Chapter 125: The crash

"Okay, genius, calm down." Aria held up both hands, eyes narrowing. "Sit. Your mind is overworking, and you are saying ridiculous things."

"That is, in fact, a brilliant idea," Sienna repeated, undeterred, already turning the plan over for flaws and finding none she liked less than the alternative of knowing nothing at all.

"Girl, yeah, you’re skilled. Smart. Brilliant, even, genius." Aria’s tone sharpened, worry breaking through the sarcasm now.

"But this is the mafia world, girl. It doesn’t matter how useful you are to them, the second they even suspect you’re a liability, they will not hesitate to kill you. So no. That is a bad idea." She leaned forward, gripping Sienna’s hand.

"That man just lost his son. If you think he’s going to capture you and let it go peacefully, you are dead wrong. Just like you’re stuck with my uncle, if you let Fabio get you, you are done, my friend."

Sienna opened her mouth to argue, but Aria pressed on before she could.

"Plus, my uncle will never let that happen." A small, knowing smile tugged at the corner of Aria’s mouth despite the heaviness of the conversation.

"He will burn the world first before he lets Fabio take you. So honestly? Being my uncle’s prisoner is better than being Fabio’s because at least my uncle is madly in love with you."

Sienna rolled her eyes, though the heat that crept up her neck betrayed her far more than she wanted it to. "That is not the point, Aria."

"It’s a little bit the point," Aria said, unbothered, settling back against the headboard with the satisfied look of someone who knew exactly how right she was even if her best friend wasn’t quite ready to admit it yet.

"Fine," Sienna said, letting her shoulders drop, the fight draining slowly out of her. "I think I need a rest. Maybe my mind will come up with something better after."

Aria smiled, already opening her arms. "Of course, girl. Come here."

Sienna leaned into her, and Aria wrapped her in a hug the way she always did familiar, grounding, the kind of embrace they’d been giving each other since long before Sienna had mafia husband or mysterious pasts to untangle. Sienna closed her eyes, letting herself sink into it for a moment, her arms looping loosely around Aria’s back.

"I had a wet dream about Viktor a couple of nights ago," she admitted quietly, eyes still closed, the confession slipping out easier in the safety of Aria’s arms than it ever would have standing upright and composed.

Aria pulled back just enough to look at her, delight breaking instantly across her face. "Oh, girl, wait till it actually happens," she teased, grinning.

"Then you’ll know the difference between a dream and the real thing." She settled back against the pillows, still smiling, before her expression shifted, something more careful and hesitant creeping in.

"Also I told my uncle about your medical history. And about those men you were hiding from."

Sienna’s eyes opened slowly.

"I’m telling you now," Aria continued quickly, "and I want you to know I didn’t betray you. My uncle made me. And I was worried." She reached for Sienna’s hand, holding it firmly.

"It’s all out in the open now, but I need you to know if it ever comes down to choosing between you and my uncle, I will always choose you. That was just one time. I wanted him to protect you, that’s all." She searched Sienna’s face, something anxious flickering behind her eyes. "Are you mad?"

Sienna considered it for a moment, turning the information over, weighing it against everything else piling up around her.

"I’m not," she said finally. "Just wondering what else you’ll fear into telling him in the future." A small, teasing smile tugged at her mouth despite the seriousness of the conversation.

"Don’t be silly, like telling him you love him, or that you are having wet dreams about him. That would be betraying our friendship code. I will never do that," Aria said, pressing a hand solemnly to her chest, entirely too pleased with herself for someone who’d just confessed to a small betrayal.

"Fine," Sienna said, and they hugged again, the tension easing out of the room as easily as it had crept in.

There were maybe ten, twenty minutes of quiet rest after that Sienna wasn’t entirely sure, drifting somewhere in that hazy space between waking and sleep, Aria’s steady breathing beside her the only sound in the room.

Then the door opened, and Viktor walked in.

He stopped a few steps inside, taking in the sight of the two of them curled together on the bed, and something tight and unwelcome twisted in his chest an unreasonable flicker of jealousy at finding someone else wrapped around her, even if that someone was only Aria.

He wished, absurdly, that he were the one she’d fallen asleep against.

He crossed the room quietly and knelt beside the bed, brushing his knuckles gently along Sienna’s cheek. She stirred awake at the touch, blinking up at him, Aria waking a moment later beside her.

"What happened?" Sienna asked, sitting up slightly, voice still thick with sleep.

"I want you to stay at the Aria’s place for tonight," Viktor said, his voice low and even, though there was a seriousness beneath it she recognized instantly.

"I’m inviting Fabio over, and I don’t want you here when he arrives. Just a precaution. Please stay indoors."

Sienna searched his face for a moment, and he braced himself, certain she was about to argue, to insist on staying, on being part of whatever conversation was about to unfold beneath this roof.

She didn’t.

"Okay," she said simply, already swinging her legs off the bed, and something in Viktor loosened slightly at how easily she agreed though he didn’t let himself examine too closely what that ease might have cost her to offer.

Within the hour, Marcus was driving them out through the gates, under strict instruction from Viktor to see them safely to the Cross house and return immediately after.

The city lights blurred past the windows as Sienna leaned her head against the cool glass, Aria beside her scrolling idly through her phone, the low hum of the engine the only sound filling the car.

They were passing beneath the old underground bridge on the edge of town when the world lurched sideways.

Headlights flooded the car from the wrong angle, too close, too fast, and then the sickening crunch of metal tearing into metal as a truck slammed behind them.

Sienna and Aria were thrown forward hard against their seatbelts, the impact snapping through the car in a violent, deafening instant, glass and momentum and screeching metal swallowing whatever scream either of them might have managed to let out.