Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Boundaries
Ettore
“Tor?”
I tried to be quiet as I readied myself for the day. Obviously, not quiet enough because she blinked sleepily through one eye, holding herself up on an elbow as she drowsily asked, “Where are you going?” Her sleep softened face had me pausing just to take it in.
My heart did the strangest thing.
The next time it beat, it beat for her.
She looked utterly edible. I couldn’t help myself from stepping forward and sitting myself down next to her. My head dipped and I pressed my lips to her exposed shoulder. “To take care of a small problem.” As if it were a compulsion, my hand settled on her hip but refused to behave, roaming the softness of her curves in ownership. But I didn’t have time to play this morning. “It’s early. Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you when I get home. We’ll have breakfast.”
She was too tired to argue. She blew out, “Okay,” through a stifled yawn and when her head hit the pillow once more, her breathing steadied almost instantly.
I watched her sleep a moment longer before I stood and made my way to my car. The sun hadn’t yet risen. I drove to the modest looking two-story home. The alarm system was basic and took me less than seven minutes to disarm, less than three minutes to find a way to let myself in and less than two to find him, cloaked in darkness, asleep in his bedroom.
His light snuffles told me I hadn’t woken him, so when I took the empty seat in the corner of the room, lifted it and placed it by his bedside, I lowered myself into it, resting my ankle on my knee. I fished my zippo lighter out of my jacket pocket and began the habit I picked up in my teen years of flicking it open, watching it light, then flicking it closed again.
Each time it lit, the soft glow of the flame caused his features to shadow. A minute of this and I noticed him stir. Slowly, at first, and then when he became aware that he wasn’t the only person in the room, he shot up in panic as I flicked open my lighter and left the flame burning.
In alarm, he panted out a hoarse, “What the hell?”
“Good morning, Como.”
Flick, flick. Flick, flick.
Como Vero reached over to the bedside lamp and when he turned it on, the room was bathed in warm light. And the older man blinked at me. “Scala?” He seemed confused. Weren’t we all. “What are you doing here?”
Flick, flick. “You and I need to have a little chat.” Flick, flick.
“About what?”
Flick, flick. “Boundaries.” Flick, flick. Pause.
The pad of my thumb rested along the hinge of my lighter as the irony of what I’d just said settled over me. And once it had, I reached into my pocket, took out the nondescript USB and tossed it at him. He didn’t bother to catch it.
My anger simmered as I began to speak. “You stand in front of that girl on her wedding day, in a room full of the only people she had left in the world and you tell her she’s dead to you.” My head tilted as I continued to stare at the man. “And now you feel it’s acceptable to put her to work?” Flick, flick. I shook my head. “No. That’s not happening.”
“What’s it to you?” Como, the moronic fuck, had the balls to ask.
“What’s it to me?” Flick, flick. My gaze hooded on him. “That’s my wife.”
“Oh, please,” Como returned heatedly. “You didn’t want this marriage.”
Flick, flick. He wasn’t wrong there, but I hoped what I said would soon sink in. “Yeah, well, she didn’t either and I’m the husband she got. So, when I say this shit isn’t happening, it isn’t happening.”
The thin ice he was walking on got even thinner when he actually tried to defend himself. “Vittoria has always done this.”
Flick, flick. “Not anymore.”
My anger became molten fury when he said, “She’s the only person I trust to run the books.”
The next flick of my lighter had the flame dancing in my hand. My gaze dimmed when I snarled, “And now she’s dead to you.”
For the first time since I arrived, Como picked up what I was putting down and then, he looked frightened. “Listen to yourself, Scala. You’re acting crazy.”
“Crazy?” The laughter that left me dripped with acid. “You haven’t seen me crazy… yet.”
Como ran a hand through his messed-up hair. He looked me in the eye when he admitted, “Look, I didn’t mean what I said. She’s my niece and I love her, but I would have said anything to diffuse the situation. I would have said anything to appease you.”
Did he think his show of reverence would win me over?
All I saw was a coward, shaking in his sheets. “Including breaking her fucking heart. Right?”