Page 49 of Hidden

“Why was she there to begin with? What business does an old lady have with the rallies?” I asked, and then cringed as the wordsold ladyspilled from my lips.

“Nico likes her close, I guess,” Hacksaw said. A silence fell over the room, and I saw Dante watching me in my peripheral.

“And after?” I asked before I could stop myself.

All three of them looked at me then, just for a second, but it was enough.

Chris answered anyway. “Spent the rest of the night with Nico, from what we could gather. Kept close. Out of sight.”

No one used the wordssafeorprotected, but they hung there all the same, implied in the way Riley spoke, in the way Chris described her being pulled from the chaos and kept close to Nico for the rest of the evening, as though she had been shielded from the worst of it rather than delivered straight into it.

My jaw tightened—of course she did. Of course she went back to him. Even when a rally was taking place—and I already knew he participated in them, loyalty was not a trait of his—he left to keep her safe.

Or to keep her under lock and key.

The image from last night pushed to the front of my mind without warning—her hand against the glass, her forehead pressed to mine, the way she’d stood there like nothing else in the world existed.

And then—

The curtains. Shutting me out like I were nothing more than a mistake she needed to correct.

A humourless smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I looked down at the table.

“Sounds like she’s got it all figured out then,” I muttered. “Safe, protected, exactly where she wants to be.”

No one responded straight away.

They didn’t need to.

“Vienna…” Dante began. “She’s his old lady. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want her in the thick of things.”

“Yeah,” I replied with that same humourless laugh. “Because Nico has always been about protection. Just ask his sister.”

Chris and Riley visibly cringed at that, but Dante and Hacksaw remained stony faced.

It was no secret that Nico was rumoured to have raped and murdered his own sister. If he could do that to his own flesh and blood, what chance did Gabriella have?

Although, she too was technically blood. His cousin.

His old lady.

And that’s when the cracks in the story began to form in my mind. I had all the pieces of the puzzle, but nothing seemed to fit perfectly.

A flash of a memory played behind my eyes—of me trying to force Gabriella to leave. Of her screaming and begging to stay.

“Pleaded? That doesn’t sound like a happy woman. That sounds like a trapped woman.”Rachel’s voice whispered around the memory.

Was she happy? Or was I only seeing what she wanted me to see?

She fought me like I was the enemy. Told me I needed to let her go and that she loved him… but what wasn’t she saying? What was hidden beneath the surface of her words?

I had let her go, because as much as I loved Dante, I wouldn’t be him. I wouldn’t kidnap Gabriella and keep her chained at my side.

But there had to be a middle ground. There had to be a way for me to see deeper inside, to get to the truth.

Or maybe I was just fooling myself. Just like I always had.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, exhaling slowly as I leaned back in my chair again.