“What the… I have no clue what you’re talking about, and I never had a beard, Lina. You can ask.”
“Stop lying to me,” I sobbed. “I thought you were too young back then to be the one who did it, but you’re in the fucking Mafia. Fourteen isn’t too young to be a killer for you.” I stepped back, hiccupping through the tears. “It’s been you all along, and this is another one of your mindfucks.”
He pressed his palms together under his chin in a plea. “I swear to you I knew nothing about you till that night. Why would I tell you I’d protect you from that person if I were him? Why would I ask my dad to help you? Why would I say anything about knowing you were the girl that plays at night, knowing you might think I was stalking you, risking everything only to tell you the truth? To make you trust me so I can protect you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.” My pulse throbbed in my temples as tears blinded my vision. “All I know is that you need to stay the hell away from me. I don’t wanna see you ever again. You hear me? Ever.”
Chapter16
Tino
Nobody touched what was mine. Nobody. Not even him.
I’d been watching him from a distance, hovering around her like an annoying insect everywhere she went. I could’ve sent him to the end of the world for doing just that—perhaps I should have—but I knew my son better than anyone. He was like me. Once he got fixated on something, he wouldn’t let go. At the last recital, I almost had it. But if I forced him away, he’d flip, and it’d be the same with Gloria, his last girlfriend, all over again.
The second I saw his hand on Angel’s arm, though,Iflipped. I didn’t care if I was risking it all. I couldn’t let him touch her. I couldn’t stay in the shadows to honor my promise. I’d vowed the next time she saw me she’d be melting in my arms and finally know it was the only place where she belonged. But again, she forced me out before time.
How could you do this to me, Angel?Of all the people in the world…
My fists clenched until my knuckles turned white. She’d been pushing him away as she should have, but today she was giving him a chance. She was letting him get close. Another mistake I’d punish her for. Hard.
How could she do this to me?
I let the lingering feeling of her soft hand in mine calm me down. If it hadn’t been for their indiscretion, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of touching her hand without triggering her suspicions. A blessing in disguise.
I’d kept our touch as long as I could, never wanting to let go. I’d missed her so much, more than I could stand. It took me everything to play my little game of the concerned father when my own boy was trying to steal away my Angel.
Leo returned, grim and furious as I expected. I’d lied through my teeth, and I’d lie some more until the damage was done. I’d thrown the bait, and they took it. This little adventure he thought he could start with my girl had to end before it began.
His heart would be broken? So what?Anything to make you mine, my sweet Angel.
It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it. He was lucky it was the only thing in him that would break. Leo should have come nowhere near Angelina, and not just because she was mine.
She’d suffered enough. She deserved much better than my son. My Angel was innocent, and Leo was no saint. He’d broken so many hearts before, and that wasn’t the worst in his long list of sins.
I could say the same thing about myself, but the devil’s son sometimes was worse than his father. It was hard to believe, and I’d denied it for so long, but it was the truth. I knew him better than anyone, better than himself. He’d have never taken care of her like me. He could have never protected her like I could. No one could or would.
Angelina Baldi was mine. End of story.
I had to be extra careful from now on, though. She heard my voice before, and she might have learned the smell of the cologne I wore that night. I wore a different one today, and I spoke with my original accent, careful not to speak as quietly as I had when I stole that precious moment before our time.
“She said the vigilante that killed her father was stalking her. That’s why she freaked out. She thought I was him,” Leo babbled, huffing and puffing like a wounded animal.
“What did she exactly say about him?” I was dying to know what she thought of me, how she felt about me.
“She said he disappeared after her sister’s scholarship party. But she was talking about him as if…as if she was angry he did.”
I looked away for a moment, hiding my smile. She missed me like I missed her. Despite how mad she was before, she still missed me.
“Dad, are you listening?”
“Si, piccolo.”
He hissed. “Stop calling me that.”
“That’s all you care about? The only time I could see you in seven months is when I find you here by accident with some girl you should never be with, a girl you’ve been stalking, and you’re bothered because I’m calling you piccolo?”
“I’m not a child, and I didn’t stalk her. I have every right to be with Lina.”
