“Don’t touch me!” I bellow and hit his hand away. “Don’t ever touch me again. Can’t you see it?” I ask him, my malicious nature consuming me whole. “We don’t want you here! We don’t even need you. Enzo is a better father figure to me than you ever have been. He loves me; he doesn’t want me around to do his dirty work.”
I get no option to say another word as my father leaves the room. He doesn’t depart on a nasty note, or repay with a kindly spoken threat. More worryingly, he just leaves the room. Giovanni follows out after him. The silence is golden. But now we’re alone, I decide to leave and go lick my own wounds for the evening. But there is just one more thing left for me to do.
“Oh, Enzo?”
“Yeah?” he asks me back, looking up at me.
I keep my face stone cold; I feel nothing anymore toward my heritage, my family, or my fate. “I want out.”
***
“What the actual fuck?”
“Hello to you, too,” I mumble as I cross the room and throw my things down onto the chair beside Zane’s bed. I put my hand onto the top of the chair and now finally take note of how much my body aches. The drive here must have taken the majority of my adrenaline because now I feel spent, weary, and a wreck. “It’s nothing,” I feign, using a lie, and I’m not even sure who I’m saying it to more – Zane or myself.
“Amelia, this isn’t fucking nothing,” Zane argues as he sits up. I don’t feel an overwhelming need to jump in and stop him; he looks like he’s in less pain than he did only days ago. He’s also in his own clothes, which makes me think he’s doing far better than he possibly is. “What in the hell happened between the other night and now?”
“You wouldn’t believe me,” I comment dryly and look to him. “It’s all superficial. In a few days you won’t even notice it.”
“If you don’t tell me what happened, in a few days I’ll still be asking,” Zane remarks back at me. He cocks a brow, waiting. “Amelia, what in the hell happened?”
I have to think quickly, and I do.
“Giovanni got drunk,” I lie, knowing Gio is my only hope of a sincere fib. “He got annoyed at me for a comment I had made earlier, and with everyone out of the house, he finally took it out on me.” I look to Zane and sigh. “Enzo came home just in time. It’s taken care of.”
“I could fucking kill that brother of yours,” Zane grunts, his teeth grinding together.
“Not in your current condition.” I go sit beside him to try to settle him. “He’s been taken care of but not just by my brothers, by my father, too. He isn’t our worry for a bit.”
“Don’t even mention your father,” Zane adds viciously. “I could kill him too. He doesn’t deserve to live after everything he has you do. He doesn’t even show remorse when he says he loves you. I love you, but it doesn’t mean I’ll extort you and then shun you all at once. I love you, Amelia, there are no conditions.” He tries to keep himself calm, but he’s clearly struggling. “Mark my words, one day he will meet me again, and I will show him what I’ve been waiting to do.”
“What’s that?” I ask, not sure if I truly want to know.
“That he isn’t indestructible.” He looks at me. “I’ve been planning that day for a long, long time.”
I look away, unable to meet his gaze. Once again, I’m shown my true reality and he’s in a hospital still. I am an affascinante assassino. Well, according to my father anyway. He made me into this and called it my birthright. This is the fate he has given me, but there is only one issue with that – he doesn’t know my true fate has a beating heart and a bullet made for him.
The silence that settles apparently gives Zane a moment to take in my full outward appearance.
“You look tired,” Zane comments, his eyes swarming all over my face.
“I didn’t sleep very well,” I tell him and offer a smile. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not, so quit covering up.” He then shifts onto the bed, leaving room for one more person. “Come and lie with me. I’ve had you sitting beside my bed or sitting on it and had enough. Crawl under the covers and lie with me for a little while.”
I give him a wayward look, wondering if he’s being serious. However, when he pats the bed I realize he is. I cave quickly and go to his side. I kick off my pumps and climb onto the bed beside him. He settles quickly, forcing my head onto his chest. I wonder how much grief this is causing his body, but he doesn’t make a fuss, just hugs me closer than ever before.
“Has much happened since I was last here?” I ask him, curiously to see what’s happened in the time since we last saw one another.
“Some of the guys from work popped in. You missed them,” Zane begins to say. “They had picked up some stuff for me and were asking about you.”
“Me?” I ask, moving my head slightly to look up at him.