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Lia
Iwalked out of the bathroom, glanced at Ty still sitting in the chair and went to the closet. Ripping it open, I began sorting through my clothes, and then I sensed him loom up behind me.
“Are you sick?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said and spun around. Ty took up too much room — too much of my heart. I forgot what I was doing and paced to the window then to the bed. Too many emotions were rising in me, and I wanted to scream, to cry and ultimately to sleep. Strangely, I also wanted his body again.
“You’re exhausted,” Ty said and caught my shoulders before I could pace across the room again. “Lia, come on. Lie down.”
“No, I don't know what to believe. I don't know anything anymore. Everything feels weird. I feel weird, and I never cry this much. Maybe Iamsick.” I pulled away from him and turned to face him. “You are right, though.”
A slight frown marred Ty’s face and he tilted his head to the side, eyes wary. “About?”
I swallowed hard. “I couldn’t have done it. I couldn’t have shot you.” A faint smirk appeared on Ty’s face, and I wanted to kiss him as much as I wanted to slap him. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know that,” Ty said. “And if I realized you were sick, I might have gone a little easier on you. But now you seem much more yourself, if a little strung out.”
Breath sawing in and out of me, I gazed up at him and asked, “Can I trust you?”
Softness came into Ty’s eyes. He gave a slow nod, then he crushed me against himself. “I’m sorry, Lia, not for tanning your ass or fucking you senseless, never that.” I let out a watery chuckle at that, and his grip tightened. “But for everything you’ve gone through and for not protecting you better.” He smoothed a hand over my hair. “I promise I will avenge your mother for you.”
At that, I shook my head and pulled away. “No.No.”
Ty caught my arms. “Yes, Lia.”
“No,” I said as I tried to glare at him. “I can’t be with you. You are everything that my mother stood against. I mean, the first time I saw your name was on her work computer, Ty. How messed up is that?”
Something grim settled over Ty’s face, and he said tightly, “Too bad. I’m not letting you go.”
“Maybe you’re not as bad as Hendrix, sure. I’ll give you that,” I said. “But you’re still a Mafia don. You’ve killed, stolen, and cheated your way through life.” I shook my head and pulled free of his grasp. “I can’t be part of that. I need to be on the right path.”
“I had no choice aboutmyfucking path, Lia,” Ty said. “And you know that! I know you found my journals.” I gasped, but he shook his head. “It’s fine. I was mad, but then I was relieved. I didn’t have to explain myself — you read what happened. All I’ve known since my mother died is the world in which I am my father’s heir. I didn’t want this.”
“I know that, but?”
“No, there is no ‘but,’” Ty said. “I did my best to survive and anyone I’ve killed was self-defense or because they were an absolute fucking monster like Hendrix. I’ve done everything just to survive with a shred of my soul intact and to protect Daniel.” He shoved a hand in his hair. “And you don’t know my cousinLuca, but him too. Although, that’s a long story.” Ty turned his gaze to the window. “And my men.”
“All of us have been trapped in this cruel world, with no way out, and you can’t imagine what that’s like.” His fists clenched. “When you’re taught pain and a bloody code of honor to keep you safe, that’s all you know. That’s all you can see.”
I couldn’t respond to that, not with that stark note of misery in Ty’s voice that I’d never heard before.
Finally, Ty turned back to me, and he seemed strangely young in the moonlight, his eyes searching my face. “Weren't you going to kill me, even though your mother would've been against that kind of revenge?” I couldn't look away. “If I'd killed your mother, Lia, wouldn't you have killed me?”
Finally, I nodded, and this time, I closed the gap between us. I held onto Ty tightly, knowing that I would’ve done the same. I would’ve become the same as him for revenge and honor, and to survive in a blood-stained world of no mercy.
“You are the best thing to ever happen to me,” Ty whispered into my hair. “I know I don’t deserve you. But I want to.”
I didn’t answer with words but instead went up on my tiptoes and pulled his face to mine for a deep kiss.
Hendrix
“Shut off your fuckin’ phone,” I growled into the bed. The phone continued to buzz and rattle by my head, causing me to shove myself upright. “You hear me?”
The redhead was nowhere to be seen and, by the angle of the light, it had to be almost nine a.m. Rolling over, I realized it wasmyphone and picked it up from the bedside table.
A grin flitted across my face, and I answered with a smooth, “Hello? Lia?”
“I can’t do it,” she said, and I held in a laugh. “I can’t bring myself to kill him.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hendrix. I guess I should’ve taken you up on your offer.”
