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“Benedetto, it is not like we are dating or anything like…”
“Shut up, that isn't what I asked.”
She pouts and walks to the bed, then sits.
“Now you want to play that card? You didn't ask me to the wedding and I wanted to reconnect with my friends. But no one even wanted me there,” she begins to pick at her dress.
“I was going to ask you to be my date, but I was waiting for the perfect time that never fucking came, and you …” I grind my teeth and inhale. “I know I can be a piece of work, but I want to keep you safe. You are without protection now and I need to keep you safe till I'm sure you can walk these streets and not be cornered,” I walk to the bed and squat in front of her.
“I feel alone,” she lifts her eyes from her trembling fingers, and I see tears swelling in them, “I have always felt this way, but it's worse now.”
“But you are not, I'm here to protect you, I'm here for you, and you know I'll take care of you when I say I will,” I take my thumb to her cheek and stroke it tenderly.
She inhales, “I know,” she swallows.
I take a seat beside her on the mattress. I want to wrap her in my arms and whisper reassuring words to her till she mumbles them in her sleep. But I stop myself.
I get her point. She feels like an outsider watching her life move past her. And even though I have said countless times that I want to protect her, she can still tell I treat her like an outsider. I want to change that. I want her to know that she is a part of me now. Where I go, I want her to go. I want her to take my people as hers and my enemies as hers. I want to bring her on board and up to speed.
“There's something I need your help with, and it's about Claudio,” I take her trembling hands into mine and she stiffens.
“I don't want to be part of whatever family brawl is happening between you two,” she shakes her head.
“I need your help to make him confess what he did,” I go back to squatting in front of her, still holding both her hands. “He has to admit what he did before I kill him.”
Her eyes pop and she drops them immediately, shaking her head. I hold her by the chin to steady her head and keep our eyes cinched.
“Please.” There's a part of me that won't give up the idea of doing this with her. I feel like I can only trust her and Orazio on this one. And I just fucking want her by my side.
“I will get hurt, and I don’t want to kill anyone, especially a man as powerful as Claudio.”
“I'll protect you, Rosaline. You have no fucking idea what I would do for you.” And it's best she doesn't.
She exhales, “But what did he do, why kill him?”
There.
It is the last thing I want to talk about but I need to get her up to speed.
Damn it, she is my undoing.
Chapter Twenty
ROSE
What am I hearing?
I feel anxiety creep through me and goosebumps break out on my skin.
Claudio did what and we are doing what?
I swallow nervously, wishing I could rewind and take this day back to before I even set foot outside the manor with my stupid high hopes of leaving Boston and starting my life again.
“This is too much,” I shake my head, “I shouldn't know this much.”
I mean, I want to know, but I never asked because I felt it was none of my business. And here in the underworld, the less you know, the safer you are.
“But I want you to,” Benedetto squeezes my hands gently and begins to rain soft kisses on my twitching fingers.
