I quickly pour myself some lemonade and head back into the living room. When I step close enough, I see that Bianca has Matteo’s hair in her fist, giggling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Matteo let anyone get away with something like that, especially since he’s particular about his personal space.
“Hey, Matteo. What’s up?”
He looks up at me, his gaze as cold as winter. “Ma, get this demon spawn away from me. I need to talk to Mara.”
Ma laughs and shakes her head before unfurling Bianca’s fist so Matteo can get up. He walks past, grabbing me by the elbow and moving me in to the kitchen.
“Ow, ow. Let go,” I tell him.
His grip is too tight, and I have a low pain tolerance.
“Never mind that. Lucio has been acting suspicious for the past two months, and I can’t figure out why.”
I frown. “What do you mean by suspicious?”
“He’s been sneaking off somewhere. He doesn’t pick up his phone. And the fact that he hasn’t been out or getting into trouble is enough to raise alarm bells.”
Matteo can be just as paranoid as I am because when he can’t make sense of something, he tends to view it with suspicion.
I shake my head. “He’s probably busy with something else. And don’t ask me what, because I don’t know. And as a matter of fact, I really don’t care to know.” I set my lemonade on the counter, leaning against the kitchen island. “Was this the only thing you wanted to talk about?”
He shakes his head. “No. I needed to warn you to be extra careful. There was a security breach the other day. We managed to catch it, but we don’t know the extent of the damage that was done.”
I pause, unsure how to take the news.
“Did something happen?” he asks me.
“I don’t…I don’t think so. No, nothing happened.”
“Mara, think.” Matteo’s voice sharpens. “Anything weird happen today?”
I open my mouth. Pause. My chest tightens. A flicker of a memory: the mall, the feeling of being watched. But when I try to recall the reason…it’s blank.
“No.” I shake my head. “Nothing happened. Apart from spending half a million.”
Matteo exhales sharply, unconvinced. “Half a million? Did Eli rip into you? Because he will.”
“No. I’m guessing he still doesn’t know,” I say as we head back into the living room.
Ma isn’t in there, and neither is Bianca. She’s probably putting her down to sleep. We settle on the couch, turning the TV on in the background.
“Have you met you’re fiancée yet?”
Matteo had to marry one of the Hoffman daughters because Lucio might have had a hand in the deaths of two other women from their family. And the man who runs the Hoffman family doesn’t care about anything other than profits and power.He decided they’re better off marrying into our family than “exposing us.”
Matteo leans back, his face a mask of cool indifference. “No. I’ll be meeting her in a week or so.”
“Are you excited?” I ask him, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him.
But he only side-eyes me, as if to saydon’t be stupid.
“I’ll take that as a no, then.”
“You’d do well doing that,” he mutters, then stands, flicking off an invisible piece of lint off his jacket. “I’m heading out.”
I pout. “I thought you said you were coming to see me.”
“This wasn’t a social call, Mara. I’ll see you Friday night.” And with that, he moves to the elevator, stepping inside before I can even blink.
