Page 115 of The Fates We Tame

“No.”

“I want to meet with her. She isn’t returning my calls. Can we arrange it, you and me? You choose the location, and I will meet you, alone. I only have your word for it that she is here voluntarily, and we have zero grounds to trust each other. I need to know that she wants to stay with you in a place where she can walk away with me if she wants to.”

I huff at this. “Given tonight’s activities and the bomb you threw at our building, you’ve proved that you would happily hurt her to get what you want.”

Alessio curses and runs a hand through his dark hair. I can see the resemblance between Alessio and Sophia. Similar nose. Similar jaw. “She was never meant to get hurt.”

“And yet you did it anyway. Here’s the thing: Sophia is in charge of her own fate. I’m not going to conspire with you to set up a meeting. I”—I nearly say the wordlovebut catch myself at the last second—“respect my wife too much to do anything that could undermine her trust in me. So, no. I won’t. But I will tell her you are concerned about her. And that you asked after her. And that you think her brothers are a fucking goon squad. If that means anything at all to her after today, I’m sure she’ll call you.”

Alessio shoves his hands in his pockets as Vex and Clutch drag Luca and Leo around the corner of the clubhouse.

“Porca miseria!” Alessio snaps. No idea what it means, but by the tone, he’s pissed off. “Get them into the truck,” he says to the two stooges standing by his shoulders. Then he reaches into his pocket.

Swiftly, I reach for my gun and aim it at Alessio.

“Steady, biker. Give Sophia this. I was unaware of what was going to happen tonight. And I think Sophia is the key to understanding why my father is so obsessed with getting her back.”

It’s a white envelope. When I take it from him, it feels as though there is a key inside. “What is it?”

“It’s for the storage locker of her things. She might want to collect them.”

As Alessio follows his brothers back to the van, I stand looking between him and the clubhouse, wondering where all this ends.

30

SOPHIA

Ihold the letter from my brother and re-read the last line.

I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you from tonight on. I’ll make it stop.

Ale.

I’m guessing it’s what I used to call Alessio. He addressed the letter toPuparu,and there is a smiley face drawn next to it. And there is something familiar about the paper, the scent, the writing. It’s not memory. I can’t remember ever seeing or smelling any of it before.

But there is something…compelling about it.

I pick the key up off the bed. It’s cool, solid in my palm. A note tells me the location of a storage locker and the unit number where the key fits. There’s also a black credit card with my name on it, but I have no idea whether the card is mine or an extension of Alessio’s own accounts.

But it’s the plea in the letter.

Call me.

We’ve all been through enough this year. You more than any of us. If you remembered, you’d know why.

Theo is in the shower. He said he’d give me time to read the letter, that he’d be there for me as a sounding board if I wanted to discuss it, but that he trusted my judgement if I felt clear on what I wanted to do.

I take a deep breath and call him.

“Puparu,” Alessio says, and I hear keys dropped into a dish. “So, you called me. Are you well?”

“Very. Why did Luca and Leo come for me tonight?” I feel disproportionately calm given the events of the night. I’m angry, of course. But it’s measured. I realize I’m deliberately not sharing with Alessio the real depth of my feelings.

“Because Papà is an idiot, as you’d remember. You and I…we…can I trust you like I used to, Soph?”

There is something about the way he says my name. There’s a torn quality to it. Like he…misses me.

“We trusted each other?”