“Have you seen him or has he made contact since?”
“No.”
“Have you told AJ?”
“Absolutely not. He will most definitely put me on a plane back to Italy the second he finds out. Please don’t tell him,” she pleads. “Not Marco either.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“He won’t hurt me. He could have killed me or kidnapped me a hundred thousand times if he wanted to.”
“People travel, Raf. I’m sure it was just a coincidence he was in L.A. I just freaked out because he was the last person I expected to see. It brought up a lot of hurt and shame.”
“Do you also think it’s a coincidence that just weeks after he sees you and Marco together in L.A., Marco gets shot at an event you’re attending?”
The color drains from her face as she mulls over my question.
“I don’t fucking trust him, and you shouldn’t either. You’re not to go anywhere without Avery literally walking by your side or having you within his sight. I’ll even hire another one of Marco’s men to drive so Avery can be by your side at all times. Understand?”
“Oh, good. So I’ve agreed to live with another dictator. Yay! Love this for me.”
“And you’re going to come down to Johnny’s boxing ring and start learning self-defense with Evie. Seb and Marco taught her everything she knows, and you’re both a similar weight and height, which is perfect for learning, because your test is going to be taking me down.”
“Easy. I’ll just give you a blow job.”
“Fucking hell, Chiara! Using humor to deflect the seriousness of this is immature.”
“No, Raf. It’s how I fucking survive in a world where my life constantly feels like it’s imploding.”
The car pulls up to the visitors’ entrance at the hospital, and Chiara is out of the car before I’ve even had a chance to unbuckle my belt.
I’m guessing this makes us enemies who are roomies. Fucking fantastic.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cousin Duties
Chiara
“Chiara! Chiara, slow down,”calls Raf, quickly closing the distance between us.
I do no such thing. He’s going to learn quickly, I’m very good at ignoring the men in my life. Especially when they piss me off.
I didn’t mean to admit my most shameful secret to the last person I wanted to know it. As I’m quickly learning, when it comes to me, Raf Princi is a fountain of knowledge. A dark horse cloaked as a white knight, constantly digging around in dark places he shouldn’t be, exposing me in the best and worst ways possible.
By the time he catches up to me, I’m rounding the corridor in search of the ward Marco has been moved to. I check the message on my phone from Sophia to confirm the exact room number. The pause gives Raf the opportunity to block my path.
“This conversation isn’t over,” he says sternly, and I internally curse at my traitorous body for the way it responds to his commanding tone. The same one he used in an entirely different scenario.
“Oh, it’s more than over. I’ve had enough humiliation over the last twenty-four hours to last a lifetime.”
“There’s nothing to be humiliated about—you couldn’t have known he was an absolute scumbag.”
“Come talk to me about it when the person you think you’re going to have everything with betrays you and it feels like your heart has been ripped out and stomped on.”
He stares at me silently, unblinking, a torn look on his face like he wants to say something, but the guardrails I broke through last night are firmly back in place.
“Please, just drop it,” I hiss, spotting AJ walking towards us. Then I push past him and don’t stop until I reach Marco’s room.
