Page 49 of Vicious Fall

“Why?”

For months now, she’s already been protecting Amarie, even if she doesn’t know it, simply by not telling Giovanni that she’s the drake. I knew he had Lucia searching for her but she’d always reported back to him that she didn’t know anything from my understanding.

And now, she just killed the man who intended on killing her.

Her jaw tightens as she places the pieces of the gun back in the case and finally she looks up at me, honesty in her gaze. “I don’t know.”

***

“Where did you go with Lucia today?”

Vito’s voice coming from so close behind me catches me off guard and I spin around a hand on my chest as I face him.

I’d been preparing to make popcorn so I could go to the movie room. Lucia dropped me back off at home a few hours ago before leaving like the hounds of hell were on her.

I take Vito in. His hair is growing longer again, a light dusting of scruff on his face as he peers at me. His tongue runs across his lips and I shift. “What?”

He wrinkles his face. “I asked where did you go with Lucia?”

“Oh.” My face heats. “We went to eat.”

“For five hours?” he asks, raising a brow.

Were we really gone that long?

After she’d packed up her gone, Lucia had done the same with the dead body. I’d tried to pretend like it hadn’t been in the trunk as we drove around but it hadn’t gone well. Lucia dropped it off at some warehouse saying she’d dispose of it later, but the warehouse had been thirty minutes out of town so it’d been an hour long drive at the shortest.

So yeah, I guess we were gone that long.

“We drove around for a bit as well,” I say, knowing there’s no damn way I can tell him about what happened with Amarie. “I honestly just wanted some space to breathe out of the house, so it didn’t matter what we did.”

His lips press together and I don’t think he belives me, but he doesn’t push. Instead, he gestures behind me. “Can I join you?”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“Your movie,” he says and I realize he’s gesturing to the popcorn behind me.

“Oh.” I rub my arm. “Yeah.”

I don’t know the last time I felt this awkward and I know it’s because this is the first time I’ve spoken with Vito since I shot at him.

Maximo shot right by Enzo’s head and yet he doesn’t act anything like this.

Turning, I grab the bowl of popcorn, trying to ignore Vito’s stare on the back of my head. “I found the Harry Potter movies, so I’m getting started on movie one,” I tell him, struggling to find something to discuss.

He lets out a low chuckle, “Those belong to Maximo.”

This doesn’t surprise me all that much. I know for a fact that he likes pop music, specifically Justin Bieber, after riding with him in the car once. So why wouldn’t he oddly like Harry Potter as well of all things.

“He wanted to be a wizard at one point when he was younger,” Vito continues as we make it to the movie room, “something about he’d be able to incinerate his old man with one spell.”

Definitely sounds like Maximo.

Humming to myself, I focus in on the screen as the movie starts but I can’t help the constant awareness of Vito next to me. Five minutes into the movie, I can’t tell which one of us has moved closer to the other, but our thighs are touching, warm and firm. The awkward tension has been tossed out of the room and replaced with something else that has hairs standing up on my arms.

Jesus.

I rub at my arm.