Page 65 of Broken Mafia Prince
She scoffs. “I’m supposed to believe that you care about me?”
I shrug, looking away. “I just hate to see you being a pawn in this game. Nobody should have to drown on this sinking ship our families put us in. You deserve better than all of this.”
Her shoulders straighten, and she glares at me, fingers curling into fists. “You’re right, Raffaele. I deserve better than all of this. I deserve better than you, too. Don’t you ever try to kiss me again.”
Something dark rises inside me, and the urge to show her how much she wants me to kiss her again bubbles to the surface. I fix a smirk on my face. “I believe you have something of mine.” I glance down pointedly at the pendant in her hand.
Flushing, she holds it out to me, and I take it, careful not to touch her.
“Stay safe.” And then I turn and walk away, resisting the urge to look back at her, knowing that if I do, I’ll end up walking back to her, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk away a second time.
21
GIULIA
Iignore the sound of my ringtone as I fly up the stairs to my bedroom, eager to be back in my sanctuary, and hoping the memory of Raffaele’s kiss won’t follow me there.
I don’t need to look at my phone to know that it’s my cousin calling. While I’m usually eager to tell her everything—down to the very last detail—that happens in my life, this time around, I’m dreading having to face her and lie to her about this, because there’s no way on god’s green earth I’m telling her that Raffaele Gagliardi kissed me.
Barging into my bedroom, I bang the door as hard as I can behind me, waiting to feel some tiny bit of satisfaction at the childish move, but all I feel is a slight headache from the loud sound.
I let out a groan and jump face down into my bed, squeezing my eyes shut to block out the excruciatingly vivid memories of an hour ago.
What was I thinking, letting him kiss me in a place where anyone could have seen us? And what is worse was that I kissed him back. I can’t even accuse him of stealing a kiss because whenhe’d looked at me with those sharp blue eyes, I’d known exactly what was going to happen.
And I had let it.
I wanted it, in fact.
I roll over to my back, slapping my forehead with my palm over and over again. “So stupid, so damn stupid,” I mutter.
“It’s a one-off, it won’t happen again,” I swear.
Yes, it will, a voice in my head taunts.
“No way. I’m going to keep my distance from him. I don’t care what important information he has for me, I won’t be caught dead with that asshole again.”
The voice laughs, and I slap my head a little harder, trying to expel it. I’m now officially insane, and there’s one person responsible. I refuse to even think his name; instead, I allow my thoughts to shift from that kiss to the information I’ve just discovered.
A frown twists my face, and I jump out of bed, flying downstairs as fast as I’d gone up. If what he said was true, there’s really no time to think on it and try to sugarcoat it for Father. He needs to know what’s going on immediately. Maybe this will be the thing that finally makes him quit his vendetta against the Gagliardis.
The door to his study is half open, and I give a courtesy rap on the door before barging in.
“How was your date with Luca?” Father’s words make me falter.
In the heat of all that has happened, I totally forgot about my disaster of a date with Luca and all my plans to make Father hate him. That’ll have to wait until some other time.
“This is more important than that date.”
At that, his head snaps up, green eyes narrowing at me. “What’s more important to you right now than spending time with the man you’re going to marry?”
Starting an argument about the fact that I have no intentions to marry that raging asshole will only derail me from the more important matter at hand, so I decide to ignore it. I slap my palms down on his desk and lean forward.
“What do you know about the Echelon Syndicate aside from general knowledge?” I ask.
His eyes widen. “Where’s this coming from?”
“Apparently, the Echelon Syndicate is trying to put discord between us and the Gagliardis, and god knows how long they’ve been at it,” I tell him. “Which begs the question why. Why would they have an interest in us?”
