Page 124 of Untamed

I make it around the corner before the tears fall. Silent, hot and relentless. I swipe at them furiously, but they just keep falling, streaming down my cheeks as I put one foot in front of the other, trying to hold myself together long enough to find someplace I can bealone.

I don’t hear the footsteps until I hear Bianca’s voice cut through the air behind me.

“Jordyn.”

I freeze. Close my eyes and try to breathe through the growing ache in my chest. “Don’t,” I whisper, my voice raw and shaking. “Not now.”

But she’s already there, hand gripping arm, and spinning me around to face her. “Look at me.” Her hand moves up from my arm to my face, and she turns my face so I’m looking at her. I blink away the tears, but it’s too late. “Oh God, you have feelings for him, don’t you?”

Her voice is low and accusing, like the truth is something dirty.

I blink at her, caught off guard.

“I don’t?—”

“Yes, you do.”Her eyes are wide, frantic. “You have feelings for Ares.”

I shake my head, but it’s useless. The lie won’t stick. Bianca sees right through me.

“Bianca, please?—”

“No, Jordyn. You need to listen to me.” Her voice drops. “Because you were right. About everything. Aboutthem.” I stare at her, breath caught in my chest.

“The Russos,” she says, her voice trembling as she looks around to make sure we’re really alone. “They’re Mafia, Jordyn.”

The word lands like a hard slap. “No.” My chest tightens. “That’s not?—”

“I overheard them, Jordyn. Enzo and Luciano, last night.” Her voice cracks, but she pushes on. “They were talking about weapon and drug shipments. And then...they started talking about some guy called Alessandro Romano, and I remembered his name because he was on the news not that long ago.” She continues, her voice shaking. “He was the guy who was found hanging by his intestines in the centre of Messina, you remember? You even said what kind of a twisted monster would do such a thing?”

I nod mutely, my chest rising in shallow, uneven breaths. Everything around me feels like it’s tilting, like the ground isn’t solid anymore, and I can fall through it at any second.

Bianca steps in closer, her hands coming up to gently cradle my face.

I blink at her through a sheen of tears. “Jord, it was Ares,” she whispers. “He’s the one who did that.”

The world blurs.

I shake my head, not because I don’t believe her, but because Ido.

Because deep down, some part of me already knew he was capable of something like that. I saw it in his eyes the night he threatened Nicolai at Eden. I felt it in the way his hands trembled with restraint when I was near.

I just didn’t want to admit it.

Didn’t want to connect the man who looked at me like I was light, with the man who hangs people by their intestines. But now there’s no escaping it.

And what terrifies me more than the truth… is that even knowing it, I still want him. I’m still trying to find an excuse to justify him killing people.

I stagger back a step, but Bianca holds on to me, fierce now, almost desperate.

“There’s more,” she says, and her voice is cracking. “You need to hear the rest.” I shake my head and try to break away, but she doesn’t let go. “No, you have to listen to me. It wasn’t just weapons or drugs or killing people, Jordyn. They were talking about our parents.” My blood runs cold at the mention of our Mum and Dad.

“What?”

“You need to know the truth about Mum and Dad, why they died.”

Every drop of blood in my being stills.

Bianca looks at me, her eyes filling with tears now, too. “Their death wasn’t an accident, Jord.”Her voice breaks. “That day it was Matteo who was supposed to die, not Mum and Dad. Enzo said someone put a hit on Matteo, but missed and hit the wrong car and killed...”

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