“Then why didn’t he call us and tell us that? Why were we still expected to pay him? Why did we get a box of fucking fingers with the assumption that they belonged to you!?”
I pause as Max only gets angrier.
These questions are fair.
But I don’t have any answers for them.
“He loves me.”
Max swears and walks a few paces away from me to cool off.
“Sofia,” Nick says, his temper more even than my brother’s. I can tell from the look on his face that he pities me. He thinks I was brainwashed. Taken advantage of. “Let’s just go. I haven’t seen your mother this worried since Jack’s trials.”
This makes me feel awful. She was an absolute wreck when she was coming to terms with her oldest son going to prison for a long time.
“He’s a psychopath, Sofia.” Max turns around. “We never should have sent you here. Now can we please go before someone snipes us from the roof?”
Nick grabs my arm and leads me down the trail as my mind reels. What if Alessandro had been acting this whole time? All the times he opened up, what if that was just to mess with my head? Who knows how truthful that was.
Acting excited when I threw him a mini-birthday party. What if he thought that was lame?
Or any time we were intimate. What if he just played along with all of that? Never truly feeling anything for me. Never attracted to me.
“Wait.” My voice is weaker than I intended. “Can’t we just…”
Neither of them responds as I trail off. I can tell they’re dead-set on taking me down this hill and driving me far away from this place and never looking back.
But I’m not letting them take me away. Even after all of those doubtful thoughts, there’s a part of me that loves him and believes that he loves me. Maybe that part of me is stupid. Maybe that part of me will get me killed.
But I’m willing to risk everything for that.
I let my arm go slack against Nick’s hand for a beat to make him think that I’m willfully going along with them. I ball up my right fist against my side, feeling guilty that I’m about to punch my cousin in the face. But he’s experienced much worse. Then, I use all the strength I can muster.
My fist lands on his jaw, pain radiating down my fingers, my wrist, and forearm.
He growls and takes a few steps away from me. I kick him in the stomach, and then when he’s finally good and distracted; I yank the gun he’s holding from his hands and backpedal towards the castle as quickly as I can.
“I’m sorry. I need to talk to him. You two should leave, and then I’ll call you…”
Max has walked faster than us, so he’s far ahead, but he sprints towards me. I grabbed Nick’s gun, but everyone knows I’d never use it on those two, no matter how much they’re pissing me off or confusing me to the point of tears.
A shriek escapes me, and I sprint towards the castle, grateful I got that head start. I cross through the two huge doors before Max, then I turn a corner to hide, listening to his feet pounding in a different direction. Another set of footsteps, which I could only assume are Nick’s, enters the castle next, following Max.
Mapping out the floor plan in my head, I plan a path to get me back to our wing. My feet slap against the cool tile, gun still in my hand that I have no intention of using on anyone. I find the north staircase—a spiraling set of stairs mostly used by staff—then climb up it.
When I come to the top, a group of men is waiting with their backs towards me.
I pause and try to figure out who exactly is in front of me when one of them notices me and snatches my gun away in the blink of an eye.
I turn to run back, but a man the size of a doorframe blocks the staircase.
“Well, that’s convenient.”
I recognize that voice in the crowd.
It’s Elio’s.
He makes his way towards me, and I’m surprised to see Dante at his side, his blank expression more menacing than Elio’s.
