Page 112 of Blacklist

“I do not have a horse in this race, brother, but you do,” he says. “What’s it worth for you to win?”

“Everything.”

“Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby?”

“Have you?” I ask. What the fuck is he on about now?

“The horse that wins doesn’t always survive the race.”

“Are you threatening to shoot my horse?” I ask flatly. I see the point he’s making. Apparently, he’s taking Jack’s side.

“Are you willing to pay that price?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.

“Because the reason he’s in here”— he taps the trunk —“is because of her.”

“So?”

“Are you really prepared to do the same thing he did?”

Adair’s betrayed face flashes to mind. She’s lost faith in me already. She didn’t care about who I was then or how little she knows about me now.

“I don’t kid myself about the kind of man I am. Someday someone will come for me,” Lucas says. “And I’ll deserve it. I know who I am. I know what that means. Do you? Does she?”

“I’m not sure it matters. She’s made up her mind about me.” This thing with her isn’t a black and white. Adair exists in the gray.

“Then change her mind.”

Maybe it’s that simple to Luca’s lizard brain, which seems to work in binaries, but Adair isn’t so easily swayed. “How would you suggest I do that?”

“Send her flowers. Be romantic. Take her on a date or some shit.”

I look from him to the trunk that holds a man we just shoved inside it. “Are you really giving me romantic advice right now?”

“I have layers,” he says, pretending to be offended. “And, word to the wise, so does she.”

“You know an awful lot about her for spending one evening with her.” I don’t want him to be right, but he might be.

“Women and torture aren’t all that different. You just gotta find the right button to press.” He shrugs and opens the driver’s side door. “Speaking of, where do you want me to dump this piece of shit?”

I’m too preoccupied to come up with an answer. “I trust you.”

Luca slides into his car, a slash of a smirk on his face. “You sure about that?”

He takes off before I can process that I might regret giving him free rein. It’s too late now and I have other things on my mind.

Like hair the color of wildfire and emerald-green eyes that see right through me. I love her. That’s how this started. That’s how it ends.

33

Sterling

The Past

The library is dead even for a Saturday. I guess the weekend combined with Halloween means normal people are on their way to parties. They probably don’t have to maintain an insanely high GPA like I do. Given how much time I’ve been spending with Adair, I’m falling behind in a few classes. Enough to worry me. There’s still plenty of time to get my grades up. At five, I pack it up and head back. Adair is coming over in an hour, so I’m surprised when I spot her white Roadster parked in front of my building. She’s still inside, singing to some song only she can hear.

I poke my head in and startle her.