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“I…”
“Just tell me the truth already! Why the hell did you kill my brother? What sort of relationship did you two have? What kind of jobs did he do for you? Why did your lawyer hide the case by sealing it as if he was a nobody?”
The words cascade out of me in a single, high-pitched breath, startling Elio, but only for a moment.
“I’m not lying!” he insists, stepping closer. “Mario never worked for me personally. The day he was killed... he wasn’t the only one who died. My men died, too, and I was only sent to supervise the cleanup. You said you saw the video. I wasn’t in it, was I?”
His eyes plead silently for me to believe his bullshit, but the rage coursing through my veins fuels me to believe otherwise.
“You didn’t need to be in that video,” I spit. “I’ve come to know how manipulative you can be, Elio. You could just have been an accomplice or even given the command.” My mouth refuses to stop jabbing at him with fierce words.
“Aria, Princess, you have to trust me…”
“Trust you?” a soft scoff escapes my lips. “Hell yeah, I trust you! I trust that you, Elio Donatelli, murdered my brother, Mario Abruzzi. In. Cold. Blood.” He opens his mouth in protest to say something but I’m not done with him just yet.
“You think you can pull some rich people’s game on me? Just murder my brother without facing the wrath of the law? Well, you tangled yourself with the wrong bride! I will find out what you did to my brother and make you pay every penny for it… That’s a promise!”
“Fuck Aria, would you shut it for ten seconds and listen to me?” he roars. His face is squeezed up in an ugly frown, his hands bunched into fists at his sides.
“The guy who pulled the trigger was actually one of ours, but that day was when we discovered that he’d gone rogue. He shot at my men, too, Aria. He killed three people that day…your brother and two of my men who were sent to get the drugs from him. He had stolen the drugs and cash for himself…”
My knees weaken as the words sink in. So those other guys in the footage were killed, too?
“…we caught him,” Elio says, his voice quieter now, filled with unmistakable bitterness. “But by then, it was too late. Mario and the others were already dead.”
My palms reach to close over my mouth, the tears spilling over as my whole body trembles.
“I didn’t know, Aria,” Elio says, his voice breaking. “Your brother never used his real name. I didn’t know it was him until recently. If I’d known, I would have…” He stops, his voice choking on the words.
The fight drains out of me as I drop to my knees. Elio lowers himself down in front of me, pulling me into his arms. I don’t resist. I can’t. The pain is too much, the truth too heavy to bear on my own.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers against my hair, his voice trembling.
I want to tell him that I’m sorry, too, for keeping his baby a secret from him for weeks now, but the words seem too heavy. Now isn’t a good time to confess my secret. I’m still trying to come to terms with the truth about Mario. The last thing I need is to reveal that I’m pregnant.
Elio’s thumb traces lightly against my cheek, flicking tears away from my eyes.
“It’s okay, Princess. I’m here now, and I won’t let anything like that ever happen again,” he mutters against my ears, leading me up to my feet.
He chooses that moment to graze his lips over mine, parting them open with the persistent tip of his tongue. My hands end up shoving his jacket off, pulling him closer instead of shoving him away.
My fingers find their way into the soft cotton of his shirt, left unbuttoned almost halfway through, relishing the feeling of his tense muscles beneath my cold fingers.
His mouth is so warm and tender, having the stormy aftertaste of cigarettes. It’s been only a couple of weeks, and yet it seems as if I’ve been starved of this man’s sensual touch for years.
His lips, tongue, and teeth are working frenziedly on my mouth, parting my lips, trailing over my neck, scraping at the lines of my jaw…
“Aria,” he growls my name. My response is a soft whimper, which causes his growl to deepen. Somehow, my hands are in his hair, tugging him deeper in. I just want all of him on me…in me.
My hands roam his back freely as he clutches the nape of my neck, sliding his hand down slightly over the front of my light pajama top and then back up again.
It’s like he’s teasing me. Like he wants me but doesn’t want to take me.Ah…
Frustrated, I yank at his hair, completely certain that a few strands have pulled off and sifted in between my fingers.
“Tell me what you want, Princess?” His eyes are dark and hungry−just as much as mine−as they look down on me.
“Y…you…” I respond. I can’t tell why the words come out in a stammer, but his response completely delights me. His body strains against me, turning around to pin me to Mia’s glass table behind us.