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I was jumpy all morning, trying to come up with a plan to confront Nevio, even if it was the absolute last thing I wanted. Unfortunately, the hospital was closely monitored by security cameras, so my every move was recorded and seen by the guards. I couldn’t leave the place without someone noticing, and then they’d stop me. Luca definitely wouldn’t be impressed if I ran off from his protection.
I was helping one of the nurses change the dressings of one of the patients when a shrill alarm filled the vast inside of the building. I clamped my ears shut, my eyes scrunching up in pain and my pulse pounding madly in my veins.
“What is it?” I screamed at the nurse.
“Fire alarm,” she screamed back, but her words were drowned out by the unbearable noise. It finally turned off.
“We need to leave the building,” she told me.
The patients, nurses, and doctors as well as the guards gathered in front of the building.
“We need to find the source of the fire,” one of the guards explained. A second was on the phone. I glanced around. This was a big coincidence. One day after I started interning at this place, a fire broke out.
In the general confusion and commotion, nobody really paid attention to me. I knew I didn’t have long before more guards would arrive. I rushed away, out of the back alley where the hospital’s entrance was. This area wasn’t one I’d usually like to spend time on my own. Many strange-looking people walked around, but I was confident I wasn’t alone as I hurried along the sidewalk. An arm shot out and grabbed me, pulling me into a narrow dead end.
My pulse spiked. I was pressed against a rough wall and found myself face-to-face with Nevio.
I wasn’t shocked, yet I felt disbelief and indignance over his presence.
I glared up at his overly pleased face. As usual, he was dressed in all black—T-shirt, cargo jacket, cargo pants, and boots—but he had a baseball cap on his head, which was new. Probably to hide his identity.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” I gritted out.
Nevio tilted his head as he regarded me from head to toe, his hands casually stuffed into his pockets. His nonchalant attitude really pissed me off. “I’m disappointed that you’re not in a nurse outfit.”
I balled my hands to fists, unable to believe his audacity. “Why are you here? I don’t want to see you, to talk to you, to even think of you.”
“You can’t ignore me forever, Rory.”
I stared. “I’m not ignoring you, or I wouldn’t be here talking to you, which is, in case you didn’t realize, the last thing I want to do. And if I remember correctly, you managed to ignore me for eighteen years.”
“I never ignored you. And by running to New York, you’re ignoring me or trying to. But it’s very difficult to ignore me.”
I scoffed. I nodded at his wrist, which was no longer bandaged, though my attack had only happened about three weeks ago. “How’s your wrist?” It was probably still tender. Maybe I could rebreak it to pay him back for showing up here. I didn’t like my new violent tendencies and would have been truly concerned if they didn’t only appear around Nevio.
Nevio’s smile became darker, and he moved closer. With the wall at my back, I had no way to escape. “I’m used to pain, Rory. In any shape and form. You can’t deter me with it.”
The way Nevio said “pain” raised goose bumps on my skin. “You shouldn’t be here. I doubt your dad knows about this. Luca would throw a fit. It’s his territory, and I’m only a guest.”
“Youshouldn’t be here,” Nevio growled, pressing the palm of his injured arm into the wall beside my head. His scent engulfed me as he did so, but my anger stopped me from falling in its trap. Still, Nevio’s dark eyes almost made me buckle from their intensity. There was something in them that had never been there before in all the years. As I had suddenly become his prey. “You belong in Las Vegas.”
“Maybe I don’t anymore. Maybe my future is here. Away from Las Vegas. Away fromyou.”
“It’s not.”
An indignant laugh burst out of me. “Says who?”
“I’m saying it, and that’s the end of the story.”
“You can’t tell me what to do. Now less than ever. Not after what happened.” My voice still wavered when I mentioned that night, and my heart felt too heavy in my rib cage.
Nevio braced his other arm beside me. I sagged against the wall. I was scared of his closeness because of what it still did to my body, to my mind, to every part of me. “I think after what happened, I can tell you that you belong in Vegas.”
“Why? Do you need another disappointing drunk one-night stand? I’m not up for the job, in case you’re wondering. Find someone else, like you did in the past.”
“You’re not a one-night stand,” he growled.
“I’m not? Please enlighten me how I’m not a one-night stand if you banged me once and then disposed of me like you do with every girl.”
