“You guys want me to croon some love song now?” Silvano asked. “Or can I fucking focus on work without the running romance-novel monologue?”
“He’s positively charming,” I declared as I turned to scrub my hands and arms once more. “I can’t wait to see what woman knocks him on his ass.”
“Never gonna fucking happen,” Silvano said. “Give her the tee from the bag. That’s all I got for her for now.”
With that, I put on the oversized tee, feeling a little less exposed.
“What now?” Salvatore asked.
“Now you get me that sister’s clothes too. Shouldn’t have let her go out but your woman was so pushy,” Silvano said. “I need all of that. She can wash up back in the city. But you’re gonna need to get your car detailed,” Silvano told Salvatore.
“I can do that. Anything else?”
“Just the peace and fucking quiet of you all leaving, so I can focus,” Silvano said, shrugging.
“Come on, babe. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Salvatore said, wrapping a protective arm around me and pulling me toward the hallway.
“I, ah, thank you, Silvano,” I said, figuring I owed him at least that, even if he was an asshole.
“Yeah, yeah. Repay me by not killing anyone else in the future.”
With that, we made our way outside.
Salvatore found a blanket in his trunk that I held up for Wren, so she could get out of her clothes, then wrap it around herself like a towel.
“Are you okay?” I asked as Salvatore walked the clothes back to the house.
“I… I feel like I shouldn’t be, but I think I am,” Wren said, nodding. “I mean, I know it makes me a terrible person, but I feel like I can breathe now, knowing he can never bother me again.”
“That doesn’t make you a terrible person,” I assured her.
“And you’re not a terrible person either,” she told me, giving me a firm look. “In case you were doubting yourself.”
“Honestly? I wasn’t,” I told her truthfully. “There was no other way to handle that situation, I don’t think. We are just really lucky that Salvatore and Silvano could help us get out of this without getting in trouble. I mean, I think I’d do okay in prison. Lots of reading time,” I said, smiling. “But I’d rather be free to, you know, build a future with Salvatore.”
“I like him for you,” she said, nodding. “He takes charge so you can step back. You’ve had to be the one in control of everything for so long. It’s nice for you to get to be taken care of for a change.”
“I like Liam for you too,” I said. “You know… whenever you’re ready for that.”
“Oh, God. Liam. I need to apologize to him.”
“Think he wants to apologize to you,” Salvatore said as he walked up, pulling open the passenger door and folded up the front seat, so she could climb in the back.
“What? Why? I got him beat up.”
“Because he wanted to be the guy who saved the girl, and he couldn’t be,” Salvatore explained as he pushed the seat back into place and waited for me to slip inside.
“I like that he tried,” Wren said as the car started up. “But I kind of like that he’s not a big, burly, strong, fighter guy. I like how calm and soft he is.”
I liked that for her too.
After so many years with someone so angry and hard.
“Oh!” I said a few minutes later, looking over at Salvatore. “Anthony. Is he okay? He wasn’t at the diner.”
“He got into a hit-and-run,” Salvatore explained.
“Oh no,” Wren said, worried about a guy she’d never even met, as was her nature.