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“Please.”
“Fine.” Irritation coated her voice. “I’ll go update everyone.” She kissed my head. “I’ll be back soon.”
She left, taking the air with her.
“They’re dead?” I asked, and Nicco nodded.
“We were too complacent and it almost cost us…” His eyes guttered.
“She’s okay, she’s safe,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
“She won’t talk to me about what happened. Won’t breathe a word of it. Did… did they hurt her?”
“Not any more than they did me,” I said, guilt swarming my chest.
I was a bastard.
A liar and a thief.
I’d stolen her innocence when I should have been strong enough to resist. To say no.
“When that bullet hit me…” My eyes shuttered as I inhaled a ragged breath. “I thought it was the end.”
“We got there just in time.”
“How?”
“We picked up one of Mahoney’s men. Enzo tortured the location out of him.”
“Of course he did.” I snorted but the humor died the second I took in Nicco’s gaunt expression.
“It’s my fault,” he said quietly, his voice so full of pain and despair it tainted the air around us.
“You can’t blame yourself. That’s a road you can’t travel down, you know that. This life is…”
“Fucked up.” He let out a heavy sigh, dropping into the chair beside my bed. “When I got the call, I almost lost it. Arianne had to calm me down. She’s my sister. My baby sister and they thought to use her against me.”
“Love, family, is weakness. You know that.” His eyes narrowed dangerously, and I added, “But it’s also strength, Nicco,” I added. “It gives you something to fight for. Something to strive to be better for.”
“I just keep asking myself if I made the wrong call, dragging Arianne into this life. And now Lucia.
“I love them more than life,” he said. “But I want more for Alessia. I want her to know more than… than this.”
He might as well have driven a knife through my heart and finished the job Mahoney’s men started.
“I’m sure she’ll flourish at college.” The words soured on my tongue.
“I’m considering asking her to go away to college.”
“W-what?”
He nodded, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “I think it would do her good… after everything.”
“But what about Bella? They have everything planned.”
“Maybe they should both consider it. I don’t want her to feel trapped by this life, Tris. I don’t ever want that for her.”
I got it, I did.
