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“I …” I look away.
He tips up my chin. “Don’t ever run away from me again.”
Resentment boils up inside me, but I feel guilty as hell when I look down and see all of these bodies. They died because of me.
“Jill?” Luca says.
He killed five men point-blank, and it doesn’t even seem to faze him.
“You killed them,” I murmur, unable to look away from the onslaught in this warehouse.
Who were they? No one ends up in the gutter like this by their own volition, right? Do they have family that will miss them? Do they leave behind kids?
Luca grabs my collar and forces me to look at him. “I’d kill every last motherfucker on this planet before anyone ever takes you from me.”
I swallow. Hard.
“They deserved what they had coming for them,” he says through gritted teeth.
So he saw what they planned to do. More tears well up in my eyes. All of this is my fault.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking—”
“Hey,” Luca interjects. “Don’t feel guilty.” He leans in to get on my level, staring into the depths of my soul as though it comes easy to him. “I was the one who killed them. And I would do it again, and again, and again, if it means keeping you safe. No one touches my wife.”
Something about that makes me shiver, his words lighting a fire in my chest that I desperately cling to, the same flutters I felt before when he killed those men … for me.
What is this?
Have I suddenly gotten used to his sadistic needs?
Or is it because I’m in awe that someone would go through all this trouble, all this murder, just for me?
A cold rush of wind comes in through the door and onto my blood-covered skin. Someone storms inside, completely out of breath. I recognize him as one of Luca’s guards, and he has the same size shadow as the one following me earlier. It must’ve been him.
“Nicely timed,” Luca grumbles.
“She ran so fast,” he says between breaths. “I didn’t even notice she was gone until it was too late.”
“You’re lucky I heard her scream,” Luca snarls back.
He heard me?
So he was searching for me all along.
“I’ll deal with you when we get home,” Luca spits at his guard.
No. No one else deserves to be blamed for my actions. I don’t want any more fighting because of me. And I don’t want anyone else getting killed because of what I did.
So I grab Luca’s face and make him focus on me. “Blame me. I was the one who ran.”
Luca places his hand on top of mine. “Don’t try to run from a man like me,” he says, his voice low, gravelly. “I will always find you. And if anyone even so much as tries to hurt you, they will die a painful death.”
The obsession in his voice is hard not to notice. He says it with such conviction that it’s hard to stop the goose bumps from covering my body from head to toe.
His grip on my hand intensifies as he turns around and pulls me with him. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
Luca
* * *
I bring her home in my car. She hasn’t stopped holding my hand like she’s afraid I might disappear. She hasn’t said a word since she got inside, but she didn’t protest either.
Her eyes are hollow and filled with confusion.
As though she’s wondering why she didn’t run in the opposite direction.
She should’ve been more careful.
Just the thought of those filthy fuckers getting their hands on her makes my fist ball. I should’ve cut off their dicks and fed it to them for having the mere idea they could even touch my fucking bunny.
But I had to control myself for her sake.
She’s not used to this kind of violence.
Her father kept her out of harm’s way for most of her life. Maybe she saw one or two people killed, occasionally. But there wasn’t ever a spree or a slaughtering, or even an all-out gang war.
I have.
I’ve seen it all and even took part in it all.
My father made my brother and me watch as he took the head of one of his enemies just for trying to undercut his prices. We were only kids.
Still, it shaped me into the fearless man I am today, one fit to rule the empire he built.
If only I could make her understand the importance of sticking together.
In this world, no one is better off alone, especially not pretty girls like her.
Men would kill to have her.
I would, and I fucking did.
My grip on her hand grows stronger as hers begins to wane.
I won’t let her slip out, despite the fact that she’s been distant since I found her.
I know she must be wondering if this was the last time she got out and saw the world for what it truly was. Tainted. Vicious.
