I narrow my eyes, assessing him. “You might not walk back off.”
I’m not exaggerating. And the fucker makes a show of looking me up and down, before he raises his eyebrow. “I’m not worried.”
I point to the open space in the center of the gym. “Rules?”
He shrugs. “Not particularly a fan of them. I won’t kill you, though. Cat wouldn’t be happy.”
Something that might be amusement sounds at the back of my throat. “Feel free to try. I don’t plan on holding back.”
He peels off his shirt, rolling his shoulders before he joins me. I eye the artwork inked over his neck. Must have been someone with skill.
I stretch out my swollen knuckles.
He notices my stare. “Want to touch? Buy me dinner first.”
“Fuck you. No wonder you never used to speak.”
Stefano bounces back on his feet, his eyes noting my position, the hold of my arms. He seems to know what he’s doing, at least.
Something he proves when I move, sudden and swift. My right arm swings up in a savage blow that would be a clean KO, but he easily sideswipes it with surprising agility.
Warier now, we circle each other.
“Come on,” he flicks his fingers at me. “Go for it. You know you want to, Rossi. Better to get it out here.”
I wait for him to move back, for his foot to lift so he’s off balance, before I strike again. Back and forth we go, neither of us able to land a true hit on the other.
Frustrated, I lunge for his left side, and he shoves me back.
“Tell me, Asante. Did she scream when youbrandedher?”
He stumbles, and my next blow lands directly in his ribs. “Better me than any of the others. I’ve seen too many die from that fucking rod to let anyone else place it on her.”
“Fuck you,” I hiss at him, lowering my hands. “So I should be – what? Grateful? You’vescarredher. She’ll have to look at that brand every day for the rest of her goddamned life, Asante. What else did you do to her that isn’t so obvious?”
His sudden blow smashes into my cheek, and I stumble back. He advances on me, hands up defensively.
“I did everything I could,” he says abruptly. “He had my mother, Rossi – you’ve seen her. My hands were fucking tied, and Istillrisked her life to get Cat out of there.”
“He drugged her.” I shove him back, smash him in the face. “Fuck knows what else. Don’t tell me you did everything you fucking could. What did you do, kiss her forehead in apology as he was injecting her?”
“I waslocked up!” He roars the words at me, his voice bouncing around the room. “He locked me in a fucking cell for forty-six days to keep me away from her. You think I don’t feel that guilt, that she had the chance to leave andshe came back? You think I didn’t try to rip those bars apart to get to her?”
We both stop. He doesn’t look away. A cut has opened up above his eyebrow, splitting the skin as blood drips and he wipes it away impatiently.
“I spent forty-six dayslistening,” he says heavily. “Listening to the soldiers talk about her. About what he was doing to her. And sometimes, he’d come and tell me himself. It was fun for him to do that, to torture me, knowing I couldn’t do anythingbut sit on my fucking ass as he walked back up there to do it again. I remember every single fucking second of that time, and it kills me. She cannot remember it, but I can’t fucking escape it. You don’t need to punish me, Rossi. I already have a fucking life sentence, because I willnever forget.”
Red mist drops over my vision at the look on his face.
“What did he do?” Hoarse words, ripped from my chest.
He shakes his head, face resolute. “That’s not my place. If I tell anyone, it’ll be Cat. If and when she asks, but she doesn’t need those fucking details in her head. So I will try my fucking best to forget them, and to be the man she makes mewantto be, instead of Salvatore’s fucking creature. You should do the same.”
He stalks off the mat before he turns back to me. “I don’t owe you my guilt, Rossi. You’ve got enough of your own.”
He walks away and leaves me there. I grip the back of my head, trying to push that red mist away but it just gets darker.
I came down here to try and work this fucking buzz off, to ease that craving for violence before I see her later. But all it’s done is raise something savage inside my head.
