That catches my attention.
"That was your uncle who tried to take him out, right? The failed attempt."
"Yes," Eliano says, with bitterness in his voice. "I’m glad it failed. For a lot of reasons, not just the moral ones. I used the chaos to slip out when the FBI came for Anzo."
Again, I am sorely tempted to ask him more, but once more I bite my tongue. Sitting together on the couch, chatting like this, someone might call it the start ofbondingbetween us, and I really can’t have that.
So we stay quiet for the next half hour, just listening to the program. I’m super aware of him sitting next to me, barely even noticing the talking heads on the screen.
I’ve got the urge on the tip of my tongue to beg him to startpurringfor me again, but it’s stupid, downright childish. I have to resist it, no matter how good it feels, damn.
Then Eliano glances at the wristband.
"Looks like it’s almost lunchtime. Maybe we should head over and grab some decent seats."
"Sure," I murmur and get up quickly.
Sitting that close to him for so long did something to me. Hard to put into words, but even without the purring, it felt… good, or at least calm. There’s this weird sense of safety in the sheer strength he radiates, something solid in his powerful frame. A few knots inside me even loosened a little, and now I almost regret pulling away.
Eliano picks up his card from the coffee table, and I do the same.
We step out of the module and secure it with our cards.
At the same moment, another couple comes out of the neighboring unit.
An alpha with black, curly hair and a shorter beta with brown hair cut into a bob. The alpha gives us a brief nod, which Eliano returns.
Well, no point in making enemies of the neighbors. They are probably our only ones anyway, since the unit on the other side,number 72, is empty. So I nod as well, and the beta with the bob smiles at us warmly.
They slow their pace, and we fall in step with them, almost by inertia.
"Hi, welcome," the alpha says, extending his hand, which both of us shake.
"I’m Evan, and this is Roman."
"Eliano and Salt," Eliano says, introducing us.
"You’ve just arrived, right?"
"Yeah, one hour ago."
"We’ve been here for two weeks already," Evan adds. "So far it’s been great. They offer a lot of interesting recreational programs, it’s honestly hard to get bored." It sounds almost enthusiastic.
"That’s good to hear. Do you work online, by any chance?"
I listen as Eliano keeps the conversation going. It’s obvious he has an easy way with people, something I completely lack, so I stay quiet, hearing him speak.
I notice that when he gets into longer sentences, a slight accent comes through, maybe they spoke Italian at home. I must admit, I like listening to his deep voice. For a twenty-year-old, it’s surprisingly low. High testosterone?
Evan tells us he works as an architect, and Roman does some kind of online consulting. I almost ask what crime Roman got caught up in because he looks way too sweet, but I stop myself just in time. That would be super tactless, and it would only lead to the next question, "And you?" which I am definitely not ready to answer.
According to them, their employers let them have flexible schedules so they can mix work with island activities. Evan then asks Eliano about his job. Eliano says he runs a blog and writes investigative pieces for different newspapers. He also makesshort videos with AI voiceovers about weird, unsolved murder cases.
When Roman turns to me and asks what I do, I keep it simple. "I’m a tattoo artist, so finding work here might be tricky. I’m probably going to focus on making digital designs and selling them on stock platforms."
I’m not really used to this kind of small talk. My job is mostly solo. Tattooing clients doesn’t call for much chatting, and I’ve always kept it to a minimum anyway.
I always really connected only with Senu…
