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“Trust me, he is like his father when it matters, but he’s good at hiding it,” Isa said. Then she narrowed her eyes in thought. “You want to do the test now?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I should probably wait until morning, but I don’t think I can.”
“Just do it. I have more tests, and Mom will buy more if you need them.”
Time crawled at a snail’s pace as I waited for the result. When the test finally stopped blinking, I held my breath, then released it in a whoosh.
Not pregnant.
I held my chest and squeezed my eyes shut, relief flooding me.
Now I could really move on.
I closed my fingers around the skateboard necklace in my jeans pocket. Aurora had asked Carlotta to return it to me after she left for New York. She’d also given me back her unopened birthday gift, which now waited in my fucking nightstand drawer. For the past few years, Alessio, Massimo, Greta, and I had always given Aurora a birthday present as a group, but this year, after the party fuckup, I’d also bought her skateboard earrings to match the necklace. According to Carlotta’s words, Aurora’s forgiveness couldn’t be bought. Maybe that had been the plan. I wasn’t fucking sure why I’d thought buying her jewelry was a good idea. The only thing I knew was that Aurora had made herself comfortable in my head. It was maddening.
She’d really fled Las Vegas as fast as she could and left what could remind her of me here.
“You’ve been out of it since Aurora left,” Alessio commented as we sat in the dark of Greta’s former ballet studio after a night with a few drug dealers who’d gone behind the Camorra’s back.
I didn’t say anything as I pulled my hand from the pocket without the necklace and turned my arm in thought. It still occasionally felt a bit stiff from the fracture. I actually liked the dull pain, liked how it reminded me of Aurora, of her rage. It had been beautiful to see this side of her, and because of this crazy as fuck thought, I shouldn’t be anywhere near her. Aurora wasn’t a vengeful, angry person, but I made her that way.
“It’s for the best. Distance will allow Aurora to get you out of her mind. That’ll reduce the risk of future drama,” Massimo said.
Distance would maybe allow Aurora to get me out of her mind, but she was a constant pounding in my skull. I couldn’t shake her off. “If I wanted therapy, I’d go to a shrink.”
“The shrink that can stomach your kind of crazy doesn’t exist,” Alessio muttered, then let out a laugh as if he’d made the greatest joke of all time.
Massimo regarded me closely, though I really didn’t know how he could make out much in the dark of the studio. “You’re up to something, and I get the feeling it will cause more trouble. You should be glad Aurora is gone for a few weeks so things can calm down. You realize that, right?”
I did realize that her absence would minimize the risk of Fabiano finding out about our night together. I also realized that her absence didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t like that she was out of our territory, which meant out of my reach and sight.
“Nevio,” Massimo warned in a low voice.
I raised my palms. “I’m here and behaving, what do you want?”
“For you not to follow your first impulse for once.”
I felt naked traveling without any weapons, but considering that this was a standard charter flight and not our Camorra jet, I had to leave everything at home. I’d just have to buy a few things once I was in New York.
Massimo would probably insist his warning had triggered me like a two-year-old going through the terrible twos, but my decision to fly to New York to check on Aurora and make my standpoint clear had been made pretty much the moment I’d heard that she’d left.
After landing in New York, I went to one of the gun sellers I’d found on the darknet and got the necessities like two knives and two guns. Knowing Luca’s overbearing protectiveness, I had to stay on my toes as I walked the neighborhood of the Vitiello townhouse. I didn’t know Aurora’s schedule yet, so that posed a problem. When I eventually, after many hours of waiting, caught sight of Aurora’s face in a car, she was accompanied by Valerio. It was difficult to rate the Vitiello men on my personal dislike chart, but he was probably at the top with Amo merely because of his annoyingly sunny persona that seemed to trick some people into believing he wasn’t Luca’s bloodthirsty spawn. That guy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I knew a mess-up when I saw one.
I followed the car in a cheap Prius that I’d bought for the occasion. Rental cars always attracted more attention. Valerio’s car disappeared in the guarded underground garage of the building complex that harbored the Famiglia gym, including Gianna’s yoga studio.
My phone vibrated in my pocket with incoming texts. I supposed Massimo and Alessio had noticed my absence by now.
I took my phone out while keeping a side-eye on the building.
The first few texts were indeed from the guys, but then there was one from Greta. She messaged me every day, mostly mundane stuff, but without having opened her message, I had a feeling this wasn’t simply one of these life-update texts.
Where are you? Alessio and Massimo are worried.
Of course, those two had to blab to Greta about my disappearance. They knew me too well. That was why real serial killers never had close friends.
I talked to Aurora.
