Page 116 of Kissing the Villain

“We get cast out.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Seriously?”

“The Queen has a lot of power.” He rubbed the sleep from his tired eyes and yawned. “What else do you remember?”

“I woke up screaming your name after I chose you. Then I came into your room so I could fall back to sleep. I needed to know you were okay.”

He forced a pained smile and grabbed his side over the top of the blanket. “I’ll survive.”

I lifted the blanket, exposing his scarred but muscled chest. “Did you get these scars from your father?”

A mess of scars covered his olive skin. Luca’s scars were so bad that they looked like spiderwebs that spanned most of his chest and back. But Marcello’s scattered from his hipbone to his shoulder.

“A few of them, yeah. Luca took most of the punishments. My dad rarely hit me, but when he did, Luca always stepped in front of me.”

“I’m surprised he would sacrifice himself for anyone else.”

“He made a promise to our mother.”

“To protect you?”

He nodded. “When I was a kid, I didn’t know any better. My mom treated me like a baby, while my dad let Luca shadow him everywhere. They were two peas in a pod. I was more like my mother, and my dad knew it. So did Luca. After she died, I realized I needed to toughen up. I learned to defend myself because Luca wouldn’t always be there to save me.”

“I didn’t know,” I said with my mouth open in surprise. “Luca said he took the brunt of the punishment, but…”

“My brother has a heart,” he said with laughter in his tone. “It’s just locked inside a steel box buried three hundred feet below the ocean floor.”

I chuckled. “He acts like all of us are disposable. It’s just… He has a funny way of showing it. We got into a fight last night…”

“Your life will never be easy. Not with Luca,” he said with sadness in his eyes. “But he will take care of you.”

“I want him to love me,” I said aloud, which surprised me.

“He does,” Marcello insisted. “In his own way.”

Desperate to change the subject, I shifted the conversation to his recovery. “You have a long road ahead of you. Pops said it could take months, maybe even a year.”

“This isn’t my first gunshot wound,” he said with no emotion in his tone. “It’s not as bad as you think.”

“Where were you shot?”

He pointed at a mark on his shoulder, then another on his stomach. “It’s nothing.”

“Oh, my God.” My eyes widened at all of his scars. “Someone shot you, Marcello. That’snotnothing.”

“Occupational hazard. Bound to happen at some point.”

“You took a bullet for me.” I cupped his cheek with my hand, and our eyes met. “My hero. Thank you.”

He snickered. “I’m no hero.”

“You saved me.”

“Luca saved you. I took the bullet because I didn’t shoot the asshole in the head. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

“How did it happen?”

“I thought he was dead. He grabbed one of our guns from the floor. I tried to dodge the bullet but didn’t move fast enough.”

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