Page 10 of Broken Mafia Prince (His to Break #1)

GIULIA

“ W hy do you look so excited?” Isabella asks suspiciously as we head back to our cabin. She glances over at the orchard repeatedly as we walk, neck straining.

“Can you stop it?” I tell my cousin, annoyed at her curiosity. For some reason I don’t understand, I feel possessive of the boy from the woods.

My cousin, Isabella Sanna, already has all the boys from the retreat wrapped around her little finger, but I know she hasn’t gotten to the scarred boy yet. I don’t think she’s seen him yet. I doubt my big-mouthed cousin would have been able to shut up about it if she had.

“You’re hiding something,” she says, wagging her finger at me. “If it’s a boy, you should tell me all about it so I can give you some advice.”

She likes to make a big deal about the three-year age difference between us, like it automatically makes her smarter and more experienced. Well, in her defense, she’s led an exciting life, while I’ve stayed stuck in the same limbo that I’ve been in since Mama and Val left us.

Meeting that blue-eyed boy is the highlight of my day, and I have my fingers crossed that he’ll still be there when I get back.

“Girls.” Papa’s voice rings out as soon as he spies us at the door. “Come and meet my business associates.”

I paste on a smile, knowing that I’m about to be paraded before Papa’s friends… or business associates, as he likes to call them. Nothing about the tattooed, suited men who crowd our retreat cabin screams business. It’s almost as if, as the days pass, the sleazier the men become.

For the next few minutes, Isa and I have to hang around the cabin and pretend that the men’s beady eyes don’t make us want to crawl under the nearest table and hide.

“Nobody’s paying attention to us,” Isa whispers from the corner of her mouth after a while. “We could just leave.”

“But Papa hasn’t said we can leave yet.” I gnaw on my lower lip, peeking over at him where his head is thrown back, laughter spilling from his mouth.

That familiar achy feeling in my chest when I see him happy around others slams into me with full force, and I rub at the tightness in my chest. I don’t feel so lonely now that I have Isa, and maybe that’s all thanks to him, but I can’t help but feel a little resentful that he’s handed me off to Isa so I won’t bother him anymore.

“You can stay if you want, but I don’t plan on being stuck in here with old people,” she informs me, already headed for the door.

There, she pauses, spins around, and eyes me. “Are you coming?”

I glance over at Papa one last time before following after Isa. While she goes off to join the other kids our age, I hurry through the orchard in search of my mystery boy. I’m beginning to think I must be lost when I hear the dog bark.

Smiling happily, I push through the shrubs keeping us apart and come to a screeching halt.

“The monster and his little doggie,” a boy I don’t recognize is saying to the scarred boy.

On his part, he looks nervous about the bigger boy’s presence there, and it causes something hot and fierce to roar to life inside of me. I don’t think twice about stepping out of the line of trees, fingers curled into fists at my side to confront the other boy.

“Cut it out!” I hiss, approaching the two boys.

Their heads turn slowly, and they stare at me. There is relief on the scarred boy’s face, while the other boy just looks confused by my presence.

“Who are you?” he sneers.

“Someone who doesn’t like bullies,” I reply.

The bully’s face screws up in surprise. “My cousin and I are just having a discussion. And no little girls are allowed in this conversation.”

If he thinks calling me a little girl is going to hurt me, he needs to think again. I know kids like him, kids who try to bring everyone around them down just to feel superior.

“If no little girls are allowed, how come you’re standing here with me?” I drawl, making a show of checking my nails.

The taller boy’s face tightens, and he squares his shoulders, his entire focus shifting from my new friend to me. “Who are you?” he spits.

The scarred boy looks like he just wants to get as far away from this situation as possible and nothing to do with the tension that’s brewing. I open my mouth to respond, but the taller boy isn’t done with me.

“You think you can just put your nose into whatever and get away with it?” the boy barks at me, stepping forward intimidatingly. “Well, you’re not going to get a free pass just because you’re a girl.”

At that moment, I realize I’ve navigated us into a corner. My new friend and I are now standing between a dense line of trees and the other boy. A hint of nervousness trickles through me at the menace shining in his eyes.

“Just leave us alone.” The scarred boy speaks up for the first time, stepping forward. “We don’t want any trouble. Just let us go.”

“And here I thought that you were going to stay mute and let your rabid dog fight for you,” the boy taunts. “What is it with you and dogs, anyway?”

Anger rocks through me. “Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, stronzo ?”

The three of us freeze as the word flies out of my mouth.

“What did you call me?” The boy’s nose flares, the look in his eyes promising wrath.

My heart begins to pound in my chest as the larger boy steps toward me. At my feet, Marty—no, Laika—barks and growls, while my new friend tries to insert himself between us.

Everybody knows boys aren’t supposed to hit girls, but what if the bully decides to take out his anger on the blue-eyed boy? Even if by some miracle he doesn’t succeed in beating up my new friend, he’ll only return with his friends.

Merda .

“Leave us alone!” I suddenly scream, and the larger boy freezes, eyes wide with panic. “Stop hurting us. Ouch! Leave me alone.”

“I’m not even doing anything,” he barks.

“Papa! Papa! This boy here is trying to hit me!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

I don’t think there’s anyone nearby to hear me, and my papa is too occupied with his business associates to ever come to my rescue.

The bully doesn’t know that, though; all he knows is that he doesn’t want to be known as the boy who beat up a little girl.

His eyes swing from the scarred boy to me, and he makes a sound of disgust low in his throat. “Freaks.”

The dog chases after him for a moment, barking at him. I wait until the boy has disappeared before letting out a sigh of relief. A giddy laugh bursts out of me, and I turn to my new friend, expecting him to look pleased about getting rid of the bully. I find him glaring down at me instead.

“Why did you do that?” he snaps. “I didn’t need your help.”

My jaw drops open, and I gape at him for a long moment. “You can just say thank you, you know.”

“I have nothing to thank you for,” he retorts. “You may have just made things worse for me.”

I cross my arms over my chest and glare back at him. “What is your problem? You’re the rudest, most ungrateful boy I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t need an annoying little girl coming to my defense.” He looks over at the dog. “Let’s go, Laika.”

This time around, he must hear the sternness in the boy’s voice, because he lets out a whine and sidles over to stand beside the boy.

“Then you shouldn’t let losers like that bully you.”

Red climbs up his cheeks, while the area around the scar is left a ghostly white. I’m curious about the scar, but I know that if I ask about it, he’ll clam up faster than I can say Jack.

“He wasn’t bullying me. He’s my cousin, we were talking.”

More like the boy was talking at him. “You shouldn’t let people call you names. They’re not better than you, and standing up for yourself is?—”

“I didn’t ask for advice.” Spinning on his heel, he begins to march off.

I jump into his path, spreading my hands to block him off. “Where are you going?”

“None of your business. Get out of my way, girl.”

“Not until you tell me your name.” I offer him a smile, ignoring his surly attitude. I don’t understand why I’m so fascinated by him.

He narrows his eyes at me. “Why are you so interested anyway?”

“Because I want to be your friend.”

Surprise flashes in his eyes, but it’s immediately replaced by that closed-off expression. “I don’t need a new friend.”

“It doesn’t seem like you have old ones, either,” I point out.

“I have friends.”

I glance around pointedly. “Where are they?”

“Where are yours?” he retorts.

I can’t help the laughter that spills out of my throat at his response. I love this back-and-forth we have going on. “If I tell you my name, will you tell me yours?”

“Maybe.”

It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time, and I find myself smiling a toothy smile, heart racing in excitement. There’s something about the boy that makes me want to crack through the layers he’s wrapped in.

“I’m Giulia,” I finally reveal.

“Giulia,” he echoes, the name rolling off his tongue like he’s experimenting with it.

“Well?” I ask impatiently. “What’s your name?”

The boy opens his mouth to respond, but I never get to hear it, because at that moment, there’s the sound of a twig snapping behind us.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you, miss,” my maid’s exasperated voice says. “You know your father hates it when you run off and—” She stops when she sees the blue-eyed boy standing next to me.

I don’t get why she’s looking at him like that. Like his face is all wrong or something. Like life’s going to be mean to him because of a silly scar. She shouldn’t talk about life being unfair. She’s been a maid forever, since I was little.

I scoff at her words. I doubt Papa would even notice if I were to disappear for a month.

“Miss Giulia.” There’s panic in her voice. “Come over here, now!”

When I look at her, I see she’s still staring at the boy, her face blanched with horror. The boy’s face gets as hard as granite, and he steps away from me.

“What’s your name?” I ask the boy again, reaching out and grabbing his wrist.

The maid makes a startled sound in the back of her throat, then hurries forward and grips my shoulder tightly. “Let’s go, Giulia. We’ve already wasted enough of your father’s time.”

I try to protest, but she wastes no time pulling me away. I keep on glancing over my shoulder to stare after the boy as I’m led further and further away from him. Just before he and his dog disappear from view, I see him raise the hand I had held and stare at it with reverence.

“What were you thinking, talking to that boy?” she chides.

“What’s wrong with talking to him?”

She gives me a look like I’m crazy. “You can’t tell me you didn’t see his face. Please, Miss Giulia, you should be more careful about being associated with such people.”

I want to tell her that she has no right to talk about my new friend like he’s damaged beyond repair just because of his face, but at that moment, the car honks, and I see Papa glaring at me from the rolled-down window of the SUV.

“We’re behind schedule. Get in the car, Giulia,” he orders.

I’m wide awake for the entire four-hour drive back to the house, my mind occupied with thoughts of the blue-eyed boy. I wonder who he is, and if I’ll ever see him again. I promise myself that if I do, I’ll find out his name and everything about him.

“Are we there yet?” my cousin mumbles sleepily for what has to be the hundredth time.

“No,” I tell her distractedly. “Go back to sleep.”

Her head falls back on my shoulder, and her tongue sticks out from the side of her mouth, like she’s tired. It makes me think of the boy’s dog, and I can’t help but smile, remembering how mad he was when I told him the dog’s name was Marty.

I do something I haven’t done since that horrifying incident that changed the course of my life. It didn’t work then, but I hope it’ll work now.

I have to see the boy again.

And so, I squeeze my eyes shut, and I pray.