Page 177 of The Art of Ruin

Something cold moves through my ribs, slow and vicious.

This is my fault.

My phone rings.

Unknown number.

Every sound in the room seems to vanish at once.

Nico’s eyes snap to mine. Matteo steps closer. Rossi lowers his phone slowly.

I answer, putting it on speaker.

For a moment, there’s nothing but static and breathing.

Then Jasper says, “You seem to have lost something, Adriano.”

The rage that hits me is so sharp and immediate, I have to close my hand around the edge of my desk to keep from throwing the phone before I have what I need. “Where is she?”

He laughs softly, but there’s nothing stable in it. Nothing sane. “That’s the first thing you ask? Not how I am after what you did to me?”

“Put her on the phone.”

“You don’t give orders here, Mancini.”

I close my eyes for one fraction of a second. Not to calm down. Calm is too far away now. I do it because if I let myselfpicture his hands on her, his voice near her, his fear making him reckless around her, I’ll stop being useful.

“Jasper,” I say carefully, each syllable dragged through clenched teeth, “let me hear her voice.”

There’s movement on the line. A muffled sound. A sharp breath.

Then—

“Adriano?”

Her voice nearly drops me to my knees. “Baby,” I say, and the word comes out before I can stop it, raw enough that Nico looks away like he’s witnessed something private. “Are you hurt?”

A pause that feels like a lifetime before she answers has my hand tightening around the phone. “Casey?”

“I’m okay,” she says quickly.

She’s lying.

I know the shape of her lies now. I know the little breath she takes when she’s trying to make something sound easier than it is. I know her voice when she’s swallowing pain because she doesn’t want anyone else carrying it.

“Did he touch you?” I ask.

More silence.

And it breaks something in me before she even answers.

“Yes,” she whispers.

Matteo curses behind me, low and vicious.

I can’t look at any of them.

If I look away from the phone, if I let the room back in, I might realize how close I am to losing the woman I love. “Listen to me,” I say, forcing my voice to stay steady when everything inside me is shaking. “You stay alive for me. You hear me? Whatever he says, whatever he does, you stay alive, and you wait for me.”