Chapter 54 Truth and Lies
ARYA’S POV
The sound of birds chirping pulled me from sleep and it was an annoyingly cheerful sound that made me want to bury my head under a pillow and ignore the world for another few hours.
I groaned, stretching my arms above my head and yawning so wide my jaw cracked. My neck was stiff, my back ached, and when I finally opened my eyes, filtered sunlight was streaming through unfamiliar windows.
Where was I?
The memories crashed back all at once and I realized I had fallen asleep in the chair next to his bed.
But when I sat up quickly, I realized two things: First, someone had covered me with a soft blanket at some point during the night. Second, the bed beside me was empty.
"Giovanni?" I called out, my voice hoarse from sleep.
There was no answer.
I jumped to my feet, the blanket falling to the floor, and rushed toward the door. My bare feet padded against the cold floor, I had apparently kicked off my shoes at some point but I was too alarmed to care about slippers.
The hallway was empty and too quiet.
"Giovanni?" I called again, louder this time.
I checked the living room first but there was evidence of the chaos that had consumed this space. The kitchen was empty and terrace overlooked the sea with no one in sight.
Where was everyone? Where were the guards? Where was Giovanni?
Then I remembered the study.
I ran down the corridor, my heart pounding with fear. When I burst through the study doors, I found myself face-to-face with a room full of men.
Giovanni stood behind his desk, now wearing another shirt. His face was pale, a sheen of sweat on his forehead, and his left arm was held stiffly against his body.
But what made me gasp wasn't his condition.
It was the man standing beside him.
"Enzo?" I stammered, my brain struggling to catch up. "What are you… when did you get here?"
Enzo's face broke into a wide grin. "Hello there, princess. Miss me?"
Before I could respond, he crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. I melted into it without thinking, suddenly overwhelmed by how much I had missed the way he made everything feel slightly less terrible.
"When did you get here?" I asked again into his shoulder. "Why are you even here?"
"Got in about two hours ago," he said, pulling back to look at me. "As for why..." His eyes flicked toward Giovanni. "Boss called. Said there was a situation that needed handling."
I remembered then that Giovanni had been shot less than twelve hours ago. And he had been unconscious and bleeding, which meant that he was in no condition to be standing, much less conducting business meetings.
I rounded on him, my concern morphing into fury.
"You were shot!" I pointed at him accusingly. "Shot. With a bullet. That went through your shoulder. And you should be resting in bed, not standing around your study like… like-”
"Like I have work to do?" Giovanni interrupted, his tone was too calm. "I appreciate your concern, but you can see yourself out."
"You're bleeding," I said flatly, pointing at the fresh red stain seeping through his shirt.
Giovanni glanced down at his shoulder with the kind of detached interest most people reserved for a paper cut. "It's fine."
"It's not fine! You need to-"
"What I need," he interrupted, his voice dropping to something dangerous, "is for you to stop acting like you have any say in what I do or don't do with my body."
"Oh, excuse me for caring whether you bleed to death!" My voice rose to match his. "Next time I'll just let you pass out on the couch. Would that be better?"
"That's not what I fucking mean." He growled, his eyes flashing.
"You have my family held hostage!" I was shouting now. "You literally told me the other night that you have two hundred men who could kill them at any moment. So forgive me for wanting to keep the one person who controls their fate alive!"
Something flickered across Giovanni's face before his expression hardened into granite.
"Watch yourself, Arya," he growled, a warning clear in his tone.
"Or what?” I stepped closer, crossing my arms in front of my chest. You'll humiliate me again? Lock me in my room?”
We stared at each other across the study, his jaw was clenched tight, a muscle jumping there, and his eyes had gone dark with anger.
"Um," Enzo cleared his throat loudly. "Maybe we shouldn't be here for this."
I looked around and realized the other guards, Luca and several men I didn't recognize, were all staring at their feet or the ceiling or anywhere but at us.
"Leave," Giovanni said without taking his eyes off me. "All of you. Now."
They scrambled for the door with impressive speed. Even Enzo, who usually loved drama, was out in record time. The door clicked shut behind them and my stomach clenched.
Suddenly, it was just the two of us.
Giovanni moved toward me and I forced myself to hold my ground even though every instinct screamed at me to back away.
He stopped when we were barely a foot apart, close enough that I could see the stress lines around his eyes.
"What was it you were saying?" he asked softly. "About me bleeding to death?"
"You should be in bed," I repeated, but my voice came out breathy instead of firm.
I hated how he could affect me like this and how even now, my body responded to his proximity with heat and awareness.
His hand came up to cup my chin, tilting my face toward his. His thumb brushed across my lower lip, and I felt that touch everywhere.
"I almost died last night," he said quietly, and there was something raw in his voice that made my breath hitch. "A few inches to the right and that bullet would have hit my heart. Do you know what I thought about in those moments when I thought I might actually die?"
I couldn't do anything but stare into those grey eyes that looked like storm clouds.
"You," he continued, his voice dropping even lower. "All I could think about was you and the way you looked in that emerald dress.” His thumb traced my jaw now, gentle despite the intensity in his eyes. "Dio, Arya. Even dying, all I wanted was-"
"Stop."
I snapped at him, searching his eyes for truth and what I found there made something inside me crack.
Because he was so good at looking and sounding genuine. I had fallen for it before, every time, he had used that belief against me.
I leaned in close enough that our noses almost touched and I could feel his breath on my face, then I whispered.
"You're a terrible fucking liar, Giovanni.”