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The twisted sense of satisfaction inside me every time I saw one of the headlines concerned me. But it meant one less Nova. One less of the monsters who killed a woman in her own home.Myhome. At least, it used to be my home. My home was in California now with myZiettoVito.
I stood in the elevator of my hotel with my cell phone in my hand.
“The past is the past for a reason. It’s meant to stay behind you, not lead you.”Tommaso’s words played over in my head like a broken record.
If Sofia was dead, then it was time to breathe life back to Raven.
I did not know how to do that without Vito.
The elevator door opened, and I stepped out, crossing the hall to my room with my finger hovering over the call button. I unlocked the door with my key card, but the moment I pushed it open, a hand latched onto my arm from inside and yanked me into the room.
The door slammed shut as my assailant shoved me face-first against it, my arm twisted behind my back, pressing my cheek hard against the cold wood.
It happened so fast, I hadn’t seen his face, but the faces I’d seen in the newspaper flashed through my mind, making hot fury mingle with the fear that coursed through my veins. The man who had snuck into my hotel room, who’d attacked me, might have been some random psycho, but he could just as easily have been one of the men who’d murdered my mother.
“Don’t move,” my attacker hissed.
The blood in my veins was too hot to obey. I slammed my foot down on my attacker’s foot with every ounce of rage I felt.
“Merde!” my attacker cursed. He still held my arm, but his grip had loosened, and I yanked myself out of his grasp and spun around.
“What the…” The rest of the words got stuck in my throat.
I squeezed my eyes shut, half-expecting to see someone else when I opened them.
Nope. He was still there, standing right in front of me, staring at me like he was looking at a ghost.
“What are you doing here?”
The words felt like sandpaper in my throat.
I stared up at the face I knew so well, a face I hadn’t seen in a decade. A face I thought had been burned to ashes.
“Sofia?” Dominic said. It came out even more strangled than my words had. “Is it really you?”
He took a tentative step forward as his eyes grazed over my face, taking in every slope and wrinkle.
My tongue felt glued in place. Even after all the hurt and anger, Dominic was my brother. I imagined seeing him again so many times in the past eleven years.
Now words eluded me.
When his gaze had passed by me,right through me, that night at Onyx, I told myself that was it. Whatever tether left hanging between me and my family,Dom,that I thought I could still cling to was gone. Cut off.
Dominic stood in front of me, alive and breathing and real. But my feet felt like they were drilled to the carpet, my jaw hammered shut, my lungs pressed flat against my rib cage.
He took another step forward, closing half the space I’d put between us. It was like a line drawn in the sand. The moment he crossed it, he was no longer the brother I lost, or the brother who didn’t want me, or the brother who had forgotten me.
“Dominic,” I whispered right before he wrapped his arms around me and drew me into a hug I thought I’d never feel again.
Sobs clambered up my throat and escaped, one on top of the other as I shook against his familiar tall frame.
“You’re bigger,” I choked out between sobs, even though he was always bigger than me.
“So are you,” he said, pulling away enough to look at me. Tears rimmed his eyes, and when he blinked, one fat drop spilled over and trickled down his cheek. “You’re all grown up.” He pulled me back into his embrace. “I’ve spent months looking for you. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that you were alive untilMamminapassed away.”
They lied to them too. Maria and Vincent Luca had lied to the rest of the world. They locked me in a cold, steel room and threw the key away. I wanted to be angry, I could feel the stirrings of it in the pit of my stomach, but it fizzled unto itself.
I could feel Dominic’s chest pounding against my cheek. He wasalive.
