“His brother Alessandro is already living in LA,” Luca replied. “He’ll take Giovanni away as soon as Giovanni gets out of the hospital.”
“Which won’t be for a while,” Dante added.
“Which means you’re safe.” Dominic stroked my cheek and made me wince.
He let his hand drop, and when he straightened up, an uncomfortable silence fell over the room.
They all gazed down at me, and I searched from one face to the other. What would happen, now that we no longer had this situation to keep us together? Would we just… fall apart?
Luca waved to one side. “So, that’s it. You can walk away and never look back if that’s what you want.”
“What?” I shrieked. “You’re throwing me out?”
“I didn’t mean that. I meant you don’t have to worry about your family anymore. The deal is over. You don’t have to stay here anymore. You can leave and go back to your life. None of us will stand in your way.”
I couldn’t stop staring at one and then the other. Leave—now? Were they insane?
Luca picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles, but he looked unimaginably sad, much sadder than I could ever remember him.
“We never should have taken you from Providence. We all know that now. We never should have done anything to put you in any danger. None of us will blame you for leaving. We don’t deserve you—none of us does. None of us did enough to protect you. Finishing off the Vittorios after the fact can’t make up for that. You deserve so much better.”
Dominic compressed his lips, holding back emotion, and Dante stared at the floor. All three of them looked beyond devastated that this was all coming to an end.
“I love you,” Luca whispered. “I respect you too much to expect you to forgive what I’ve done. I’m just glad we found out the truth about your dad. We can protect you from now on, but you won’t ever see us. You can find a decent guy and live a normal life far away from all this.”
I fought to breathe listening to this. “But… I don’t want to live a normal life away from all this. I want…you—all of you. I want to stay here. Archhurst is my home. You can’t throw me out!”
“Ari…” Dante began.
“I love you!” I heard my voice rising to a shriek. I tried to sit up and winced in pain again. “I love all three of you. Why can’t I stay here? Why can’t we be together the way we all wanted? Why can’t we make that dream a reality? Dom… Dante… You both said you wanted all four of us to marry each other when we were younger, and I wanted the same thing. Why can’t we do that? Why can’t we love each other? Why do I have to choose? Why can’t we…”
Luca pushed me down on the pillows. “Take it easy, sweetheart. You need rest. You need to heal…”
“I don’t want to take it easy! I don’t need rest, and I don’t want to heal! Don’t you see? I wantyou!” I sat up and reached out for all of them. “Don’t leave me! I need you. I never wanted anyone but you. You can’t take that away from me.”
I grasped Dominic’s wrist in one hand, and Dante’s in the other. I pulled them toward me and tried to kiss Luca at the same time. The thought of losing any or all of them destroyed my last shred of resolve.
I couldn’t lose them—not any of them. That dream of living with them and loving them the way we used to took hold of me these last few days. I couldn’t walk away from that, not again.
My lips found Luca’s, and before I knew what I was doing, I was kissing all three of them. I jolted from one mouth to another, trying to kiss them all at once. I towed Dante and Dominic nearer. I couldn’t let them go. I couldn’t live without them.
I swerved back to Luca, but he stopped me. “Slow down, Princess. Just take a breath for a minute.”
“I don’t want to…”
He held up his hand, and in that instant, he was Padrino again. “I said slow down. Just slow the truck way down. You’re upset. I didn’t mean you had to leave. You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. We just thought… after what happened…”
“I love you.” I turned to Dante. “I love you, Dante. If you want me, why can’t we…”
Luca cut me off again. “I’m talking here, Princess. Just be quiet and listen to me.”
I gulped. He could command a room like no one else.
“If this is what you want,” he went on, “I think you should stay here for a while and see how it works out. Don’t burn any of your bridges.” He stopped me from interrupting him again. “This is my decision, Princess. You might find out you don’t want this after all. You might find out you love one of us more than the other two.”
“No!” I yelled.
He laid his forefinger against my lips. “I’m telling you. If you stay here, it will be on a trial basis—at first, anyway. If it works out, then we can continue with it, but until then, all four of us are going to take it real, real slow. Understand?”