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“Is it really her?” McKenna asks softly.
“She is mine.” I stand my ground. My hand itches to pull my gun, but I don’t want to hurt Luna. “I’ll keep her. I brought her here to save her life because my father will kill her when he knows why she was sent here.”
Dante must sense my unease, and he carefully hands her back to me.
“Follow me,” he orders, and I carry her as he picks up his wife and carries her into the house.
“Bambola, it’s her. She used to call me that instead of big brother. It was always dear brother,” he tells McKenna as he carries her in, and I look down to the woman in my own arms.
Mio angelo.
I kiss her forehead and worry that she fainted from blood loss, but she was saying her head hurt when we pulled onto the property. We move into a large great room, and Dante sits with his wife next to him as he watches me intently with Luna. I sit and hold her to my chest.
“Where did you find her?”
There have been rumors for years about the missing Lupo heiress. She disappeared when she was five. Some thought her own mother sold her for money. Others said she was killed. My grip on her body tightens as I realize how much more danger she is in if she is a Lupo.
“She found me.”
“How?”
“He was my assignment.” Her voice is so soft. Luna starts to move off my lap, but I hold her close, worried that she will be taken from me. “I was sent to infiltrate his family’s organization to bring them to justice or kill them. I was also sent to kill you.” She points at Dante. His wife gasps and holds on to him tightly. “I’m not going to. I can’t. But they didn’t know that. No matter what they did to me, I know in my heart I can’t kill you.” She pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath. “As soon as you touched me, I knew who you were.” She doesn’t explain more.
“Where have you been, Luna Lou? Who are they?”
She shakes her head slowly. “I can’t tell you. It’s safer for you. I didn’t want to tell Dario, but I had to. He’s the only person I can trust.” She turns to look at me, and I see all the emotions in her eyes. Emotions I haven’t seen from her before. She looks back at her brother. “I can’t stay here because the next hit squad will be bigger, and the doctor will make sure he has someone on it that will finish my mission in regards to you. I don’t know why, but he has you marked for death.” She slips from my lap to sit next to me, and I wrap my arm around her tight.
“I brought her here because if my father finds out she was sent to kill us, he’ll kill her.”
“Why? What hit squad?”
“Because she is mine.” I turn toward her and take her hands in mine so she’ll look at me. “Because I love her.” I start to lean down to kiss her as I confess this, but instead of her taking my lips, she jumps up and away from me.
“You can’t love me. I murder people on a regular basis. I’m a monster.” She paces and yells. “Until a few moments ago, I didn’t know much about myself. You saw what I did to those four men who were sent to kill me. I killed them all. I only know how to kill. I’ve never been on a date, and until you and I had sex, I’d only ever been raped by the doctor.” Her words suck all the air from the room, and her brother and I both stand up. She doesn’t realize it though as she continues to pace and rant. “Until Dante touched me, I didn’t know I had a mother. I didn’t know that I had family. I suspected it, and I’ve been here before to watch out for them. I recovered all my memories in that moment, but I also realized I had to kill him.” This time McKenna jumps up.
“You won’t kill my husband.” She pushes past Dante to get to Luna, who finally has stopped and is looking at all of us.
“No, I won’t. I can’t. But you need to get out of here. Somehow, they are still tracking me even though I removed the tracker in my neck.” She waves her hand toward the bandage, and now I know how that injury happened. She did it to herself.
“I’m not letting you go. I told you already I love you. I want you. I don’t care about your past. I know deep down inside you are a good person. We’ll figure out everything else.” I stomp over to her and grab her arms. Without thought, she breaks my hold and slams her palm into my chest, sending me staggering back.
“Do you want that? That’s only a piece of what I could do.”
She faces off with me and is ready to fight until Dante steps between us. I’m jealous that it only takes a word from him and she stops.
“Luna Lou of Whoville, tell me a story,” he says.
She shakes and drops to her knees. I’m pushing past him to get to her, but he holds me back and kneels by her side.
“Tell me.” It’s all he says, and she cracks.
“She took me away. Livia came to my mom’s and my place. She talked my mama into letting me go with her. She said she’d take care of me better than my mama could. Mama was having one of her bad episodes. She was hearing the voices again, and I was scared.” Luna curls into herself, but Dante continues to hold me back.
“I was sitting in the back seat of the car; a man was in the front with her. I’d seen him before sometimes with Papà. They were discussing this church to take me to. I asked when we were going to see Papà and you, but she told me to shut up.” Luna starts shaking.
“She left me there, told the priest to purify me, and left. I was so scared. Other girls tried to talk to me, but the nuns pushed them away. I was there for only a couple of weeks when the doctor came. The priest told him I was a Lupo, and the doctor laughed.”
Luna finally looks up at Dante. “I was scared,caro fratello.I cried. I begged them to let me go. I told them myfratellowould hurt them, but they just laughed and hit me.”
