Page 57 of Brutal Vows

“I’m dying of thirst over here,tesoro.” Mamma taps her empty glass with a fingernail.

I slam down the receiver on the phone and glare at her. “You raised an absolute asshole, you know that?”

She pauses to purse her lips. “Are we talking about your brother?”

“Do you want your wine or not?”

“Sí.”

“Then we’re talking about my brother!”

Shetsks. “I’m only teasing you.Mamma mia,you’re so tense lately!”

Crossing to the wine fridge, I say, “Gee, I don’t know why, could be that home invasion we just had.”

Under her breath, she says, “Or something a little more hung.”

I whirl around and stare at her. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

She blinks innocently. “What?”

“Did you just say the word…hung?”

She pretends to think. “Did I?”

“You know what? I don’t want to know. I’m getting you your wine. Now please never speak again.”

She shrugs and holds out her glass.

At that exact moment, Quinn saunters into the kitchen.

Mamma cackles. “Aha! The plot thickens!”

He looks at me. A furrow forms between his brows. “What did I miss?”

I snap, “The entire period after childhood when you were supposed to grow into an adult.”

He looks at Mamma.

She says, “You can try to respond to that, but it will bemoltodangerous.”

After a moment of thought, he simply sits down across from her and shrugs off his jacket, draping it over the back of the chair beside him.

Mamma chuckles. “Good call.”

I grab a bottle of wine, get the wine opener from the drawer, and hack away at the foil on the top of the bottle until it’s shredded. Then I stab at the cork with the corkscrew until Mamma says to me softly in Italian, “It isn’t the home invasion that’s got you so worked up.”

I stop what I’m doing and glance up at her.

She nods, holding my gaze. “Now take a breath and calm yourself. You’re my daughter. You’re made of iron, like me. Forged in fire. Unbreakably hard. You can withstand anything.”

She inclines her head in Quinn’s direction. “Including your attraction to him.”

It’s a humbling thing, having someone who knows you so well. Someone who sees past all the walls you’ve erected, past all the smoke and mirrors you’ve thrown up to protect yourself and lead everyone else astray from the truth.

I set the corkscrew down slowly on the countertop, close my eyes, and exhale.

Into the ensuing silence, Quinn says, “Maybe I can get that for you.”