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“Maybe?” I answered, not even sure myself. I didn’t know how I felt but I couldn’t tell Luis that I was unhappy becauseI married into a family that only knew violence and bloodshed. What would he think of me?
He didn’t bother to follow up with anything. His silence seemed odd to me.
“Bye, Luis.”
“Mya, Jason was a good guy. The best. Don’t let the di Cecco’s convince you otherwise.”
So, he did know. He hung up soon after that.
Now my mind was full of questions. Why would he think that Dario and his family would bad-mouth Jason? It was a strange statement. It had me really questioning everything that I thought I knew.
“So, what did he tell you?”
I was back in the dining room. Frowning, I sat down hard. What do I tell Dario?
I shrugged, “He didn’t tell me anything.” That was the truth. Wasn’t it? If anything, my exchange with Luis had just confused me more.
“Hmm,” was all he said after that. He was eating dinner, his mind clearly elsewhere. He signaled for one of the staff to bring my dinner out and then abruptly stood up.
“I have someplace I need to be. I’ll be back. Enjoy your dinner.”
He walked away, and I was grateful for some time alone. I needed time to think. What was the truth, and what was the lies?
To me, it seemed clear that Luis was hiding something. It seemed like he wanted to say more but just hadn’t. Was it because he was at work, or was it because he was hesitant to share too much about the characters he and Jason came across in their line of work?
Luis was a detective now. How much did he know about Dario’s family?
When I climbed into bed that night, I had a million questions running through my mind, but not one solid answer. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to believe.
I felt like I was playing a cat and mouse game but I couldn’t tell who was the cat and who was the mouse.
“Why’d you give me the phone?” I asked of Dario as I settled into bed and pulled the covers up under my chin.
Even the sheets smelled like him, the hint of his natural scent that I refused to admit did wonders to my sex drive.
Stop thinking about sex, I admonished myself.
He was awake. I knew because I was used to the melody of his breathing by now. I’d almost memorized the sound of it. Not that I had wanted to.
Still, somehow it was calming and made me feel less alone when he was around. I didn’t know when things had changed. I didn’t when his presence had started to calm me instead of alarming me, but it had.
I just didn’t want to admit it.
He was silent for so long that I thought maybe he had fallen asleep after all.
“I gave it to you because you asked.”
“If I asked to walk out of here right now, would you let me?”
He touched my face, startling me, but I didn’t move away. I turned and looked in his direction in the dark. “Is that what you want?”
His question and the gentleness of his touch made me pause. In the dark, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could feel his hand still touching my face.
I could pull away. But I didn’t.
Then I thought of Dr. Kali. Where was he? What had Dario done to him?
I shifted so that his touch wouldn’t distract me. He moved his hand from my face. Did I hear him sigh in disappointment? I couldn’t be sure.