“They’re going to try,” he said, with less emotion than the two stone lovers behind us.
“Because of me?”
He studied my face for a minute. “Not because of you—yet.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“You get too good at what you do, the powers that be get nervous.”
“You’re too good at what you do, so they’re afraid you’re going to…do it to them?”
He pulled a leaf out of my hair. “Did you agree to marry Richard Dalton?”
I went to turn, to walk away from him, but he grabbed me by the arm. His grip was much tighter than Ben’s. He wasn’t letting me go.
“I don’t know if I did!” I whispered, but it sounded like a hiss. “I can’t remember!” I turned my face a little, so I could meet his eyes. “It’s the only thing you don’t know for sure, right?”
“The only thing in my life,” he said in Italian.
I had to take a deep breath before I could ask. “The girl that Richard Dalton...do the other girls blame me for what happened? Was I to blame?”
He studied my face again, like he was anticipating my reaction before it even happened. “Jealousy and greed, Rosalia, are two of the most dangerous feelings a person can have. They’re as terminal as cancer. As lethal as poison. As deadly as drugs. It’s rife in my world. It’s rife in yours. The situation with Bria only made it worse. She did something to you—something the other workers thought you’d never forgive, so when the situation came up with Dalton, they assumed you enjoyed her pain.”
“Tell me,” I whispered.
“Bria told you I was waiting for you in the bath suite across from mine during one of the events. You were dressed in all white. You came to the suite, looking for me, and she and a couple of the girls dumped animal blood on you. You had to walk past everyone before you could leave. All of the bath suites were locked for the night, but they had opened that one.”
They pulled a fuckingCarrieon me. Cilla and I had watched that movie not long ago!
“Oh,” I said. “She knew that I liked you.” I almost laughed at the word “like.” I wasn’t sure if anyone could justlikeAniello Assanti. It was either love or hate. He was too powerful for anything less than one or the other.
He nodded but said nothing else.
“Then the man she was supposed to marry wanted me instead of her. Perfect timing.” He let me go when I started to move toward one of the benches. I took a seat, placing the rose I’d picked next to me, staring at the lovers in front of me. “She thought I did it on purpose? Her friends too?”
He hesitated. “Her friends. Yes. But not her. She knew. You never even looked at him. Which made it worse for her.”
I looked at him then. “How could that be worse?”
“You did nothing, and he still wanted you. She did everything and he never really wanted her. Once he saw you, it was over with her. But it started before him. Her feelings toward you.”
“You—” I had to stop and take a deep breath. “Was it the same situation between you and her?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words—sleep with her. “Is that why she hated me so much?”
“No.”
“Poetic justice for the both of us then, I guess.” I looked back at the lovers. It took me a minute to speak the next words. “What happened last night…happened before, between us.”
He didn’t answer, and finally, I turned to face him.
I lifted my hair and motioned toward the scar. “I figured it out.”
He nodded.
“Was it because of what happened that night? With the blood? Did you figure out that Ilikedyou? And you felt sorry for me?” I turned away from him, staring at the roses to the left of me instead of the lovers.
A few minutes passed, and when I went to look for him, he was standing in front of me, a rose in his hand. It scared me a little, how quiet he was.
He held the rose out for me. I took it and looked up at him.
