Page 105 of Accidental Alliance

The moment I step into the interrogation room and the door closes behind me, the air shifts.

Elio’s dark eyes lock onto me immediately. He leans forward as much as the bindings keeping him in that chair allow, dark gaze burning into me.

I slowly sit down in the chair Davide had been occupying only moments ago. The leather is still faintly warm beneath me. My hands lace together in front of me on the table, fingers interlocking so tightly, my knuckles threaten to pale.

Underneath the table, my knees press together, my spine straight, my chin lifted. My face is composed the way my father trained into me.

On the outside, I am sure I look every bit the polished strategist Amos Russo molded me into. The last member of a dead empire and the only remaining Russo still connected to my father’s blood.

It’s all a mask to ensure no one sees what’s really hiding underneath. My heart is pounding so violently, I can feel each beat against my sternum. The sound of it fills my ears, drowning out the quiet hum of the light above us and the murmur of movement beyond the door.

Elio and I being at odds is nothing new. Perhaps it has been inevitable from the beginning. A Russo and a Conti were never meant to sit on the same side of anything.

Our families have made entire legacies out of smiling across tables while sharpening blades aimed at each other beneath them. Finding ourselves on opposite sides of the same table should not shock me, and yet for some reason, this does.

Because tonight, the balance is wrong.

The wolf is caged and I am the one holding the key.

That is the last thing I expected when I fled from the safehouse. I never imagined Elio would walk himself into a rival’s house and for all the power to be arranged, at least for this brief moment, on my side of the table.

Elio’s lips part.

Before he can speak, I cut him off. “My uncle. Is he…?”

I cannot finish the sentence. I hate that after everything, there is still some small, stupid piece of me that cannot force the word alive out of my mouth.

Surprise flickers across his face. He does not insult me by denying my uncle was there, nor does not pretend not to know what I am asking.

He only exhales softly, then he shakes his head.

My heart sinks so fast, it feels like falling through ice.

I already knew. Of course I did.

The moment I heard that gunshot, some part of me understood without question that the man who had put so much on the line for me to help me disappear was no longer in this world. I felt it in my bones before now, even if I refused to accept it.

I just… thought perhaps there was a chance I could be wrong.

That maybe what I heard had been something else—a warning shot, a miss. I thought maybe, just maybe, the world might allow me to misremember one terrible thing. Unfortunately, the world has never been that kind to me.

I lower my gaze to my hands before Elio can see too much, but I already know he does. He has always been able to see everything. That has always been one of the more dangerous things about him.

My fingers tighten together in front of me. The pressure hurts but I welcome it. Pain gives me something to hold onto that is not grief.

My uncle.

My father’s only sibling.

A man who had once carried me on his shoulders through my family’s gardens while my mother scolded him for letting me get mud on my clean clothes.

A man who smelled of cigars and citrus soap no matter what he wore and who used to slip me candied almonds from his pocket before dinner. A man who was too loyal to survive the collapse of a family like ours and died because of it.

For a moment, I cannot breathe through the anger. Out of the corner of my eye, Elio watches me gather myself. He does not reach for me, thankfully, or offer some placated apology.

He knows better than that. If he tried to comfort me, I think I might hate him enough to forget there are guards outside to stop me from hitting him until he was unrecognizable.

When I finally lift my eyes again, the burn behind them has not vanished, but I have forced it down and replaced it with something colder. “Why are you here?”