Page 137 of The Cute Psycho

"I remember him," Vanya says, sitting in the passenger seat.

"You do?" I raise an eyebrow skeptically at her.

"Yes. He was the boy with the dimple. He was nice," she says with a dreamy sigh.

"You had a crush on him!" I tease, and she blushes from head to toe.

"Maybe," she whispers, going silent as she gazes out the window.

The memory I'd seen resurfaces, and I have to wonder just what type of life we had there.

I'm almost home when my phone rings. Seeing that it's one of theguards from Marcello's house, I immediately answer, afraid something might have happened.

"Yes?"

He's quick to tell me that Sisi found Marcello covered in blood and they are now on their way to the hospital.

Damn!

Maybe Marcello did need a friend after all. Too bad it's never me...

29

SISI

"I'm worried, Vlad. I told the doctor he wouldn't try to kill himself, but what if he did?" I pace outside Marcello's salon. The nurses needed to sedate him after he'd woken up, begging Vlad to kill him right in the lobby of the hospital.

"He's going to be okay," Vlad says, taking my arm and tugging me to his side. "I don't think he wasreallytrying to kill himself. But I suspect Catalina's abrupt departure from the house must have had something to do with it."

"How did you know?" I frown, leaning back to look at him.

"I spotted her at Agosti's. And she didn't look much better than your brother," Vlad purses his lips.

"What could have happened..." I mutter, confused.

How come everything happened all at once? Lina had left the house in such a hurry, taking Claudia with her and not answering any of my calls. For the first time, she'd truly shut me out, and I don't know what to do about it.

"It's for them to figure out, Hell Girl. We can only make sure that your brother gets out of this unscathed."

"Can you stay over? There's no one at the house and..." I trail off. Idon't know why the prospect of an empty house scares me so much. Maybe because I'm still a little afraid of dark and lonely places.

"You don't even have to ask," he tells me, and I'm immediately more at ease. "I wouldn't dream of leaving you alone. Especially if rumors of Marcello's absence were to circulate."

I nod. I hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense that we'd be seen as easy targets. I'd learned a thing or two about the mob since leaving Sacre Coeur, and family is always the weakness most exploited.

"God, when will the misfortunes stop?" I groan out loud, sagging against Vlad's body.

"I trust your brother will figure things out," he sighs, "and as soon as he gets his shit sorted, I'm telling him about us. Including that I want to marry you," he declares, and my eyes widen at his words.

Pulling back, I look suspiciously at him, studying him from head to toe.

"What brought this on?" I ask. He'd casually said he was going to marry me before, but I hadn't taken it to heart, since Vlad has a flair for the dramatic. That and his dry sense of humor make for a deadly combination, ensuring that I rarely take his words seriously. But now? He seems pretty serious to me.

"I'm tired of hiding, and I'm tired of walking on eggshells around him. But mostly I don't want to be apart from you anymore," he tells me, a defeated look on his face.

I quickly sober up, knowing there must be more to this. Especially considering how he'd behaved last night, desperation clinging to him as I'd tried to comfort him in my arms. The pure shock I'd felt when I realized tears were flowing down his cheeks... Whatever he'd found out during his visit to the psychiatrist must have affected him more than he'd let on.

Even now, with his body against mine, I can feel the tension radiating off him, his usual smile gone as if keeping up the ruse of joviality is too much for him.

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