The Capo's Scarred Wife: A Vicious Comeback

and willful ignorance. They made small talk with Sofia, laughing at her inane stories about a professor she disliked

ate, Sofia didn't wait for the driver. She jumped out,

g up at the manor with wide, greedy eyes. "I bet you

arm around her shoulders. "We have a music room with acoustics you wouldn

ldren, leaving me to close the heavy car door myself. They

and unlocked the main door, they had a

oyer, shaking off the col

om, where the music collection was kept. It sounded like a ca

en the heav

d me made the blood i

holding

d down through my family. It was my grandfather's last gift to my father, and my father's gift to me upon my eightee

the priceless bow across the strings with a clumsy, d

were watching her, amused smiles on their faces, occasionally clapp

to

enough to cut glass. It sliced throug

ngs. Her eyes widened, but it wasn't with f

d that was perfectly steady, betraying non

lutching the instrument to her chest as if for protection. "I t

w, deliberate step forward. Each word w

e sofa, a silent, practiced plea for rescue. "You're sca

sing to his feet. He moved to stand slightly in front of Sofia,

recious, so deeply tied to my family, to my grandfath

repeated, my gaze locked on h

was a tiny, almost imperceptible twitch of her

loosened

begin to slip from her grasp. I saw the dawning horror on my own face reflected in

as too

The elegant, curved neck snapped cleanly from the body. The strings, suddenly released fro

her mouth. But her eyes, wide and innocent

in of a three-hundred-year-old masterpiece lying at my fee

d up at

t melt. It vaporized. Undern

AC

he sound was sharp, definitive, lik

er face, a perfectly theatrical

k-cl

artbeat. The distinct, mechanical sound of

roaring in my ears, drown

tteo were o

uns wer

ised, pointed not at an intrud

had sworn with their own

trayal. I stared at the two black holes of the barrels, then at their faces

nct was to prot

, his eyes wild, unrecogniza

unnervingly steady, though my heart was hammering against my ri

his hand, then back at me. His gr

, his voice as cold as the steel

broken laugh clawed it

He physically stepped between me and Sofia

ged, pathetic sound. "I didn't mean to! She

shaking finger toward the ceiling corner

," Luca spat, his face contorted with a dis

voice devoid of every ounce of the

knees and scared away unworthy suitors, were dead. They had died the moment those safeties click

was quiet, but it was a

walked out

ack. I felt the weight of the guns still po

al had already done more dama