Page 67 of Vendetta
For a while, neither of us said anything. A lot of bandages had been ripped off our psychic wounds and we were both weary with emotion.
‘Do you know why I can’t be with you?’ Nic said at last. ‘I wantyou to know that it’s not my choice to walk away.’
I was starting to understand that. ‘When Luca found out who I was it changed everything, didn’t it?’
‘What’s in a name, right?’ Nic’s expression turned rueful. ‘It’s not a good idea, our being together. Not with what’s happened. I don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to you.’
‘Am I in danger? They warned me about that…’ I thought of my uncle, and I understood his concern. A Mafia family moves up the street from the family responsible for their boss’s death. I inhaled sharply.
‘Jack warned you?’ The faintest undertone of animosity tinged Nic’s words.
‘And my father.’
‘You’re not in danger.’ He tried to sound casual, but there was something new creeping into his voice now, straining it. ‘But we think it’s best that you’re kept far away from us and some of the more… unhinged members of our family… at least for the time being.’
Nic fell quiet again. He moved his hands to my arms and began to rub them. I hadn’t even realized I was cold until I felt the warmth in his touch.
‘Should I be scared?’ I asked.
‘You don’t have to be scared of anything,’ he said quietly.
I smiled weakly. I was scared of losing him, but I couldn’t say so. It wouldn’t do any good.
He flicked his gaze to my lips. ‘If I knew that night would be the last time I got to kiss you, I wouldn’t have stopped.’
My smile faltered. Why couldn’t he be someone else,anyonebut a Falcone?
‘I should go,’ he said, like he was convincing himself and notme. But he wasn’t going, he was leaning in to me. Our fingers were entwining and he was pulling me closer, sliding his arms around my waist.
Slowly, like he was fighting the urge to do so, he nuzzled his forehead against mine. ‘But what if… what if, in this one moment, you’re not Sophie Gracewell and I’m not Nicolò Falcone…’ He trailed off and let his lips find mine.
Desire raged through me as I pressed my lips against his. His mouth was firm against mine, hot and unyielding, and when our tongues met, I lost myself, wholly and completely, in the passion of his kiss.
All too soon, in the heat of something so intense I found it hard to pull my lips away to breathe, the distant sound of a strange hum dragged us back into our earthly bodies. Breaking away from me and panting heavily, Nic fished his buzzing phone from the pocket of his jeans.
He placed a hand over his heart and clutched at his chest. ‘Valentino,’ he answered in a shaky voice. ‘I’m on my way.’ He clicked off and returned his attention to me, but the softness in his eyes was gone, and I realized with a jolt that I was looking at a very different version of Nicolò Falcone.
‘You have to go,’ I said, still breathing hard.
‘I’m sorry.’ He took my hand in his. ‘Sophie, please don’t speak about this with anyone. I’ve taken a vow and my family wouldn’t be pleased with me breaking it, even just a little.’
‘I won’t,’ I said without having to think about it. I could still feel the warmth of his kiss on my lips, and I might have promised him anything just then.
He lifted my hand to his lips, brushing them against it. ‘Riguardati, Sophie,’ he murmured. ‘Be safe.’
In a fleeting moment of madness, I considered running after him and pulling him back to me, but then I remembered Luca’s warning. I didn’t want him anywhere near Millie or my mother.
I trudged back upstairs and crawled into bed, thinking of that brief moment in the backyard when everything in my life was heady and blissful. It was just as I was dropping off into nothingness that I remembered something Nic had said.
Jack warned you…
How had he known my uncle’s name? I had never mentioned it to him – IknewI hadn’t.
I started to remember other things then, things that were only just beginning to make sense: Luca’s strange questions in the diner the first time we met; Dom’s interest in Millie’s place of work, and how he’d dumped her once he’d gotten information about me; how Nic had been lingering around the diner that night we broke in, his car parked far away in the shadows, as if he was waiting for something or someone.
Suddenly I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that this certain something orsomeonewas the very person who had been avoiding Cedar Hill since the Falcones first arrived – my uncle Jack.
That’s when I realized there was more to the Falcone-Gracewell story than I’d thought. And that while Nic may have had feelings for me, they certainly weren’t interfering with his ability to lie, and lie hard, to my face.
