Page 75 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“You fucking promised you’d keep her safe,” he growled.

He was right. Sofia was fucking assaulted this morning, almost kidnapped, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

“Luca, enough.” Sofia approached her brother and dragged him in for a hug. “I’m fine. Lizzie’s fine. Dante’s out tracking down more information.”

The two siblings held each other tight, Sofia managing her brother’s anger with kindness, despite her terrifying morning, and Luca soaking up the comfort of her arms. For the first time, I understood Tony’s frustration that his oldest and youngest children were daughters. What fucking fiercedonsthe women would have been.

“What’s the plan for the rest of your finals?” he asked finally.

“Well, I sure as fuck don’t intend to stay holed up here,” she answered tartly, raising an eyebrow at me.

I raised my hands and laughed. “I think Dante will have more issues than I will. And Luca.”

Sofia stood, brushing invisible dust off of her slacks.Flecks of blood still stained her silk blouse. “Nick and Miss Carolina must be done setting out lunch by now. Let’s go eat.”

Lizzie was thrilled that all of her favorite uncles joined her for lunch. We teased her and spoiled her rotten.

“Enough,” Sofia said, when I tried to feed her a third cookie. “She’s going to get a stomachache, and she’ll be a sugared up nightmare for Miss Carolina this afternoon.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Luca’s voice cut through the chatter, low and angry, as Sofia stood.

“I have another final,” Sofia answered. “I’ll be in the study.”

Her cell phone buzzed.

Dante

Tell Luca to meet me outside.

She frowned. “Luca, Dante wants you to join him outside.”

Luca grinned, shrugging back into his suit jacket. “We’re going hunting.”

“Does Papà know?”

“Does Papà know you were almost kidnapped this morning? Yeah, and he’s losing his shit, which is why I’m wasting my time checking on you instead of hunting down Sergio. You could have been safe at home, Sofia, and time and time again, you make decisions that put everyone around you in danger! Christ, woman! Enough is enough!”

The fucker.I stood, furious that he was blaming Sofia for this clusterfuck, but Sofia beat me to it, shoving back from the table, hot tears streaming down her face, before disappearing upstairs.

Luca stared at her disappearing figure, then looked at me like I held the key to fixing his relationship with hissister. Did he not see that he and his father had fucked it up long before Sergio came barreling back into our lives? They’d spent over a decade telling Sofia to hide, to be smaller, to make men comfortable so her father could do business. And now he blamed her for the consequences of another man’s entitlement just because that man’d fucked her a few times.

“Fuck you, Luca,” I snarled.

“Fuck me?” Luca said, his eyebrows shooting to his hairline. “Fuck you, Lorenzo, for encouraging her in this madness, for not moving her back to the compound with Lizzie, where she’d be fuckingsafe.”

“Safe and miserable!”

“Better miserable than dead!” Luca roared back.

We stared at each other, equals in height and build, trained by the same man, a man who’d neglected to deposit my paycheck this week, making it clear he was done with me. I was done with the Russos too.

“Get out,” I said. “And don’t come back until you’re ready to apologize to your sister.”

Luca stormed out, leaving me to stew in my worry for the woman I loved and the family that had raised me like their own.

Sofia refused to let Nick and I join her in the shower, then disappeared into a room we’d turned into her study to take her last final of the day. The school administrators made token noises about proctors, but when she offered to take the exam in person, they quickly agreed that her grades made her an unlikely candidate for cheating and made an exception.

By the time she finished, the hollows under her eyes had grown into purple bags. Lizzie, too, sensed her mother’s stress, whining and complaining until Sofia finally curledup on the couch with her to watch cartoons. They fell asleep as the sun set.

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