neck, he looks more agitated while thinking about the past than the present.

“And my stuff?” I ask, stubbornly crossing my arms as I decide not to test how heavy his threat weighs.

He snorts. “Burned every last scrap. You’ve got nothing left here. More reason for you to have stayed away. Should’ve known you’d get into trouble while you were away. None of your brothers needed to be watched. But you were different. You were always the outlier.”

If I have to guess, he’s also recalling all those times I dragged him out to the city, begging to be social. How I had to get him to chase me to get out of our home. Ihatedbeing stuck in this house. Going stir-crazy half the time, the other half… Well, I couldn’t do squat when Tommy was trying to be a people-pleaser. Trying to do his job down to the description.

I guess that bit about him hasn’t changed. Even now, he’s doing whatever Santino wants.

No point in trying to find the man Tommy used to be. I’m going to have to get used to this guy instead. I’m going to have to learn how to bite my tongue again while I’m at it.

He’s mad that I wasn’t the submissive daughter I was designed to be. I didn’t fit into the mold and chose not to play my role.

They kept me here only for future use. All daughters in these families get married off to make ties. My mother warned me about it, always hyping it up to be something of value. It’s how she met my father.

Well, maybe I didn’t want to marry someone with power. Maybe I wanted someone more normal. Someone who didn’t see me as the sole daughter of this family and what perks could come from claiming me as their own, like any of the sons of the surrounding families.

Teenage Valeria wanted her stupid bodyguard, but knew he wouldn’t leave for her. Eight years older, he’d be dumb to do something so reckless. So, she slipped off to do everything on her own.

Simple as that.

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