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My reaction to her stunned me speechless.

“Alessandro? What the hell are you doing here?”

She surged up and shoved at me and would have fallen sideways if I hadn’t caught her elbow.

“That’s why,” I gritted, finding my words. “You’re done. And going home.”

“You fucker!” someone shouted behind me.

I shoved Bianca away and spun in time to see the varsity-jacket guy’s fist flying at me. It was no contest. He was drunk and missed me by a mile. I even waited for him to straighten up before jabbing him in the face, breaking his nose, and sending him to the floor.

“Chris!” Bianca shrieked, trying to go to him, but I’d hooked her around the waist and set her behind me again.

“It’s Joey.” The boy glared at her while swiping his bloody nose.

Joey’s friends gathered around him and helped him up.

“Anyone else?” I asked them. “Need I remind you she’s not twenty-one and you’re giving her alcohol?”

“Fuck, man, she doesn’t even know your name. Is she worth it?” one of them asked.

Not waiting for them to come into committee with their next move, I grabbed Bianca’s hand and dragged her out of there before I changed my mind about not killing anyone else tonight. She didn’t have a choice because I was plowing through drunken college kids, deaf to her rants and her attempts to free her wrist from my hold.

“You have no right!”

“That was embarrassing, Sandro.”

“I don’t want to leave!”

Once we were outside, I backed her against the wall and caged her in. “This is what’s gonna happen. I’m taking you back to your apartment. And you’re sleeping off your bad decisions.”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

Images of what I came upon flashed through my head, sending my temper soaring. “You don’t even know the name of the boy who had his hand up your skirt!”

“I was having fun,” she retorted. “Do you know the name of every one-night stand you’ve had?”

“You’re only nineteen, Bianca. Don’t?—”

“Don’t spout your holier-than-thou attitude at me. You think I don’t know why you’re in Boston? It certainly wasn’t to meet me for lunch.” Despite the slurring in her words, the condemnation of the hypocrisy of my actions was crystal clear. I had no problem taking a life, but I was bent out of shape with her having sex. But my soul was a black hole. In an eclipse, she was the ring of light around my darkness, and with my selfish reasoning, I wanted her to stay that way.

Innocence and light.

Not innocent anymore, a voice in my head taunted.

“I’m not discussing this.” I grabbed her hand again. “You’re going home. End of. You’re staying in your apartment if I have to park in front of it to make sure you don’t leave.”

We resumed walking.

“You’re a lunatic.” She tried to pull away, but my grip was firm. I unlocked my car and stuffed her into the vehicle.

“I came with a friend,” she yelled when I slammed the door on her.

I slid into the driver’s seat. “Text her.”

“How do you know it’s a her and not a him?”

I didn’t answer her. We were going to devolve into a sniping war and it wasn’t gonna make sense in the end.