Page 44 of Volatile Vice
What the hell is wrong with me?
“I’m sorry,” I mumble.
“You’ve been spending too much time with your grandfather.”
I swallow. “It’s not like I have a choice in the matter, Mom. If I’d stayed in the beginning, Mikey would still be alive, and Savannah would never have been in the situation of having to marry Miles McAllister. Dad wouldn’t be in jail.”
She shakes her head curtly. “Don’t blame yourself, Vinnie. I don’t blame you.”
“No, you blame Savannah. Which makes no sense at all.”
“I love Savannah,” Mom says. “I adore her. But she never knew her place.”
“She knows her place just fine. She’s a woman of the twenty-first century. But this family is still living in Victorian times.”
“It’s just the way it is, Vinnie.” She sighs, gazing toward the window. “I was barely eighteen when I was married off to your father. We grew to love each other, but we could’ve just as easily grown to hate each other.”
“I need to talk to you about something,” I say. “About Belinda?—”
The doorbell rings. “Who could that be?” Mom asks.
The butler answers the door, and a few moments later, he interrupts our dinner. “Pardon me, Mr. Gallo, Mrs. Gallo. There’s a young lady here to see you, Mr. Gallo. She says her name is Raven Bellamy.”
Just the mention of her name and my heart speeds up.
What is she doing here? How did she evengethere? She’s not supposed to be driving for more than twenty minutes.
Of course, after that Uber fiasco, she probably wouldn’t trust a rideshare.
I rise. “Excuse me, Mom.”
“She’s Falcon’s sister,” Mom says. “What’s she doing here?”
“I’ll find out.”
“Invite her to join us for dinner,” Mom says.
“I’ll see.”
I walk out of the kitchen dining area to the foyer where Raven stands underneath the grand crystal chandelier.
She’s wearing simple jeans, flip-flops, and a white T-shirt. Her cheeks are rosy, her lips pink. She looks beautiful, and both my heart and my dick react.
She gives me a tentative smile. “Hello, Vinnie.”
I can’t help myself. I walk toward her and take her into my arms, planting a chaste kiss on her lips before I simply hold her.
But just as quickly, I pull back, meet her gaze. “What are you doing here? I told you today that I can’t?—”
She places two fingers over my lips. “I know what you said. If you can look me in the eye and tell me to go away, I will. But I won’t accept it through a phone call. You have to look me in the eye. Tell me you don’t want to be with me.”
“Whether or not I want to be with you is irrelevant,” I say, “and you know it, Raven. I can’t keep you safe, and that kills me.”
She widens her eyes. “I believe youcankeep me safe. I believe I can keepyousafe. Safe in the bubble of our love.”
I let out a breath of air. “If only it were that simple.”
“Maybe it can be. Maybe it can’t. But I can tell you one thing.” She wraps her arms around my waist and gives me a squeeze. “I didn’t go through hell and survive cancer just to have the greatest love of my life taken away from me right as our relationship is beginning to blossom. It’s not fair. To either of us.”