“No. She’s a neighbor. A little girl that plays the violin at night sometimes. I’ve never seen her face to face, but she, too, plays like an angel. Leo heard her once and immediately became a fan of classical music.”
Leo cleared his throat, nudging his dad with his elbow.
DonBellomo rolled his eyes. “Che cosa?”
“The girl that plays at night…is Lina,” Leo said.
“Cazzo?”
I didn’t understand much Italian, but I clearly understood that one word. The fuck was the right thing to say. “Hold on a sec. What?”
They both just looked at me, Leo growing pale. I cocked a brow at him. “Can you explain?”
He ran a thumb over his eyebrow. “Dad rents the penthouse in the building across from yours. I visited him once, and you started playing…”
“And?”
He opened his mouth and snapped it shut a couple of times, and then he shook his head and shrugged. “This is gonna sound… When I left that night I was…not in the best mood, and you were still playing. The music soothed me somehow, so I…”
Mind spiraling, I quivered. “You wanted to know who the girl was, so you’ve been following me…for months…” My chest contracted with a sob that threatened to burst out. “How long have you been stalking me, Leo?”
“Stalking? No, Lina, no. I wasn’t hiding somewhere watching you where you couldn’t. You saw me everywhere. I was only trying to get you to notice me.”
“But how did you know where to find me? I thought you first saw me at one of those accidental meets, and it kept happening because you lived close by.Thenyou did it to get me to notice you. But you…”
“Oddio, what did you do now?” Don Bellomo mumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Leo swallowed. “I didn’t do anything. I might have done a little digging before—”
I jumped to my feet, unable to listen to another word, and darted toward the door. He yelled after me, but I shoved the door open with my palm and shoulder. Pain instantly seared me. That would leave a bruise by tomorrow.
Walking as fast as I could down the street, tears flying in the cold air, I could hear his shouts after me approaching. Then feet scurried close, and he was in front me, blocking the way.
“Stay away from me!” I warned without a speck of fear in my bones. I didn’t know where I got the courage, but I wasn’t afraid of the Mob boy who’d been stalking me for months. Maybe it was the surge of fury talking, and I might regret it later. I didn’t care, though.
Enough.
What the fuck was I? A psycho stalker magnet? The only guys interested in me had to be monsters? One would vanish from my life so another would appear?
A more disturbing thought sent me downhill spiraling. What if all this time Leo wasn’t another monster? What if it washimafter all?
My eyes bulged at him, and my chest heaved, all the air knocked out of my lungs. “When did you start? When was the night you first heard me play?”
“I don’t remember exactly, but it was around seven months ago.”
“Give me the date, Leo. Stalkers don’t forget these things,” I gritted but kept my voice down so people on the street wouldn’t hear. Why the fuck was I still protecting him? I should just yell it at the top of my lungs so everyone would know.
“For God’s sake, I’m not a stalker. That night I went to visit Dad because I needed some money. He texted me that address. I didn’t even know about the new place he’d rented. That night we had a fight. I was so angry when I left I didn’t even take the money, and your music was the only thing that soothed me. It was like…magic.”
“I won’t fall for this shit anymore. When. Was. It?”
“June last year. Maybe the fifth. Why does the date matter so much?”
My blood froze in my veins. “Nicky’s ceremony. That was the night he came and then disappeared.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“The vigilante,” I whispered. “My stalker since I was twelve. The one who vanished in June, on that particular night after he messed with my head, only to appear a few days later with a shaved beard, pretending to be a boy with a huge crush on me.”
