My uncle gave his friend a withering look. “You’d take your girl on your first real trip to kill a drug lord?”
“Nah….” Franky tucked his gun back in the white drapes of his chef’s coat. “I think the ex-boyfriend has some explaining to do. His confession should put a stop to this.”
“You’d do that?” I breathed.
“For you? Of course.” Franky beamed. “You’re family, Magnolia Rae. That’s what family does.”
A rush of emotions broke me. I fidgeted with my dress to grapple with the swell, absently noting that it had been saved from the splash zone. Which was a small mercy, because I didn’t want to go to the ball covered in blood.
“Thank you both,” I whispered when I could finally trust myself to speak without sobbing.
My uncle gave me a soft smile, while Franky clapped my shoulder.
“Luigi will be here any minute,” the cook tutted. “Better fix your hair, ragazza.”
“I’m just glad we came to see you off, nipote,” Theo added as he bent to unwrap my curling iron. “Don’t worry about this mess. You won’t even know it happened by the time you get back.”
“Oh! You don’t have to clean it!” I rushed to say. “I’ll change fast and help you—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Franky chuffed.
“But—”
“No buts.” Theo held up a palm and then went into the bathroom across, when he brought back some towels and a bucket of cleaning supplies he added, “Where do you think I started?”
I gaped at him.
“We were Nico’s father’s cleanup crew.” With that, the Grimaldi butler and cook got to work on the body, while I was left to finish getting ready for the ball.
Chapter 44 – Rae
The McKim courtyard was packed with guests enjoying the heat of the summer evening. An iconic Boston venue, the Public Library hosted the three-hundred guests easily. The crème de la crème turned out in force to publicly wish Arabella happy birthday and gain favor with the powerful businessman, her godfather. I lingered behind a column, looking over the garden, and shook my head.
They were going to try to suck up to Nico the same way.
It was going to besofreaking entertaining to watch them fail.
My monster prowled through the crowd, ducking back into the historic Bates Hall. He’d told me his plans. They didn’t involve pomp or flashy press opportunities. Nico would focus on business. Hell, he was even going to appoint someone else to be the CEO of his grandfather’s enterprises, so he could work from the shadows.
Where I would stand by his side.
Our time was coming.
Turning away from the miserable-looking birthday girl and her throng of admirers—because if I didn’t, I was going to do something dumb, like intervene—I wandered into a quieter space. The tomb-like silence welcomed me with a cool kiss of ancient air. Some of these books were hundreds of years old, their words and wisdom forgotten. The guests likely thought these rooms were musty, but I liked the dusty invitation of the delicate yellow pages. I wandered deeper into the library, past the posh parts that had good optics. A more modern layout was on the backside, and I thought I remembered someone saying this was a separate building entirely.
I couldn’t remember, and I didn’t care. Books were better than people.
Reading was one of those hobbies I had to be in the mood for. It wasn’t like working on a car. There wasn’t a physical outcome to show off my hard work. But I missed it. I missed how a book made me feel.
Wandering into an alcove, I plucked the first book I spied off a shelf.
Curling up on a bench, my dress spread in a wave of sparkles. The moonlight caught the material and made it dance. I took off my mask to see the print easier and set the beautiful, silvery disguise carefully beside me. No one was going to find me here. The book was a biography on some old timer named Thomas Aquinas. After the first page, I groaned.
This wasn’t the type of book my heart was craving.
“You are going to sit here and read the first chapter,” I ordered myself.
Maybe then I would be calmer. I could return to the party without making a scene. I didn’t want Nico to think I was some uncivilized hellcat. But the way his grandparents acted really stuck in my craw.
