CHAPTER 18
PIETRO
“And we’re staying here because?” I asked my uncle as he parked the car a few houses down from Emily’s after dropping her off.
“Because he’s there,” he replied with such maddening casualness that it took me a second too long to understand what he meant.
Then I did.
I reached for the door handle, not sure what I was ready to do. All I knew was that I did not want Emily facing the thing she had run from this soon and without warning.
The locks clicked down.
“No.”
Anger hit fast enough that, for the first time in my life, I briefly considered punching my uncle.
He must have read something of that on my face, because one dark brow lifted in open amusement.
“You can try,” he said.
I pinched the bridge of my nose instead.
“You don’t know what it will be like for her.”
“Neither do you.” His voice remained calm, which somehow made it worse. “You have to let her face this. She needs to see what is already obvious to everyone with eyes.”
I looked at him. “And what is that?”
“That she is far more than what he did to her.” His gaze flicked toward the house across the road before returning to me. “That she is stronger than anything she is going to face tonight. And one day, you will thank me for making you sit still long enough to see it.”
I said nothing, but I hated that part of me already knew he was not wrong.
Hoka went on, his tone quieter now, though no softer. “She needs to know her own resilience before she has to look at the uglier parts of you. Or, more accurately, the uglier parts of the life you intend to drag her into.”
I pursed my lips and dragged a hand back through my hair, my eyes fixed on the dark wooden front door across the street.
“How do you even know he’s there?”
“Please, Pietro.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “As if I didn’t have a tracker placed on his car the moment I found out his family connections.”
I looked at him flatly. “You and my father meddle far too much.”
“If you think this is meddling,” he said, “wait until Genovese takes an interest in your personal affairs.”
I grimaced. That was not a comforting thought.
“We won’t apologize for it,” Hoka continued. “It is our role. And one day, whether you like it or not, you will understand that it is also yours.”
I turned back toward the house. “I’m touched by the generational wisdom.”
“We are trying,” he said patiently, “to save you from making some of the mistakes we made.” Then he shrugged. “Personally,I think it is a pointless effort. You are far too stubborn for guidance to take root. The only way you learn is through blood and pain.”
“How encouraging.”
“I prefer honest.”
“You don’t understand,” I said. “I promised to keep her safe.”
