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“Whatever sounds good.”
“Scrambled eggs?”
“Easy enough.”
“And bacon?”
“A double-meat guy. I dig it. Yeah, I’ll throw on some bacon.”
Luca pursed his lips as Chef opened the fridge and took out the ingredients. “What about pancakes?”
Chef kicked the fridge shut, his hands full, and cocked his head at Luca. “You really that hungry, or do you just want to watch me in the kitchen?”
A flush crept up Luca’s neck. He hadn’t been thinking that way at all, but now that Chef said it, Luca guessed the guywaskind of attractive. Then again, he was a hostage enabler, which canceled out his looks.
“No pancakes,” Luca said.
Chef smirked then went to work, his hands cracking through the eggs at a speed Luca had only seen onChef Master. It was like watching a smoothly performed circus, with Chef taking only a handful of minutes to finish it all. It wasn’t until he began to plate the food, topping it all off with unmarked seasonings, his back toward Luca, that Luca wondered if it was a smart idea to eat at all. This guy was a stranger, one aligned with a man who’d had him kidnapped, which didn’t exactly speak volumes about his character. He was a whole helluva lot friendlier than anyone else Luca had encountered, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t poisoned the food with a smile.
Chef set a plate mounted high with scrambled eggs, bacon, and the homemade chorizos in front of Luca and grinned.“Mangia, kid.”
As Luca stared down at the plate, salivating, his stomach protesting, Chef started to clean up the kitchen.
Was it safe? Part of Luca didn’t even care, but—
“There a problem?”
Chef was staring at him, hands spread on the counter, and it was only then Luca got a peek behind the friendly veil.
Luca swallowed. “How do I know you didn’t put something in this?”
“I did. Salt, pepper, some red crushed pepper. You want the full rundown?”
Luca hesitated, and Chef began to laugh.
“Oh, I get it.” He grabbed a fork, scooped up a bite of eggs, then followed up by tearing into the bacon and chorizo. With a moan, he pointed at the chorizo. “That’s some good fuckin’ sausage right there.” He dropped the fork into the sink and held out his hands. “See? Not dead yet. Eat the damn food.”
Satisfied, Luca began to dig in, and it was like he’d never eaten before. He usually grabbed a hardboiled egg out the door, but this? It was practically sinful how good this food was. Especially the chorizo. If this was how he was going to go out, it wasn’t a bad way to go, that was for damn sure.
After a quick cleanup, Chef brought over the rest of what he’d made and dumped it on Luca’s plate before taking a seat at the bar a couple chairs down.“Good shit, right?” he said with a knowing smile.
Luca could only nod, and the words “thank you” were on the tip of his tongue, but he held them back. Why the hell would he thank any of these people? He shouldn’t be there. So being fed was the least they could do.
As he continued to eat, his mind raced through what to say, how to get any kind of information out of this guy, since he seemed only slightly more open than the others. “So,” Luca said, clearing his throat. “This place… Is it Dom’s place?”
“No.”
“Is it a hotel?”
“No.”
“We’re kinda high up. That’s Times Square down there, right?”
“Maybe. I can’t see that far down.”
“Oh, come on. Maybe I haven’t been to Manhattan before, but I know what Times Square looks like.”
“Then why you askin’ me?”
