Page 33 of Lucian

“Nothing! She woke up and had a fucking panic attack or something.”

“Get out before I kick your ass, right now!”

When the bedroom door closed quietly, Jordyn felt Lucian slip into the bed with her. Strong hands curled around hers clawing into the sheets, pulling them free. Kisses dotted down to her knuckles over and over, a calm murmuring following each kiss. Jordyn had squeezed her eyes shut so fiercely it actually hurt, so when she opened them, she found herself face to face with Lucian’s panicked expression.

“It’s all right,” he told her. “Safe, remember? You’re always safe with me, sweetheart.”

Jordyn let him pull her up to a sitting position before wrapping her in a strong embrace. It was only then she realized what he was wearing, which was practically nothing at all. Nothing but a pair of boxer-briefs and a towel hanging around his neck. Even his skin and hair were damp, telling her he must have just gotten out of the shower.

She didn’t even care. It didn’t matter that she had nothing covering her but a sheet, either.

Every injury on Jordyn’s body stung like hell, but she clung tightly to the one thing that seemed familiar and safe. Lucian.

“H-he … he beat me,” she rasped out. “Like an animal. Just … beat me.”

“Will Vetta?” Lucian asked, his tone turning dark.

Jordyn nodded frantically. “The others, they … they didn’t do anything. Held me down and let him hurt me. They didn’t even care.”

With gentle touches and tender words, Lucian pacified Jordyn’s panic. Once she was calmed enough to think rationally, the first wisps of embarrassment fluttered through her emotions. The sheet hiding her nudity had fallen in her fear, exposing her from the chest down to where it pools between them.

Lucian, ever the gentleman, covered her with the sheet, never taking his gaze from hers once. “I’m sorry about your lack of clothes. I didn’t have anything in this apartment for clothing, and I didn’t take the time to grab you something from yours after I found you like you were. My mother will be around later to bring you some things and she’ll buy whatever you’d like to have otherwise, okay?”

That admittance sent Jordyn through a whole new round of emotions. He’d found her after the attack. Bloodied, bruised, and beaten. She must have looked near death if the way she felt now was any indication.

“Besides that,” Lucian continued, not noticing Jordyn’s distraction, “… Paulie suggested it wouldn’t be good for your wounds to be wrapped too tightly for the first couple of days, especially by something as constricting as clothing. This way, it minimizes the chance of infection for the bad ones on your back and hip.”

“Paulie?” Jordyn asked.

Lucian offered her a supportive smile. “A very good friend, a doctor for us, our family.”

“Your family … Cosa Nostra. That one, you mean.”

“You remembered that, then,” he said, not seeming bothered by it at all. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

“Kind of,” she admitted. “I don’t understand, though.”

“Another time. It’s not important right now.”

“But you will tell me, right?”

“I will,” Lucian agreed. “When you’re better. It involves more than just me.”

Jordyn understood that. Thinking about the man Lucian had kicked out of the room, she asked, “Was that one of your brothers?”

“Yes, that was Dante. He’s a year younger than me. He should be in church this morning with our parents, but he’s using me as an excuse to skip. I need a babysitter, and apparently, my father agrees.”

“For what?”

“To keep me from killing someone,” Lucian said frankly. “They should know better. Out of the three of us brothers, I am not the hothead, even as pissed off as I am.”

Oh. Well …

“What did he call me?” she asked.

“What was it?”

“He said something when I woke up. I didn’t understand it. Caz … murder, I think.”