“I don’t want to steal your light.”
I lifted my head. Heartbreak was written all over her face as she stared down at me.
“It’s not stealing if I give it to you freely, baby. Everything I have is yours. Don’t you know that?”
Gemma squeezed her eyes shut. “You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand.” Rising to my feet, I pulled her into my arms, settling her on my lap as I dropped onto the edge of the mattress.
She let out a shaky exhale before burying her face in my chest. “Do you remember when I told you I was running?”
Sifting through the hundreds of interactions I’d had with the woman who took up all the available space in my brain, I honed in on one from inside her bar before she agreed to our first date.
“From your family, right?”
Gemma nodded, her forehead rubbing against where my heart beat erratically as I tried to piece this together on my own.
Tightening my grip, I swallowed thickly before asking, “What happened?”
Silence engulfed us as my question hung heavy in the air, Gemma clearly hesitant to answer. But I remained patient and steadfast, moving my hands in soothing strokes over her back, letting her know without words that I was there when she was ready.
Quietly, she replied, “So many things. None of them good.”
She was talking in riddles, so I decided to try to hit this from a different angle.
“What made you move to Indianapolis, Gemma?”
Fingers dug into my biceps a split-second before hazel eyes peered up, and she whispered, “My cousin’s wife was murdered.”
Jesus Christ. Guess that explains the gun.
Blinking at her in shock, it took a moment for me to regain my bearings.
Gemma must’ve taken my hesitation the wrong way because she sprang off my lap, muttering as she made for the door, “I knew you couldn’t handle it.” Jumping up, I caught her elbow before she could escape. The minute my fingers wrapped around her arm, she wrenched it away, screaming, “Don’t touch me!”
I held both my hands up in surrender, my heart shattering as I watched her deal with invisible demons she refused to describe. “I’m sorry.”
Bending in half, she let out a frustrated scream. “Fuck!”
I’d dealt with the sudden death of a loved one, but I could tell this ran deeper. There was more she wasn’t telling me.
“Like my family hasn’t fucked up my life enough. You were never supposed to find out.”
Desperate for answers, I asked, “Find out what?”
Looking skyward, Gemma blew out a breath. “That your precious littleKittenis a mafia princess.”
Sputtering, I said, “Did you say—”
Her head snapped to meet my stunned gaze. “You heard what I said.”
Mafia. She’d said mafia.
“That’s why I freaked out when you said you were Russian. There’s some bad blood between families, and for a second, I thought you were sent to kidnap me. Or worse.”
My eyes widened, and I pressed a finger to my chest. “Me?”
Gemma huffed. “Yeah, in hindsight, it was a ridiculous idea. You couldn’t hurt a fly. Which is why you have no business being mixed up with me. You need to get far, far away from my messy life before you get dragged under too.”
