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Silence falls across the lot. There’s a pinch of regret in Cassius’ face, but Lorenzo just looks bored and Vinicius is preoccupied with his hair.
“I’m sorry,” I finally mutter.
Chiara looks up. “Sorry for what, exactly?”
Not for what we did. I’m sorry that I never explained why. “On your birthday, we did what we had to do. We walk into every unknown situation and establish ourselves fast as the most dangerous men in the room. That way no one challenges us. This is how we stay successful. This is how we stayalive.”
“But I wasn’t going to hurt you! I was just trying to celebrate my birthday. The four of you knew you were coming to meet a seventeen-year-old girl. There was no reason for you all to scare the living daylights out of me.”
“We were coming to arrange a business deal,” Vinicius says, from the other side of the bleeding corpse. “The deal involved the most powerful man in Coldlake and his daughter who’s been wrapped up in cotton wool her whole life. We needed to make it clear to your family who we are and what we’re about.”
I turn toward Chiara and put my hands on her shoulders. “Forget about them. This is between you and me. For my part in how we terrorized you that night, I’m sorry. I lost my temper. I assumed you were a spoiled brat and so I treated you like one, but I see now that you were just scared.”
I stare deep into her eyes. Come on, baby. We understand each other better now.
Chiara sniffs and doesn’t say anything. Then she pulls away from me and bends down over the Geak’s corpse. Gingerly, with her thumb and finger, she lifts his leather jacket and fishes out her phone.
The screen is shattered, and Chiara’s shoulders slump. “Will one of you please call me a taxi?”
“Sure, call a taxi to a murder scene,” Lorenzo mutters.
“Then I’ll walk,” she seethes at him.
I grasp her hand. “I’m taking you home. Come on.”
We head for my car but Cassius steps in front of us. His white shirt is spattered with blood and his eyes are only for Chiara. “Bambina, there’s danger at every turn in this city. Sometimes three is better than one. Have a think about that.”
“Fuck off Cassius,” I growl. “I can protect my woman on my own.”
The three of them could have finished the Geak off by themselves, but they called me because they wanted to rub my nose in the fact that they saved my bride from being raped while I had no idea where she was.
“Sure, you could have.” Cassius sneers. “Enjoy kissing your bride, who’s all in one piece and just as beautiful as she always was, thanks to us. You’re welcome, youcazzo di merda.”
Dick-faced piece of shit.
“Cazzo si.” I put my fingers under my chin and flick them at Cassius, telling him to get fucked. “Come on, Chiara.”
We walk out to the jumble of cars on the deserted street and get into my Maserati. By now, the sun has gone down and dusk has set in. Mayor Romano must be wondering where his daughter is. He’s going to take one look at Chiara’s ashen face and know that something went down.
When we reach her house I take her inside, hoping I can distract the mayor while she slips upstairs.
No such luck. He comes charging down the hall the moment we get inside. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for hours.”
“Apologies, Mayor Romano. I should have informed you that I was seeing Chiara today.”
“Don’t lie for her, Fiore. The school rang to say they saw Chiara getting into a black Escalade. Where was she?” He grabs Chiara by the arm and shakes her. “Where were you?”
I try and step between them. “Leave my fiancée alone.”
“She’s not your fiancée yet, and she never will be if you lie to my face.”
Chiara seems calm. Too calm. She regards her father with hollow eyes. “I was going home with a boy to get rid of my virginity. You’re all so obsessed with it and I didn’t want it anymore. It turned out he was in a gang and he and his friends all wanted to rape and murder me because of you. Goodnight.”
Chiara tries to walk away from her father but he yanks her back, and she stumbles. My blood pressure goes through the roof seeing him hurt her.
“You were doingwhat?” he roars. “How could you act like such a slut?”
The rape and murder part doesn’t interest Mayor Romano. Just the virginity part.
