Thief of Virtues: A Verona Legacy Novella by L a cotton

Author:L a cotton [cotton, L a]
Language: eng
Format: epub

“Hey.”

I bolted upright at the sound of Alessia’s voice.

After she’d fallen asleep, I’d kicked up my legs and stretched out of the bed beside her, the gun in my hand, my other draped over her shoulder, stroking up and down her arm.

I didn’t know how much time had passed but I needed to piss and find us something to eat.

I was fucking starving.

“Hey,” I pulled my arm away, wincing at the movement. But I swallowed down the pain, masking it. The last thing I wanted was for Alessia to worry any more than she already was.

Sitting up, she smoothed a hand down her hair. “I must look like such a mess.”

“You’re beautiful, Principessa. Always.” I brushed her cheek with my thumb, letting it linger at the corner of her mouth.

“Tristan,” she asked quietly, hesitating. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

“I… it’s just a silly nickname, Sia.”

Fuck, why did I say that?

The hope in her eyes guttered out, the tension around us ratcheting up a notch.

“I see.” She glanced away and guilt washed over me.

“Principessa, look at me.” I gently gripped her chin, forcing her eyes back to mine. “I lied. It isn’t just a silly nickname.”

“Because you… like me?”

“It doesn’t matter, Alessia. All that matters is that I get you out of this, safe and unharmed. Okay?”

“It matters to me.” Defiance burned in her eyes.

“Don’t do this. Whatever you feel… whatever I might feel, it can never be.” I let out a heavy sigh, wishing things could be different. Silently wishing that she wasn’t the Marchetti princess and I wasn’t one of her father’s grunts.

“Because I’m just a silly naïve girl—”

“No. Never. But Nicco, your father, they wouldn’t understand.”

Hell, I wasn’t sure I understood it.

“And what about what I want? Doesn’t that count for something? We could die out here, Tristan. They could hunt us down like animals and I’ll never have known…” Alessia slammed her lips together, trapping whatever words she’d been about to say.

“We need to eat,” I said, needing a distraction. Needing a reason to get out of the cabin for a minute and catch my fucking breath.

I couldn’t stand it. The pain and terror in her eyes. The dejection.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, Tristan.” She let out a bitter laugh that made me flinch. “What are you going to do, forage for berries?”

My eyes narrowed and I clicked my tongue. “Stay here. Don’t move, I’ll tap twice. I’ll be back as soon as I find something we can eat.”

“We don’t need something to eat,” she snapped. “We need to get out of here, we need—”

“What would you have me do? Risk running into those… those stronzos again? They’ll kill me, Principessa. And then they’ll…”

“Don’t. Don’t say it.” She inhaled a sharp ragged breath, the blood drained from her face.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I dropped to my knees beside the bed and reached for her, grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her into me.

“I shouldn’t have said that… I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s okay.”

Alessia touched her head to mine, looking up at me with those haunting eyes of hers.

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