Page 76 of Heir of Darkness

“Why the hell would anyone care?” Augustus asked.

“I can name a few people,” Cecilia said, huffing. Everyone turned to look at her. “What? Valerio did kill the man she was supposed to marry after he called off the marriage. I doubt Reece Kingsley is thrilled about having you as a son-in-law.”

“My father wouldn’t want his own daughter dead,” Finn spit out.

“Watch it,” Augustus warned him.

Luna thought about it for a bit. She didn’t have the best relationship with her father, but he wouldn’t actually want her dead. Besides, if he was upset about the engagement, he would have wanted Valerio dead, not Luna; she was still an asset to him.

“Either way, the apartment is compromised,” Gianna said. “I don’t want you guys staying here.”

“Agreed,” Valerio said. “You’re not staying here.”

Luna frowned. “I guess we could try to look for a new apartment.”

“No need,” he dismissed. “You’ll come live with me.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “Move in?”

“Yes!” Gianna yelled.

“No way in hell is Cecilia staying in your house,” Augustus said.

“Oh my God, leave me alone,” she groaned.

“Well, I’m not separating from my best friends,” Blair said.

“We have plenty of space at our house and the girls will be safe,” Valerio told them. “I’ll allow permission for you to visit whenever you want.”

“No!” Cecilia blurted at the same time Augustus said “Yes.”

She couldn’t stay at their apartment. Not when the place that had once been their home was now tainted and ruined. She would never feel safe in it again. Hell, she didn’t know if she would ever feel safe anywhere. Not until they figured out who did this to her. All they had right now was a dead man, and dead men couldn’t talk.

It was decided then. The girls were moving into the Vitali mansion. Luna was going to be moving in with Valerio when not too long ago she would have fought against the thought with everything she had. The girls went to their rooms, beginning to pack up what they would need for now until they could manage to get people in to pack up the rest.

Valerio grabbed Luna’s suitcase, tossing it on the bed while she began filling it. He didn’t take his eyes off of her for a minute, leaving her squirming under his gaze.

“I’m not going to disappear,” she said. A bitter cough left her lips. “You don’t have to literally keep an eye on me forever now.”

“You almost did disappear,” he said. “If your dumbass of a brother hadn’t gotten here, you would have been dead.”

Luna swallowed harshly, throwing her clothes into the bag. “I don’t want to think about that.”

He approached her, tracing her face with gentle hands. She leaned into his touch, relishing in it as if it could disappear at any moment. “I swear I’m going to find who did this to you, and when I do, I’m going to annihilate them. I won’t stop until there’s not a single trace of them left.”

She shouldn’t have liked the words that left his lips so much, but she did. And when his lips met hers, she accepted it. Sheneeded him to taste the fear she’d felt before, and the safeness she had now with him.

He leaned his forehead against hers. “I swear to you, nothing like this will ever happen again.”

That was exactly what she needed. His promise. One she knew he would never break.

“I know.”

TWENTY-NINE

VALERIO

“Alright,well it doesn’t look like anything is crushed,” the doctor said, moving back from examining Luna’s neck. “But the bruising will take a little longer to heal. Rest your voice as much as possible, keep a cold compress on for fifteen minutes max at a time, and use the eyedrops I’ll prescribe.”

---