Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 57067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“If she already knows, maybe more specifics would help.”
“What?” The bluntness turns it into a statement, not a question. He leans forward. “What?”
“She’s not a kid anymore.”
“You want me to tell her I work for the fucking mob?”
I shrug. “I’m just trying to help.”
“You can help. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I wanted to visit in person.” He takes a breath, steadying himself. “You need to leave.”
I shake my head. “Not this again.”
“Yes–this again,” he snaps.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“You should’ve left the night of the attack. You were lucky to get away with a flesh wound and a scar.”
“They were lucky I only managed to put two of them in the ground,” I snarl, thinking of the alleyway, the setup. The masked men thought they could take me unaware.
Julian groans. “Staying here isn’t an option anymore. You need to get off the East Coast. Go to California and buy a house by the sea and build a new life, man. You deserve it. You’ve worked long and hard.”
“Ride off into the sunset and pretend none of this happened? Pretend Don Salvatore isn’t a twisted fuck who’s taken things too fucking far?” I hammer my fist against my chest, then point to my scar. “Pretend I wasn’t this close to losing an eye? Pretend they didn’t scar me for life? Pretend they didn’t turn me into a monster? They wanted the Beast, Julian. They’re going to get the goddamn Beast.”
Julian’s mouth falls open. He’s my best friend. Hell, my only friend. And even he looks frightened of me.
“What’s the alternative?” Julian asks somberly. “Eventually, someone will see you.”
“I don’t understand why you think this has anything to do with me.”
“Huh?”
“Rico visits Celine at work.” Just saying the words makes my blood boil. I calm myself down. Just. “And you automatically assume it has something to do with me being seen? I don’t get it.”
Julian opens his mouth, closes it. Furrows his eyebrows. There’s something he’s not telling me. I know it. But I hope I’m just being paranoid.
He was there for me, always there, after my parents. I was an orphan with no other family, and Julian became my brother.
“You’re the only thing that’s changed,” he says after a too-long pause. “Years, and no one’s ever messed with my family. Then you get hit and suddenly they’re all over her.”
Hmm.
“I can’t let anything happen to Celine,” Julian whispers. “But she’s pissed at me. Won’t stay with me. And if I tail her to make sure Rico tries nothing again, the Family will catch on. They’ll say I’m acting suspicious. Why do I feel the need to follow her? Don’t I trust them? You know how they get.”
“I can do it,” I tell him. “I won’t be seen. I’ll keep her safe.”
Julian’s eyebrows shoot up to his forehead. “You’d do that?”
“You don’t even need to ask me that,” I say fiercely. “I’ll do it…” For her. If anyone touches her, I’ll wring their necks and shatter every bone in their bodies. “For you, Julian. Come on, man.” I lower my gaze. Emotional confessions aren’t exactly my strong suit. “I’d do anything for you, brother.”
He claps me on the arm. “Thanks, man.”
He won’t meet my eyes.
Perhaps Celine told him something else as well. About the kiss. Is that why he’s acting so weird?
CHAPTER 8
CELINE
The next day, Jackie and I leave work at the same time and decide to go to the Christmas market. It’s just what I need after the blowout with Julian yesterday. He wouldn’t tell me who that man was or what his sinister words meant. He wouldn’t tell me anything, but there were tears in his eyes.
“I’m not an idiot, Julian,” I screamed. “I know what you are.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said. “Dammit, Celine.”
The way he said ‘dammit’ was like: We’ve been living in this false reality for so long. Why do you feel the need to change that now? Just go along with this show for a while longer. Keep pretending.
“Are you okay?” Jackie asks.
She’s only a couple of years older than me, but with that extra nursing experience, she’s acted somewhat as a mentor as I find my feet on the ward. Tall, thin, with a hooked nose that gives her character and startlingly bright and beautiful green eyes.
I loop my arm through hers. “How could I feel depressed in a place like this?”
She grins as we walk past a stall selling custom-made snow globes and walk toward a kiosk dishing out hot drinks. We order some hot cocoa in giant paper cups and then find a spot on a picnic table beside a big statue of Santa, his red suit glittering with lights from inside, a ho ho ho coming electronically from his mouth every so often.
Jackie talks about the trip she’s planning with her boyfriend for the spring. Malta, somewhere they’ve always wanted to go. I do my best to listen, to be a good friend.