Page 38 of Iron Cross

His eyes widened, and then brightened like the sun peaking through clouds.

“I’d love that,” he said, his smile big and bright, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

His expression and happiness was contagious. Even Cillian seemed affected by it. Maybe this was what I really needed. Someone who was more sunshine than darkness. Maybe it would be okay, after all, to move on.

“Great, I’ll…” But the lump in my throat choked me before I could ask for anything more. “I’ll see you around.”

Chapter eleven

A Selfish Love

Eoghan

“Alfredo Durante?” Morelli said, his brows knitting together like two friendly caterpillars, kissing in the middle of his brow. “In a Bugatti?”

There was a flicker of amusement in his eyes. His head turned when he heard the squeak of Algernon in the corner of the room. He smiled to himself, as though Algernon had told him a joke. Who was he? Dr. Doolittle?

“Aye,” I said, leaning back against the cold wall, wondering if maybe he was starting to lose his marbles. “I’ll bring you another blanket, next time I come down.”

That, or I’d have Kieran O’Malley, my most trusted guard, bring one down. He was the only one that knew of Morelli’s presence. I didn’t even trust Dairo or Shiny with the information. If the knowledge of Morelli’s presence ever leaked, I could slit O’Malley’s throat for betrayal. It would hurt me to do so, but I could do it. I couldn’t with Shiny and Dairo.

See? I’m becoming more wise already.

“Alfredo Durante doesn’t have a Bugatti,” he said.

“You don’t think there’s a chance that he could have bought the car in the past three years?” As useful as Morelli was, he had been cut off from the outside world, outside of what I told him.

Surely that lessened his omnipotence.

“There’s no foreseeable way he’d be able to afford that car, no matter what.” Morelli shook his head, looking absolutely sure. “That car was Cosima’s.”

Hehmmedquietly and I waited, knowing that he’d have to process his thoughts.

“Cosima sent him. She wouldn’t be able to pay him money with Eugenio knowing. She paid him with her car.” He chewed his bottom lip, his eyes squinting as he tried to parse together something in his mind. “She’s still looking for me. She’d have no other reason to search for Kira.”

I let out a long exhale. I swore, I watched Morelli’s eyes sparkle with joy. A joy that he had no business having in such a dank living space.

“If I release you, then, maybe she and I can strike an alliance,” I offered. “I could give you back to her.”

He tapped his temple, and shook his head - a gesture he made to tell me I was being short sighted. He called me too emotional.

“No, young King. The things I love most about my angel, Cosima, are the very things that doom me.”

“What on earth do you mean?” I said, shaking my head.

He smiled, sadly. “I have also been selfish in my love. I should never have told her I felt the same. I should never have taken her in my arms, or into my bed. I am thirty years her senior!”

I shuddered, repulsed by the age difference, but knowing him as I did, I forgave it.

“I don’t have too many more years left in me,” he said, his bony back slumping against the cold stone.

“Incarceration has been hard on you,” I whispered, guilt gnawing at my chest.

“Incarcerated or not, I am an old man. But because I have been gone, Cosima will blame my death, even if it is by a car accident, on you.” He was staring at his fingertips, before steepling them together. Then he touched the cross at his chest again. “I adore her viciousness. Her fierce love and loyalty. But…”

He let out a long sigh.

“The things I love will also be her unhappiness.” He chuckled, almost sweetly, as he fisted the cross in his hands. “Vendetta is an Italian word. And her blood is Italian.”

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