Page 50 of Pretty Poison

“Like two gods. I was his sunshine and he was my soldier; we clashed but in all the right ways.”

A wide smile appears on my lips and a breathy laugh escapes me. “Yes, exactly!” I can’t contain my excitement. “W-why did you think I was dead?”

“Gabriel c–contacted me a few months after I left, t–telling me you died in a car accident. W–why wouldn’t I h–have believed him?”

“Four minutes left,” Dario whispers.

“I don’t want to leave, Apollo, but I need to see Ace, too.”

“H–he’s still here?” he questions, his eyes quickly filling with tears.

My cheek instinctively finds its way to his, an endearing movement that makes him lean into my touch. “I promise I’ll be back in a few days, okay?” He nods in response. “I’m not leaving you here. I’m only a few houses away.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says sarcastically, tugging at the chains.

A breathy laugh slips free as I back away, moving slowly, afraid that if I look away, I’ll wake up and realise it was all a dream.

Dario opens the door, the air brushing past my feet until I’m back in the hallway and the door closes in front of me.

“You have three minutes, Liana; make this quick.”

With a quickened speed, I walk to Ace’s cell and Dario opens the door. I push past him and enter, immediately coming within an inch of Savio as he sways back and forth, hanging from his chains.

“I thought that was you,” he says, without even looking up at me. “How’d you find me here?”

“I-it’s a long story, but we don’t have time, Ace—”

“It’s been a long time since anybody’s called me that,” he says, finally glancing up at me. “Wow, you grew up real nice, Lia.”

“I-I can’t exactly say the same for you, Savio. You look like shit.”

He laughs. “You can thank Silas for that. He likes to go above and beyond with his creativity sometimes.”

“I’d love to stay and catch up, but I don’t have any time—I need you to tell Dario what he wants to know so you can get out of here. You and Apollo don’t belong in this place.”

“No matter how many times I tell every fucker that walks in here that I don’t have the information they want, they don’t listen. What’s changed?”

“We know who you are now,” Dario interjects. “It’s the most we’ve found out in four years. It’s a start in getting to know more about the reason why you’re here and who sent you.”

“All I have is a name,” Ace blurts out, his voice stronger and firmer than Apollo’s. “I can’t promise you it’ll lead anywhere because I searched for it myself before I agreed to this job. The only conclusion I came to is that they needed the job done.”

“What was the job?” Dario asks, inching closer.

“To kill you. They didn’t give a reason, and we didn’t ask.”

“And the name?” he grits out.

“Aldo Ferrari. All I know is he’s married, has one daughter, and lives in Italy. Other than that, he’s a mystery.”

“Time’s up, Liana. Let’s go.” Dario links his fingers through mine.

“You promise I’ll come back here, right?” I ask, my eyes never leaving Savio.

“After the wedding, you’ll be able to come back here. You got them to talk, and that’s all we needed.Theymade it harder for themselves by remaining silent.”

Twenty Two

LIANA

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