Bella’s hand squeezes mine, and I nod.
“Good, good.” Don Leo beams like a benevolent grandfather. “And you,ragazza?” He points his cigar at Bella. “Friends?”
“Yes.” Her voice is steady, remarkably so. “Friends.”
“Excellent!” He claps his hands together, dropping a dollop of ash into the churning water. “I’m so glad we can all agree. Because as friends, we can discuss things calmly. Rationally. Without any unpleasantness.”
I fucking hate the way he says unpleasantness, like he doesn’t fucking know what he did.
“Now.” Don Leo leans forward, water sloshing over the tub’s edge. “Tell me,ragazza, have we met before? There’s something familiar about your face.”
Bella’s hand goes rigid in mine.
“I don’t think so,” she says carefully. “I would remember if we did, Don Leo.”
“You’re sure?” Don Leo strokes his chin, pretending to think. “I could swear I’ve seen you somewhere before, and I never forget a face. Doesn’t she look familiar, boys?”
“Now that you mention it, Don Leo,” one of the guards says. “She kind of looks like your daughter’s driver.”
My jaw clenches and the hand not holding Bella’s clenches into a fist.
“Ah! Yes. What was his name again?” Don Leo’s gaze slides to Nico.
“Luca Farnassi,” Nico replies.
“That’s the one. Luca Farnassi.” Don Leo’s smile stretches wider. “He did a great service to me before his unfortunate death five years ago.”
I feel Bella flinch beside me—a full-body jerk that travels through our joined hands like an electric shock. Her face has gone white. Her lips are parted, trying to form words that won’t come.
“What are you to him,ragazza?”
Bella juts her chin out defiantly in an effort to stay brave. “He was my brother.”
“Come here, child.” Don Leo beckons Bella toward him. “Let me get a good look at you.”
She doesn’t move.
I pull her closer to me, our shoulders pressing together. “She’s fine where she is.”
Don Leo’s cordialness evaporates in an instant. His face goes hard as all pretense of friendship is stripped away.
“Come to me.Now.”
Four guns start rising. Then, I feel the cold barrel of Nico’s gun pressing into the back of my head before it shrinks back just out of reach.
Bella’s hand clings to mine, and I squeeze back as if to sayI’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you, I swear to God I’ll burn this whole yacht down before I let him hurt you.
But we both know the truth.
We’re outgunned. Outmaneuvered. Out of options.
Slowly, painfully, Bella releases my hand and moves through the water toward Don Leo.
He wraps a meaty arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side like a favorite pet. She goes rigid, her whole body screaming with the effort of not flinching away.
“There we go.” He strokes her wet hair with his cigar hand, ash scattering across her shoulder. “That’s better. Your brother was like family to me, which makes you family. And family should be close, don’t you think?”
“Please,” Bella whispers. “Whatever this is about?—”
