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I feign mock indignation.

“Excuse me?”

Dame rolls his eyes. “You got my brother drunk while you only pretended to drink. Which means you had a plan.”

My jaw drops as I dramatically gasp. “Me? A plan?!” I turn my nose up. “Frankly, I’m insulted that you would—stop it!!”

I giggle and shriek as he pins me to the wall and starts tickling me.

“Okay!!” I howl. “Okay okay okay!” I exhale and then suck on my teeth as I look up at him. “Ex-girlfriends.”

Dame frowns. “What?”

“I wanted to grill him about your ex-girlfriends. Not that he told me a freaking thing,” I mumble.

I was going to ask Dame about Cenzo's strange “baptism in blood” comment. But thinking about my own ultra-heavy, dark secrets that I’ve kept from him?

I’ve changed my mind.

“My ex-girlfriends?”

My jaw grinds.

God why do I hate even hearing him say that out loud?

Damiano smirks as he cages me against the table. “Dare I ask what you were planning to do with that information?”

I roll my eyes. “Nothing crazy…”

“Bella...”

I sigh heavily. “Just…you know, slowly replace every framed photo in their house with an almost-identical version where I’m standing in the background? Or pay strangers to walk past them on the street and whisper, 'It’s almost time'.” I lift my shoulders. “You know…girl stuff.”

He grins. “You’ve never had a real relationship before, have you?”

I glare at him. “What are you implying?”

“I’m implying,” he chuckles, “that if you had, you’d probably be in jail by now.”

We let Cenzo keep snoring on the couch as Damiano starts making dinner in the kitchen. I last a whole twelve minutes more before I can’t hold it in anymore.

“What does baptism in blood mean?”

Damiano goes still, his knife pausing on the cutting board.

“Where did you hear that?”

Shit.

I honestly thought this was an embarrassing or funny story. But everything about his voice and body language screams that I’ve wildly misjudged it.

“Sorry, I⁠—”

“Cenzo?” He murmurs, turning to me.

I nod, wincing. “He was…really drunk.”

A small smirk touches the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, I gathered that.”