“I already told you, Fay,” Kent sighs, starting to stand up from the bed. “You don’t need to know – I’ll tell you what you need to know –“ “Kent!” I exclaim, getting up on my knees as he stands up from the bed and turns away from me. “Seriously, Kent! You’re being unfair!” He turns to me, anger
I jump awake at the sound of the alarm clock, gritting my teeth and hating that thing. But it’s silenced almost immediately and I raise my hand to rub at my eyes, feeling cramped and horrible and terribly sad after my night alone in this stupid chair. But as I start to come awake I notice that the
At breakfast yesterday and today, Kent came and placed my plate in front of me, as he always does. And then he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared at me. Which pissed me off. A lot. So both mornings, I just pushed the plate of food away and picked up my coffee, ignoring him a
My eyes go immediately to the door of Kent’s office at the bottom of the stairs, which is – as I hoped – still standing wide open, light spilling out of it. When I get to the landing I cross to the door as quietly as I can, peeking inside. He’s there, as I knew he’d be, though he’s never in there
“I’m sorry too,” I murmur, sniffing, my voice thick with my crying. “I should – I should trust you –“ “No, what I said was unforgivable,” he murmurs against my hair. “Well, yeah,” I say, whipping my head up to glare at him a little while I wipe at my face, an act that makes him smile in relief.
I cover my mouth with my hand, my fingers brushing against Kent’s bare knee pressed against my face, desperate to hush the sound of my panting breath. A string of obscenities flies through my head as I press my eyes shut, praying frantically that Alessi didn’t see me – that he doesn’t peek around
“Ah!” Alessi says, laughing a little, apparently pleased. “This is wonderful, Kent. We will be…very pleased, to be able to bring this new business to Italy. It will be quite lucrative, for us to be able to get a foot in this different game.” “Yes,” Kent snaps, clearly eager for him to go. “Altho
My mouth drops a little at the blunt way that Kent basically admits that…that he kills people. Maybe every day. For money. I think back, suddenly, to the day after I met Kent – when I sat on my couch with my little laptop perched on my knees, googling him, seeing all of the legitimate businesses h
My dad greets him with such genuine joy and excitement that it makes my heart swell with joy. They talk for a few minutes about Dominic’s day before dad gives him a little nudge back towards the gate where Kent and I are waiting. Dominic gives dad a kiss before running ahead again. My dad waves to
“Papa!” Dominic shouts, startling me out of my reverie as he drops my hand and darts down the road. I look up, a huge smile breaking out on my face again as I see Kent on the sidewalk just ahead. His back is to us as he speaks companionably with the butcher, a heavy bag of his purchases already hung
As I walk down the street towards the little Italian kindergarten, the whispers start around me, as they always do. I listen to all of them, a big German Shepherd padding quietly at my heels. “Is that her?” “Yes, that’s the one – I heard she was her husband’s mistress before he married her – tha
Both Kent and I laugh, but Don Bianci – across the baptismal font from us – snaps his eyes up, perhaps not liking the joke as much as we do. But I just ignore it, because dad’s right, frankly – and it’s too happy a day to care. After the final blessing everyone applauds Dominic – he likes that, bl
“Well, it didn’t seem to affect your first very badly,” Ivan says with a shrug, peering around Kent to where Daniel is laughing with an arm around Jerome’s shoulders. “So…maybe keep it up.” I smirk, squeezing Ivan’s hand once more before standing and moving to Kent’s side, tucking myself against h
“Hey, gorgeous,” Ivan says, his mouth turned up in a smirk as I cross the churchyard, beaming at him. “Look who’s talking,” I say, laughing and reaching for him when I come close enough. Ivan wraps me in a hug, dropping a kiss to my cheek as I hold Dominic a bit to the side so he doesn’t get squis
He laughs, smiling at me genuinely. “Do I make you nervous?” he asks, blunt. I laugh, unable to help it. “Has no one bothered to tell you, in all these years, that you’re a little terrifying, Don Bianci?” He grins and shakes his head at me. “Well, considering what you accomplished, young lady, I
Two months later, we’re all gathered together again. And it is only with frustration that I see Gio and Janeen standing so close together that their arms nearly brush, even though they’re still not together. I roll my eyes, dismissing the problem for a moment as I move my eyes down to Dominic and
It's an incredible night. Kent didn’t lie, not at all, about the food either. I’m shocked by the mountains of dishes that continue to follow each other, one after another, long into the night. After a few hours of it I just mournfully watch the waiters go by because I couldn’t eat another bite if I