After another tense moment, he releases me. “Be careful. Just…keep your eyes open.”
After another wave to Madre, I escape. Once down the street and out of view, I switch my phone on, waiting for the numerous messages to flood my phone.
As they do in an ongoing vibration, a car all too familiar screeches to a stop in front of me, the passenger window rolling down seconds before my boyfriend launches himself at me.
Alessio wraps me in a hold that should soothe the past couple days away, but instead, my limbs are tense, and I find myself unable—unwilling—to hug him back.
Thankfully, he doesn’t hold me for long. He instead grasps my cheeks between his palms and brings my mouth to his, slashing an angry kiss that finally melts me a little. My body goes slack, and I kiss him back, returning to the life I know rather than the craziness of yesterday.
Eventually, his forehead drops against mine, breath warming my face. Just like that, all my worries evaporate, reminding me why I’m with him. Moments like this feel good.
“God,” he whispers, “I was so fucking worried. Don’t disappear like that again.”
“I won’t.” I pull back, scanning his car. “You drove all the way from Rome? What about classes?” Alessio’s been in university for a year, so his workload is heavier than mine.
A finger gets shoved against my lips. “Don’t worry about me. And no, I’ve been hanging around Ostia, waiting for you to get back.”
“That’s…sweet.” I think. Maybe a little weird, considering I told him the timeline of my return, so there was no point in sitting around.
He wraps his hand around mine to propel me towards the passenger door. “Let’s get out of here. I’ve missed you and want to hear all about your trip.”
Yeah, that won’t be happening.No matter how much I enjoy time with Alessio, I’ll never betray my brother, and thus the CosaNostra, by admitting not only their presence, but now his ties to the Bratva, possibly endangering Vanessa and her family too.
Once we’re both inside the car more expensive than I understand how he affords, he takes off. Now that he’s not freaking out, he’s the Alessio I met on campus months ago. Uncomplicated, safe, freeing. Someone I don’t burden.
All thoughts of Russia and my saviour melt away as I’m re-immersed into my life.
When I returned from my drive with Alessio, Zeno was still at the house, seated on the front step and talking on the phone. He wasstillthere when going to bed, and the next morning, I find him seated at the kitchen table with Madre, a coffee pot resting between them.
“Still haven’t gone home?”
“Stayed the night. Sit. We need to talk.”
Wonderful.Nothing good ever comes from this.
After taking my sweet-ass time pouring cereal and milk into a bowl, my leisurely pace continues as I settle in the chair across from him. He passively watches me, building up to his speech.
“Sapienza University’s fall semester begins in a few weeks, but Madre tells me you’ve done nothing to prep for attending, other than confirming your acceptance and paying the initial fees.”
I cast our mother a dark look for ratting me out. Not for lack of aspiration, but I presumed Zeno’s controlling nature would eventually force me to drop out, even before starting. University was something I applied to on a whim, when my friends did—not because I didn’t want to go, but because I assumed I wouldn’t be allowed. I still don’t know what I want to do in life, only thatsomething requiring a science degree appeals to me. Healthcare, perhaps, or even research. Forensics definitely holds intrigue, but that may be due to Zeno’s job and the TV shows I watch.
Still, despite claiming to be proud I’d been accepted, I haven’t given attending any effort, because nothing ever happens in my life without a million rules attached to it.
In his determination to give me a civilian life, he often forgets that beingnormalis the key part, so I’ve made it my mission to depict normalcy as a teenager the best I could, by agreeing to whatever social events my friends drag me to. Until Zeno gets wind of all I do…
Birthday party out of town—he, Nero, or his Captain, Elio, would have to attend.
Freedom to go out in the evening—some ungodly early curfew of nine p.m.
Needless to say, university means rules that, as an adult, I shouldn’thaveto follow. Rather than fighting, I figure, skip the effort, start classes, and don’t get my hopes crushed when he inevitably changes his mind and decides it’s too dangerous or something.Especiallyafter recent events.
“Dorms fill up quickly, but I pulled some strings with the housing board?—”
Meaning he bribed them.
“—and got you a room, all on your own. It’s two rooms, technically, connected between one common area. A mini apartment, more or less.”
Excitement flares, which is immediately tapered. If his presence isn’t to convince me to drop out, there’s another reason. A reason having to do with this living situation. No point in a two-bedroom dorm when it’s only me there.
