Page 108 of Broken Mafia Prince
“I’m taking a lot of risk speaking to you over an unsecured line right now. I’ll text you the address of where I want to meet.”
She laughs, but it’s an empty, humorless sound. “You think I’m showing up to a strange location after you’ve just told me you’re trying to get my father killed.”
I want to correct her that it’s my father and not me, but I have a feeling it won’t matter now. Deep down, she has to know that I’ll never try to hurt her.
“You shouldn’t have called me. I’d have been fine,” she finally says.
“I know.”
“I’m going to marry him,” she says again.
I don’t respond, and with a sigh, she hangs up. I keep the phone pressed to my ear long after she’s gone, desperate to keep the invisible connection.
It’s madness, but it’s Giulia, so I’ll choose this insanity over and over again.
36
GIULIA
“I’m at your door,” I say into the phone.
There’s a pause. “What do you mean, you are at my door?”
“Can you just come open the door for me?” I sigh.
There is another, much longer pause on the line, and then I hear the sound of shuffling, as if someone is putting on clothes. “Give me a minute.”
I chuckle into the phone. “Are you there with someone right now?”
I don’t need to see her to know she’s rolling her eyes. “Don’t be silly, I’m not with anyone. Just give me a minute for damn sake, I don’t want to flash the whole hallway.”
I glance around with a small smile. “The whole hallway?” I ask. “You’re the only one that lives up here. You and your nonexistent neighbor.”
It’s been a running joke between us that the guy who lives in the other apartment, sharing the top floor, is invisible. Sometimes we like to imagine that he looks like one of the book heroes: tatted, six-foot-four, and growly. But then again, Ican’t really say that those men are entirely fictional when I’ve experienced Raffaele Gagliardi.
I haven’t seen my cousin in a while, and the truth is that I have missed her. For her own sake and mine, I had to cut everything from my old life out entirely. I ran away to a perfect new life—though it turns out that perfect new life is only a smokescreen.
A moment later, I see the scanner on the door flash green, and then the foyer door slides open, revealing a scantily dressed Isabella. She’s still as drop-dead gorgeous as she’s always been. Or maybe even more. Her cheekbones are sharper than they were the last time I saw her, and she’s cut her hair into layers that perfectly accentuate her face.
Isa crosses her hand over her chest and pops her hips out to one side, staring me down.
“Hi,” I say nervously, running my hands up and down my arms to ward off the awkwardness.
“Hi yourself,” she says back flatly.
“It’s been a while.”
“For god’s sake, Giulia, are you really going to do this right here?” she snaps. “You suddenly up and disappear, and now you’re in front of my door, acting like I’m some stranger. Where the hell have you been? Why would you even do something like this, and how? Why do you think it’s all right to return whenever you feel like you’ve had enough?”
“Look, I’m sorry, it was complicated.”
“When is it ever not?” she demands. “It’s always complicated with you, but somehow I’ve stayed. You know that I would always have stayed. Through the thick, the thin, the everything.”
The hurt in her voice makes me flinch. “I’m sorry, Isa.”
She nods. “Whatever. Come in.”
“I told Father that I was coming over to your place,” I inform her as soon as I step into the apartment. The last time I washere, it looked like something from a real estate catalog. It seems she’s put some work into it. It actually looks lived-in. There are colorful throw pillows over the sectional, stunning photo shoots of her hanging around the house, and other little personalized touches. It feels homey.
