*Caterina*
My jaw was still tightly clenched after I ended the call with Elio. I dropped my phone on the couch cushion next to and waited for my blood pressure to lower.
Call immature, I thought. I didn’t care. If I hadn’t hung up on him when I had, there would be no telling the words that were going to co flying out of my mouth. I’d been heated about what went on earlier and demanded that it be dealt with in so way.
I didn’t like purposely interrupting his day while he was at work, but sothing needed to be said.
I’d hoped that he would see reason and understand why it was so reckless to place not one, but three damn guards on while I was at school. There was not an ounce of subtlety to be found with those n tailing all day. And, of course, Anna was quick to pick up on it.
I wanted Elio to at least consider drawing back on the security detail. But instead, the man proceeded to make yet another cutting remark about leaving school.
I was so angry. Elio knew how I felt about completing my education, and he’d still gone ahead and said that.
‘It’s not going to happen,’ I thought to myself. ‘I’m not going to leave my education behind for the sake of our second lives.’
But the fact that this was the second ti Elio had ntioned quitting school caused my nerves to be on edge. Was there a reason as to why he kept saying it? Was sothing going on behind the scenes that he wasn’t telling about?
I may have ended our call on account of my anger getting the best of , but our conversation was far from over. Deep down, I knew that Elio knew that as well.
I tried to find so way to occupy my ti as I waited for Elio to get ho. I figured digging into so of my actual class work would have been wise, but my mind was far too distracted to keep focus.
My thoughts wandered between Elio and Anna relentlessly, not having a single clue how I was going to deal with either one. I wasn’t sure how much ti had gone by before I heard the front door open. Heavy footsteps made their way toward while I sat at the kitchen table.
I knew it was Elio who stood in the doorway, silently staring at , no doubt with a look of hefty caution. But I quickly shot to my feet and faced him with determination.
“Do you seriously want to quit school?” I asked.
Elio caught the note of panic in my voice and hastily moved closer to before stopping short. My stomach filled with a disturbing weight of anticipation.
He let out a long sigh and rubbed his eyes in frustration.
“No,” he said tiredly. “I know you need to do that for you. I just... I just don’t know what else to do. I think you’re going to have to tell Anna the truth.”
My eyes widened in shock. Tell Anna the truth... as in the whole truth?
I felt myself go slightly weak in my knees and before I knew it, I was sitting back down in my chair, utterly deflated. My eyes fell away from Elio as I tried to process the idea of bringing Anna into sothing so dangerous.
How on earth was I even supposed to talk about sothing like this with her? It’s not as though this was a recent developnt. Elio and I have been lded into this sort of life for a while and I’ve been purposely keeping it from her as a ans of ensuring her safety.
Just then, my eyes widened in sudden shock.
‘Oh, shit,’ I thought. ‘Is that how Elio feels every ti he tries to justify his actions for needing to keep safe?’
Oh God. It was like soone had taken a bucket of ice water and proceeded to dump it over my head. Talk about a serious wakeup call—there was absolutely no way Anna was going to take this well.
I could easily recall the anger and devastation that always ca crashing over whenever I discovered that Elio was keeping sothing from . I’d feel betrayed and angry for hours on end until we’d reach so kind of resolve.
But the relationship between Anna and was completely different. It wasn’t as though this was so minor subject to be taken lightly. How was I going to resolve things with her?
With Elio, we’d used makeup sex to resolve our issues. I’d hold a tough grudge and he’d be the one to apologize while slowly making it up to . In the middle of all that, Anna was usually the one to help see through the angered haze of my mind.
She was the one who’d constantly help see reason and make sense of my thoughts.
I brought my hand up to my mouth and nibbled on my nails. I found myself slowly shaking my head in denial.
“There’s no way that that’s possible,” I told him weakly.
How on earth was this going to make her feel?
It wasn’t as though the content of the discussion was what startled . It was the fact that I’d kept it all from her for so long. It was enough to elicit its own argunt in itself.
Anna would surely question seven ways to Sunday about why I’d kept everything a secret.
“Cat,” he started. “I know this won’t be easy.”
Easy? I nearly scoffed at his remark, a complete understatent. He truly had no idea.
Elio never had to explain himself or his life to soone who was considered an outsider. Yes, there was the business with his parents, but it wasn’t as if Gio and Olivia weren’t familiar with the lifestyle.
Hell, it wasn’t even easy talking to my own mother about these things. She wasn’t exactly cross with , but she wasn’t completely accepting either when I’d told her. I knew that the real business that went on behind the scenes bothered her. And the fact that her only child had decided to get herself involved in it too was not exactly a comforting thought.
But, once more, my mother was familiar with the lifestyle, having been married to my father. He kept her out of harm’s way, but that didn’t an she was ignorant of the truth.
Anna was a totally different case. She hadn’t the slightest inkling of what this life was really like. To her, a mafia life was sothing that one could only find in books and movies. And even then, it was usually over-romanticized and never truly captured the real dangers and threats that lay behind every corner.
“There’s no way,” I started. “There’s no way I can possibly tell her.”
“Cat—”
“No, you don’t understand,” I said sternly. “Anna isn’t like any of the other people in our lives, Elio. She has no prior knowledge or understanding of how things really are. Her life has only ever been an upper-class sort of living.”
He let out another sigh while his expression beca resolute.
“Tell , how the hell am I supposed to go about telling her these things?” I asked him.
It wasn’t as though I could set the mood to hopefully buffer the blow to all of this. It didn’t seem right to plan a nice relaxing girls’ day out and nonchalantly tell her everything like it was no big deal.
Could I tell her over dinner? Maybe drinks? What about a spa day? What about a weekend away sowhere?
‘Yeah, Cat. Those all sound great. A nice relaxing weekend away with your best friend is exactly what needs to happen. Just you, Anna, and the three fucking security guards that Elio placed on you for extra protection because our lives are a far cry from normal,’ I said bitterly to myself.
Every possible idea that tried to spring into my mind was quickly trashed and forgotten.
Who was I trying to kid? There was nothing that I could do that could dull the wild explanation for what I needed to tell her. I felt riddled with worry. My stomach swam with uncertainty.
Suddenly another troubling thought occurred to . What if Anna gets mad at and doesn’t want to be my friend anymore?
Elio must have seen my body physically shake from the appalling thought, and he demanded to know what I was thinking. I told him my worries and restated my question.
“If that were to happen, would she be considered a threat then?” I questioned with a tremble to my voice.
And here I had thought that the worst-case scenario was that Anna would end up being pissed off at , but no. No, instead I ca to the brutal realization that Anna could very well end our friendship and now she’d be walking away with a slew of viable information.
Oh, God.
What if soone discovered that Anna now had all this valuable, dangerous information and tried to use it against her? I didn’t want to end up seeing my best friend potentially beco my enemy. Not only would I be putting my friendship in jeopardy, but I could also be putting a potential target on her back.
I didn’t want to imagine any of these awful possibilities, and I certainly didn’t want to put my friend’s safety at risk. I wouldn’t.
Elio shook his head and enveloped in his arms. He curled his hand around the back of my head, pulling against his chest.
“Cat, you know that would never happen,” he said reassuringly. “You and Anna are best friends. I’m sure that she would at least give you a chance to fully explain things.”
“What if, after she hears everything, she decides she doesn’t want to be friends?”
“Should that be the case, then she could walk away with no repercussions,” he promised.
Without so much as another word, I ca to wrap my arms around him and embraced the loving warmth that ca from him. No matter what, I knew I could always count on him to make feel safe.
“Well, on another note, Elijah and Anna finally t today.”
Elio’s chest vibrated with a series of chuckles, causing to smile.
“Good, he needs soone else to focus on,” he said.
I rolled my eyes but ended up joining him in a laugh. “Oh, please... as if I could ever be interested in anyone other than you.”
His eyes grew hooded with want. “He wouldn’t know the first thing about how to please you anyway.”
A deep shade of pink touched my cheeks.
“No, he wouldn’t....”
My voice trailed off as Elio swooped down to take my lips in a heated kiss.
I practically squealed when I felt the hot, wet brush of his tongue along the seam of my mouth, demanding its entrance. I allowed myself to beco lost in the lustful sensation of his hands and his lips. They were the only things keeping grounded at the mont.
Unfortunately, that bit of stability ca to a crashing halt when we heard the sound of his phone ringing. Elio broke away in an irritable huff. His brows raised when he saw the caller ID.
“It’s Franky. I have to take this.”
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