I grinned in spite of my flaring nostrils and clenched fists. “Hi, Daddy.”
50
GIO
“I have to go and try and find her!” I said. “I can’t just sit here anymore.”
“No, Giovanni,” my mom demanded. “You said you were going to trust her to take care of herself, and you need to follow through on that. This is a chance for you to prove to Avion that she is truly not a prisoner in your home.”
I let out a stressed sigh and cracked my neck to one side and then the other. “What if she’s in danger?”
“Don’t slouch on what I’ve taught her,” she replied. “I checked her room, and her gun is gone, which means she took it with her. She didn’t leave here recklessly, she wanted to take action, and I think that’s something you can have a lot of respect for.”
“Sure, as long as it doesn’t end in her losing her life.”
The scene of Avion getting shot in my old office was playing in my mind on repeat. I kept imagining if the shot landed in a worse place. Her chest or her head. My brain was conjuring up images of my beautiful, perfect woman with half her head blown off, or her chest caved in and it made me sick to my stomach. I was supposed to be protecting her. How could I just sit here and do nothing? Wait to hear that she’d pissed her brothers off and was already on her way to the bottom of the Hudson?
“If you weren’t so stressed out, I’d tell you this is sweet,” Tamryn said.
I looked up at her and gritted through my teeth, “How’s that?”
“I mean look at you. You’re a wreck!” She seemed truly excited about it. “This isn’t just some girl you like. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
That wasn’t a word I’d even half considered using. I only just made my peace with being called her boyfriend earlier that day. “I don’t know, mom.”
“I do. I haveneverseen you act like this before.” She crossed her arms. “I already had a good guess given the way you look at her anyway, or all these theatrics just to protect her, but I can see it now. You’re crazy about her. That’s the only reason why you’d be so beside yourself right now. She’s your first love and you don’t know how to handle yourself thinking that something could be wrong with her.”
“You’re not making me feel better,” I said.
“I’m not really trying to, I’m just trying to distract you,” she said with a laugh. “Giovanni, love isn’t such a bad thing, you know. Having someone to worry about and someone to worry about you, it’s a sign of maturity and growth. It also means that I don’t have to worry so much whenIgo to sleep at night, because I’ll know someone actually has your back.”
“Milli has my back,” I sighed out.
She scoffed. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
“He does!”
“He was trying to convince you that Avion turned on you, Gio. I’m sorry, but how quickly he did it after how buddy-buddy he’s been with her, it just didn’t sit right with me,” she explained. “I have never liked that man.”
“I know.”
Tamryn and Milli had never gotten along, but with tensions so high right now, they were both a little too ready to point the finger at one another. That most likely meant that neither of them in particular was the issue, but it did make trying to sort out what the hell was going on a fair amount more difficult. I needed all hands on deck for this battle, and currently I only had, like, half-hands on deck, and a quarter of the on-deck hands had their own agenda they were trying to forward.
I just wanted Avion to be okay.
Suddenly, my phone rang, and it made me jump so hard that I nearly chucked it across my office. I just managed to snag it out of the air and prevent it from getting too far away from me, and when I saw Avion’s name on the screen, my heart tightened into a knot.
“Avion?” I answered.
“Hey,” she said, sounding fine. “I’m so sorry. I’m sure you’ve been worried, but I’m okay.”
“Thank god.” I let out a sigh and nodded at my mom to communicate the message to her. “When are you coming home?”
“Are you still at home?” she asked.
“Yeah. You told the attendant to tell me not to worry and that you’d be back.”
“Thank you, Gio,” she said. “For not running out after me or trying to drag me back. I just needed to take care of some things and… It makes me feel incredible to know that you trusted me.”
