“Thank you.”
I took off my shirt and jeans and sat. Giving her the cream and my back, I waited. She stirred behind me, and then her touch and the cold cream on my wounds made me hiss.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. What he did to you… There’s no excuse. Even if he’s suffered torture and abuse himself, it doesn’t give him the right to do this to you. I’m truly sorry, Leo, for what Dom did to you and for what Seppi did to your mother.”
“Neither is your fault.”
When I got used to the pressure of her touch and the temperature and stopped hissing, she came closer, tilting to do my chest. Unlike Ravenna, she didn’t shake. God, I missed her.
“Why didn’t you?” Nicky asked.
“Why didn’t I what?”
“Do all those things to me. That time in the car, you saved me because of my sister. Now, you want to hurt her as much as you want to hurt everybody else. Many men, sane or not, would have had their vengeance in the most vicious ways.Made menwould have never passed the chance.”
“Would you believe me if I told you?”
She nodded without hesitation, as if she could finally trust me.
“Every time I said I’d never hurt you, I meant every word. It was never just because of your sister or the innocent life inside you. It’s because I truly like you, and if the circumstances of how we met or what we’ve been through had been different, we’d have made great friends.”
Her throat bobbed with a swallow. “Are you trying to mess with my head?”
I chuckled. “To what end? Everything is about to be over, and you already think I’m worse than the devil himself. Why would I mess with you?”
“To get me to think…maybe…you’re not worse than your father after all.”
“Is it working?”
“Since everything is about to over, I have to say that…I was wrong, and not just about you.”
“Who else?”
“Are you gonna snap if I say that maybe Tino isn’t the worst either?”
I blinked, the screams raging. How could she say that? I tried my best not to break something or a bone. “Have you forgotten what he’s done?”
“No. But I’ve also chosen to ignore many things about my sister because I don’t want to believe they’re true. I’ve hated Tino for his manipulation, thinking he brainwashed Lina and tricked her into loving him, thinking he was using Dom and you to trap me forever. But the truth is, Lina loved Tino before she even met him face to face, the vigilante that saved her, the stalker she knew was watching every step she took while I refused to believe it as much as I refused to believe the little signs of her own darkness. Like how much she wanted the stalker to be out there, watching, or how upset she got whenever I mentioned him, calling him anything bad.
“Then when we lived at the mansion…she was fucking happy. Regardless of all the atrocious things he’s done then and later and after they got married, she’s always seen him as her protector.” Emotion triumphed over her control. “And that made me hate him more than I should because it’s me who…”
“It’s you who have been protecting her. It’s you who sacrificed everything to keep her safe.” I knew the feeling like the back of my hand. I, too, sacrificed everything to keep Lina safe. We both paid heavily for our love for Lina, but, at least, Lina loved Nicky, and Nicky would get to keep her soul. I, soon, would die for the love I’d never got to have.
“I just needed someone to blame. I wanted to convince myself it was he who corrupted her, but it’s not true. She had a chance to leave this island when you’d arrived, but she didn’t. Then he was fucking dying, and all she was doing was praying, staying by his side at the hospital and plotting with the Lanzas to keep him safe. He wasn’t there to tell her what to do. It was all her doing, all her choices.” She shook her head, moaning, as if it hurt her to admit what she’d just said. “You have to start understanding he didn’t take her from you, Leo, because she was never yours. No matter how much you try to convince yourself it was he who took her from you, it doesn’t change the truth. Lina has always been Tino’s. She’s always loved him, and like he’d do anything for her, she’d do anything for him.”
Pressure banged my skull, and I began to shake. The voices in my head gnashed at me like a rabid animal, mixed with Lina’s music—which now sounded like agony—and Nicky’s words. I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t want to hear this shit anymore. It had to end. I couldn’t take it anymore. It had to fucking end.
The burner roared in response. Enzio answered my demand.
“Is that the Lanzas?” she gasped.
I nodded once. “Enzio will bring them here in eight hours.”
Taken aback, she stared at me. “That’s too easy and fast. He didn’t threaten anything or even negotiate. How do you know he’ll do it for sure? How do you know it’s not a trap?”
