“Vincenzo is with you then.”
“How long until you get here?” If we kept bouncing around like we were, there was no hiding the fact that we were talking about him. The grin on his face told me he already suspected as much.
“An hour.” He breathed out heavily. “Listen to me. Don’t shower.”
“All right,” I said. “I’ll see you then. I just wanted you to know that we’re fine. We’re waiting.”
Before I could hand the phone back to Vincenzo, I heard Brando call my name.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry, baby,” and then he hung up.
Vincenzo became suspicious when I turned down the shower, feigning exhaustion to the point where I couldn’t stand up straight. Which was true, but I ached for warm water to relax all that had been spent.
Digging through the bag that was packed for me, I found nothing warm to sleep in. I didn’t realize until I stopped for a moment that my skin was puckered, burning from cold, and a tremble that ran bone deep refused to quit. My teeth chattered and my knees knocked.
“Mi dispiace,” Vincenzo said, watching as I looked over the contents once more. “I have never—” He nodded toward my things, apologizing for his lack of knowledge in women’s wear.
Waving a hand, I plopped down on the bed, defeated. “This will have to do.” Looking down, all of my buttons were mismatched, one or two completely open around my waist. The dress hung awkwardly.
It was stained with dirt, too, and the hem held on to a small leaf. My feet were bare and filthy. Other places best unmentioned were touched by the night too. That in itself didn’t bother me so much, but the cramping reminded me of how much I missed my husband. A touch that lingered much deeper than flesh.
Vincenzo handed me a thermal shirt, a pair of thick sweatpants, and a pair of socks. All too big, but much appreciated. I had no idea where he got them. I hadn’t even noticed that he left the room.
I hadn’t realized I had started to cry, fat, slow tears, either, until he used his finger to wipe a droplet away.
“I will give you privacy, Scarlett. I will be right outside of the room if you need me.”
After Vincenzo had left me alone, I couldn’t stop obsessing over two words.I’m sorry.Any other time I would’ve known what Brando had meant, what the words were offered for, but this time it could mean anything from us being taken to the fact that he might do something that would get him killed.
Riding his bike in that state of mind had me on edge—no telling what else he might do. Storm the castle, to start, like some insane knight on a mission of vengeance. Or would he be the beast? Rising to match the one that lived in the castle beyond these gates.
After making certain that Mia was all settled and warm, I laid next to her, one arm holding her close. I was too tired to even gaze up at the stars. Instead, I stared at her, my ownstellasent from heaven, and silently cried myself to sleep.
* * *
“Brando?”
I had felt stirring; a brush across my lips; someone close to Mia in the darkness that still cloaked the room. The fire still blazed, but it made the night feel unreal, as though I were swimming under depths too deep to surface from. Dawn had to be breaking soon, an internal clock warned, but it was taking its sweet time.
Sitting up, I ran a hand over Mia’s head, kissing her. Inhaling, I smelled him on her. In her hair, on her clothes, his kiss still warm on her cheek. I looked around the room but found no one. That meant nothing though.
“Vieni da me, mia moglie.”
The words were whispered so low that I could’ve heard them inside of my head.Come to me, my wife.
I felt self-conscious. I hadn’t bathed or brushed my teeth. My hair. I refused to even go there. But then a rush of need surged through my bloodstream, setting me straight on my feet.
A flash of movement—on purpose.
He would have never moved if he didn’t want me to see, to know he was there. He had taken a chair from somewhere in the house and placed it in the corner, where the last remnants of night would cling to just before the dawn consumed it in blazing light.
Before I could speak or move another step, the humming in my blood reached a crescendo, a buzzing that almost made me sit back on the bed to settle the disquiet.
Yes, he was in my bloodstream all right, and all that he felt transferred to me, coloring my blood with his rage.
Swallowing hard enough that I knew he had heard it, maybe he even caught the movement of my throat, I took slow steps toward him.
