Angelo poured a small glass of whiskey and downed it in one gulp before answering. “We happened, Bella. You and me.”
My jaw dropped at the implication that I was responsible for the horrific injuries his wife was currently sporting. “What? No, becausewehaven’t happened, remember? It was all bullshit. Fuck, Angel, we haven’thappenedsince before the fire.” And by that, I meantfucked. Despite the picture of domestic bliss we’d been playing at, Angelo had only kissed me that one time.
“Whether we were actually screwing or not, it’s irrelevant, Bella. We wanted people to think we were and had been for some time. They believed it. And now Vee is paying the price.” He scowled at me, shaking his head. “No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.”
“Don’t youdareblame me for this, Angelo Ricci. The entire plan wasyouridea, remember? It wasn’t so long ago that I was in the exact same position as her. Remember? Tell me, Angel, why didn’t you just fake a pregnancy with Vee to appease your parents, huh? Why not give her the fake belly and pretend to lose it in order to buy more time? Whyme, Angel?”
He stared at me for a long moment, his expression utterly blank. Then he dropped his eyes to the empty glass in his hand. “I don’t know, Bella. But I’m asking myself the same thing right now.”
Furious and disgusted—with myself just as much as him—I threw up my hands and stormed back to the living room where Vee’s broken body lay on the huge sofa. She seemed like such a nice woman; she didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this.
Sniffing back my own guilty tears, I fetched a blanket from the recliner and spread it out over her gently. She didn’t stir, but her breathing was a soft rasp that reassured me she was still alive. Fucking hell, she must be insomuch pain. I remembered how it felt to be in that position and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“My friend will be here in half an hour.” Gray’s low voice made me flinch, not having heard him enter the room again. “She suggested getting ice onto her face in the meantime. I’ll grab some.”
I just nodded. What else was there to say?
He returned a minute later and handed me a frozen gel pack wrapped in a tea towel. As gently as I could, I brushed Vee’s hair back from her damaged face. The strands snagged on my fingers, and I winced at the crust of blood. Slowly, lightly, I applied the ice to her more swollen, purple eye.
She inhaled sharply in her sleep, giving a shiver, but I kept the ice in place. Anything had to be better than nothing, until Gray’s friend arrived.
“Take a shower,” Gray rumbled a couple of minutes later. I blinked up at him in confusion, then realized he was addressing Angelo, who’d returned to the living room with a fresh glass of whiskey in hand. “You’re covered in blood.”
Angelo glanced down at his shirt. I imagine it used to be white, but now it was red-brown with dried blood. Vee’s blood. Maybe someone else’s too, depending on how he’d found her. Did he kill the ones who’d done this to her?
I desperately hoped he had, but my gut said it wasn’t so black and white. Vee was a mafia princess, and if this was on the Riccis’ say so…
Bile burned in my throat, but I choked it back. Vee needed the focus on her right now. I could be strong for her, couldn’t I? She didn’t need to die, like Flo.
Angelo said something to Gray, but it was too quiet for me to make out. My focus was back on Vee and making sure I wasn’t pressing too hard with the ice on her bruised face.
I zoned out while sitting there, mentally chatting to Angelo’s wife, who I really knew very little about. I knew that she and Angelo weren’tlovers,even if they clearly loved each other, and that Vee had a secret girlfriend that she’d been hiding from her family. What was her name? Had she told me?
Looking up, I searched the room to find Angelo had returned and was sitting in the armchair, wearing one of Grayson’s black t-shirts and gray sweatpants. His feet were bare, and his jaw set in fury as he stared silently back at me.
“Vee’s girlfriend…” I started, feeling like I was hugely overstepping, “is she… okay? Were they together?”
Angelo arched a brow. “She told you about Giana?”
I nodded. “At the party thing. She cornered me in the bathroom, and I thought she was going to claw my eyes out or something. But she just wanted to reassure me that she wasn’tthreatened… that you two weren’t…” I trailed off, my voice breaking.
“That we weren’t fucking?” Angelo finished for me, his tone harsh. “How nice of my wife to offer her blessing to my pregnant mistress.”
I bit my tongue to hold back the desire to yell at him. This wasn’t the time or the place. “Is Giana okay?” I asked instead.
Angelo stared at me a moment longer, then sighed. “She’s fine. I called her while driving over here; she isn’t even in Siena right now and had no clue about this.”
I nodded slowly. “Good. That’s good. I thought maybe…”
“That Vee’s family found out she’s gay and tried to kill her?” He gave a cold laugh. “No, Bella, this is all about politics. They must have decided that with our history, I was at risk of divorcing Vee to marry you.” He scoffed like it was the most preposterous thing he’d ever heard.
I frowned. “Wait.Must have? You don’tknowthat’s what happened?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “I know enough.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped back. “You assume you know, but what if this was something else entirely? God, you can be so fucking pig-headed sometimes, Angelo. You can’t just—”
“Ahem,” Grayson cleared his throat, cutting off my quickly escalating rant. He’d just returned with an elderly woman a step behind him. “This is Morgana.” He gave no further explanation, and I quickly clambered up from my seat on the carpet to let her closer to Vee.
