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“Well, what do you want?” I try not to sound bitter.

His eyes snap to me. He sighs as he turns his attention back on the road.

“It’s going to be a long damn night.”

“Excuse me?” The fight goes out of me, if I ever had it to begin with.

My mind spins with a hundred reasons why he’d dread tonight, none of them good.

“You’re not going home. One of my men will fetch your car.”

This keeps getting better.

“What’s that supposed to mean? What are you planning to do to me?”

He holds out a hand. That’s when I realize he’s demanding my car keys.

Can he hear my heart beating out of my chest?

“Whoa, hang on.” I force a breath. “Okay, I didn’t mean to give you any attitude, but we had a deal. I didn’t—”

“Don’t ask questions, dove. You’ll find out soon enough. I’ll explain everything.”

Jesus, explain what?

Also, my poor Honda Civic.

I worked for years to afford those payments. I don’t want Scowly McMafia goon driving it into a lake fifty miles away or something.

But the dark, unforgiving hole in Luca’s eyes tells me this isn’t a request.

So I reluctantly fork over the key fob with my cute mini Edgar Allan Poe book on the keychain, wondering if I’ll ever see another sunrise, let alone my car again.

Is he driving faster? We’re flying down the road.

I can’t escape, short of jumping out the door and risking a bad end.

His hand lingers on mine for a moment before he takes them.

There’s this strange, liquid warmth, this bittersweet aftershock that spreads up my arm.

What’s wrong with me?

It’s so darkly funny that there’s this electric static between us, even when there’s a non-zero chance he’ll shoot me in the head tonight and leave me in the woods.

I really need to get checked out.

But first, I have to survive whatever new horror he’s come to inflict.

Twenty minutes later, we pull into what must be Luca’s driveway.

It’s attached to an elegant older mansion, of course, huge and intimidating and masculine. All stone and black accents, no softness.

Anyone can instantly tell why he picked this place.

I’ve driven through this area before. It’s a prestigious older neighborhood where a lot of senior doctors live, nicknamed ‘white coat commons.’

The type of place where there’s a golf course off the trail winding through the woods and a luxury car sitting in every garage.