Page 29 of Savage Proposal

I pulled in front of a coffee shop a few blocks from New York University. Isabella stared at it, making no move to climb out of the car. “You drove us all the way into the city for coffee?”

I shook my head. “I drove you all the way into the city to see the barista whose shift is about to end.”

“What?”

I reached over, ignoring her squeak and the warmth of her body, and opened her door. “You have fifteen minutes before she has to leave for class,” I said. “Go.”

Isabella’s eyes widened. “You mean?”

“I found Gemma as easily as I found you.”

She swallowed hard. “You told me that you’d leave her alone if I agreed to be your surrogate.”

“Think of it as insurance,” I said with a shrug. “I’m not going to go anywhere near her, so long as you hold up your end of things.”

“I will.”

I gestured her out. “Go spend some time with your sister. I’ll wait here.”

“You’re going to end up with a ticket doing that. There’s a public parking lot just around the corner.”

“I have never gotten a ticket before, and I won’t now.” She didn’t want to hear how the NYPD knew to stay away from Vitali vehicles, and we both knew it. “Go. Time’s ticking.” Isabella stared at me, incredulous, for a moment, and then she was wrestling with her seatbelt. I reached over and clicked the button, releasing the belt. “If you tell her anything at all, I’ll gut you both, do you understand?”

Isabella took a breath and nodded. “I do.”

Fifteen minutes later, to the second, Isabella and Gemma came out of the coffee shop. Gemma was a touch taller than Isabella, more willowy, but I could see the resemblance between them in the curve of their mouths. The daintiness of their noses. I watched the sisters hug for a long while, and then Isabella sent Gemma down the sidewalk toward the university.

She opened the car door and slid back inside. The lovely smile that she’d come out of the shop with faded around the edges. “Thank you,” she said, not quite looking at me. “It meant a lot getting to see her, even for a short while.”

I hummed and pulled the car back into traffic. “I’ll do what I can to arrange more time for you,” I said. “When I can fit it into my schedule.”

She was quiet for a dozen or so blocks. “Why would you offer that?”

I gritted my teeth. “Don’t ask questions, Isabella.”

She was silent again. Five blocks passed. “I think I need you to explain it,” she said softly. “Please.”

I didn’t want to. I didn’t have an answer that would satisfy her anyway. “I’m capable of kindness sometimes.”

“I don’t doubt that,” she said far too quickly for my liking. She was just agreeing with me because she thought that was what I wanted to hear. “But I have a feeling that your kindness comes with strings, so I would like to know what they are.”

Damn her. “There are no strings today,” I said. “I promise.”

If she was waiting for some kind of apology, she could keep waiting. We lapsed back into silence, but I couldn’t relax into it now. Isabella shifted in her seat, restless. I glanced over; she had her lip clamped between her teeth. She looked like she was at war with herself.

Finally, she asked, “You can park anywhere, right? That’s what you implied when you said you wouldn’t get a ticket.”

“More or less,” I said.

“Can you find somewhere to park? An alley or something like that?”

I glanced at my satnav. “I can. Why?”

Isabella rolled her shoulders. “Don’t ask questions, Lorenzo,” she said, throwing my own words back in my face.

I shook my head, chuckling under my breath. “Fuck it.” I found an alley and turned into it, sucking in a breath when I realized just how narrow it was. “This better be good.”

For a moment, Isabella didn’t say a word, and I wondered if she had lost her mind. Then she unbuckled her seatbelt and scrambled over the consul to swing her leg over my lap.

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