Page 26 of Of Lies and Shadows

Just…her.

Her full, dark-pink lips are flushed from storytime. Her button nose twitches when she exhales, like she’s still catching her breath. Her cheekbones are delicate and defined, and those eyes. God, those eyes. A little too big to be perfectly proportionate, and yet they draw you in like a spotlight, soft and searching and… seeing.

Like she’s looking through you. Into you. And for one terrifying second, I want her to.

“You’re good with her,” I say, my voice low.

Her gaze flicks to the door, then back to me. “She’s a special little girl.”

“She hasn’t asked me to say a prayer with her in months.”

Alice smiles, soft and knowing. “Maybe she just needed to believe monsters can be scared off.”

I pause.

Then say, quieter, “Or maybe she needed to know that not all monsters are bad. That sometimes, they can be in your corner. Fighting your battles.”

Her breath hitches just slightly. Enough that I notice.

“Do you have a monster on your side?” I ask.

I don’t mean it to come out like that, low and rough and threaded with something dangerously close to jealousy.

But it does.

Her eyes lift to mine, wide and unreadable in the dim light of the hallway.

Then, just as I’m about to regret asking, she answers.

“Maybe,” she says. “I’m not entirely certain.”

The silence stretches between us, humming with something heavy.

And I don’t know if I want to kiss her or confess something or just stay in this moment, this impossible, fragile moment, where everything feels like it’s holding its breath.

But instead, I just stretch out my hand and trail my fingers over the apple of her cheek. Just for a second. Just enough to feel her warmth. Just enough to want more than I should.

She clears her throat, stepping back just an inch out of reach.

“Goodnight, Mr. Forzi.”

I nod. “Goodnight, Miss Winters.”

And as I turn and walk away, I know one thing for certain.

I’ve never wanted to be someone’s protective monster so badly in my life.

Chapter Seven

Francesca

Ibetrayed him. Not once, but twice. And both times… it was against my will.

Well… sort of.

The first time, my father was ready to pull me out. Said I’d been there too long with nothing to show for it, and he was threatening to marry me off again. So I gave him something.

Gordo Overseas.The company Dante was trying to acquire to smooth his port shipments.

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