By the end of the week, she was utterly and completely spent by tears and the weight of decisions that hung over her. Dez couldn’t comfort her, and she refused to call her grandmother while she was such a mess.
The one thing that kept echoing in her mind was the admonition Giovanni had given her the night they’d kissed.
“You need to tell them. You say you love them and you want them to be a part of your life, so why don’t you trust them?”
She’d already killed her relationship with Mano with the weight of her secrets and the walls she had built, so she called Dez into the pale blue room where she was lying on the bed, determined not to lose another person she loved.
“Dez, I need to talk to you.”
Beatrice told her everything.
She told her about murdered fathers and missing books. About mysterious men with blue fire and secrets. About blood and betrayal. Sacrifice and rescue. She told her best friend everything except Giovanni’s secrets. Beatrice even called Matt to confirm the story, so Dez didn’t feel like she had to call the men in white coats. Her friend was sitting on the bed with a dazed expression, looking like she’d just fallen down a very long rabbit hole.
“Was I wrong to tell you?”
Dez frowned. “I’m not quite sure at this point.”
She nodded. “If you want, he can erase it all. Gio can, I mean. If you don’t want to know. If it’s too much.”
“Did he offer that?” Dez looked worried. “Does he know you told me?”
“He told me I should tell the people I love.”
Dez thought for a moment.
“Did you tell Mano? Is that why you broke up?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t tell Mano.”
“Oh...okay,” Dez stuttered. “Just give me a few minutes here.”
“Okay.”
They sat in silence for a few more minutes.
“B?”
“Yeah?”
“Why did Giovanni come back? Is it this Lorenzo guy? Is he back now?”
She took a deep breath. “He says he came back for me. He said…”
“What?”
“That he loves me. That he wants me to be with him.”
“You mean like…”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Dez paused again. “So, he wants you to…”
“It sounds like it.”
“Because he loves you?”
Beatrice shrugged. “I guess so.”
“But you don’t believe him.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m really…”
“What?”
“Confused,” Beatrice sighed.
“Yeah…there’s a lot of that going around.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Dez frowned at her. “Why?”
“I should have told you before. I shouldn’t have lied about so much of my past.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Dez pulled her into a hug. “I totally understand why.”
“And now that I told you, I feel like I’m putting you in danger.”
Dez pulled away and a familiar, stubborn expression settled over her face. “That is not something that you should be worried about. If that’s the cost of being your friend…”
“What?”
Dez reached over and enveloped her in another hug.
“Totally worth it, B.”
She sniffed as the tears started again. “Thanks, Dezi. I love you. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
“I know. I’m pretty awesome.”
Beatrice snorted, then they both laughed. Beatrice began to slump as the days of emotional exhaustion started to catch up with her. Dez, however, was looking surprisingly perky.
“So, Matt knows about all this stuff?”
Beatrice called her next-door neighbor and asked him to drive her to the Huntington to get her motorcycle so she could go home for the first time in a week.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” she asked Matt as he drove her back to Pasadena.
“She’ll be fine,” he said with a smile. “Dez is tougher than she looks. And really smart. Don’t you remember that crazy feeling you had when you first found out?” He shrugged. “She’ll manage.”
“How long have you known Gio?”
“About ten years. About vampires, longer. My father did some work for him back in the day, and Gio…well, he trusts our family, I guess.”
“What do you actually do?” she asked with a frown. “You can’t be a realtor.”
He chuckled and reached a hand across the front seat. “Matt Kirby, private investigator. Nice to meet you, Beatrice De Novo.”
She snorted and slapped at his hand. He laughed and faced forward again, watching for the exit as they neared South Pasadena. Beatrice noticed that he was unusually chipper.
“You’re going to ask Dez out, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” he said with a grin.
“Good. Why did you wait so long?”
He shrugged. “Too many secrets. You think I could keep all that from her and have a chance?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Probably not, Matt. Good luck.”
“You too,” he said with a smile.
Beatrice saw the Mustang parked at the curb and Giovanni sitting in the dim light of the porch when she arrived. He looked at her, no doubt noticing the exhaustion that lined her face and her eyes, which felt like they had been swollen with tears for days on end.