“What do you mean?”
“We were boxing against each other. I would have stopped if he’d tapped out.”
“Well, why didn’t he?”
“I don’t know.”
A hollow feeling appears in the pit of my stomach.
Did Nero want to get hurt? Why? And also, what thehell? Nero must have realized I’d be the one who’d take care of him when he came home looking like that.
Did he think I’d enjoy it? I’m not a sadist. No matter how angry I am about everything Nero did to me, I don’t want to see him in pain.
Maybe it’s the guilt catching up to him.
No, I’m not holding my breath for that.
I arch a brow at the man in front of me. “You couldn’t see how badly you were hurting him?”
Alessio shrugs again. “I do have a tendency to take things too far. Can I see him?”
“He’s in the bedroom.”
Nero’s shifted on the bed since I left him five minutes ago. There’s a bloodstain on the pillow from a cut in his brow that’s seeping through the bandage.
I go to sit down beside him and start to peel the bandage off, wanting to replace it. Outside, the early morning sun creeps in from between the drawn blinds. I’d kill for some coffee.
“I can call a doctor,” Alessio says.
“Someone already looked at him.”
“Who?”
“He introduced himself as Doc. He works for the Messeros.” The second I say it, I realize I should have kept my mouth shut. What if Nero’s not supposed to be in contact with Doc now that he’s a Ferraro man?
I glance at Alessio, trying to gauge his reaction, but his face is a blank mask. Only his eyes show small glimmers of emotion.
When they move back to me, they almost seem apologetic. “He’ll be alright?”
“Yes.” I secure a fresh bandage on the cut, and Nero shifts again. Groans. Cracks open his swollen eyes.
Relief flashes inside them when he focuses on me. “Blake,” he whispers.
He sounds terrible.
My emotions surge. It physically hurts to see him broken like this. All night, I tried to convince myself I’d worry this much about anyone who was hurt, but by the morning, I had to admit the truth, if only to myself.
I still feel something for him. In the aftermath of finding out about his lies, I thought every bit of love I had for this man had been expunged out of me, but no, it’s still there.
It might be twisted, darkened, and bruised, but it’sthere.
God, I wish it wasn’t. It makes me terrified.
I brush the back of my hand over Nero’s cheek. “You’re an idiot.”
He gives me a half smile, wincing when it pulls on his split lip. “Nice to see you too.”
That smile vanishes the moment he sees Alessio standing at the foot of the bed.
