Page 68 of His Pet

“No. You don’t understand, Mamma. They already think she’s dead. If they find out she’s here, she will be. I promise you that.”

“You’ve already lied to them?! Lorenzo!”

“Shh.”

I hold perfectly still when I feel his eyes move this direction. I’m just out of sight, but it wouldn’t take more than a few strides to spot me. I’m a sitting duck. I have been this whole time.

They want me dead.

My heart pounds, and my palms get sweaty. I find myself flicking my gaze up the driveway, expecting an army of mobsters to come marching down it. All to take out a girl, stupid enough to defy one of them… and stupid enough to fall in love.

“You can’t go againstSettimo. He may not be don yet, but your father will always side with him. You know that.”

“Exactly, which is why—”

“I can’t hide things from the familia.” The way she says it makes it sound like she’s confident in that decision, but there’s fear tainting it. “We will both go to Syrus and talk this out. She had ample opportunity to seek help at that restaurant and with me, and shehasn’t. That has to count for something.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

There’s a long pause. I bite down on my lip so hard a copper taste coats my tongue.

“Whatever they decide, you’ll have to respect…”

“I can’t.”

“Why, figlio? You couldn’t have done this without thinking it through. You knew it would come to this. What are you not telling me?”

Silence.

My heart thuds in my ears, and my throat is coated with sludge. Every breath I take is gurgled.

Somehow, I know he won’t hurt me. Part of me has always known it. He may play, he may threaten, but he would never kill me. I believe him when he says he can’t, and I believe his mother when she says it’s unlike him to hurt the innocent.

I don’t know if I’m innocent, but I know I don’t deserve to die. He knows this too.

Buttheydon’t.

I get the urge to go back inside, run to my room, slam the door, and hide underneath the covers from this conversation.

But I don’t move. I stay perfectly still, despite my heart pounding against my chest, begging to be freed.

“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” His mother says it like she’s realizing the obvious.

I wait for Lorenzo to deny it, but he still says nothing.

“You are. Lorenzo,” Nemma lets out a relieved breath, “they will understand! They would never—”

“They wouldn’t because she won’t be staying here, Mamma. I’m not stealing her life from her. She’ll still be a threat walking around in the world, even if she leaves Vegas. Settimo made his decision clear.”

I rest my head against the cabin and stare out into the night while I try to process… all of it. Everything is different, and yet nothing has changed. He sounds firm in his decision to drive me to that bus stop. And I’m suddenly much more willing to go. Yet, my heart hurts as much as it did before.

My frozen muscles thaw, and I sneak back into the cabin. I go to my room, climb into bed, and pull the covers over my head just as I wished I could minutes ago.

But I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad I know.

Once I’ve been under the covers, overthinking until my mind goes blank, the door opens and shuts. Hard, confident footsteps that can only belong to Lorenzo draw near and stop at my door.

He knocks, and when I don’t answer, he swings the door open. I stay under the covers like a toddler playing hide and seek. My eyes are wide open, staring at nothing but white when the bed shifts with his weight.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com