“Oh, absolutely not!”
She stood in one fluid motion, tossing the bloodied cloth aside like it had personally offended her.
“I’m not sitting this one out.”
Raze didn’t even look at her.
“Tone—”
“No,” she snapped, cutting him off as she stepped forward.“What is this?Since when do I get benched?”
Her voice wasn’t just sharp.It was wounded in a way she didn’t like displaying.
“I was just in the middle of that fight,” she continued, gesturing vaguely at the bodies like they proved her point.“And now suddenly I’m what—too fragile?Too inconvenient?”
“That’s not what this is,” Gianni said.
“Then what is it?”she shot back.
The silence was brief but telling.Her eyes narrowed.
“Why are you shutting me out?”
Raze’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not?—”
“You never keep things from me,” she pressed.“What’s changed?What’s going on?”
I watched it unfold but didn’t step in.It wasn’t my place.
But I could so clearly see that this wasn’t about the warehouse.This was about her place in the family.And the fact that something had shifted.Even if she didn’t know what it was yet.
With nowhere else to direct her anger, her gaze swung to me.
“Are you just going to stand there?”she demanded.
I exhaled slowly, my jaw tightening before I even opened my mouth.
“Antonella—”
“No,” she snapped.“Don’tAntonellame.Since when do you do everything they tell you to do?”
I pushed off the counter and stepped toward her, taking my time.
“Since it started making sense,” I said evenly.
Her eyes flashed.
“Oh, so nowyou’reone of them?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“That’s exactly what you said.”
“Christ,” I muttered under my breath, dragging a hand down my face before looking back at her.“Can you stop being such a petulant child for five minutes?Just give me five fucking minutes!”
Her eyes widened, then narrowed.
