Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“You loved your parents. I don’t know that I can say that. I may have loved the idea of parents, but I can’t say that I love mine. I want to. I want to say Phillip was worth something, but he wasn’t.”
He didn’t raise his voice very loud. He didn’t have to. He was close to her. “Not to any of his children, and he treated Eloisa so horribly that it may as well be called abuse. He didn’t hit her, but it was emotional abuse. We all saw it. He knew her parents had drilled it into her that riding the shadows was her duty and that she had been born to do that and only that. It was her only worth. That gave him leave to do anything he wanted, and he took it. I detested him. All of us did. No, I can’t say that I ever loved him.”
Silence met his declaration, but she heard him. He knew by the sudden stirring in his mind. It felt feminine. She’d been crying, and that broke his heart. “I don’t like that you choose to cry alone. When you cry, Nicoletta, I prefer that you do it with my arms around you.”
Birds called back and forth, a loud noisy monologue that seemed to be over some kind of intruder the flock took exception to. The air would fill with small birds swooping and climbing high and then diving gracefully all together so they looked like one large shadowy machine chasing off a predator. He studied the images and knew she was doing the same thing.
“Are you comparing those birds chasing off the hawk to you chasing off my mother?”
There was the impression of a shrug. Their connection through their merged shadows was very strong and she wasn’t blocking it anymore. He was grateful for that, although he could feel her hurt and anger. Even her disdain. “Maybe not just your mother. Maybe you and your entire family with the way you treat people, Taviano. You’re so casual about your entitlements.”
He kept walking. Quiet. Controlled. Padding along the path like the predator he was. She knew he was one. She knew his entire family had been born predators. They were raised to be very skilled at what they did, and they had grown into extremely lethal beings. She was right that there was a sense of entitlement to some of their ways. They always investigated anyone who came close to them. They didn’t think anything about it or what effect it might have on the person being investigated should they find out. They’d never much cared one way or the other. The investigation was always thorough and a fact of life.
At times they offered a token resistance, but they always knew it was going to be done. When Nicoletta had been brought home to their family, there had been no question about doing an investigation, especially when they were asking Lucia and Amo to take her in. The Ferraro family was sponsoring her. They would mentor her, assume responsibility for her. Naturally, they would want to know everything they could about her.
Once the anomalies had begun to show up, the fact that her reflexes had grown faster, her movements in the shadows had increased, not decreased, so many things with Nicoletta that all of them noticed when training with her, they’d investigated even further, going so far as to make inquiries into the families in Europe, specifically the Archambault riders as to what psychic abilities their cousin had possessed.
“I suppose it seems that way, tesoro.” He moved steadily, right behind her, just out of her sight. The birds had settled back into the trees now that the hawk had been driven away.
“It doesn’t seem that way, Taviano, it is that way. All of you do whatever you want to do. You walk over other people. If you want something, you just take it. Or buy it. And you’re so casual about it. Eloisa is so cutting, not just to me but to anyone she thinks is inferior to her. What makes her so much better? Her money? Money doesn’t make anyone better.”
“No, piccola, it doesn’t.” He hated the sadness in her voice. Everything she said was true from her perspective and yet it wasn’t.
“Grace is so amazing. She really is. She’s like Francesca. Truly nice, and yet Eloisa looks down on her like she’s nothing, just the way she does Francesca.”
“Tell me why we’re having a discussion about Eloisa and her opinions on anyone.” He was too close now. He inhaled and closed his eyes as he took her scent into his lungs. He didn’t want to move up on her until she was ready to face him. “You shouldn’t care about her opinions.”
“I don’t.”
There was confusion in her voice, and he knew he needed to see her face. She’d stopped walking. “You do or you wouldn’t be so upset. You’re very upset.”