“You trust me?”
Amalia looked up at me from her thick lashes, red lips curved into a smile. “I trust you’ll follow through with our contract.”
“What makes you so certain?”
She tightened her grip around my wrist and nudged my fingers against the seam of my mouth. Our eyes locked as I slipped them inside and sucked them clean.
“I just have a good feeling about you.”
11
“Amalia, wait!”
My brother’s hurried footsteps echoed behind me as I tore through the dark corridor. I’d tried to make it to my room without anyone noticing, especially Gio. I said nothing and moved faster.
“Mali,” he sing-songed, calling me by my childhood nickname.
Clearly not getting the hint, I came to an abrupt stop and wiped at the dried blood I knew was still smeared on my clothes before twisting around. The hours had turned grueling between wrangling the clean-up crew and combing and deleting surveillance. I needed a shower as soon as possible.
“Gio, what are you doing up at this time?”
“Waiting for you,” he replied, matter-of-fact. “I was worried.”
I stepped closer, careful to stay in the shadows. “The last thing you should be is worried about me. I had some last-minute wedding errands and stopped by Holly’s. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“So why are you bleeding?”
“I’m not.”
He sighed an exasperated breath. “Okay, then, why do you have someone else’s blood on you?”
I loved my brother. He was a beautiful soul, and although it pained me to be away from him as much as I had been throughout his life, distance was for his own good. Gio didn’t deserve to be tainted by this life. We’d tried to keep him sheltered as long as possible. Boarding schools and time abroad with relatives and close family friends. But he was older, more observant. Curious. And I often wondered if the taste for blood and chaos ran deep in our veins. If his hands were always meant to be drenched with the souls of dead men.
Like mine.
“You ask a lot of questions,” I said, mushing his face.
“They’re valid ones.”
“Maybe. But sometimes certain things are best left unknown, Gio.” I tapped his cheek, flashing a forced smile that I hoped he couldn’t see right through. “I’m okay.”
“Until you’re not.”
“But isn’t that true for everyone?”
He shrugged. “I don’t care about everyone else. I worry about you like I did for Tony. And he’s dead.”
Tony and I weren’t the closest, but we loved each other despite our fights and disagreements. He was hot-headed and impulsive, and I knew it would get him killed someday. And I’d been right.
“I’ll be fine. Besides, I have Kai now,” I added to appease him and ease his nerves. I could tell he liked him. “Get to bed.” Gio was nearly a foot taller than me, but I’d always see him as my baby.
“You know, you could be a little nicer to him.”
He suddenly made me second-guess my last thought.
After my shower, I paced my room—anxious, adrenaline reigniting. There was no way I’d get to sleep. I was too fucking wired. And before I could think too hard about my next decision, I was standing in front of Kai’s door. As I leaned my forehead against the hard oak, I sighed nervously, annoyed with myself. Because since when had a man ever gotten under my skin the way he had? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about his hands on me, inside me, his lips against my neck.
My panties never stood a chance.
