“But you want me to kill him.”
“Don’t you want to?” Annie looks at me, a challenge in her eyes. “Don’t you want to kill the man who put his hands on me, Elio?”
Before I can stop myself, I’m on my feet. I take two steps toward her before I realize that caging a woman who’s gone through what Annie has is entirely wrong. Shame stabs through me, but I realize she’s not backing away. She doesn’t look frightened. She’s just staring up at me with that same challenge in her eyes.
I don’t scare her.
The realization sends heat blistering through me, as I grip the top of the chair next to me and stare down at her.
“Of course I want to kill him, Annie.”
15
ANNIE
His voice is pitched low, a deep rasp in his throat, and I feel my cheeks heat at the sound of it, an entirely inappropriate desire sweeping through me at how close he is. I would have thought violence from any man would scare me now, but Elio’s violence turned on Desmond only makes me want him more.
“I want to break every single finger on his hands for touching you, then cut them off one by one,” Elio growls. “I want to feed him his own fucking balls for thinking he had the right to have you. You think I can stand the idea of any other man touching you? You think it didn’t tear me apart every time I imagined you marrying someone else? That I wouldn’t want to killanyman who had you, who wasn’t me?”
My heart is beating so hard now I can hear it. “You left,” I whisper, and Elio curses in Italian, pushing away from the chair and away from me as he strides to the other side of the kitchen, running his hands with his hair.
“Mio maledetto Dio, Annie. What the actual fuck?” He spins around again, looking at me. “YouknowI had to stop. That I had to leave. Your father would have fucking killed me if he knewI kissed you behind the fucking gym when we were sixteen, let alone…”
He lets out a harsh breath, scrubbing his hands through his hair before looking at me again. “This isn’t what we need to be talking about right now. OfcourseI want to kill Desmond. I’ll be right fucking next to Ronan when we bring him in and take him apart at the fucking joints.”
The words hit me like a bucket of ice water. "No, Elio. Ronan can’t be involved in this."
Elio lets out another frustrated sound. “Don’t you think Ronan will want revenge as much as I do?”
“It doesn’t matter! What matters is protecting him. He’s mybrother, Elio, and I love him. I don’t want to be the reason he’s hurting again. That's the whole point, Elio. That's why I came to you instead of going to my brother."
"Annie—"
“I’m not going to have him involved in this.” I set my jaw, looking at him stubbornly. “And if you go to him with it, I’ll regret ever coming to you. Ever saying a word to you. I’ll regret evertrustingyou.”
The hurt on his face is so plain to see that it pains me, too. Elio swallows hard. “Your brother trusts me, too. I have to betray one of you. Jesus, Annie?—”
I wince, biting my lower lip. “I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have come to you.”
“No. Don’t say that. I—” Elio blows out a sharp breath, and starts pacing again. "So what are you suggesting? That we just handle this ourselves and never tell him? Ever?"
"Yes." The word comes out more certain than I feel. "We find Desmond, we deal with him, and then I come back. I tell Ronan I needed some time away, that I was feeling overwhelmed. He’ll be angry, but I’ll come up with something. I’ll tell him I wasdating someone else and we broke up. That our father’s death got to me and I needed to escape for a bit. Something.”
"And you think he won't find out the truth?" Elio's voice is hard. "You don't think he’ll figure it out at some point? Thatsomeonewill and he’ll realize we lied to him?”
"Not if Desmond is dead before he can tell anyone, or rally anyone else for help." I hold Elio's gaze. "That's why I need you. I can't kill him myself. But you can."
The silence that follows is heavy. I'm asking Elio to commit murder for me. To keep this secret from Ronan, to lie to his face, to help me protect my brother from the truth that I know will undo all the good that has come to him in the past months. Upend his life when he’s expecting a baby with Leila. Ruin his peace, all because I made a stupid fucking decision.
"This is a bad idea," Elio says finally.
"It's the only idea I have."
"Annie, if Ronan finds out we kept this from him?—"
"Then we make sure he doesn't find out." I take another step closer. "Please, Elio. I'm not asking you to understand why I need to do this. I'm just asking you to trust me. To help me."
He closes his eyes, and I see the internal war playing out across his features. He knows this is wrong. He knows lying to Ronan is a betrayal. But he also knows I'm not going to back down. I feel a stab of guilt, because I know I’m playing on more than just Elio’s sense of loyalty… I know he feels something more for me. That what there was between us all those years ago isn’t gone entirely, if it was ever gone at all. I’ve never been a manipulative person, and I hate that this makes me feel as if there’s even a shred of that in me now.
