Twelve

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Nikolai Dimitri Leonov

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Nikolai Dimitri Leonov

"I'm going to murder you."

"Nice to see you too, Ximena," I say with a sarcastic smile. "Although your welcoming committee could be a bit better."

Those forest green eyes of hers drill into me with the very familiar glare that I know is reserved just for me, how special. If Livia was a cartoon then there would be steam coming out of her ears right now.

Her eyes flick over to her father who stood with my parents, chatting happily but there was a tightness to his shoulder I had never seen before. Angelo Di Vittorio was a remarkably good boss, man and overall human. He didn't have many enemies because of that fact but there was something wrong.

Livia sees the same thing I do in her father, the only difference between us is she knows what caused it, I can tell. And that causes her to deflate.

There was something wrong, first her not knowing what was going on right under her nose when she normally knew everything, two when she wanted to postpone our meeting instead of dealing with it straight away and now she was backing away from a fight instead of provoking me like she normally did.

This wasn't normal.

I didn't like it.

My favourite part about coming here was getting to fight with Livia, it was like the highlight of my year, and if she wasn't acting like the rabid animal she normally was then it will be very disappointing.

"Well, you aren't welcome, if you were then there would be a difference." She comments, glancing at her nails to avoid looking at me. "You made me wake up at six in the morning for this."

"Well, you wouldn't have had to if you had agreed to us coming over last night as I had wanted."

My mother cuts us off. "Will you two just shut up, you haven't seen each other for a while now, shouldn't you be excited?"

"Ew." Livia grimaces at the same time as I reply. "Gross."

My mother sighed in exasperation, I have no idea why she thought this trip would be any better, Livia and I had been like this for as long as I can remember. "You two exhaust me."

"Guys why didn't you go start sorting out what you need to, Liv fill in Nikolai please," Angelo asks and Livia nods. She walks up to her wing in the house where I have a room reserved especially for my visits.

The estate felt different, there was a certain buzz around here that I had never felt before. "Do you have more people than normal on the property?"

I watch as her facial expressions shift, they are barely noticeable but I have studied Livia's emotions for years. So I see her press her lips together for a brief second and then clench her jaw but she doesn't answer me, she instead keeps leading me through the property.

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