“You don’t look much better,” I retorted dryly. “It must be hard to maintain that infamous stamina.”
“It is, but someone’s got to do it.” Smoke curled into the dark sky as he exhaled. “Told you getting her out of the psych ward was a bad idea.”
“You’ve never been one to sugarcoat, have you…” I scrubbed a hand down my jaw. “It’s exhausting.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”
We both knew it was the reason we’d been friends for three decades; it was painful honesty or bust.
A pause stretched between us as he took another drag of his cigarette.
“She tried to strangle Aria,” I said quietly. “Slashed Dimitros across the face when he tried to stop her. Went after both of them with a knife.”
Salvatore didn’t comment right away, but knowing him, he’d have sliced Amara’s throat a long time ago. Probably the first time she attempted to hurt Dimitros as a baby.
“So what do you want to do?” he finally asked.
“I can’t risk her coming around them again.” My throat tightened around the words. “But Aria made me promise not to hurt her.”
In the distance, waves crashed against steep cliffs, and the lemon trees bordering the property rustled in the wind.
Salvatore broke the silence. “You were bound to break a promise to your girl sooner or later.”
I let out a humorless laugh under my breath. “That tells me you don’t know Aria as well as I thought you did.”
“Why’s that?”
“She’s insisting on being there when I take her mother back to the clinic.” It was the clinic I’d funded a long time ago, and while initially it was mainly for victims of human trafficking, it had ended up helping many beyond that scope.
“Tell her no,” he shot back. “You’re not doing her any favors by keeping her bubble-wrapped. One day she’s going to hear the word ‘no’ whether you like it or not.”
The words hit hard.
“I don’t fucking care,” I ground out. “Maybe I’ll kill anyone who refuses her.”
I loved my children and had an iron-tight bond with both of them. I knew there was a void in their lives that I couldn’t fill, but I tried my damndest.
When Dimitros wanted lullabies that he’d heard other mothers sing, I learned them. I was the shittiest singer, but fuck if I didn’t sing my heart out as I rocked him to sleep. When Aria wanted braids, I went to painstaking lengths to learn the skill. YouTube was a godsend. When she wanted her nails painted, I bought out the polish aisle in the drugstore. When she was three, she went through a phase where she wanted flower decals on her painted toes. I learned that too, and you could say I was pretty good for a man with killer hands.
“Okay, I’ll be sure to get your daughter a dog,” Salvatore said sharply. “Because she asked for one not too long ago. I thought telling her no was the prudent thing to do, but?—”
“Don’t you fucking dare get her a dog. You know I’m allergic.” I craned my neck toward the star-patterned sky. “You’re being an asshole.”
“Perhaps to prove a point,” he agreed quietly.
“You should go back to Malta.”
“No. I told you I’d stay in Athens while you have that woman under your roof, and I meant it. I might not sleep here, but if you need me to, I will. You can’t watch your back every hour of the day. You need sleep too.”
“Sleep is overrated.”
He scoffed. “Not when you have the right woman in your bed.”
I rolled my eyes. “In your case, it’s rightwomensince you seem to change them like your underwear.”
“Don’t be a jealous fucking prick, Lykos.” I clicked my tongue, but I felt the sharpness of his next words before I heard them. “You need to break the vow to your mad wife and this promise to Aria, Lykos,” he continued. “For your children’s sake, but also your own. You need to start living. You need love, and if not that… then at least sex.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Since when are you an expert on life and love?”
