Now, to add insult to injury, I’m being attacked instead of wished a happy birthday.
It only takes me a second and a well-placed fist to Leo’s balls for him to step back and let go with a breathless laugh, and I can see amusement in his eyes as he holds up his hands in surrender. It’s not like him, though he has been the only person in this godforsaken family who has ever treated me with kindness, but it’s enough to throw me off.
My eyes narrow in suspicion. “That was too easy.”
He sighs. “It’s your birthday, little cousin. That’s my gift to you.”
That crawls under my skin and stings like fire ants. How fucking gracious. I turn away from him, catching a glimpse of my father’s hired guards out of the window as I drop my bag on my bed and stare around at the empty dorm. It stings even further that no one’s home to greet me, but I’ve come to expect as much.
Not even in boarding school, when I was finally away from my father’s chokehold, did anyone even acknowledge me on my birthday. All I ever got were the little trinkets he left—sterile and store-bought.
And now the rose. And the book.
“Doing anything to celebrate tonight?” Leo asks as he strolls to our half-fridge and starts to rummage around. The only thing in there right now is a little container of hard-boiled eggs that Emilia always has. She read some Miss America diet thing online last year, and she’s followed it religiously ever since.
“I hope you’re not looking for anything special,” I tell him blandly, kicking my shoes off.
“How are you not starving to death?”
Falling to the edge of my bed, I lean back on my hands and shrug. “Dining card. If you’re really hungry, I could treat you to some bland buffet food. It’s the only thing still open right now.”
He grimaces, and I don’t blame him. Not all of the Romanos eat well, but Leo does. I did once, but I’d take this college campus slop over sitting at my father’s table while he stares at me like I’m the world’s biggest disappointment.
With a sigh, Leo turns to me and props his shoulder against the wall. His eyes roam around the room for a second, and I track them to a dent on the wall. It’s a patch from some wiring work the maintenance guy had done a few weeks into the first semester. The guy had been creepy and hadn’t said a word to me. He was goddamn ripped, though, and made my mouth water, even if I couldn’t get a good look at his face under the low brim of his hat.
“You never answered my question,” Leo says, interrupting my thoughts.
“Because it was a stupid question,” I fire back. “How am I supposed to go anywhere with Flotsam and Jetsam tailing me?”
Leo scoffs. “By sneaking out. God, I should have come around a lot more.”
I blink. “Sneaking out. That’s hilarious. My father likely has me tracked—”
“He has two brainless trolls following you around at all times,” Leo corrects. “If Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum happen to think you’re snoozing in your bed like the good little girl they believe you are, they’ll report that back to your father. Won’t they?”
My mouth goes dry. “I wouldn’t have the first idea how to—”
“The fire escape,” he says. “Trust me, Alice, you’ve spent most of your life lulling these men into a false sense of security. It’s time to reap those benefits.”
I bite my lip. “You’re talking like I was playing them all along.”
At that, Leo straightens and tosses a wink my way. “Aren’t you?” He heads over toward the window and peers out before turning his back to it and heading for the door. “Your roommates pass out early, the bars close late, and those guys always grab dinner…”
“At eleven, at that shitty hot dog stand,” I finish for him. Maybe Leo’s not wrong. Maybe I have been paying attention. But maybe this is also a trap, and he’s just waiting to report me to my father so I’ll get kicked out of school and he’ll earn brownie points. I wouldn’t put it past him.
He takes one look at my face and sighs, shaking his head like he can read my thoughts. “I wouldn’t have fought so hard for you to be here right now, Alice, if I didn’t want you to live a little. Take some chances. These nasty little lessons weren’t just trying to show you how to get out of duct tape and zip ties.”
“Could have fooled me,” I say. I rub my left wrist where I still have a scar from the night Marco was a little too rough with the ties.
Leo holds my gaze. “I guess I’ve fooled a lot of people over the years, but I didn’t mean one of those people to be you. Go out and fucking live, Alice. Buy a drink, make bad choices, suck a dick.”
It sounds like it should be an insult—and maybe it is. Maybe it’s a dig at the fact that no one has ever gotten close enough to me to touch me. But his eyes seem sincere, and that’s terrifying. “Leo…”
“Just think about it,” he says. “You know the routine, and you know the way out—and the way back in without any of them seeing you. You deserve better than what you were born into. We all do, and we all have to figure out how to survive it without losing our minds.”
He’s not wrong, but I don’t tell him that I’m just biding my time until I can escape. My father thinks I’ll have some marriage value to him, but in reality, I know that the minute I’m gone, he’ll forget about me. I’m pretty damn sure that’s what he’s been trying to get me to do my whole life.
So maybe Leo’s right about that too. Maybe it’s time to prove to both Guido Romano and myself that I am brave enough to take that step. Tonight might just be a drink at some bar, and tomorrow might not be anything at all.