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“I don’t think you’re stupid,” he said. “You’re just selfish like the rest of us.”
“Selfish?”
He circled the room, made his way back to the bar where he poured himself another drink.
“I don’t blame you,” he said. “We all want things.”
A bitter sigh escaped her mouth. “What have I ever wanted from you?”
“Safety, security, time to work in your little garden.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, Ari. I’m not judging you. I want things too.”
His words sent a wave of shame through her body. He was right. She’d been a frightened adolescent when their parents had been killed. She hadn’t looked too closely at what Primo was doing because she hadn’t wanted to know. Knowing would mean she had to do something.
Would have to risk the little bit of safety she’d found since her parent’s death.
She'd opted for ignorance instead, but that ignorance didn’t absolve her. Not when it was intentional.
She crossed the room to stand in front of him. “You’re right, Primo. For a long time, I wanted those things. Needed them. I pretended not to know what you were doing for my own benefit. But I’m not pretending now. I want to know.”
A sly smile touched his lips and he narrowed his eyes, as if something new was dawning on him. “How would you know about the fire at the shelter?”
“Did you do it?”
“You’ve been talking to him.” His voice turned icy. “You’ve been talking to Cavallo.”
“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “You’re trying to change the subject.”
He grabbed her arm. “Are you a traitor, Ari? Are you a fucking traitor?”
His grip was like a vise biting into her skin. She forced herself not to wince. “Talking to someone doesn’t make me a traitor.”
She could have told him that Damian had come to see her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Couldn’t bring herself to say something that might compromise Damian’s position even though there was no reason she should have any loyalty to him.
Primo was right. She was a traitor.
“So you have been talking to him,” Primo said. “How dare you?”
“How dare you? How could you do it?” Her voice shook, emotion threatening to close her throat around the words. “How could you?”
“You have no idea what it means to build what I’ve built,” he said, his voice raising. “No idea what it means to protect it.”
She glared at him, the dam crumbling on the emotions she’d been holding in check. On all the things she’d wanted to say.
“I know that you’re a coward. A fucking coward who would sacrifice women and children just to win a pissing contest with a man we both know has more balls than you’ll ever have.”
The strike against her face came so quickly she didn’t register it at first. There was Primo, glaring at her, and then a sting spreading across her lip and cheek as everything else went numb.
He raised his hand again, hesitated.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked. “I already know what you are.”
He lowered his hand and she put her palms against his chest and shoved, tears spilling onto her cheeks. “I’ll never forgive you for this, Primo. For any of it.”
She spun around, hurried for the door and grabbed her bag, barely able to see through the tears blurring her vision. She’d almost reached the door when she felt his hand close around her arm again. He spun her around to face him and she lashed out, tried to hit him, all her fury spilling over.
“Get your hands off me!”
“If you leave now you’re dead to me!” he bellowed. “Dead to me, Ari.”
She stopped with her hand on the door, her back to him. “You’ve been dead to me for a long time, Primo. I just didn’t know it until tonight.”
She opened the door and rushed into the hall before he could stop her again.
