Page 50 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

Hopefully, she’d kept her mouth shut about the visit from Sergio today, although I suspected Gio Costa already knew everything about Lizzie’s father’s presence in Yorkfield. Sergio couldn’t have pulled off those fires on his own.

My parents led the Costas to my father’s study for a pre-dinneraperitivo, and I waited for our other guests to arrive. Lorenzo appeared by my side like a ghost.

“Miss Russo, could I please speak with you for a moment?”

We stood facing each other, stiff and uncomfortable, as if our years of tension had built up to this moment, so thick you could cut it with a knife. For a second, I allowed myself to miss the safe harbor that Lorenzo provided when we were younger, to wish I could wrap myself in his arms, bury my face in his chest, and allow him to protect me like he wanted to.

“A little bird told me Sergio visited you this morning,” he murmured, his eyes soft with concern.

My stomach dropped to my feet.Shit.

“Ana cares about you more than is safe for her,” he added.

“She’s my best friend,” I answered. “And if her family finds out, they’ll beat the shit out of her again.” And again. And again. “Lorenzo, does anyone else know you’re in contact with her?”

“What did Sergio want?” he asked, evading my question.

When I paused, he dragged his hand up to my face and cupped my cheek. “Don’t lie to me, Miss Russo. My job is to keep the family safe, all of them, including you. He’s starting a war with Oscuro.”

No, Oscuro started the war with Sergio when he claimed me, ruined me, defiled what Sergio thought was his, and then sent him the fucking photos to prove it. I couldn’t tell Lorenzo that, though. “If I thought I were in immediate danger, I’d have said something already.” A lie, but a harmless one.

The rock in my stomach turned to butterflies as he stroked his roughly callused thumb over my cheekbone. “First Dante, now Sergio. What game are you playing, sunshine?”

I ached to confide in him as I had as a child, to share the burdens I carried—my terror that I’d lose Lizzie, my fears of not being able to finish college, my desperation as the walls of my cage inched ever closer. Instead, I turned my face into his hand, accepting the forbidden comfort of his touch. I was so fucking tired of being alone.

When Lorenzo stepped closer, bringing our chests together for an impossibly brief moment, I stepped back, putting much-needed distance between us. He’d already turned me down once, and I wasn’t foolish enough to let him break my heart a second time. Disappointment, lust, and an emotion more profound shadowed his golden gaze as he let his hand fall from my face.

“Sofia,” he rasped. “Promise me you’ll come to me if you need help.”

Longing washed through me, hot and forbidden. I missed this man so fucking much. As a child, I’d worshiped him. In return, he’d spoiled me rotten. He was the only man in my life who’d ever treated me right with no hope of receiving anything in return.

But I couldn’t. One heartbreak was enough in this lifetime.

“Absolutely.” Smiling wryly, I returned to the entranceway to wait for our last guest.

When Dante Oscuro filled the frame of our door, my heart pounded out of my chest. I couldn’t peel my eyes from his tanned face, the laugh lines around his obsidian eyes, the tattoos that peeked out from his collar. God, it was unfair that someone so vile was so fucking handsome, so goddamned appealing.

When his gaze raked over me, taking in every curve, I fought not to blush.

Dante kissed my cheeks gently, the heat of his lips brushing over my skin, sending electricity crackling down my spine.

“Hello, Sofia.”

Were my eyes luminescent as desire and embarrassment washed through me? Could I count on him to keep our humiliating deal to himself? God save me. For a moment, I considered running to my father and confessing everything.

Dante’s eyes met mine, crinkling with amusement as emotions roiled in my gut. No, I’d made my bed, and I would lie in it.

“Thank you for coming, Dante,” I said, hoping my voice stayed steady as I tucked my fingers around his elbow, leading him to Papà’s study.

Although long since departed from the shores of Italy, my family preserved the habit of an early evening cocktail before dinner. I led him to the study to join my parents and the Costas.

“Find a place for us to talk,” he murmured in my ear as we walked, our arms brushing against one another. “Now.”

I dragged him into an alcove. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d hide us for a moment.

“No, more private than this,” he demanded.

With a dramatic sigh, I dragged him to the guest bathroom and hustled him in, shutting the door behind me and locking it. “Dante, someone’s going to see us, and that will entirely defeat the point of me coming to you for help instead of my family.”

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