It doesn’t even matter whether he does it intentionally to put a spell on me or if it’s innate to him.
His eyes slide to my hair only for a second as he leans back against the bar, his arms crossed over his chest.
“You need to get a grip,” he says evenly before picking up his drink and emptying his glass in a voracious gulp.
I watch his Adam’s apple bob like I’m watching an astronaut crew landing on the moon.
His eyes dive into mine like nuclear missiles.
“What are you talking about?” I murmur facetiously.
He slowly lifts an eyebrow, rubbing a hand over his face as if he’s bored with me. Or with my becoming a persistent problem.
“You’re leaving for Sicily tomorrow morning,” he says casually as if he’s stating that we’re having fish for dinner.
A visceral pain tears into my stomach.
My mouth falls open.
“What?”
The word teeters on a shallow breath.
“What do you mean I’m leaving for Sicily tomorrow? I’m not going anywhere. This is my home. Besides, you’re in no position to tell me what to do.”
“It’s a done deal, Leilani.”
My heart leaps to my throat. Not even the sweet echo of my name on his lips makes the news bearable.
This must be the first time he’s spoken my name since he walked into this house.
It’s the first time we’ve talked that much.
The first time we’ve discussed a family issue, yet he has no right to deliver this kind of news to me.
Whether he likes it or not, I am the Gallo heiress and have no business being in Sicily.
There’s nothing for me to do over there.Sicily, to me, is what Alcatraz is to the most heinous criminals.
A place where you go to die.
What did I do to deserve this?
“What did I do?” I murmur, drowning in disbelief. “Do Giorgio and Sylvia know about this?”
“We’ve discussed it,” he says curtly, and I quickly shake my head in disbelief.
“We? When? This couldn’t have happened within the span of the two hours since you put her into the ground and I left the cemetery.”
“This has nothing to do with Bianca’s death.”
I shake my head again in disbelief, a scowl crawling up my face.
“No? Do you expect me to believe you?”
A few moments of silence swirl around us, ominous and stale, as our eyes stay locked, and I struggle to understand what this really is.
“Who was ‘we' exactly?” I ask quietly, my voice scraping my throat like wet sand.
