The man begrudgingly agreed — and after a few glasses of wine, added in a chicken for good measure.
To say our parties were legendary… well, that would be an understatement, but this one, it felt… off. Like everyone was sitting on pins and needles just waiting for something horrible to happen.
Even Nico was in the corner whispering with his parents.
They raised their voices above the music. Nico took one look at me, then stomped over to where I was standing. “We cannot marry.”
Hey, wasn’t that supposed to be my line?
“Um, okay.” I tried to look upset, when really I was elated. But why the sudden change of heart? “Can I ask why?” Not that I wanted him to go back on his proclamation, but he seemed angry for some reason.
“You are bad blood.” He sneered. “We cannot have bad blood in our family.”
“Bad blood,” I repeated. “I’m one hundred percent Italian.”
Again, why was I arguing with him about this? The amount of cologne that man had on was staggering. I took a step back just so I could breathe.
He finally locked eyes with me. “You are bad blood.”
Yeah, you said that freak show.
“Okay then.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Sorry for being… bad?”
“It is all right.” His shoulders sank. “You cannot change the circumstances of your birth.”
For some reason, his insult made me want to pluck out his eyebrows and feed the hair to the chickens.
“Well,” I said in a shaky voice. “I guess that’s that.”
He backed away. “Abandonato Scum,” he muttered under his breath, and then he joined his parents on the other side of the room. I saw Dante speaking to them. He looked — afraid.
Dante never looked afraid.
I motioned him over.
He looked directly at me. Recognition flared in his eyes. Then he turned to the crowd. Mouth open, I stared. He’d just ignored me.
Another thing he’d never done.
He turned down the music and whistled. “Party’s over, we have…” His eyes locked on mine. “Business.”
The surrounding people nodded their heads and started cursing in Italian as if they knew exactly what type of business he was talking about.
Still confused, I watched as every last person left our house.
“Dante…” I swallowed back the fear in my throat. “What’s going on?”
“War,” he whispered.
“America’s at war!” I screamed. “Oh my gosh, do we even have a bomb shelter?” I started running around in circles, I needed to grab a book or something, or my notes. Crap! I needed my letters!
“Val!” Dante yelled.
“I need—“ I was hyperventilating, but I couldn’t stop “—to go to my room and get—”
“Val!” Dante roared, gripping me by the arms so that I was forced to look into his icy blue eyes. “Not that kind of war. It’s… business.”
“Business,” I said dumbstruck. “Is war?” I shook my head. “You’re not making sense. None of this is making sense!”
“Good.” He looked relieved. “That’s… good.”
“Dante?”
“Val,” Gio barked my name as he limped into the room; his lip was bleeding. Sergio wasn’t far behind.
I charged toward Sergio. “You hurt my uncle! You bastard!” Sal and Papi followed, all of them bloody.
They were the least violent men I knew.
And Sergio, well, he screamed violence! It was in the very air he breathed, the way he carried himself.
Dante tried to pull me back, but Sergio lifted up his hand. “It’s okay, let her. It will make her feel better.”
So for the first time in my life.
I hit another human being.
Because I was afraid.
I hit him in the chest, and when he didn’t move or even make a noise, I hit him again and again and again as the confusion of the night washed over me, and when I was done, I realized, he was hugging me.
“Where is her room?” he asked, not seeming to address anyone in particular.
Someone must have pointed because nobody answered, and he picked me up in his arms and carried me up the stairs and into my bedroom where he gently placed me on my bed and sighed. “You’re young.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” I said as tears streamed down my face. “Why did you hurt my uncles?”
“Would you believe me if I said they hit me first?”
“No.”
He chuckled. “They may seem old — they can pack a punch.”
“My uncles would never hit a person.” The idea was almost laughable. I probably would have laughed if I wasn’t so scared.
“Okay.” He sounded like he didn’t believe me. “Val.” He used the name I’d told him to. “Sleep.”
Yeah, right, because sleep was going to come so easily. A snort of disbelief escaped as I glared. “And things will look better in the morning?”
He hesitated, those gorgeous lips pressed into a firm line. “No.”
“That wasn’t very encouraging.”
“Would you rather I lie?”