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“Something told me you wouldn’t have eaten otherwise.”
Seeing Ilias inside the house, sitting within arm’s reach with eyes that never left me, with eyes that wanted to care and protect me, subsided the emptiness from this morning, bringing warmth to my heart. His body relaxed the longer he spoke.
I trusted a stranger once again, but this time, I didn’t want to make the same mistakes. I didn’t want to feel weak or useless. I wanted to be able to take care of myself if the past ever caught up with me. Most importantly, I didn’t want to see his sky-blue eyes lifeless before mine. But I needed my mind and body ready for the future, and to achieve that, I needed him.
“Novak?” I began, just as a hidden smile formed around his features. “I have a favor to ask.”
Eight
Ilias
There it was again, my name on her lips, and her timid round eyes peered up at me.
At that moment, I knew I would say yes to anything she needed, anything she would ask. All it took was the sound of my last name coming from her mouth.
Davina brought many emotions, too many in such a short time. Impatience for her lack of strategy and reckless thoughts. Her haste plans agitated me, and her denial of the situations she could put herself in annoyed me, but after witnessing her jumping from the second story window, I was shocked at the lengths she’d go. What was she thinking? She could have hurt herself. From the other side of the kitchen window, her head had risen with a beaming smile that quickly turned into a smirk when she noticed me watching her. It had made me chuckle, seeing her reaction. Soon, pride had taken over as I knew a jump without adrenaline pumping through your veins wasn’t always easy to make, especially to someone who had never done such things. Seeing the glimpse of belief shining back in her eyes, even if it was only for a second as her shoulders rolled with self-confidence, had been plenty to bring me happiness for her.
“Help me fight back on my own,” she’d asked.
With so many emotions that had run past me in just one morning, I responded the only way I could—blindly.
She could’ve asked for anything, but she’d asked for strength. I could help, but her body language would close off time after time as the day passed, skittish from the simple sounds around the house that made her flinch.
I didn’t know where to start. I needed help from someone who had the most experience with the subject of fears, and that person was Lucca. Although, Lucca was more like someone who extorted fears, not vanquished them. The thought of calling Viktor quickly left, he would question me non-stop. So, it left me with Arlo, Lucca’s right hand, and my second eldest brother. And he was perfect for the job.
I left the house with the promise of returning tomorrow so we could begin working to help her gain the same feeling of strength she felt after her jump.
With her house in my rearview mirror, I called Arlo.
“I’m in the middle of business, Ili. This better be urgent.” Arlo’s voice was short, but he would have to deal.
“Define urgent?” I smarted off.
“Stronzo, are you fucking dying?” he hissed, calling me an asshole, and I chuckled when his Italian accent only strengthened.
“Niet.” No, I replied in Russian, and he took a deep breath. The background noise subsided from his end. He was now alone.
“Italian or Russian?” Arlo asked with a smug smile in his voice. I was the least fluent in both languages, while neither him nor Lucca had an inch of Russian in their blood.
Neither.
“English,” I said, unamused.
“What do you need?”
“Advice?”
The line went silent until the sound of his deep breath and seagulls squawking filled my ear.
“Fine, I’m at the marina. Be here in twenty, not one minute before.”
“You know I can’t be seen at the shipyard,” I reminded him.
“Thirty minutes. Malvagio’s. Back alley.” The call ended before I got the chance to tell him Lucca’s night club was too far to make it in time with traffic.
I sped through the streets of Miami, knowing one thing my brothers detested was unpunctuality. With each boulevard I crossed, the darker the roads became and the more it attracted the night life to awaken. People and cars swarmed the streets the closer I got to downtown’s elite roads. There was no point in finding a parking valet a street over from the club. Most skyscrapers, hotels, and buildings were owned by the Moretti or Mancini last name.
A black Cadillac SUV blocked the back alley of Malvagio’s and three figures hid in the shadows as my car rolled past it. Not far, I was lucky to find a parking meter open by the road. Quickly, I left my car behind and checked the time on my phone.
