Page 71 of The Mastermind
I stared askance at her, then shook my head. Sofiya didn’t react well to attention being drawn to her astonishing beauty. More than a few boys had collected bloody noses back in high school just for telling her she was pretty, and I would bet my whole bank balance she’d broken more than one dude’s nose since.
‘Doesn’t matter whether she believed me or not. Your butler took pity on me and let me in, obvs, so…’
‘Fine. To what do I owe the pleasure besides your obvious judgement?’
She watched me with eerie stillness. ‘What the hell’s going on, Mads?’
I swallowed and turned away to ease off my heels. It bought me a laughable ten seconds. ‘Should I not be asking you that? Apparently, I’m the last to know everything around here, including the plans being made for my fucking life.’
This time she wasn’t quick enough. I caught the tailcoats of guilt as it fled her face.
Her perfect eyebrows arched. ‘You’re turning this around on me? Nice.’
I tossed my purse on the bed and whirled to face her. ‘I love you, Sofiya. But seriously, could you drop the tough girl shit and have some damn compassion for a moment and tell me what the fuck is going on?’
Her expression sobered at the weariness and, yeah, my deep sadness I didn’t bother to hide.
‘You know what I’d wanted more than anything when we were growing up? For you and me to be best friends. To share everything, from nail polish to how shitty it was growing up in that gilded cage disguised as a home.’
She scowled faintly, taken aback. ‘You had Ciara.’
I shrugged. ‘Yeah, but her father was our junior lieutenant. I loved her but she had a grass-is-always-greener mentality I couldn’t shift. She thought I was lucky to be Bonafacio’s first-born granddaughter and had it made.’ My laughter seared my throat. ‘She had no idea I would’ve given anything to have a different surname. But you, despite your nothing-can-touch-me-ness and…’ I waved a hand at her, and her frown deepened. ‘You and I knew how bad things were.Are. Just as Giada and Jacinta understood eventually the life we’d been born into. We had zero freedom as women, and complaining got us punished. Or worse, got Mama punished for not doing enough to keep us in our place. I thought you and I…’ I shook my head. ‘I thought you were a loner, but I know you’re not. Not with Ciso.’
She winced and her jaw set. ‘So I was a shitty sister who disappointed you because I didn’t want to be besties?’
I sighed. ‘I don’t… Look, I’m not sure why you don’t like me?—’
She blinked. ‘What? Of course I like you. You’re my sister.’
‘And yet you’ve never had my back. And you’ve never needed me to have yours. Why’s that?’
She reached up and tugged on a lock of hair at her nape. My eyes widened. I hadn’t seen her do that since she was about fifteen. ‘Maddie…’
‘It’s fine, Sof.’
‘Obviously it’s not or you wouldn’t be bringing it up,’ she griped under her breath. ‘Look, I just wasn’t… I had a different way of handling my shit, okay? And I… I didn’t know you wanted… that. You seem tight with Ciara. And Bona warned me not to get close because of…’ She cringed.
My heart bled. ‘Because I could blurt out family secrets on any given night?’ Having my suspicions confirmed hurt like the devil. But I crossed to the room to perch on the end of the bed.‘Are you going to tell me why you’re really here? Why you came to my hotel room in Baku City, too?’
Her gaze swept to the side, and she stared out of the window for a long stretch. When she looked back at me, I spotted uncertainty on her face.
‘Sof?’
‘Yes. I wanted to warn you…’
My heart jumped into my throat, blocking any effort to speak until I forcefully cleared it and leaving the space in my chest a little numb. ‘About what?’
‘I think you know. Bonafacio has plans for you.’
The numbness was spreading like ice over a wound. But the thing was, it was temporary. Once the ice thawed, the devastation would wreck me. ‘But you didn’t tell me. Why?’
Her nose twitched with a thwarted grimace. ‘Because I wanted to buy you some time by dragging things out a little. I managed, by the way. Barely.’
My head felt too heavy to nod. But the question blazed in my eyes.
‘You and the heir have a history.’ She shrugged, crossed and recrossed her legs. ‘I thought maybe you wanted to have a little fun with him first, while everyone still thinks you’re working him to our advantage,’ she said, her eyes locked on my face. ‘Did you?’
Heat built, fast and furious, cutting through the numbness with a vivid replay of the filthy decadence Cesare had visited on me, and the eager abandon with which I’d welcomed it.
