‘And you think I do?’ he said, incredulous. ‘We deserve revenge. You deserve revenge. Tonight was difficult, but you escaped. Donata ended up losing, not us.’ He rolled his eyes, frustration gathering in the corners of his puckered mouth. ‘I don’t know why Luca can’t see it like that.’

‘I’ll have a gun next time. We’ll be better prepared.’ I don’t know why I was fighting so hard. I suppose beneath the fear and the pain and the sudden realization of my own precarious mortality, there was a feeling of strength, of my own determination. I was strong. I had survived tonight. I had helped Luca. And I would survive again. We all would. ‘I’m not afraid, Nic. I’m not afraid of what they’ll do, and I’m not afraid of what I can do.’

He smiled at me, a slow curl of his lips. ‘See,’ he said. ‘You are hardcore.’

He moved the cloth up my arm, brushing the inside of my elbow, his fingers inching around my wrist.

He slid his arm back down. Without meaning to, he was holding my hand, and my fingers were curled inside his. We were much closer than I realized. He was tracing small circles around the wound in my shoulder with his free hand, tenderly cleaning off the dregs of disinfectant and blood.

‘What are you doing?’ I was suddenly so unbearably tired.

He took his hand away, folding the cloth in his lap. ‘I’m proud of you, Soph,’ he said earnestly. ‘You were amazing tonight. A true Falcone.’

I smiled at him. ‘Thank you.’ The words slipped off my tongue, husky and far more intimate than I intended. ‘You smell like a forest.’

The corner of his lip flickered. ‘Looks like the pain meds are kicking in.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

ONE HUNDRED GRAVES

‘What unique brand of violent romanticism is this?’ I snapped my head up to find Millie standing in the doorway to my room. ‘Because I do not love it.’

‘It’s called friendship,’ I said, pulling back from Nic, realizing in a moment of fleeting clarity that perhaps it did look like something different, something I didn’t intend.

She strode into the room, her heels and dress still miraculously intact, the black fishtail trailing behind her. ‘I have now been fully debriefed and suitably threatened by Valentino as per your request, Mr Falcone, sir.’

‘I didn’t tell him to threaten you,’ Nic said. ‘I told him to calm you down. You were getting hysterical.’

‘Huh,’ Millie mused. ‘Well, I guess he threw that part in for free. Anyways, consider my lips sealed. I do want to see my parents live into old age, you know.’

Nic ground out an unintelligible curse. ‘Did he really threaten your family?’

Millie smiled sardonically at him. ‘Only a smidge. May I have a word with my best friend now, please?’

Nic got up, muttering something to Millie before taking his leave and shutting the door behind him.

Millie wheeled around and flipped her hair away from her face. ‘A blood war,’ she said.

It felt like my head was floating several inches above my neck. My fingertips were a little numb. I nodded.

‘Are you freaking kidding me, Soph? Is this some sort of cruel Halloween prank where you dress up as someone I don’t know?’

I flinched at the implication. If only she knew what the real disguise was – the person who had been hanging out with her these past few months, forcing smiles and feigning interest in a future that was no longer within reach.

‘You’re in a blood war!’ she repeated. ‘When the hell were you going to tell me? Or was I supposed to just join the dots at your funeral?’

I raised my hands in the air, trying to placate her. ‘I’ll explain, Mil.’

‘You can definitely try, but I doubt you’ll talk your way out of this.’

‘I didn’t want to worry you,’ I said. ‘That’s kind of how it works in the underworld. The less you know, the safer you are. I never in a million years thought something like tonight would happen. I never would have knowingly put you in danger like that. I’m sorry.’

She pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘I would actually throttle you if you weren’t already injured, Soph. I swear to God, for a smart girl, you are acting like the dumbest person on the planet right now. You think my main point of contention is that you didn’t tell me about the blood war? No, my main issue is that you are in the middle of a blood war. How the hell did that happen?’

I blinked at her, feeling an overwhelming urge to slump over and sleep for a hundred years. ‘You know I’m a Marino. You know what they did to Mom.’

‘What exactly are you trying to achieve by living here in the middle of all this violence? Do you realize you almost got killed tonight?’

‘I realize that.’

‘Hanging out with this family is probably the worst thing you could be doing right now,’ she pressed. ‘They’ve painted a big fat target on your forehead.’

‘The target was already there, Mil. The Marinos are after me too. We’re safer if we stick together. Without them, I’m like a sitting duck.’

‘And?’ Millie prompted. ‘Is that it?’

‘What?’ I said.

‘Is that the only reason why you’re here?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Her meaning was not connecting inside my fuzzy head, but I could tell she was angling at something.