The silence stretches between us like a rope. The longer it lasts, the more I worry it will snap and hit me square between the eyes.
He draws in a long breath. “He lied to my face.”
Not a question. A statement of fact.
I feel so bad about withholding information that I can’t answer.
I screwed up. I should have already told him about Gio. But how was I supposed to guess thatheknew Gio?
Alexei paces the length of the room, jaw clenched. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because smart girls keep their mouths shut.”
“Bullshit.”
It’s not bullshit, but I’m not about to tell him that. I try again. “Because I didn’t want to be in the middle of a mafia war.”
He shakes his head, anger flashing in his eyes. “You already were.”
I know that now. I’ve been stuck in the middle ever since that night in the alley but pretending otherwise.
Pretending I could survive this by ducking my head and waiting for the storm to pass. But the storm is inside me, so there’s no escape.
My eyes slide shut. “Because Gio said he’d kill Samantha.”
A string of Russian tumbles from his lips.
I keep my eyes closed to shield myself from his anger, his disappointment. “It’s not just a threat. He knows where she goes to school. Her classes. Her dorm number. I’ve seen men hanging around the coffee shop when we meet. I tell myself I’m acting paranoid, but those same guys are in the pictures she posts. I couldn’t risk it. Not when they know where she is.”
I open my eyes.
He’s staring at me, but the anger has faded. Only icy emptiness remains. Like he’s cranked the temperature down inside his own skull.
He sits here, vibrating with a kind of soundless rage.
My heart plummets through the floor.
I’ve fucked up royally, and Alexei may never forgive me.
ALEXEI
Time stops as her words plunge into me like bullets, each one finding its mark with devastating precision. Gio threatened Samantha. He’s been watching Aurora’s sister. All this time, she bore this weight alone. Living in fear.
The fucker threatened what’s mine.
The thought blazes through me like wildfire, consuming everything in its path. My hands don’t shake. My breathing doesn’t change. But inside, I’m nuclear. The next step is clear as day.
I’m going to kill him.
Not just kill him. Obliterate him. Subject him to a slow, painful death. Send a message no one will forget.
While I was questioning Aurora’s loyalty, her honesty, her commitment to our arrangement, she carried this fear alone. The sister she practically raised, the only family she has left, dangling over a cliff with Gio Falcone’s hand on the rope.
And the whole time, I was oblivious. I couldn’t protect her because she didn’t tell me.
Because she didn’t trust me.
The realization shoves a sharp blade between my ribs. This shouldn’t hurt. I shouldn’t care. This marriage was nothing more than a business arrangement. A way to keep her alive. Her fears, her secrets, were hers to hold.
