Page 179 of The Wicked

“It is. You were so desperate to go out there. Your friend might not see it, but I see it. I see all your lies and all your tells. Every question I asked you tonight,every responseyou gave wasfucking bullshit.”

“What?” His words shot through my chest. “They were not.”

“Maybe they aren’t, but you weren’t completely honest with me,” he stated confidently. “I went bare for you today.” He lowered his voice, looking me right in the eye. “I told you things I never thought I would ever tell anyone; I confided in you and took your advice; I have shown you more of myself than I have ever shown anyone. I trusted you with my feelings; all I’m asking… is that you be honest with me for once tonight. Do you have anything to do with Casmiro lying in that room on the brink of death?”

A small, humorless laugh left my throat. “Wow…” I said, almost out of breath. “The first time I actually opened up to someone about Manuel, and this is what I get—an absurd accusation.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t try to manipulate me.”

My frown deepened. “I’m not trying to—your claims are beyond wrong.”

“Zahra.”

I stepped closer to him, my eyes fixed on his. “You say I wasn’t completely honest with you. You’re right, I wasn’t. That part of my life is hard for me to talk about, and I opened up to you about something I have spent years of my life trying to forget.”

His brows drew down in confusion.

“Street has no fucking idea about Manuel. I don’t even plan to ever let them know, but you—just like you showed me a part of yourself, I did too. Because I thought maybe as we got to knoweach other, I might finally have someone I could talk to about this stuff.”

“Zahra, I know you weren’t sincere.”

“Of course I wasn’t sincere; you don’t expect me to bring down my walls completely just because you told me you didn’t kill your family.”

He frowned. “Don’t bring my family into this.”

“You are the one accusing me of attempting to kill Cassie; he might be an asshole, and yes, I might have wanted to push him out of the car on our way to the airport, but I would never just wake up one morning and hire assassins to finish him off.”

He sighed. “Zahra—”

“I don’t know what you think you see, but remember, you were the one who invited me here. I don’t know anyone in Turin but you. I didn’t even know Casmiro would be here. Upper never told me shit; you can ask him if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t know who those men are.”

He looked away from me, eyes moving around; I mirrored his action to see some eyes on us, including Upper’s.

I looked away at the same time Elio’s gaze locked with mine. “I am giving you one pass, Zahra. Come clean, and I promise I won’t hurt you. I won’t let anyone harm a hair on your head. I need to know—”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Elio, you were with me throughout—I can’t even believe you’re falsely accusing me without any proof—”

“My gut is all the proof I need.”

I blinked at him. “You’re pinning this on me because of a gut feeling?”

“Yes.”

I locked my jaw, a breathy scoff leaving my chest as I stepped back from him. “Well, you’re wrong. You couldn’t even be more wrong—and we don’t have time for this. I’m going down there.”

He straightened. “No, you’re not. It might be dangerous.”

“You know more than anyone here that I can fend for myself.And maybe when I shoot a man or two, you will be convinced I had nothing to do with this.” I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm almost immediately.

“Zahra—”

A ground-shaking explosion shocked the building, and screams and loud gunshots quickly followed the sound.

I looked back at him, my gaze flickering to his grip on my arm and then his heated eyes. “Are you gonna let me go? Or are we waiting for the next explosion to take us all under?” I asked.

Elio cursed, letting go of me, grabbing a weapon from the table, and gesturing to the elevator. “Stay by my side, always.”

“Why? So you can see if I’m giving the shooters eye signals?”