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Damiano De Luca took a seat beside me, leaving one seat between us. His posture was casual, but I knew he’d taken this seat on purpose.
It just couldn’t be a coincidence.
Counting down from ten to ease my nerves, I tried to stop my fidgeting. He stayed silent for a moment as my discomfort heightened by the millisecond.
The wooden pillar dug into my thighs, and I forced myself into focusing on that irritant and not the one beside me.
“Am I bothering you?” he finally asked.
He sounded polite and well-mannered. A wolf capable of disguising himself as a lamb.
Gio stood at the podium giving a eulogy for Vince, but I couldn’t pay attention to it.
I tried to keep my voice calm and polite but closed off to more conversation as I murmured, “No.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw his lips twitch. Like he was working to suppress a smirk. At a funeral.
I took in his features. They were more Italian than mine. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Tanned skin. Expensive haircut and the face structure of an aquiline Roman statue.
A viper.
In this lighting, my hair looked dark today, too. No honey in it’s brown at the moment. Maybe it was just how drab I felt. Tessie ran to our pew, scrambled over a few laps, and took the empty seat between us.
Damian, in a move that made him actually look human, sent Tessie a small smile. “Ciao, piccola. Come ti senti?”
Italian.
I didn’t speak it, and not knowing what he had said had my alarm bells ringing. He continued in Italian, each word spiking my pulse.
Tessie turned to him. “Grazie, Damiano.”
They knew each other.
At least it sounded like they did.
It also sounded like she was comfortable around him, so I tried to relax but couldn’t. My spine remained stiff as a smile eclipsed Tessie’s face, and she waved to a brunette as she walked past.
It was the first time I’d seen Tessie smile in a while. Go figure it’d be to someone who made Damian freeze like he’d seen a truck barreling his way and couldn’t bring his legs to move.
The brunette with the amber eyes and bare face looked comfortable here. In her element. A cascade of dark waves, lips a natural red, and a fitted black dress to compliment her curves.
She returned Tessie’s smile.
“Tessie, I’ve missed you.” Her smile flattened as her eyes shifted to Damian. “D.”
I’d never heard a nickname spoken with so much condescension. Shock ripped through me at her clear disrespect for a syndicate boss. I wondered what it felt like to have that much confidence.
Or perhaps she was comfortable with Damian. It struck me as a little bit of both.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched Damian extricate himself from his seat and say goodbye to Tessie, completely forgetting me.
When they both left through a side door, I relaxed in my seat, forgotten but safe.
“Who was that?” I whispered to Tessie as Bastian took his place at the podium, and my heart squeezed for him.
“Damiano De Luca. He’s funny. I like him.”
“And the woman?”
