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“Behind your father’s back? With his enemy’s son?” She puffed into the phone. “I swear, it couldn’t have been worse if you would have sunk to Ariana’s level and jumped into bed with your guards.”
What? It was the first time I was hearing about that? At least now it made sense why her father was changing her bulls so often. Not that it mattered right now.
“Pina, this is enough!”
“Is it? Because I was just told that you’ve betrayed your entire bloodline and I don’t know how I’m feeling about this. This is why I don’t like being told secrets.”
“I didn’t…” her words hurt me, even if I should have been prepared for hearing them. “It’s much more complicated than you think.Merda![12]I can’t believe he was so stupid to come and talk to you.”
“You know what, Grazia, this is a conversation for another time. We will sit down and you are gonna explain to me exactly why you keep seeing this man who was supposed to be everything you hate.” Wasn’t it obvious? “But not now. Salvatore has a message for you – he asked me to tell you that he will be waiting for you at your favorite bistro for lunch and he also said that if you don’t show up, then he’s coming to collect you himself. Get dressed and go there because I’m afraid some kind of bloody war is about to start.”
“I can’t.”
“Grazi,ti amo, davvero,[13]but don’t make me come there and slap you. I don’t know what the deal is between Salvatore and you, I have no idea why you’ve kept in contact with him, but you are being stupid right now. I remember Salvatore well enough and when he says he’ll do something, he means it. This is not the time to play hard to get.”
“No, I mean I can’t because I’m in Como. Rebecca invited me to her parents for the weekend.”
“Well, you have to fix it and by the look on my watch, you have about two hours.”
“I will. I… you can’t say a word about this to anyone.”
“Obviously.”
“No, I mean it. Not a whisper, not even to Ariana.”
“Ha!” She snarked. “Ariana is the last person I would go to talk about this to. She is the worst gossip I know and she loves to talk about theFiori son.” She liked him a little too much.
“Pina, thank you. I will explain everything, I promise.”
“Just because I don’t understand your stupid puppy love doesn’t mean I don’t have your back, but you really have to calm that man down.”
“I will. Thank you! Thank. You.”
I had to trust that Pina was honest and would keep her mouth shut. We were friends from cradles and were supposed to stay like that until grave, but I was asking a lot. She had to lie for me, hide something that would make her father – and mine – spit fire. It was a heavy burden to place on someone’s shoulders.
The moment she closed the call I looked at all the other notifications on my phone. Every single one was from Salvatore. He started calling last night, but my sleep was so deep, I didn’t hear it. After a few missed calls, he started texting. His messages moved up the ladder from sweet to threatening, the last one being an exact repeat of what Pina had told me. There was no way out, but call him and put an end to this.
I could barely hear one ring before he answered.
“You like to play with my fucking nerves, Grazi.”
“I don’t even know where to begin.” It was the truth. For the past couple of days, I thought that maybe he finally saw how stupid it was for us to hang on to something impossible, but now he pulled this shit?
“Start with an apology for making me chase you so hard.”
If he would have been in front of me, I would have hit him, probably in the parts he loved most about himself.
“You are insane!Completamente pazzo[14], I’m telling you! What was in your head to go after Pina? Can you even begin to understand the kind of misery you could have brought for both of us. I’ve talked Pina down, but I can’t know she’s going to shut up forever.” One life lesson you learn in the mafia is that friends are loyal until they need something from you. Pina was one of the best people there were, but no one could know for sure.
“Let the girl speak her truth.”This idiot!“Little Bernoulli sister is all grown up now.”
“Really? You liked what you saw?” What was I doing? That was none of my business and I wasn’t done yelling at him.
Salvatore laughed – actually, really laughed.
“If you’re trying to pick a fight, come here so I can finger an orgasm out of you when we’re done.”
I hated how easily my body submitted to him. Even when we were hundreds of kilometers apart, I couldn’t stop the shiver that shook my body.
