I knelt so my gaze fell even with Eli’s. “We’re only going to be here a few days, okay?”“I know.”“Do you need me to stay with you tonight?”He shook his head, eyes wide and somber. “I can be brave. I’m not afraid to sleep alone.”I wouldn’t let myself think how much like his father he was.Instead
LaylaI sprang away like I’d been burned. Nearly tripping over my own feet in my haste to extract myself from the warm, bare skin of the man I’d once loved.“Vas—Aldo!” What was he doing in my bathroom? How had he even gotten here? Was this some kind of attempt at reconciliation? “How dare you—”“La
He was cutting a damned bullet out of his shoulder. With the calm of an ER surgeon. Like he’d done it countless times before.“After the attack at the hospital,” he said, and I was so caught up in watching him work, it took me a moment to realize he was answering the question I’d asked, “I sent men
AldoI couldn’t look away from her long, graceful fingers on the needle. My blood stained their tips red, but she didn’t pause. Didn’t flinch away. Didn’t so much as ask for gloves.She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.My Layla. The words made their way into my mind without my beckoning. Because it wa
If Carlo noticed my hesitation, he didn’t comment. Merely bowed his head again. “I’ll find out everything there is to know.”***I didn’t sleep that night.I tossed and turned in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar mattress, beneath unfamiliar sheets—but those minor inconveniences were hardly what
Layla“I need to ask you a favor.” I hated the words even before they’d left my mouth. Hated thinking them. Hated that I’d cornered Marco in the break room of the hospital to ask this of him.Marco was a nice guy; everybody knew it. He was one of the most well-liked doctors at the hospital, and here
“How … lovely!” Surprise bloomed inside my chest as I accepted the gift, but I played it off with a laugh. “Really selling it here, eh?”He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “They suited you.”“Pink carnations?” I shook my head. He was really going all out for this role, I’d give him that. Anybody looki
Layla“He doesn’t love you.” Aldo’s words echoed in a flat, toneless bark through the empty hall. Stopping me in my tracks. Shocking me so much I couldn’t even think of a response before he added, “You shouldn’t waste eight years on a man like him, even if he is Eli’s father.”I almost laughed. Almo
EthanI got to the coffee shop far earlier than was necessary—close to an hour before Vanessa and I had decided to meet—and proceeded to sulk in the corner like a loser, downing coffee.I’d long since stopped smelling the fresh-baked goods layered behind the glass counter, and I was far too nervous
“But I’m funny and charming,” Ethan said, with a smile that was indeed quite charming. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you for not being able to resist.”I groaned, trying very hard not to smile myself. “This is the worst flirting I’ve ever seen.”“It’s not flirting!” Ethan protested, lifting his hands in
Layla“Just talk to him,” I insisted, giving Vanessa’s hand another little tug towards the door of Ethan’s clinic room. It’d been three days since the attack, and he was just about recovered at this point. “You’ll see he’s not a bad guy.”After I’d all but written Ethan out of my life, I couldn’t fo
So, I wondered, which of those secrets had made him Rossetti’s target?And how has Rossetti learned them?I turned in my seat to regard Ethan. He met my gaze like he knew I was about to ask something of dire importance and seriousness. “How did he know?”Ethan’s dark eyes blinked against the pain.“
AldoThe call came late at night, shattering the fragile quiet that had settled over the Marcello estate. My phone buzzed on the nightstand, jarring me from a restless sleep. Instantly awake, I reached for the warbling device. Pressed it to my ear. “Marcello.”“There’s been an attack,” came the low
Vanessa’s fingers squeezed mine again, but she said nothing. Didn’t argue, didn’t agree. Was she, too, thinking of the night I’d saved her? How I’d reacted with such seamless movement, no hesitation, no doubt?I’d taken out a man nearly twice my size without so much as breaking a sweat.“I’ve had de
LaylaI leaned against the marble countertop of the kitchen, watching as Vanessa diced vegetables with growing ease. The aroma of garlic and herbs filled the air, giving the kitchen a warmth I couldn’t feel reflected inside.My conversation with Ethan still sat heavy in my bones, in my heart, in my
I could barely breathe around the sudden panic in my chest. I had no words, nothing I could say, nothing I could add to this conversation.My hands shook.“It’s real evidence, Layla. I could put him away for a long, long time. Right now. I haven’t done anything yet—look. If I don’t do this, someone
LaylaThe knock on my bedroom door startled me from the book I’d been daydreaming over. Why was romance always so much easier in novels? Any fights they had were always petty and over in a few chapters.I sighed, closed the book. “Come in!”Vanessa’s dark hair appeared around the side of the door. H