"Annie, I need to call Ronan."
The reaction is immediate and explosive. She reaches out for me in a flash, her hand closing around my arm with surprising strength.
"No!" The word comes out hoarse, scraped raw. "Please, no. Don't call him."
It's the first thing she's said since she arrived, and the desperation in her voice hits me like a physical blow.
"Annie, your brother needs to know what happened. You're hurt, you're?—"
"Please." She's looking at me now, really looking, and the pain in her eyes is devastating. "Please don't call him. Not yet."
"Annie—"
“I can’t—the person who did this… it will cause so many more problems. It’ll upset him. Not just the normal level of upset… this is something more than that. Please. Please.” Her grip on my arm tightens. "Please, Elio. I just need some time."
Every instinct I have is screaming at me to call Ronan, to get Annie proper medical attention, to set the O'Malley war machine in motion against whoever did this to her. It's what I'm supposed to do—what my loyalty to her brother demands. If he finds outthat she came to me and I kept this from him, there’s going to be hell to pay.
But the broken woman sitting next to me—a woman that I’ve loved as long as I’ve known what love was—is begging me not to, and I find I can't ignore that plea.
"Okay," I say finally. "I won't call him right now. But Annie, he's going to find out eventually. You can't keep this from him forever."
"I know. I just… I need to figure out how to tell him first."
"Tell him what? Annie, what happened to you?"
She's quiet for so long I think she's retreated back into that hollow silence. When she finally speaks, her voice is barely above a whisper.
"I was stupid."
My heart wrenches in my chest. "No. Whatever happened, it wasn't because you were stupid."
Tears spill over her cheeks again, and she lets out a shuddering sob. “I need your help, Elio.”
The sound of my name on her lips makes me feel undone. There’s too much crashing through me right now, too much emotion, too much confusion. I need to get my head straight if I’m going to do anything at all for her, but right now I feel like I don’t know which way is up. I should be calling Ronan, but Annie is begging me not to. I need to know who did this, but she isn’t telling me yet. And I don’t want to push her, but…
"I need to get out of Boston," she says suddenly. "Just for a few days, until I can figure out how to handle this. Somewhere I can think clearly."
Everything in me rebels against the idea of her going anywhere right now, when she's hurt and vulnerable. But I also understand the impulse—sometimes you need distance to process trauma. I can understand the desire to flee, but everypart of me wants to keep her here where I can see her. Where I can kill anyone who tries to get to her.
She’s not yours, Cattaneo. Not yours to protect or keep or anything else. You should be taking her back to her brother right now. Taking her home. You’re going to get yourself killed.
I clear my throat. "Where would you go?"
Annie’s expression is vacant, hollow, and raw. "I don't know,” she whispers. “I can't use any of the family properties, because Ronan would find me immediately. I need to think about how to tell him. What to do." She looks at me with desperate hope. "But you have resources he doesn't know about, don't you? De Luca’s old properties, maybe? Something Ronan wouldn’t expect, because he wouldn’t expect you to be a part of it?”
I do, of course. De Luca had safe houses like anyone else in our position. I could keep Annie out of sight for quite a long time, especially if Ronan had no reason to think that I was involved—which, God help me, if he did. But using one of them would mean actively deceiving him, lying to the man who gave me everything I have. Who has been a brother to me.
Who would hate me for not having called him already, or worse?
I blow out a sharp breath, keeping my tone gentle. "Annie, I can't hide you from your brother indefinitely."
Hope instantly fills her face when I don’t saynooutright, and that alone is enough to make me want to crumble. "Not indefinitely,” she says quickly, her shaky voice tripping over the words.” Just a few days. A week at most. Long enough for me to figure out how to tell him what happened.”
"And what if this… person comes looking for you in the meantime?”
“You can hide me. He won’t know where I am.” Both of her hands are gripping my arm now, anchoring herself to me."Please, Elio. I can't face Ronan right now. I can't face anyone. I just need somewhere safe to fall apart for a little while."
Her begging is going to be my undoing. Annie, the love of my life, the woman I want more than anything, came running to me, and now she’s begging me for help, for safety. How can I possibly say no?
