She doesn’t lift it, but she will.
More murmurs float around us. Some are admiring. Others are venomous.
“Fucking traitor.”
“He’s so hot.”
“They look cute together.”
“Slumming it with the Italians.”
“Wonder what she traded for protection.”
My fists clench beneath the table. One wrong look, one more fucking word, and I’ll have someone’s teeth buried in the wall.
“So…” Rosa flips her phone. “Blackstone Fall Dance. Next week.”
Aoife blinks. “There’s a dance?”
“Yep. You two are going. No backing out,” Rosa tells her.
“You’re acting like I'm hiding from a fight,” I tell her, smirking.
“You don’t,” Marco says with a shrug. “But our little lamb does.”
Aoife glances at Marco, then stares at her hands, no argument.
I lace my fingers with hers.
“You don’t fight alone anymore,” I tell her.
She tries to eat, her fingers picking at the edge of a bread roll, but she doesn't even bring it to her lips. Her head is down again, and fuck me, that does something ugly to my chest. I need to make her toughen up and show everyone she’s not scared.
Rosa nudges Marco and tilts his head toward her phone, lips twisted in amusement. “They’ve made a new betting pool. Odds on whether she lasts the month. Whether Matteo puts a ring on it before graduation. Or”—she raises a brow—“kills for her.”
Milo snorted. “Those odds are shit. He’d kill for her without blinking.”
Aoife swallows, cheeks flushing, but not from flattery, from fear.
“Who runs this blog again?” I ask, eyes narrowing as they sweep the room. “Because next time they post something about her, I’ll run them out of Blackstone.”
“You can’t silence everyone, Matteo,” Aoife murmurs beside me.
“No,” I say. “But I can make them whisper somewhere else.”
Rosa’s smile fades. “They’re afraid of you. They want her to be afraid too.”
Aoife’s voice is soft but clean. “They don’t have to try. I am.”
“Of what?” I ask.
“Everything. My family. The attack.”
“It’ll come,” I say. “And I’ll be there.” I kiss her cheek, she leans in. “And you need to start standing up straight, head heldhigh. You’re not just anyone girl, you’re with me now, and I’m going to town this whole town, and I need you to be strong next to me.”
“We’ve got you,” Marco adds. Milo and Rosa nod. “So do the others.”
Her shoulders loosen, barely. It’s still anyone’s game.
