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“It’s not anifanymore,” he interrupts, his voice still hard but now also laced with an undercurrent of panic. “They’re back.”
Blinking, I sit back in my chair again.
“They were spotted in a small town a few miles from here yesterday morning.” He holds my gaze. “Two of them. The two men. There are still no signs of the girl your age who you said got cold feet that night.”
Got cold feet. That was what I told them. That was how I explained what Isabella did that night. Because how else was I supposed to explain it?Idon’t even fully understand what happened back then.
“But we will find her too,” Federico finishes.
Guilt twists my insides. I have already found her. And I’ve been keeping it a secret for weeks now. I’mstillkeeping it a secret.
“Are you sure it’s them?” I ask. “The two men. We only caught them partially on one camera in the dark. How can you be sure it’s them?”
“It’s them.”
“How can you be certain—”
He slams his palm down on the desk, making the pens clatter in alarm. “Because I’ve been searching for the bastards who killedmy sonfor six years. I know that it’s them. And you are coming home to live here now.” Desperation leaks into his voice. “Because I cannot lose you too. Do you hear me?”
My heart aches at the pain written all over his usually so composed and stern face.
Heaving a long sigh, I meet his gaze with soft eyes. “If you truly want to keep me safe, you need to let me return to Blackwater. I know that you’re scared…”
He huffs and flicks his gaze to the side, as if the great patriarch of the feared Morelli family could never even consider admitting that he was scared.
“But it is the best place, the safest place, for me to be right now,” I finish.
“I want you here. With me.”
“And here is exactly where they will look for me. They will never think to search for me at Blackwater.”
He clenches his jaw. I just keep holding his gaze with soft eyes, silently praying that he will see reason. If he decides to keep me here, there is nothing I can do about it. Because no one disobeys the head of the Morelli family. Not even me.
“Then I want you surrounded by guards,” he says at last.
Relief flickers through me, but I keep it firmly off my face as I reply, “I can’t have guards following me around campus. It would be like erecting a giant flashing sign pointing straight at me.”
“Around the house then at least.”
“In civilian clothes and undercover, in that case.”
“Yes.”
I nod. “Deal.”
He smiles faintly then.
Raising my eyebrows, I ask, “What?”
“This was not a negotiation, and yet you managed to turn it into one.” He gives me an approving look. “You will make a great king when I’m gone.”
My heart twists. “Don’t say that. You’re not dying yet.”
“No. But with my illness—”
“You will beat that. You will be fine. It will all be fine.”
Another smile drifts over his lips. “Now who is doing the excessive worrying?”
