Page 21 of Fierce Hearts

The conversation continued, memories flowing between us. Gray reminiscing about the times we'd all spent together over the years, many times without Leo. Small moments I'd almost forgotten. A birthday dinner for Meredith where I'd accidentally set the dessert on fire. A weekend at the lake where Gray had tried to teach me to water ski and failed miserably. The night we'd all stayed up watching terrible horror movies, making fun of the plot holes.

It was strange how normal it all seemed in retrospect. How easily I'd slipped into their world like I'd always been a part of it. Perhaps that's why I'd felt comfortable with them, despite everything. We were all pretending to be something we weren't, hiding things. Even Meredith had been hiding things, although she'd blocked them out.

The car slowed as we approached my neighborhood, the elegant homes and manicured lawns a testament to my successful escape from my past. Or so I'd thought.

Apparently, I'd never truly left.

Did you ever truly leave?

Gray's voice swam through my mind.

"This is me," I said as we pulled up to my house—the renovated old-style mansion I'd purchased with my "inheritance" money when I'd finished college and moved out of the dorms. Money that had been blood-soaked long before it reached my bank account.

Gray nodded to his driver, who stepped out to open my door. Gray followed, walking me to my front steps.

"Well," I said, fishing my keys from my purse. "This is goodbye, I guess."

He hesitated, standing closer than necessary. "It doesn't have to be, Sof."

I looked up at him, at the face I'd known for years but had only truly seen last night. The face that had hovered over mine in the darkness, his eyes intense as he moved within me.

His words made my chest ache and a lump form in my throat. So he'd felt something more too then. That was the only reasoning for those words. Either that, or he was hoping to continue our no strings attached fun.

But the look in his eye told me it was the former.

"Gray..." I started, then stopped. What could I say? That last night had been a mistake? That I was being pulled back into a world that I wanted no part of? That I was not who he thought I was? Sure, he knew I was a Savoca, but he didn’t know all of it.

That Marco's death was going to upend my life, and anything we could've attempted to pursue was bound to go up in flames?

"I know, I know," he said as he clucked his tongue and glanced across the gardens around my home. "No strings attached. Just some fun. We leave it behind us."

"Right," I said, relief and disappointment mingling in my chest. "Exactly."

He nodded, then leaned in to press a kiss to my cheek. His lips lingered for a moment, warm against my skin.

"Take care, Sofia," he murmured.

"You too," I replied. "Enjoy the Bahamas. Get yourself a nice tan."

He stepped back, his expression masked. "Thanks. And... I'm sorry about your patient."

The lie I'd almost forgotten. "These things happen," I said with a practiced shrug. "Part of the job."

I watched as he returned to his car, waited until it pulled away from the curb, then entered my house. As soon as the door closed behind me, I leaned against it, my legs finally giving way as I slid to the floor.

The tears came then, hot and silent. For Marco, who had protected me. For the life I'd thought I'd escaped. For the innocence I'd never truly had.

I didn't know what Ernesto wanted from me, why he'd called. But I knew one thing for certain. With Marco's death, everything was about to change for the Savoca family.

And somehow, despite all my efforts to leave that world behind, I was being pulled back into its deadly orbit.

CHAPTER6

SOFIA

Isat on the floor, my back still against the door, for what felt like hours. The tears had dried on my face, leaving tight, salty tracks down my cheeks. Marco was dead. My cousin. My stand-in brother. My protector. The one who'd given me the ability to walk away.

Now he was gone.

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