Page 54 of Vicious Temptation

“Remi,” Zara says, her voice breaking.

Remi turns to her.

“I did what you said.” Zara reaches for her, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I didn’t let go, Remi. I held her tight…I didn’t let go.”

The last of Remi’s composure disappears.

She takes Zara from Matteo and pulls her into her arms as a sob escapes, burying her face against those caramel-colored curls as tears stream down her cheeks.

I stand there watching them, unable to look away.

Fifteen

Remi

Hannibal coils lazily around my forearm, his weight familiar and grounding in a way nothing else has been over the last few days. His scales are cool against my skin, and his muscles shift slowly as he moves, completely unbothered by the silence that’s taken over the apartment.

I sit on the floor of the room I built for them with my back against the wall and my legs stretched out in front of me. Normally, this much quiet would have me reaching for the nearest speaker or turning on every TV in the condo just to fill it. It’s still crawling beneath my skin, but I’m too fucking drained to do anything about it.

I don’t know which is worse, the silence or the endless what-ifs.

If I hadn’t gone back to work, I would’ve been with them. Estela never would’ve needed to stop at the bank because I would’ve had cash. And even if we had gone inside, I could’ve protected them.

I would have protected them.

I’ve replayed every possible version of that day so many times that I don’t know how to make my brain stop conjuring new ones. Every road leads me back to the same place, where I think about what I could’ve done differently and wish like hell I could go back and do it.

So I’ve been hiding in here instead.

My thumb glides along Hannibal’s body, tracing the patterns of his scales as I count without meaning to. One, two, three, four, five. I follow the darker band near his spine, then the lighter one beside it, noticing how each shape repeats without ever being exactly the same.

I focus on the snake’s rhythm and the texture beneath my thumb, on the subtle movement of muscle beneath his scales, until there isn’t room in my head for anything else.

For a little while, it works.

Then a memory slips through anyway…A cabinet door left open, flour dusted across the counter, Estela laughing behind me.

My head lifts on instinct, as if I hear her for real.

But there’s only silence.

It rushes back in too loudly, and I blink hard, dragging a hand down my face as my thoughts scatter, jumping faster than I can catch them. We were just in the kitchen together, with Zara sneaking cookie dough and Estela giving me shit for encouraging her.

I stop the memory the second the sting starts behind my eyes, shoving it back where it came from before it can break through.

I’m done crying. I have to be.

Hannibal tightens slightly around my arm, and I refocus on him as another thought works its way in.

“He saved her,” I whisper. “I know that’s part of his job, but it complicates everything. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

A soft rustle comes from the enclosure to my right, and I glance over at Clarice. She’s already awake, her head lifted as her tongue flicks out in slow, deliberate licks of the air.

Despite everything, I smile.

I’ll never be able to handle her the way I handle Hannibal. A pit viper can’t be tamed, but even from behind the glass, there’s something about her that feels familiar, the way she watches everything around her, perfectly still until she has a reason not to be.

I return Hannibal to his enclosure and secure it, then move closer to Clarice.