I bark out a laugh. “Don Greco has no intention of reining his son in. Anything he said was to appease Papa. Didn’t you see the pride shining in his eyes? He thinks the sun shines out of Carlo’s backside. No one will tell him differently.”
“Leo? What a pleasant surprise,” Nicole says in her annoying voice.
“Fuck off, Nicole,” Leo says without breaking eye contact with me.
“But—”
“I’m not interested.” Leo glares, taking my arm and pulling me into his side as he speaks to my arch nemesis. “And I’m trying to have a private conversation, so get lost.”
He’s hella rude, but I can’t find it in myself to care.
Nicole simmers, like a boiling kettle about to bubble over. “No one plays me for a fool,” she huffs, placing her hands on her hips. “And no one picks Virgin Barbie over me.” She pokes him with one bony finger. “No one.” She spits on my shoes, and I’m tempted to release my anger and frustration on her pretty face, but she’s nothing, and I have bigger fish to worry about.
Leo moves to retaliate on my behalf, but I hold on to his arm, subtly shaking my head. Leo straightens up, keeping his arm around my shoulder. “Natalia is worth a million of you, Nicole, and the only person who buys into that bullshit is you.”
She stomps her foot, and steam practically billows from her ears. Casting one last scathing look in my direction, she spins on her heels and disappears up the steps.
“I’ve got to go, Leo,” I say after Nicole has entered the school.
“This conversation isn’t over.” He removes his arm from my shoulder, and I miss his comforting warmth already. “We’ll be parked in the usual spot after school.”
“I’m sorry you got stuck with this.”
“I’m not.”
“You can’t mean that. I know nosoldatowants a babysitting gig.”
He smiles, and my legs turn weak. His gray-blue eyes are awash with emotion. The dangerous kind. “There is no place else I’d rather be. You think I wanted anyone else protecting you?” He arches a brow, and my chest fills with warmth. “The greatest honor Don Mazzone could ask of me is to safeguard his only daughter.” He tucks a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. “Go,dolcezza. Don’t be late.”
I’m floating on a cloud as I walk through the entrance doors, so I almost miss Nicole skulking at the side of the door, glaring at me as I pass by. I pay her no heed because she’s inconsequential to me now.
That is my first mistake.
12
Natalia
Nicole wastes no opportunity to glare at me during the school day, but I ignore her. She’s a blip on my radar now. Nothing more now Leo has clearly tossed her to the curb where she belongs.
“I think you should tell your papa,” Frankie whispers in the back of the library where we’re supposed to be doing our homework during a free period. “I’m scared for you, Nat. He’s a fucking psycho, and I’m afraid of what else he plans to do to you. He has already risked your reputation by putting his hands on you. Your father will go nuts when he hears that. Let him handle it. Please.” She clasps my hands in hers, pleading with her eyes.
“I can’t risk it. He knows about Leo and me.” Frankie is up to speed on everything that has happened between me and my brother’s best friend.
Her brow puckers. “How?”
A loud “shush” is aimed in our direction, and we whip our heads up, smiling apologetically at the boorish, matronly head librarian.
I angle my body in the chair so I’m sideways, my hair curtaining my face, as I lower my tone. “I don’t know, but I’m guessing he has an insider on the payroll. One of Papa’ssoldatimust be spying for him.”
“That’s another good reason to go to Angelo.”
“I have no proof. It’s only a guess, and I can’t raise that topic without drawing attention to Leo and me. Papa is as likely as Carlo to put a bullet between Leo’s eyes if he finds out what has transpired between us. It’s too risky, Frankie.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, gathering up my books as the bell rings. “But I’ll think of something.”
* * *
