Page 104 of The Lost Kings
He moved his free hand to tuck a few strands of hair behind my ear. “You were like a loose thread that I wanted to pull on and see what lay underneath. At first, me seeing you was just to satisfy an itch, a question that I’d had burning in my mind since I first saw you, but then I got to know you and I grew to care for you. I call you beautiful because that’s all I can think of when I see you. I kept asking for you to visit because the more time away from you made me realize just how addicted to you I had become. Until finally, I had completely fallen for you.”
My poor tattered heart seemed too tired to absorb his words. As if we just needed some time to heal from the pain of surviving the twins. But it wanted to…so badly.
“What exactly are you saying, Adrian?” I whispered, too afraid to hear his answer.
He smiled at me again and then leaned in to kiss me. “I want to make you my wife, Presley. I know we’re young, but we’re both livingin a world that has aged us well past what’s typical. Your family needs protection and I would like to provide that.”
It was everything I had hoped for since discovering what Carter had done. Since the threats had been made, and our enemies knew where we were. But my chest squeezed painfully tight at the realization that this was all wrong.
“Adrian, if I didn’t care for you, I’d say yes right now and take advantage of your protection.” My fingers intertwined with his and he pulled me closer until our chests nearly touched.
“Don’t say no,Bellissima.” His forehead touched mine and a tear slipped down my cheek.
“It wouldn’t be fair to you, not with the way I still feel for the twins. I lied to you. They aren’t merely my best friends. I fell in love with them, and while we are on the outs, I can’t just walk away from that and marry you. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“To be frank, Presley, I don’t care about fair. I just want you to be mine.” He pressed his mouth to mine in a short but firm kiss then kissed my forehead. “Take time to think about it, and work through whatever you need to with them. You were falling for me the longer they were gone,Bella, so come back to Italy with me and keep falling.”
With one last kiss on my forehead, he left my room. I remained on my window seat, knees pulled up, crying and wishing everything about my life was completely different.
I was lyingon a blanket in the pasture next to the barn.
The stars were above me, and tears streaked down the sides of my face. How had I gone from feeling so totally unwanted at sixteen to being loved by three men? Well, Adrian didn’t say he loved me, he said he fell for me, which I wasn’t sure if that was the same thing, but it felt the same.
I cared deeply for him as well, but it wasn’t the same bone-deepneed that I felt for the twins. The thing that made me do things that didn’t make sense, or the need to make sure they saw me, or knew what I was doing. Like leaving a note for them to meet me out here taped to their loft window.
I knew they’d come, and until they did, I went back in time, remembering the way we used to gaze at the stars as kids and how we’d always talk about the sky connecting us if we were apart.
The wooden gate swung and closed near the barn, and I heard someone moving through the grass. Then a body landed gently next to mine.
Gio.
“Where’s Kingston?”
I turned my head to see his eyes on the sky, but a sad smile lifted his lips. “You know, you’ve asked me that nearly every single time I’ve ever approached you alone?”
“No—”
“You have. Throughout our entire lives, if I sat down and King wasn’t with me, your first question was about where he was. If I wanted to spend time with just you, you’d bring him up, and even now, after all the things we’ve been through.” His head turned so his eyes were on me. “You’re still wanting him.”
My face burned all the way down to my chest. “I don’t just want him, Gio. I was just curious because of him breaking the jar earlier.”
Gio resumed staring at the stars but let out a sigh, “He’s pissed at you.”
“Why?” I was the one who had a right to be angry, not him.
“Because you chose a man who isn’t good over us. A man who has lied about his identity. A man who was responsible for shooting and almost killing your father when you were eight.”
What the hell was he talking about? I sat up, propping my hand behind me and glaring at my best friend. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Gio mirrored my position. “In Mexico we learned how to gather intel, Pres. We got really good at it. We knew you were seeing Adrianan entire year before Scotty texted us. We know everything about him, including the fact that he was the person who ordered the hit on your father.”
“He would have only been ten years old. That’s ridiculous, Gio.”
Gio’s eyes narrowed angrily. “The Adesso’s used to be strongly linked to a family that your father targeted when he was running things as The Joker. It was your father’s fault Adrian’s dad died as young as he did…he made Adrian an orphan. Adrian has two brothers who travel with him, acting like security, but they’re some of the most dangerous men in the world. Benni and Renzo Adesso are aware of every move Adrian makes and they don’t make any decisions that aren’t unilateral. So the choice to place a hit on your father was made by Benni, but all three brothers agreed to it.”
That couldn’t be true. I had met Benni and Renzo. There was no way they were his brothers…they looked—I recalled the blue eyes, chestnut hair. Same wide jaw.
My heart nearly landed in the soil under me. It couldn’t be true.
