Page 45 of Ruined By Blood
"With your mom?" I ask gently.
She nods, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. "She taught me Go Fish and Crazy Eights. And Candy Land – I used to love that one."
The image of a small Sienna playing colorful board games with her mother before everything went to hell touches that soft part of me that's well hidden in me.
"What about you?" she asks unexpectedly, glancing up.
"My mother taught us all the classics. Especially card games – she was ruthless at poker." The memory brings a genuine smile to my face. "Taught me everything I know about bluffing."
Sienna watches me curiously, as if seeing another layer beneath the monster.
"I've got cards," I offer, nodding toward the kitchen drawer. "And a few board games in the hall closet. Lucrezia makes sure we're stocked for when she visits." I pause, studying her. "What do you say? Want to play something?"
"You're really strange, you know that?"
"Strange?" I repeat, arching an eyebrow.
Sienna shifts on the couch, pulling her knees to her chest. "A mafia guy who cooks carbonara at three in the morning and wants to play board games." She shakes her head slightly.
A laugh escapes me. The sound seems to surprise us both.
"What did you expect?" I ask, genuinely curious what she thinks of me.
Her eyes drift over my tattoos, lingering on the Latin script across my knuckles. "I don't know. Someone who talks about killing people over breakfast? Practicing knife-throwing in the living room?"
"Who says I don't do that too?" I counter, watching theway her eyes widen slightly. "Tuesday afternoons are exclusively for knife-throwing practice."
The faintest hint of a smile touches her lips before disappearing.
"Look," I say, leaning forward, elbows on my knees. "I haven't actually played a board game in years. Lucrezia likes to keep them here, but I usually just humor her."
Sienna studies me, her blue eyes more alert than I've seen them. "But you're willing to try again? For me?"
Heat rushes through me at her phrasing.
For her.
As if I've done anything else since finding her bleeding behind that fountain.
"I'm willing to try," I say simply.
She considers this, fingers absently tracing a pattern on the blanket beside her. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do all this?" Sienna gestures vaguely around us. "Cook for me, offer to play games, protect me."
I could give her the simple answer—that she was hurt on Feretti territory, that I have principles about women being harmed, which are true—but something in her gaze demands pure honesty.
"Because I know what it's like," I say quietly, "to have your world shattered and not know who to trust."
She just stares at me.
"So," I continue, clearing my throat, "what'll it be? Cards? Monopoly? Fair warning—I'm ruthless at Monopoly."
"Are you ruthless at everything?" she asks, and I'm not sure if she's teasing or genuinely wants to know.
I hold her gaze, the weight of my life's choices heavy between us. "Not everything."
