CHAPTERSEVEN
Dario
I haven't toldher that much about myself, but the little I revealed seems like it may have been a mistake. I have to keep our rules in mind, and it's not going to help at all if I'm letting myself grow soft in any way.
But I am a good judge of character. And something tells me she might not be as guilty as we thought.
Yes, she’s spoiled. I'll fix that while we're here in the woods. Nature itself will be a good teacher, and I’ll make up the difference. I won't let her act like a spoiled brat.
But the women in the Rossi and Montavio families are held to high expectations. Their lives are not their own, and it seems the only trade-off in exchange for everything they’re expected to do is leading a comfortable life. None of them want for anything, whether it's clothes or shoes or a spring break trip to Maui. I'm told Marialena's first car was a luxury BMW worth over a million.
She was attached to the car, until she got into a fender bender about a month ago, at which point she went crying to Mama who soothed her by buying her a new one. Romeo allowed it because he knows as well as I that material possessions and luxury are pretty much the only freedom she has. And I would hazard a guess that Vivia has experienced much of the same. She’s never had to get her hands dirty or even so much as drop bread in a toaster for breakfast.
I think of everything Orlando told me. Vivia may have suspected but doesn't know for sure yet that her family no longer recognizes her as one of their own. I'm expecting any minute to get proof from Gloria and Mario about her guilt, or at least a lead on what she might know that would be helpful. But for now, I do my best to rest. It's a tricky feat when you're using your own body as human handcuffs. It's even harder when the person you're restraining is stunningly beautiful and the soft breath she releases when she sleeps is the most fetching whistling snore you could imagine.
I close my eyes and slacken my grip only a little. I'll know the second she wakes, or if she tries to move. I fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.
An hour later, she's thrashing in my arms, crying out. I'm instantly awake. Something’s wrong.
I sit up. Vivia’s crying. I look around the room to see if there's anything I missed. Did someone break in? Did she see another “spider?” But there's nothing in here except the two of us and the fading sun outside the window.
"Are you okay?” I'm immediately awake, one of the many benefits of being a former soldier. "What happened?"
I pull her over to me so she's lying flat on her back and I can see her face. It's contorted in pain, and her eyes are flooded with tears. "It's nothing," she lies. "I had a bad dream." That much at least is probably true.
"Tell me about it." What someone dreams about can often be very telling.
"I don't want to." She shakes her head. But I wasn't asking.
I retrieve a strand of her hair and give it a sharp tug. "I said tell me what it was about, and that wasn't a suggestion."
She blows out a disgusted breath. “Ugh, fine. I don't know if it means anything at all, so I don't know why you care. I dreamt I was at The Castle. I’m certain it was there. My brothers were there, all of them, but Sergio was in the front. He said that I was dead to them. My mother walked in, too, and it got worse. She said everything was over, that they might as well bury me in the graveyard with my dead aunt and grandparents.”
She shudders and closes her eyes. "And the next thing I knew we were at that graveyard, and my body was in a box being lowered into the ground. I could see out of the casket, it was me in there, still alive. I watched my mother throw dirt on my casket and knew they were going to bury me.”
She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "See? Stupid. It doesn't even make any sense.”
"I don't know," I tell her. "That makes perfect sense to me."
She looks at me as I continue. “It's also true." I don't like to sugarcoat things. I call things as I see them. "Your family thinks you tried to kill your cousin. You are dead to them. Your only chance is here in the woods with me as your only opportunity. Orlando brought us here because he thinks that you'll be able to give answers you otherwise wouldn't because if we were at The Castle Sergio or one of your other brothers would intervene. They will want to see you dead, Vivia." I'm not telling her anything she doesn't already know.
"Orlando is telling them all that we died, not just so that the Montavios don't look for you but because we want the people who kidnapped us to think that we died. If they think we're still alive, they could come after us again," I say, turning around to look at her and holding her face in my hands. “It’s the safest option until we know who they are and we can defend ourselves.”
I knew from the beginning that brute force wouldn't be the way to get answers from Vivia. The only way to get the truth is by building some kind of trust between us. "Do you know who took us?"
She shakes her head. "No." There's a firm confidence in her voice that tells me she doesn't know anything.
"Did you try to murder your cousin?" Again, she shakes her head. "No, I would never. I love my cousins. Even though some of them drive me crazy, we're family, and that's all I have. You should know that. We don't have friends, or romantic relationships. Literally all we have is each other. Why would I ever try to hurt my cousin?"
I shake my head. "People do stupid things when they're in love."
She sighs shakily. "I only thought I was in love with Gray. I was with him because he paid attention to me, and my brothers didn't like him. I've lived a very, very sheltered life, Dario.”
She tries to turn her face away, but I won't allow it.
She shakes her head. "I had a feeling from the beginning that he was using me. I'm not sure what his plan was, but he would… say things. Ask questions. He definitely liked having things like the privilege of sitting at high-end restaurants and enjoying the status of it all. So whoever worked with him definitely promised him all of those things. Prestige, honor, money.”
"I see."