CHAPTER TWELVE
Carmela
My heart thumping wildly, I aimed my flashlight at the balcony door. The second I saw a blurred black silhouette, I dropped the flashlight, grabbed a nearby lamp, and hefted it over my head. With my eyes pinched shut, I swung as hard as I could. The metal made contact with the person. I stumbled sideways, and the lamp slipped out of my unsteady hands.
The person grunted, and my eyes cracked open, searching for another weapon, but I saw Konstantin Trincher instead.
“What are you doing here?” I said, my voice thick with the remnants of fear.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Kon growled, trying to keep his voice down. He looked at me as if I were the crazy one when he had snuck into my room in the middle of the night. What did he expect? That I’d greet him with a warm hug and a big sloppy “thanks for coming I missed you so much” kiss?
“I’m not the lunatic here.” I pointed at the open balcony door. “You broke into my room in the middle of the night. Did you expect me to cower beneath my sheets and wait for someone to kill me?”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t need to hit me in the head,” he grumbled, his hand palming the side of the face.
I winced. I didn’t want to hurt him. Well, I did before I realized who he was. When I met him a year or so ago, I thought he was a soulless asshole. My opinion evolved into something I couldn’t explain the minute he defended me when Renzo cornered me in the bathroom. I didn’t hate him, and I didn’t particularly like him, not entirely. In spite of or perhaps due to my confusing feelings for him, I’d let him kiss me. Touch me. It had been too damn long since I’d been with a man, and even when Rocco and I were together, we never had much time alone. We kissed hello and goodbye, and we only had sex a few times. All said and done, Rocco and I had a mostly unremarkable sex life before he died.
“Are you in pain?”
“What do you think?” He angled the side of his face toward me. It was stained a bright, angry red, and he had a short gash across his upper cheekbone.
Crap, that looked like it hurt.
“I don’t think you need stitches, but you’re going to have a bruise. Do you want some ice?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I made my way to the kitchenette and grabbed a bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer. By the time I turned around, he was sitting against my cream leather headboard with his eyes closed, his head tipped to the ceiling.
I sat on the edge of the bed next to him, pushed his disheveled blond hair back, and pressed the bag to the side of his face, catching a whiff of his clean, woodsy scent in the process. I grinned inwardly and leaned closer to him for reasons unknown to me.
Maybe it was because I’d been in constant turmoil since my conversation with Evie at the coffee shop. My emotions turned more chaotic after the screaming match with my mom. I demanded she call off the party, and she used the guilt card, telling me to grow up and honor my father’s dying wish. After a circular conversation that went nowhere, I had retreated to my room.
Kon opened his clear blue eyes and shifted closer to me. His eyes did a once over of my black camisole and matching polka dot sleep shorts, and I swore my skin heated. I suddenly felt off balance, and more than a little exposed.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked.
“I didn’t know I was.”
“Well you are. I like your smile.” He shook his head like he wanted to unscramble his thoughts or take back his words, I didn’t know which. “I think you hit my head harder than I realized.”
“Oh, um, thanks.” I choked out a nervous giggle. “So why are you here?”
Cocking his head to the side, he grabbed the frozen bag of peas from my hand and tossed them on the foot of the bed. “Don’t play dumb. You blew me off tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. Something came up.”
He rubbed his temples, obviously trying to gather his thoughts before he responded. The black tattoos on his fingers stood out against the color of his skin, appearing somewhat sinister in the soft lighting.
“Did your absence have anything to do with Nico?” While his face remained a blank mask, he had a definite edge to his voice.
My muscles tensed, and I dropped my gaze to my white duvet. I wasn’t ready to tell him about the party at Dominick’s to announce my engagement to Nico. My mom refused to call it off before I stormed away tonight. I still held out hope she’d give in after a night of sleep.
As I weighed my words, I felt him watching me carefully, his eyes boring into me with an intensity that didn’t escape my attention. It made the hairs on my arms spike as if a burst of electricity shot through my nerve endings.