Page 74 of The Sound in Silence

Vanessa follows, shoving aside a couple until her hand clamps down on my shoulder and she’s spinning me around, leaning much too close for my liking. “Pathetic,Mrs. Rossi.Enjoy the name while you can because you won’t have it for long.”

Snarling, I shove her off me, earning a shocked gasp. People nearby murmur, but I don’t care. Rage pulses behind my palms. I’m so sick of people assuming everything about me simply because my voice is broken.

My voice is broken.

I’mnot.

I turn away again.

“Ariella, you must admit, I’m the better option for him. After all, you can’t evenspeakto—”

Smack!

My hand burns, the sound of skin on skin bringing the entire party to a silent screech. Everyone who wasn’t already watching the action is now. Gia appears, her mouth open, eyes narrowed on me rather than Vanessa.

Breathing heavy, I glance at my reddened hand and then to the matching shape on Vanessa’s cheek.I hit her. Holy fuck, I don’t even remember turning back around, but I had. Wrath controlled my actions, shutting her lies up, and taking control of me.

“What the fuck is going? Move!” Erico’s voice cuts through the crowd and he and two other large men appear at the edge of the crowd. His father, whose looking between Vanessa and me, and presumably her father, if her earlier words are even half-true. He heads to Vanessa’s side, removing her palm from where she’s covering her injury, his own cheeks flushing as red as I’ve made her skin.

Ericowastalking to Vanessa’s father…

No.This isn’t what it looks like. I heard the conversation when we arrived. Erico’s father was the one who dragged him away. He never wanted to go.

Erico immediately comes to my side and cups my cheek before checking over my sore hand. His eyes search mine for an explanation. “Are you okay?”

I nod. Emotionally sore, but the pain in my hand is so worth shutting Vanessa up.

Watching Erico become Boss is a shift I see with my own eyes. His care and kindness melts away, leaving his dark eyes as lifeless as the day I met with him in Nico’s office. His expression is deadly, empty. He drops my hand and gives me his back, one arm slightly angled to shield me. Protecting me even now.

“Get the fuck out,” he commands to Vanessa’s father in an icy tone.

The man steps in front of his daughter, recreating a similar position Erico is to me. “Excuse me? Your wife owes my daughter an apology. Sheslappedher. Abused her! What kind ofFamigliarespect is this?”

“Respect,” Erico repeats with a tone I’ve never heard from him before—and hope to never again. “You dare come ontomyproperty and talk about fucking respect? I said it back there,” he gestures in the direction they came from, “and I’ll say it again. Go home to Russia and get out of the States. You are trespassing because you were not invited by me. I don’t care what promises my father made you, but you are not welcome untilIsay you are. You want a war, Volkov?”

Erico’s father steps forward, trying to diffuse the situation, but based on his stance, it’s clear whose side he’s talking. Not his son’s. “Erico, we’ve talked about this. I don’t think this,” his gaze darts around the room, “is the best place for this conversation.”

Erico doesn’t spare his father a glance. His hand goes for his holster and he unclips his gun, angling it at Vanessa’s father who doesn’t bat an eye, even with a deadly weapon trained on him. The crowd backs up a few steps while Erico’s father lifts his hands, gesturing for Erico to lower the gun.

“There’s already a war,” Vanessa’s father warns. “One of yours hitmydaughter.”

“Ursin, we’re both aware who enticed my wife to hit Vanessa. The next time your bitch of a daughter evenlooksin my wife’s direction, I’ll kill her myself. Do not test me.”

Vanessa’s face flashes white, making the red mark on her cheek even bolder. She grasps at her father’s back at the same time he—Ursin, Erico referred to him as—pulls out his own gun. Before he cocks it, Erico’s father once again steps between the men, only this time, faces Ursin. They share a few mumbled words, which Erico doesn’t allow them to finish.

“Volkov, ten seconds. I’m not playing. You were not invited to my country, so get out. If you need a reminder of where you are: you’re in a room packed full of men who’ll kill you and your daughter at my command. Get out of my city. Get out of my country within the hour. If you don’t, wewillfire first.”

Ursin shoots one final scathing glare Erico’s way before grasping Vanessa’s wrist and pulling her through the crowd. People move for them to pass, their attention stalking them. Erico’s also staring in the direction they go, and only when they exit the building, does he gesture to unnamed figures in the room. Soldiers step forward from the party’s edges, somehow remaining subtly in the background this entire time. One of them is Sebastian, who meets my surprised gaze before focusing on Erico’s orders.

“Follow them to the airport. Make sure they get out of this country within the hour. Call me if they linger.”

The trail of four men follow the Volkovs.

With them gone, I suck in air. So does everyone else, I think, even though the room is still tense. Electrified. I touch Erico’s back, hoping to gain his attention again, to calm him down, but beneath his suit, all I feel is his seething, deep breaths. He lowers his gun and tucks it back into the holster, so that’s progress.

His father steps forward, gesturing to the crowd of onlookers. “Well, now that that’s been—”

“We’re leaving.”

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