I nod. Romeo hands me a glass of water. “Drink,” he orders. I do what he says as I face Orlando.
“You were bitten, and badly, by a rabid coyote. I’m not sure how you escaped, but we found the body shot right outside the door to the cabin. Blood trail says you made it inside, or Vivia helped you. She called me. Must’ve used your thumbprint to open up the phone. The phone says she went through the records and called the last dialed.”
Why is he talking about all this in the past tense? If he hurt her… if any of them did…
I take in a deep breath to steady myself, though it doesn’t seem to be working that well.
“We had men in Rhode Island, sent an EMT crew to get you brought home and doctored and to bring Vivia into custody at The Castle. When they got there, she was gone.”
Good girl.
I’m surprised at the sudden warmth that spreads across my chest.
She saw her chance, and she got away. Even as my heart splinters, even as I want to leap out of this bed and run to find her, pride sweeps through my chest at the knowledge that she not only saved my life, she saved her own as well. My strong, brave girl.
“She escaped,” I whisper, looking at Romeo. “Jesus, I’m sorry.” I had one job, and I failed it.
He shakes his head. “Come off it, Dario,” Romeo says with a frown. “I’m not gonna take someone to task for nearly getting killed by a fuckin’ coyote. You’re strong and one of my most vicious fighters, but you’re not goddamn Superman.” He shrugs. “Plus, I’m not even sure she was guilty.”
Orlando looks at the door. “Sergio, on the other hand…”
Before this all went down, I fuckin’ liked Sergio.
“He ready to kill me?”
“I think if she’d come back here, he would have,” Orlando says honestly. He frowns. “She looked guilty as fuck, brother. We’ve found nothing to vindicate her.”
“After all that time,” I begin, but Orlando cuts me off.
“It’s only been a few days. We can’t find anything but incriminating evidence, and we’re no closer to finding out who took you into custody than we were before.”
“That’s bullshit,” I tell him. My head feels like it’ll split in two. Romeo puts his hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down.
“You’re not in trouble for her getting away,” Romeo tells me. “But you’re gonna stay right fuckin’ here until I know it’s safe.” He lowers his voice. “We’ve kept Sergio in the dark until now. He’s fit to kill. Pissed. If I let him in here right now, he’d shoot you, no question, and that would get really fucking messy. You hear me?”
Jesus.
“Yeah.” I swallow hard and remember who I’m talking to. “Sorry, Rome. Yeah, I do.”
“Good.” He pinches his lips together. “Based on your reaction, I’m gonna hazard a guess that you found Vivia innocent? Yeah?”
I nod. “She’s innocent. She had nothing to do with the attempted assassination on Marialena.”
“Got it. And furthermore, being alone with her, you’ve developed feelings for her.”
Leave it to Romeo to put it all out in the open. I swallow, nod, and answer, “I did.”
“Right.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s best we don’t tell Sergio all these details now, got it? You tell him she’s innocent and we’ll take it from there. I’ll call him in, disarm him, and make sure he remembers that he’s in our home. Got it?”
I nod.
“You do not provoke him. You do not fight him. You remember who you are and who he is. He’s in the right to kill you if he wanted to, it’s only respect for me that will stay his hand. You got that?”
I nod and release a sigh. “I do.”
Romeo jerks his head at Orlando. “Call Sergio.”
Orlando smirks. “No need. He’s right outside the fucking door.”