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Escaping from them before they could speak, she almost fell down the steps in haste as she went straight for the kitchen. She tried to calm her racing heart as she washed a few dishes, but an unexpected voice from the doorway only startled her more. “Hey! I’m Dia!”
The glass she was holding slipped from her hand as she turned around, hitting the floor with a clank but thankfully not breaking. “Uh, hello.”
Dia raised her eyebrows. “Are you okay?”
Haven stared at her. Of course she wasn’t okay. She was alone and missing her mama, so confused and emotionally spent that she didn’t know which way was up anymore.
Not to mention she felt like she was going to be sick again.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, looking away. She took a few deep breaths, woozy, and headed for the stairs without another word. Breathing heavily, she had to pause when she reached the top of the staircase. Her vision blurred, her chest burning as she lost her breath. Everything grew hazy as her legs gave out.
She collapsed, her head slamming into the wall as she hit the floor with a thump, the sound of a freight train rushing through her ears.
* * *
“Haven?”
Haven pried her eyes open at the familiar voice, incredibly close, and made out the set of green eyes hovering in front of her. She blinked a few times as Carmine backed away. “Maledicalo! You can’t do that to me!”
Confused, her vision blurred again from unexpected tears. “What?”
“You can’t pass out like that! You looked like you were dead. Christ, I thought you were dead!”
She stared at him. He’d worried she was dead?
“Dom called my father to come check on you. You hit your head pretty hard.” He brushed his hand across her forehead. His fingertips were cool against her feverish skin. He spoke again, his voice so soft she barely heard it. “Bella ragazza, you scared the hell outta me.”
She gazed at him. “What does that mean?”
“What does what mean? I said you scared me.”
They sat in silence, Carmine stroking her cheek with the back of his hand as he stared into her eyes. It was uncomfortable, but Haven couldn’t break from his gaze. “I’m sorry this happened,” she said. “Especially with your girlfriend visiting.”
His brow furrowed briefly before he laughed. “I don’t have a girlfriend, but if I did, it definitely wouldn’t be Dia. I have the wrong equipment for her.”
Haven wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Her cheeks reddened from the intensity of his stare, but before she could get her thoughts in order, Dominic’s voice rang out. “Colpo di fulmine.”
They both jumped, glancing toward the doorway. Carmine pulled his hand away. “What?”
“Colpo di fulmine.” A slow grin spread across Dominic’s face. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it hit sooner.”
Carmine’s expression shifted. “No fucking way.”
“Yep,” Dominic said. “Kaboom!”
Carmine stormed from the room as Dominic laughed, taking a seat on the bed where his brother had been. “That boy is full of surprises.”
* * *
Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can’t be denied. It’s beautiful and messy, cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there’s no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is irrevocably changed.
Carmine never believed in it. Colpo di fulmine, love at first sight, soul mates . . . he thought it was all bullshit. Love was just people deluded by lust, pussy blinding men from using common sense.
He still wanted to think that. He wanted to deny it existed. But a twinge of something deep inside of him—past the thick steel-reinforced, Kevlar-coated, barbed-wire fence surrounding his heart—suggested otherwise. And when he saw Haven’s limp body on the floor, he couldn’t ignore it anymore. This peculiar girl had come out of nowhere, and he was afraid she’d leave as quickly as she’d appeared. That she’d vanish from his life before he had a chance to know her. His chest ached at the thought, his insides on fire, and the girl who caused it was oblivious to it all.
In other words, Carmine was royally fucked.
He bolted out of the house and drove to the next town, scrounging up enough change in his car to buy a cheap fifth of vodka with his fake ID. He pulled over alongside the road and drank alone in the darkness until his mind was fuzzy and he felt nothing.
