“I’m okay,” I said.
“Avion…” I turned and looked at Milli who looked wrought with guilt. “I’m sorry. I—”
Gio reached out and grabbed Milli by the collar and shoved him against the wall. “Where the hell were you? You were supposed to save her.”
“Giovanni!” I snapped. “Let him go!”
Both Gio and Milli looked over at me like I’d lost my mind, but to my surprise and Milli’s, Gio let go and slowly backed off. Milli watched Gio back away with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. “Oh my god, you listened to her. Do I need to take a picture to remember this moment?”
“Only if you want me to punch you in yourfuckingface,” Gio hissed.
“Stop it,” I said. “We’re all on the same team, can we please act like it?”
Milli turned and looked at me. “Well, where did you findthisbase?”
“I’m so sick of things running amok around me. My life has been out of control ever since my mom died and I’m done with it.” I looked over at Gio. “I’m sure that Milli was trying his best to get to me. I know that and I know you know that.”
Gio frowned. “He didn’t work fast enough.”
“Your standards for speed are exceptionally high,” Milli said. “I’ll have you know I wasn’t far from where you ran in with your Lambo. I was just about to snag Avion when she came blasting into the woods with bullets flying at her. Between her and you, it was like the wild west out there. I had no choice but to back off and come back here.”
“You were there?” I said.
He lifted his eyebrow. “I saw you lean out the window and fire a gun like an action movie hero if that’s what you mean?” He smiled. “You hit Vincent.”
My jaw dropped. “I did?!”
“In the shoulder. It was enough to turn the attention to him and off of you all,” he said. “I tried following you guys out, but I lost you at some point. I’m not sure what road you took home.”
Gio and I locked eyes briefly and my face burned as I remembered our roadside dalliance.
“Well, all of that is behind us now,” Gio said. “What’s next is to figure out what to do with the Narzands from here on out.”
“Actually,” I looked over at Milli. “Can I have a moment alone with Gio?”
Milli nodded with understanding. “Sure, and I reallyamsorry I wasn’t faster.”
“You were playing it smart,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “Thanks for sticking up for me with Merrick.”
He nodded. “Of course. I meant every word.” He tossed Gio a quick glance before walking out of the office, leaving Gio and me alone.
Gio had already returned to his desk, so I walked over and sat in one of the chairs across from him and crossed my legs. “We need to talk.”
29
GIO
There was a serious tone to Avion’s voice that made me instantly nervous. She had this expression on her face like she had to broach a nasty subject and I was afraid that maybe I’d messed up somewhere along the way.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t still in bed with you when you woke this morning,” I started to apologize immediately. “I didn’t want to leave, but Merrick showed up, and…"
“It’s not that,” she said with a smile. “I figured you probably had some business to take care of. Don’t worry about it.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Okay. What do you want to talk about then?”
She looked down towards the ground and I saw her get a distant look in her eyes like she was remembering something upsetting. “I know I was kind of a mess last night, but,” she looked back up at me, anguished. “I overheard my brothers talking last night. They said I’m a risk to them and they want to kill me, and that they want to kill my father. They want to exploit this whole loan thing to kill us both and blame it on you. Vincent said that once you were behind bars, it’d be easy enough to get someone to kill you.”
I folded my fingers and frowned. “I knew they had to be up to something else.”
