*Olivia*
The dark of the limo provided scant protection from the unseen enemies outside. I huddled close to Dahlia on the dark leather seat, and she drew herself just as closely into , as though we could protect each other from such a threat. My hands hadn’t stopped shaking since she told about the note. I kept pinching myself, hoping I’d wake up in Paris, back before my life had co crashing in.
My arm was going black and blue.
Dom sat in the back with us instead of the front like usual, and I could see his hand hovering near his gun. I wanted to be comforted by his presence, by the warm weight of Dahlia against my side, but I couldn’t quite chase the fear away.
Receiving a note myself had been terrifying, but knowing they managed to get soone so close to Dahlia again without her bodyguards noticing shook to my core. I squeezed her hand just to remind myself she was here and okay.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the phone call with my mom. I might be unhappy at ho, but if the other option was being constantly terrified, did my unhappiness matter that much? Maybe I’d be better off in Arica.
My thoughts were racing out of control. Dahlia might have gotten a totally different note, and I needed to know before I did anything drastic.
“Can I see the note?” I murmured.
She pulled her notebook out silently and offered it to . I’d never seen her so quiet, so pale. She wasn’t falling apart like I always seed to, but she definitely didn’t have it all together.
I swallowed and opened the notebook carefully to where a page had been torn away from the binding but left within. In thick, dark letters, it read, “NOTHING CAN STOP US. WE ARE EVERYWHERE.”
The writing looked exactly the sa, down to the dents on the next page. My stomach flipped, and I pressed a hand to my mouth.
Dahlia pressed a hand to her still-healing gunshot wound and offered a rueful smile. “Olive, I’m a little scared.”
I made a sound sowhere between a laugh and a sob. “You know, Dolly, too.”
My hands shook worse than before as I slipped her notebook back into her bag. This had to be the sa person, and I had to tell Gio. I took Dahlia’s free hand to steady myself and pulled out my phone.
He picked up on the second ring. “All well, carina? I’m a little busy.”
I swallowed back the tears that rose in my throat as I heard his voice. I wished I could just collapse in his arms and let him whisk back to Paris, or anywhere else he wanted to go. “No, everything’s not okay. Dahlia got a note.”
His voice instantly turned businesslike. “You’re on your way ho.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah.” I tried to keep the wobble out of my voice, to sound strong, but Dahlia squeezed my hand, so I don’t think it worked.
“I’ll et you there.” And with that, he hung up.
I scrubbed the tears from my eyes. He probably just needed to wrap up so business to get ho as soon as possible. The wonderful, loving man I was willing to put up with all this for would certainly have so comforting words for when we both got ho.
I pillowed my head on Dahlia’s shoulders and willed the trip to pass as quickly as possible.
When we arrived at the compound, all our bodyguards congregated around the door of the limo before we got out to create a periter between us and anybody who might be out there. Dom explained the process quickly, like it was nothing, but I couldn’t help rembering the man in the park, the blood in my gelato. No periter would prevent people from dying, even if those people weren’t or Dahlia. Even the compound walls didn’t make feel safe.
We shuffled into the door surrounded by guards and headed right for the dining room. Neither Tallon nor Alessandro appeared on the way. I hoped they hadn’t been told yet. The only other explanation for their absence I could think of was that they were already doing sothing... or that they’d been taken.
With the walls of the compound surrounding us, so color had co back to Dahlia’s face. She flung her backpack down at the feet of one of the chairs, sat, and pulled out her notebook. “So this was in my Business Ethics class, and we did so group work. I wasn’t away from my notebook for that long, but everybody was shuffling around, so I wasn’t paying great attention.”
I sat down much more carefully across from her, glancing at the big windows I once thought were so beautiful. Most of them looked out onto the courtyard, but if they could get soone into our school, why couldn’t they get soone in here?
“But I think I definitely would’ve noticed so rando walking up to and writing in my notebook, so it only makes sense it was one of the people in my group. It’s gotta be a student,” Dahlia continued. Finally, she looked up at . “You okay?”
I shook my head, not trusting my voice.
She smiled softly at . “We’re safe in here. Nobody can get in. I promise.”
I swallowed. “I thought school was supposed to be safe,” I murmured.
The front door slamd open, and heavy footsteps carried Gio into the dining room with us. His eyes blazed, and his jaw was clenched. He looked us over intensely.
“Is everybody safe?” he asked.
We nodded.
He turned to the notebook. “May I?”
Dahlia pushed it toward him. “I already ripped out the page so nobody else had to handle it. Should just be and Olivia on there. I think it’s a student doing this.”
Gio turned around just as Tallon appeared behind him. He nodded sharply, then turned back to us.
A little bit of my nerves subsided as Tallon shot a cheeky grin and leaned against the wall. He was okay.
Gio sat at the head of the table, what felt like lightyears away from Dahlia and , and sighed heavily. “I think you girls are going to have to take a break from school until we get this sorted out. It’s just not possible to keep you safe in that environnt.”
Dahlia rocketed to her feet. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding ! A couple of Russians pay so kid to write a scary note, and you’re just gonna let them win?”
I looked up at my best friend, the picture of righteous rage, and her anger began to seep into . She was right. It was probably just so kid, and Gio was caving to empty threats.
Gio shook his head. “I’m not letting them win. I’m prioritizing.”
The anger burned away my fear, leaving shaking with the power of the new emotion now. I stood to join Dahlia. “You’re prioritizing? You’re talking about our lives, our degrees! We ca here to go to school, and I’d damn well like to.”
She smacked a hand on the table where the notebook used to lie. “I spent all sumr locked up in this compound like a prisoner, and I’m not doing that for another minute for however goddamn long you see fit.”
Gio folded his hands on the table, and I could see his knuckles go white as he gripped them tightly. He was trying to maintain his cool. Normally, I’d care, try to check in, but with this white-hot anger burning in my veins, I was glad he was mad.
“I am prioritizing your lives. A handful of credits aren’t going to make a difference if you’re dead,” he said slowly. “I can make arrangents to ensure your progress isn’t damaged by the leave of absence. You can work from here if you’d like.”
“We’re not just pieces you can move around on a chess board!” I’d raised my voice at so point, and suddenly I found myself shouting down at the man I loved. I wanted to be more reasonable, but more and more, it felt like I had to lose everything to keep Gio, and I was getting tired of it.
Tallon stepped forward, a hokey grin on his face. “I an, he is offering you like the greatest doctor’s note ever. ‘Can’t go to school, too hunted by rival mafia.’”
I whirled on the man who was very nearly a brother to . “Fuck off, Tallon. Now is not the ti for your stupid jokes.”
He winced. “Alright, alright. But I prefer you both alive to college educated.”
Dahlia rolled her eyes. “What? Are you taking his side to impress him into letting you stay here longer? The grown-ups are talking. Buzz off.”
Gio stood suddenly and smashed his hands down on the table. “I seem to have given you the impression that this is up for debate. It is not. I would love to be able to talk to you like adults, but you’ve proven that impossible. You are leaving school, and you may return when we have resolved this threat.”
The righteous anger turned into a boiling fury in the pit of my stomach. I felt like I was losing control of my life, my goals, everything, and in that mont, it felt like Gio was taking it from . “You’re not in charge of . You can’t turn my life into this!”
Gio looked at with a cold anger in his eyes. I barely recognized the man I loved behind the towering fury, behind the mafia Don. “Unfortunately, Olivia, I can. I am a significant donor to your college, and they always take my calls. I suggest you start getting used to the idea.”
He turned and began walking to the door. “Your only other option is to leave.”
My mouth fell open as he stalked upstairs to his office. I’d told him I was scared and thinking about going ho because I trusted him. That he would throw that back in my face in front of Dahlia and Tallon almost felt like a worse betrayal than yanking out of school.
Tallon looked at with wide, worried eyes, but I shrugged him off. I’d apologize to him later, if I thought he needed one when I was less angry. I couldn’t make sense of anything right now.
Instead, I looked to Dahlia, whose mirrored rage seed like a safer harbor in this storm.
“Fuck him,” I said.
She nodded. “Fuck him.”
I crossed around the table to her. “Wanna ask Maria to help us get astoundingly drunk?”
A smile spread across her face, feral and furious. “Absolutely.”
I threaded my arm through hers, and we marched off toward the kitchen. Maybe if I got drunk enough, I could stop thinking about how good going back to Arica sounded right now.
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