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“You’ve been thinking with your dick for so long, you can’t see straight anymore. And that’s exactly my point.” I dug my index finger on my temple. “Women mess with your head and your ability to think.”
“Caterina is a smart woman. I’d be a fool if I didn’t listen to what she has to say.”
“See what I mean?” I threw my arms up in exasperation. “I can’t have that. I don’t trust women. And I never will.”
Chapter4
Are You Lost?
Luce
Beverly, South Chicago
“Tomorrow night?” I bit my lip the second I heard the whiny tone of my voice.
I had made this choice for myself. No one pushed me into doing something I didn’t want. Technically, I didn’t want to marry Liam Walsh, but I hated the alternative even more. Our crew in Chicago needed help. Since the attack from two weeks ago, they had come back several times, killed two more of our men. We were weaker than before. Something needed to be done sooner rather than later.
“Yes. He’s sending his private jet.” Dad met my gaze for a split second before he turned his attention back to his phone, as if all the answers to our problems were written on the small screen. I supposed they were. In the form of my trip details to travel to New York to meet my future husband. “The contract.” He released a breath. “You can read the contract he sent once you get there.”
“Why not now?”
“I think it’s best if you focus your attention on getting your things together.”
“Would you be there for the wedding?”
“Of course.” He reached for my hand. “I need to stay for a few days and make sure Liam makes good on his end of the bargain.”
My breath hitched, and Dad’s cheeks turned red. I was the bargain. “I chose this.”
“Not much of a choice.”
“A choice nonetheless.” I plastered a smile on my face to make him feel better. “I’ll go start packing.”
He squeezed my fingers, fixing his gaze on them. When he opened his mouth, my chest filled with hope. I have no idea why. If he hadn’t come up with a different solution in the last two weeks, I had no reason to think anything would change in the eleventh hour. Still, it would’ve been nice to hear him say, “Thank you,” or “I’m sorry.”
“Go on.” He released me.
I strolled into my room, feeling numb and disconnected from reality. Though I knew with certainty that the entire situation with Liam, the help he was sending and my marriage to him, was one hundred percent real and one hundred percent happening. I leaned my shoulder on the threshold—outside looking in at all the things from my childhood that still lingered in my suite after all these years. The huge teddy bear Dad bought me one Christmas, the pink and lavender bedding with dancing ballerinas that I couldn’t let go of because it was the last thing Mom bought me, and all the pictures hanging on the walls. None of it could come on this trip with me.
Tears blurred my vision as I stomped to my closet and started pulling out tops and dresses and tossing them behind me. When I ran out of clothes to grab, I moved to the chest of drawers and emptied each one out on the floor and the bed. Anger mixed with trepidation gnawed at my insides and I didn’t know how to make it go away. I wanted to scream and cry, but I knew that would change exactly nothing.
By the time Kay walked in, my room was strewn with everything I owned.
“That’s it, Luce. Let it all out.” She wiped my cheek.
“I chose this,” I mumbled. Those three words had become my mantra. Maybe if I kept saying it aloud, they’d become the honest truth.
“I know.”
“What are you doing here?” I furrowed my brows at the two suitcases by the door.
“I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t.”
“I’m twenty-five years old, Luce. I don’t need permission to go places.” She rolled her luggage to the corner and turned to face me, hands on her hips, daring me to send her away. “Your dad and brother are bailing on you. I’m all you’ve got.”
Since we were little, Kay had always had my back. I was happy she hadn’t decided to stop now when I needed her the most. “We can tell him you’re my bodyguard or something.”
