“Vitale?” I asked, my eyes not leaving the catalog.
“Yup, the hot creepy fucker,” Tatty said. “Said he knew you would drop by here because you were around the area, and to give you a message.”
I looked up, my attention grabbed. “What message?”
“Bells are ringing,” Julio answered. “He said to tell you that, word for word.”
“What is that about?” Tatty asked.
I sighed, my annoyance spiking by the second, as I offered my clueless friends a tight smile. “He writes nursery rhymes, and, well—loves to drop hints of the new shit he’s working on here and there. I’m pretty sure he dropped one for Layla because he knows I eat at her family’s restaurant whenever I’m down here.”
“Creep,” Tatty muttered.
“You can’t blame him; he was dropped too many times as a kid and has so many issues because of it. In fact, give me a sec; I’ll call him to let him know that I got his message.” I smiled, pulling out my phone from my purse as I moved to another spot in the reception area, placing a call to the fucking bone in my throat.
He answered on the third ring. “I see your friends delivered my message.”
“Vitale, what is your problem? Ambushing my friends, ambushing me?Threatening me?”
“It got you to call me, didn’t it?”
I rubbed my eyes. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Sicily.”
“Great, stay there, and don’t call or come here until I ask you to.”
“Are you telling me what to do?”
“That’sexactlywhat I’m doing.”
“You wouldn’t even ask me why I went back to Sicily quicker than intended?”
“No, because I don’t care, and because I really wanted you gone.”
“Ask me.”
I closed my eyes, letting out a controlled breath. “Vitale, I don’t have time for this.”
“Ask me.”
“Fine! What happened to you, sweetheart? Why did you leave so early? I really wanted to spend time with you, it’s so unfortunate, but please tell me why you left. I really wanna know so bad because this aching in my chest, I can’t—I can’t control it. I just need to know why you left because I don’t think I’ll survive if you don’t fucking tell me.”
Without seeing him, I knew he was smiling. I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.
I heard him clear his throat. “Well, your, uh—recent bed-buddyasked me to leave. He didn’t come to me, but he had people come to me. They threw around threats here and there, gave me hours… a head start.”
I raised my brows. “Oh, that’s expected. I’m surprised he didn’t kill you.”
“Yeah, me too. But I am intrigued. You know me, I love a good drama,” his voice drawled. “I love playing in it. Especially when I know my role is one I would win at. I know what’s coming so… this will be interesting.”
Anger sliced against my chest as I took the phone from my ear, closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and let out a steady breath.
Opening my eyes again, I pressed the phone back to my ear. “Marino has nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Faizan.”
“Stayawayfrom him.”
