Page 71 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

Nick struggled too. Without his clinic, he’d made Lizzie his top priority while I studied, and Lorenzo and Dante searched for Sergio. It wasn’t enough, but none of us had our eyes on the long term right now. I wished I could say anything to make up for his loss, but Nick refused to complain in front of me, just kissed my temple and told me I was worth it.

Lorenzo stuck to my side like glue. His heart ached for his relationship he’d had with my father, the man thatraised him, and I vowed to fix it once I’d graduated, freed myself from Sergio Accardi, established my independence from my family, and put a stop to the budding trafficking ring in Yorkfield.

Small goals, really. Nothing I shouldn’t be able to wrap up in a week.

Ana and I met for our last Monday coffee, right before my first final. We’d burned two more Costa warehouses to the ground over the weekend. The Costas called Dante and asked for a meeting. He told them to call me.

She hugged me tight. “My father’s losing his shit knowing I’m meeting you today.”

Surprised Ana brought it up, I asked, “Do you want to be an intermediary?”

We’d limited our conversations over the past week to shallow topics—the mind-blowing sex I was having, her antics to annoy her father, and school. We never discussed my week in captivity, and she never allowed me to thank her for picking me up and bringing me home.

Ana picked up her iced coffee from the counter, sipping it with a delighted sigh. “Absolutely not.”

We took seats outside, the summer heat blowing over our bare shoulders, the sun blocked by our wide-brimmed hats. I dropped my sunglasses on the table, taking a breath of fresh air.

“You’re gonna do great, Sofia. You’re gonna be a fucking boss,” Ana continued, keeping her sunglasses on as she sipped. “What are your plans for next Monday, after you graduate?”

“I don’t have any,” I whispered, shocked to realize that I had no idea what I was going to do after I graduated. I’d put all of my previous plans on hold to take out Sergio and deal with his trafficking ring. I wondered if I’d lost my shot at anormal life. Had I just been fooling myself that I’d ever had one?

Ana took my hand in hers. “Sofia, if you want this life, there’s not a single person in our generation better suited to what it is you’re about to do. But if you want out, get out now. Get out before the gala Friday night. Pack a bag and go.”

She was right.

We were ratcheting up the violence in Yorkfield and everyone felt it, even the students who looked at each other nervously, not understanding the tension in the air but suffering from it all the same.

My gaze strayed to the bodyguards who sat discretely a few tables away. “Gotta get through finals first, though,” I said, sipping my coffee, melting in the summer heat. “What about you, any summer plans?”

Ana shrugged. “My father wants to send me to Europe to spend the summer with family in France, maybe improve my marriage prospects.”

I held in an unladylike snort. “How do you feel about that?”

Her expression was hard to read under the shadow of her straw hat. A year younger than me, she’d graduate with her master’s in finance the same time I got my undergrad. I shoved down the bitterness that threatened to overflow for the years I’d lost, locked in a cage by my family.

“I think I better come up with a way to make myself utterly unpalatable,” she said, and my heart broke for her. Ana’s position was impossible. Like me, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t escape the violence of her roots. “Your men treating you right?” she continued.

I laughed, allowing her to change the subject. “Like a queen,” I said, once again amazed at my good fortune, at myluck at stumbling into three extraordinary men to lean on just as Sergio slammed back into my life like an out-of-control car on the highway.

When we stood, Ana embraced me in a warm hug. She tilted her sunglasses down to look at me and said, “I’ll be at the gala on Friday, but until then, I’m laying low.”

I walked to the campus library where I’d cram for one last hour before my first final. Two bodyguards, Tommaso and Vito, flanked me, clearing the path as we walked down it. For a moment, I mourned the college life I’d never have, that of a carefree young woman walking down the sidewalk, books in hand, canoodling with a boyfriend, about to graduate with big dreams and the whole damn world at her feet.

Instead, I walked with my head up, ignoring the stares as we cleared the path. The insistent itch at the back of my neck continued until I was safely ensconced in a study corral, my bodyguards positioned so they could see me and the rest of the room.

The quiet sounds of keys clacking and pages turning filled the library, and I dismissed my earlier disquiet as paranoia, losing myself in the equations of my statistical analysis. Truth be told, this first final was the most difficult and the most stressful. Less prepared for the last finals of my undergrad career than I had been for any others, I only hoped I did well enough to hang on tight to that summa cum laude distinction.

Scrubbing my eyes, I stood up from the study corral, surprised at how quiet this wing of the library had become. Silently, Tomasso and Vito joined me as I walked out, my eyes darting from side to side as my heels echoed down the empty halls. Even during finals week, it was never this deserted.

Thethwup! thwup!was the only warning we got. Bulletsflew through the air. Panic shot through me when Vito dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Tommaso shoved me against the wall behind a podium with a small statue on top. “Down,” he barked, drawing his gun.

I crouched where he told me to, squeezed into the alcove, and took deep breaths to center myself as I clutched the gun in my tote. If I shot unsilenced bullets on the campus, it was all over. We’d go into lock down, the fucking national news would show up, and the goddamned feds as well, ruining our chances of drawing Sergio out.

Tommaso shot twice, confident and sure, his silenced shots making the decision for me as they thudded into a body. I pulled out my gun and turned the safety off, ready to shoot if I needed to.

Silently, we waited. Were there more men? More assailants? More assholes fucking up my finals and my life?

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