Chapter 81: Extremely petty

"I’m not playing this game right now," Sienna said, trying to sound stern, though the corner of her mouth had already started to curve upward despite herself.

"Sienna," Aria whined, drawing the name out into three long syllables, folding her arms and pouting dramatically, the exact same expression she had been using to get her way since they were teenagers.

"Fine," Sienna said, rolling her eyes, unable to hold back a small laugh. "I love you too, Aria."

"See? Was that so hard?" Aria said, grinning triumphantly, already turning back to dig through a drawer for shoes to match.

Sienna shook her head slowly, watching her best friend move around the room in a whirlwind of energy and opinions, and felt something warm settle over the earlier tension, the way it always seemed to whenever Aria was around.

She was, without question, the most dramatic person Sienna had ever met in her life, the kind of person most people learned to avoid after one loud, chaotic encounter. But she was also, somehow, exactly the kind of loud, stubborn, fiercely loyal presence Sienna needed most right now.

She slipped into the black dress a few minutes later, turning slowly in front of the mirror, surprised despite herself at how it fit, simple but sharp, nothing like the heavy, elaborate things Viktor usually chose for her.

This felt like something she might have picked for herself, if she’d ever had the courage to try something like it before Aria pushed her into it.

"See," Aria said, appearing behind her in the mirror’s reflection, resting her chin on Sienna’s shoulder. "Perfect. Now let’s go show my terrifying uncle what he’s really working with."

Sienna laughed despite herself, some of the heaviness from moments before finally easing off her shoulders. "You’re impossible," she said.

"I know," Aria said cheerfully, already pulling her toward the door. "It’s part of my charm."

They made their way back out toward the living room together, Sienna’s borrowed sneakers now abandoned in favor of a pair of Aria’s heels that pinched slightly at the toes, her old shirt and jeans left folded neatly on the bed behind her.

Whatever waited for her downstairs, Mr. and Mrs. Cross’s cold disapproval, Viktor’s unreadable patience, the strange new tangled reality of her best friend somehow being family to the man she had married, Sienna decided she would face all of it the same way she had faced everything else lately.

One careful step at a time, with Aria loudly, stubbornly, impossibly by her side.

Viktor was waiting near the front door when they came down the stairs, standing with his usual quiet stillness, his eyes finding Sienna the moment she appeared.

She felt his gaze move over her slowly, taking in the dress, the borrowed heels, the careful way Aria had pinned back a section of her hair, and something flickered briefly across his face before he schooled it back into that familiar, unreadable calm.

Sienna avoided his eyes completely.

It was Aria’s fault, really. Ever since her friend had gone on and on about handsome arms and hidden soft hearts, Sienna couldn’t seem to look at Viktor anymore without her traitorous mind supplying an entirely different picture than the one she wanted to see.

Now, instead of the dangerous, unreadable mafia boss she had spent the last few weeks trying to survive, all she could see standing in front of her was a tall, quietly striking man in a dark suit, and she hated it.

She hated it more than she hated almost anything else that had happened to her lately, because at least the fear made sense. This didn’t.

Viktor stepped forward and opened the car door for her without a word, his hand resting briefly against the small of her back as she climbed inside, the touch light, careful, gone before she could decide how she felt about it.

Aria moved to climb in right behind her, already talking about which stores they needed to hit first, when Viktor’s voice stopped her cold.

"You’ll take the next car," he said simply. "Or better yet, drive your own."

Aria froze halfway into the car, one foot still on the pavement, staring at her uncle in open disbelief.

"Uncle," she said, straightening up fully now, hands landing on her hips. "You are being petty right now. Extremely petty. There is plenty of room back here." She gestured dramatically at the empty seat beside Sienna. "Sienna loves me more than she loves you anyway, just so you know."

"Noted," Viktor said, entirely unbothered, already guiding Sienna further into the car.

"This is ridiculous," Aria continued, throwing her hands up as the driver’s door shut with a soft, final click. "Absolutely ridiculous. I am telling Mom you’re being difficult."

The car began to move before Sienna could even think of anything else to say in Aria’s defense, pulling smoothly away from the house and leaving her friend standing there on the driveway, still muttering under her breath, already heading toward her own car with visible irritation.

"Why," Sienna said, twisting slightly in her seat to look at him. "Why would you do that? There was plenty of room. She could have joined us."

Viktor didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached over and took her hand gently in his, his fingers wrapping around hers with an ease that startled her, his face leaning closer, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating off him, close enough that the scent of him, something clean and expensive and impossible to place, filled the small space between them.

Sienna’s heart immediately betrayed her, launching into that same frantic, uneven rhythm it always seemed to fall into whenever he was this close. Ta-ta-ta. Dum-dum. She hated how loud it felt in her own ears, how certain she was that he could probably hear it too if he tried.

"I wanted to be alone with you," Viktor said simply. "And she talks entirely too much."

Sienna wanted, badly, to argue that point, to defend Aria the way she always defended her, but the words caught somewhere in her throat.