Secrets of the Arciero mansion (1)

“If you wanted to kill me, you should have simply said so.” I panted, wobbling off the treadmill with trembling legs. I was sweating buckets while Curtis didn’t look like he’d run the same ten miles I had run. He pulled two cotton towels off the rack and threw one at me.

“Your stamina is shit.” He grunted.

Wait until I chop your vocal cords off, then we can talk about how epic my stamina needs to be. I thought, but what I said was the exact opposite. “Maybe you can help with that?” I felt a jolt in my leg and instantly added, “if you don’t make me run my legs off, that would be nice.”

He dumped his towel in the basket at the side, his sigh telling everything his mouth couldn’t. “I’ll find you a personal trainer.”

That wasn’t what I was going for. I dabbed at my face and threw my towel in the basket along with his, using the chance to inch closer. “Don’t you want to train me?”

“I’ll be too easy on you. Can’t go all out when you’re halfway toward your grave, can I?” He loomed over m