Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
And it occurs to me that I’ve never been held this close before, not since I was young. Before my mother died, and my world turned cold.
“It was for my mother,” I say. “That’s why I targeted Stephanos.”
“I know.”
“I knew it! I knew you knew.”
“Yes, little one, you were right.” A kiss on my temple.
“He killed her outside of the pasta makers,” I tell him. Words bubble out of me like I’m a bottle of champagne, newly uncorked. “It was meant to look like the Vesuvis did it. But I dug and figured out. . . I found out. . .”
Victor touches me, and I realize my face is wet.
“It was him,” I say. My eyes are burning, so I keep them closed. “He wanted to kill her. To incite a war.”
“Shhhh.”
There’s a monster in my chest, clawing out of me, but I finish what I have to tell him. “She was on her way to pick me up from school and stopped to get fresh cavatelli. My favorite.” And then it hurts too much. I can’t say any more.
A long time later, Victor says. “It’s not your fault. You know that, right?”
I don’t know anything.
“You’re going to be all right, my Lucrezia. You will heal from this.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.” I mold my fingers into the chopping hand gesture in case he doesn’t get it. No.
His laugh is a gust of wintry wind on my face. “Very well. You will decide for yourself.”
That sounds better.
“Now go to sleep. We can argue more in the morning. As much as you like.”
I yawn, but I’m suddenly more awake. My pain has leaked away, gone like it’s never been. I wiggle my hips, trying to nestle deeper into the bedclothes, only to realize I’m rubbing against Victor. I give up and sigh. “I can’t sleep.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I don’t want to. When I wake up, you’ll hurt me again.”
“Yes. But you like it when I hurt you.”
“You’re not supposed to know that.”
“Is it not obvious?”
I grit my teeth, trying to summon some rage. There’s only exhaustion. “You’re going to win. And I hate it.”
“There is no losing. Not between us.”
“It doesn’t feel that way.” Hovering just overhead is a heavy gray fog. Exhaustion ready to smother me. I hold it back a little longer. “You said you’d break me. And now I’m not me anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t exist. I need to fight. If I’m not fighting, I’m not alive.”
“Is that why you hunt your mother’s killer?”
It is, but I’ve never thought of it that way before. The only way I survived that great loss was by committing myself to avenging her death. The goal drove me forward so I would have something to live for.
“You think I’m pathetic.”
“No, my Lucrezia. Not that. Never that.” He pulls me even tighter to him, tying me to reality even as his warmth threatens to pull me into sleep. “Enough of this. Let me tell you something real.”
As I float away, he follows me, telling me the story of a boy who loved knives and lived above a butcher shop and whose mother let the butcher hurt her until the boy grew up and killed him and any other man who would prey upon them. And they lived happily ever after, the end.
Victor
I wait a long while, dozing on and off with Lula in my arms. After a REM cycle, I slide away, careful not to wake her. There’s no worry of that, though. She’s sleeping soundly. I take her vitals, and she barely stirs. I email an update to my doctor, the one who patched me up the first time I had Lula as a guest, who’s advising me on the sleep/sexual torture protocol I’m cycling her through and helping me keep tabs on her health.
With her dark hair spread over the pillow and black lashes fanned over her tanned cheeks, she looks like an angel fallen to earth. Her lips are plush and pouting, her expression sweeter than she’d allow if she was awake. I trace her brow line, and she frowns as if frustrated by the gentle touch.
I turned up the heat before I climbed into bed with her, but now I lower it and cover her with a weighted blanket so she’ll sleep well.
Before I leave, I turn on the camera in the corner that streams an encrypted feed to a private website. The doctor will monitor her while I’m gone. And I can log in and check on her while she sleeps.
I would stay, but I have business to attend to.
It’s been three months since Lula surprised Stephanos and wounded him; he’s gone to ground where even I cannot find him. Not that I tried too hard. I was more focused on Lula.
But now that I have her secure, it’s time for me to collect what I’m owed.