“If it’s any help, it wasn’t suicide,” I inserted into the ensuing silence as Lauren chewed on Hunter’s words.
Luciu jolted like I’d stuck him with a cattle prod. “How do you know that?”
“Because he consumed a very niche drug. The toxicology reports are still struggling to name it, but the reactions it triggered in his body—no one would choose that way to go. At least in my opinion.” Death by self-induced heart attack? Nah. “Also, he used a nitroglycerin spray, which reduces the amount of work the heart has to do to counter myocardial infarc?—”
“He was his own guinea pig!” Lauren screeched, interrupting me with words that made zero sense.
Yet his siblings agreed with her nonsensical response.
“For fuck’s sake, Stan,” Rory snarled, perfectly manicured hands forming into fists like she could pummel her younger brother.
Luciu heaved a sigh that sounded as exhausted as I felt. “He must have miscalculated the dose.”
Because I needed my bed and to get away from Valentini family politics, I offered the last insight I had into their brother’s actions:
“He knew something went wrong.” I wearily ambled toward the door. “If it’s any consolation… he called the ambulance.”
FOUR
STAN
TEN DAYS LATER
Greedy, grasping hospitals had nothing to do with my two-week imprisonment in this goddamn room—my brother’s status had done that.
He’d strong-armed somebody high up to keep me stuck in this damn bed, claiming I either suck it up in a private room or he’d have me committed.
After experiencing a psych eval, the last thing I wanted was to go through a sixty-day psychhold. I considered six to eight hours of evaluation over several visits sufficient torment so I’d chosen the better poison, but all Luc had achieved was delaying the inevitable.
Inches away from attaining what I’d worked toward for years and he’d set my deadline back by not letting me return to my lab.
I’d call him afigghiu ri buttana,but that’d insultmymother too.
As I dragged on a pair of jeans, I refused to accept how the easy task taxed my diminished strength.
“Domineering jackass. Just because he’s the Don of the city, doesn’t mean he’s the Don of me!”
“Oh! I’m sorry—this is a bad time?—”
It wasn’t a mortified squeak at someone breaching my privacy orlistening in on my one-sided rant, but an amused drawl at finding me talking to myself.
My head whipped around, tongue primed to lash at whoever had dared to open the goddamn door without knocking, only for the words to freeze on my lips.
The light from the hallway shone around the creature, making her silhouette glow and appear fuzzy.
But that didn’t steal my breath.
Shedid.
The apparition was beauty personified.
Her features were soft and warm. An oval-face dominated by surprisingly strong brows and a narrow mouth that housed lips made for biting.
I couldfeelmy teeth sinking into them—a delicacy I needed to savor.
The glow around her arced and striated, forming the strangest circlet over?—
No.
