Page 53 of Runaway in the Mafia
“He was—”
“Yeah. Yeah. You’re going off like a broken record. An idiot. We all know now.” His death glare didn’t scare me. Lia, though, snuggled back onto the seat.
Minutes ticked in the car. Tension hummed along with them. He was such an intense pack of dark deliriousness, set ready to combust. The way he shifted gears, his hand on the wheel, his bare forearms flexing with barely contained energy.
He threw me a glance. “What?”
I shifted in my seat. “Maybe you should smoke more?”
He frowned. “You want me dead so fast,mia ammaliatrice?”
“That too.” I grinned. “And it’s an addiction that’ll only harm you. Shooting your family isn’t a good habit to keep, you know.”
“Yeah?” He shifted his eyes off the road for a heartbeat. His gaze sparked. “I have a new addiction.”
“Shooting people not get you off?”
“Nah.” He took his hand off the gearshift to wipe the smirk off his lips.
It was all bad intentions there, and I walked right into it. “What is it?”
His gaze burned into me when his attention shifted off the road back to me. He didn’t even say the word. He only mouthed it. But he might as well have screamed it at the top of his lungs. It was clear as a black circle painted on a white sheet. It clamoured along the thick padding of his car and pierced my chest like a bullet to my heart. It sank fast in the quicksand of my heart. It was too late to withdraw it from my memory. He made sure of it when he left an imprint. Long after it was mouthed, the word vibrated within me.
You.
“I can’t believeyou did this,” Lia squealed.
I can’t believe it either.But I bet we were thinking of two different things. Lia’s bag thudded to the floor. She let out another squeal halfway between the front door and the sofa in the living room. I trailed behind her. Reluctantly.
Couldn’t say I was too excited to step inside this house. The place was small.Not really.But you had a Roman God oozing sex and mouthing ‘you’, even Buckingham Palace would shrink to one tenth of its size.
My feet stumbled. Confused.Do I move forward or make a run for it?The door thudded shut behind me. My hyper awareness picked up a firm set of footsteps. I propelled forwardat lightning speed. I needed as much distance from that psychopath as possible. To think I thought I was going to relax this weekend. Relaxation sounded like I’d be barring my door with a broomstick and hiding under the bed. Quivering. At least I wouldn’t be sleeping alone. There were only two bedrooms in this place. And I wasn’t sharing anything with the psycho shooting his cousin.
He was a lunatic. No doubt about that.
I found Lia cross-legged with a bowl full of tarts on her lap.
“Ahana.” She had jam on her mouth. “Pasta di mandorleis one of my childhood favourites. You’ve got to try this. They are so yum.” She popped another tart in her mouth.
“Ok—”
“No.”
I didn’t turn. Didn’t dare to. But his glare burned the nape of my neck.
“Seriously, Vitale, how are you Mamma’s son?” He growled, but it didn’t stop Lia. “You need to go to etiquette classes or something. You’re so rude.”
I couldn’t help the snort. “I don’t think there’s a class that can fix him.” I walked over to Lia. They were little sweets made of honey and almonds with a cute cherry on top. I picked one up. “He was born like it.”
The sweet only grazed my lips before a hand knocked it right out of mine. Lia and I both stared at him. This was new. This level of rudeness, even for him. “I bought it for my sister. Not. For. You.”
I didn’t know why I had to blink so fast. Not like I wasn’t used to hurtful words. I’d had much worse thrown at me.Silly me.I hadn’t expected it from him. It hurt more when it shouldn’t. I’d never cried in front of a man. And somehow I was in danger of breaking that rule. “Right.” Even I could hear the crack inmy voice. I backtracked slowly. Lia’s face was a fuzzy vision. Spinning around, I walked—ran to pick up my bag.
I was at the stairs when I heard Lia.
“You hurt her, Vitale. I’m going t—”
“One more word from you and I’m taking it off you.”
