Page 35 of The Lies We Tell

“You’ll have to be more specific than that,” he said drily. “Russia is a big country.”

Tessa tried to recall as many details as possible from Matteo’s conversation with Alexei the night before. After he’d asked her to wait for him in his bedroom, she’d stood in the hall eavesdropping on their discussion for as long as she dared.

“Alexei’s there. In Moscow. He’s supposed to meet with someone named Ilyin today to discuss a…” What had Matteo called it? “A disruption.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed. “Dasha Ilyin?”

“I don’t know. He only ever said Ilyin. That’s everything I overheard.”

He pushed away from her and stalked to the other corner. “That fucker. I know exactly what he’s doing, but it won’t work.”

“Great. You need to go before he comes back.”

He spun to face her, eyes bright with interest. “Who?”

“Matteo. He’s taking a call, but then he’s going to come looking for me. You should—”

“He’s here?” Her father reached into his pocket and drew out a knife, flicking the blade open with his thumb and drawing it between his fingers. “I could kill him right now and be done with it all.”

“No! No,” she said again, fighting to keep the sudden panic from her voice. “You can’t kill him.”

“And why the fuck not? Don’t tell me you’re developing feelings for the bastard.”

“Of course not,” she replied with a shake of her head. “But if you kill him, the first thing the family will do is toss me out. And you’ll lose your inside source.”

“It will hardly matter then. It’ll be done.”

“It won’t be,” she insisted. “Dom will take over and keep pushing forward. They won’t just stop because Matteo is dead.”

She had no idea if what she was saying was true. She’d spent almost no time with Dom or Luca or Carina, had no idea if they would care about this crusade to rule Sicily if Matteo was gone. But that hardly mattered. All she cared about in this moment was keeping Matteo alive.

After what felt like an eternity, her father closed the knife in his hand and tucked it back into his pocket. “Fine. I’ll let him live. For now. At least now I have a good idea of what his strategy is. I can head him off in a few different directions.”

“You do that. But you need to get out of here,” she said, gesturing toward the door.

“I don’t take orders from you, little girl,” her father snapped. “You might not be under my roof anymore, but you are mine until I say otherwise. Don’t make the same mistakes your mother did.”

A chill settled into her bones, but he disappeared before she could ask him what he meant by that.

Someone knocked on the door, and she jumped, clapping a hand over her mouth to muffle a yelp.

“Everything okay in there?” the clerk asked.

“Yes. It’s fine. You just scared me.”

“Sorry about that. Let me know if you need any help.”

Ready to find Matteo and get the fuck out of this store and safely back to Palermo, she quickly changed back into her shirt and left the clothes discarded on the overstuffed ottoman. Whipping open the door, she stopped short when she saw Matteo standing in front of a pale pink settee. How long had he been standing there? Had he heard her talking with her father? Or seen him coming out of the dressing room?

He glanced up from his phone, his smile quickly replaced by a frown. “You didn’t try on the dress.”

“I told you, I don’t need the dress.”

Matteo tilted his head at her tone. “What’s wrong?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she took a deep breath. “Nothing’s wrong. Just what I have at the counter is fine.”

Matteo closed the distance between them in two quick strides, pushing her back into the room and closing the door behind them. “I want to see you in that dress, even if it means I have to strip you naked and do it myself.”

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