Page 44 of Savage Grace

I didn’t answer her.

Instead, I fidgeted with the leftover ice at the bottom of my glass, swirling it round and round and watching as the cubes melted.

“If it’s about the Redliner, I can assure you that Rome is the best one to speak to.”

I arched a brow at her.

“Think about it,” Liv shrugged, curling another section of hair. “Once upon a time, Antoni wasourenemy.”

“How did you guys handle it? When she started…you know?”

“Fucking him?”

I made gagging noises. “Ew. We can use the worddating, you know.”

Livie pursed her lips, considering. “Nah, they were never dating.”

“Anyway.You were saying?”

“We weren’t happy, that’s for sure. We were worried about her. Scared for her. Maybe even a little mad at her. We were supposed to be fucking ending the guy. He was a mark, a target.”

“And?” I breathed.

“Who knows what would have happened if they never got together?” Liv sighed finally. “One of them would’ve been dead, that’s for sure.”

“It would’ve been him,” Rome’s voice came from behind me, startling me so much that I nearly jumped off the couch. I turned just as she plopped lazily on the cushion next to me, a satisfied smile on her face.

“Please,” Livie rolled her eyes. “You were all heart-eyes from the moment you met.”

“I was not!” Rome snapped, bringing a defensive fist down on the couch beside her.

“Mmhm,” Livie made a disbelieving noise, rolling her eyes as she spritzed her curls with hairspray.

“I held a fucking gun to his head the first night we met,” she pointed a finger gun at her own forehead to demonstrate.

“Yeah. And you couldn’t stop talking about it.”

“Because it was cool!”

“Because you wereobsessedwith him.”

Rome glared at the back of Livie’s head for a few moments, muttering under her breath about how she couldeasilykill him if she wanted to.

I leaned forward to put my empty glass down on the coffee table in front of me, and then let my head fall into my hands so I could rub my temples.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter,” Rome said finally. “Toni and I are an exception, not the rule. Enemies are enemies for a reason.”

I didn’t feel like arguing the point.

It didn’t matter that I felt like their enemies didn’t apply to me.

It didn’t matter that I still didn’t quite understand why they were fucking fighting in the first place because no one had ever bothered to explain it to me.

It didn’t matter that I felt like Ashe had no intention of hurting me, because it didn’t matter what I thought. All that mattered was that The Santinos and The Redline Angels hated each other.

And even though I didn’t feel like it most of the time, I was a Santino. And Ashe was a Redline Angel.

So, even though I had a hundred questions and a hundred arguments to make, I simply stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder. I kissed Rome on the top of her head, and I threw a quick wave at Livie.

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