Page 36 of Blade

“Yeah,” I say and stroke her hair.Its softness has always been one of my favorite things to feel against my skin.

But it’s a lie.We don’t have a lot of time to just be together.Too much trouble is brewing.If I were a better man, I’d tell her so right away.But I’m weak.I want to be happy, I want her happy, I want to stay just like this, with her in my arms, thinking good thoughts for just a little longer.

“But you don’t think we can,” she says after a while, reading me correctly like only she can.

“There’s a lot of shit going on,” I say.“I’m needed back home.”

“Shit because of me?Because of Moretti?”

“That and other stuff,” I say.“But it’s nothing for you to worry about.”

I’ve never been big on empty promises and cliché platitudes, but look at me go now.

“Of course I’m worried,” she says, emerging from my embrace again, stiff as before.At least her eyes are more angry than sad now, though.“This is the whole reason I left in the first place happening all over again.”

I shake my head.“It’s not you.In fact, we’ve had no indication that Moretti or any of them know you’re back yet.This is something else.It started before you got here.And now we have to find a way to end it.But it’s not looking promising.”

“But it has to do with Moretti?”she asks and I nod.

I think she’s trying to catch me in a lie but I’m telling the truth.This isn’t about her.

“We thwarted some people, lost them a lot of money, and we didn’t end them,” I say.“There’s a lot of them.They’re well connected.And yeah, Moretti is one of those connections.”

“And when he finds out I’m here too, he’ll make that fight personal.”

She explained that particular nuance so much better than Rogue could when we last spoke.But that’s mostly because I didn’t want to hear it.

“Your brother’s working for him now,” I say.Something I should’ve done sooner.

“Matteo?”she asks.“But that’s OK then, he won’t let him hurt me.He’ll convince him to leave me be.He’s always been on my side.”

Her voice started out excited, but that faded as she watched my face while speaking.

“He doesn’t seem to be in a position to look out for you in any way,” I say.“It looks like he’s there as some sort of punishment.”

“What does that mean?What does that even look like?”she asks breathlessly, but then her face changes.“Oh, he’s still being punished because of me… because of us.”

It’s the one realization I didn’t want her to have.A knowing I wanted to spare her.That was a fool’s wish from the start.

“We’ll figure it out, OK?”I say.“Together.”

“I should call him,” she says and starts climbing from my lap.

With every nerve in my body I want to stop her.But I let her go.

“It’s not a good idea right now, Bella,” I say as I follow her into the bedroom where she’s rummaging through her bag to find her phone.

“I promise I’ll fix it,” I add.

She’s clutching the phone as she looks at me, her hand shaking.“How?And why would you help him?He hurt you so bad.”

“Because I love you,” I say as I walk up to her and take the phone from her hand.She lets me.Thankfully.Because I didn’t want to have to say that there’s nothing she can do for her brother.Revealing herself will probably get him into even deeper shit with Moretti.

She hugs me tight, tighter than she ever has.And she’s shaking again.Not from the cold this time.

“Thank you, Blade,” she says.“For everything.”

I hold her, don’t tell her that there’s nothing to thank me for yet.That we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet, and that there might be nothing we can do for her brother.That we might have to face him in a battle we intend for him and his side to lose.That there might be no other way to keep her safe.That we’re in this so deep we might never be safe again.Or alive for long.

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