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I dodge and he manages to block my wrist hard enough that the knife goes skittering out of my hand and across the kitchen floor. He spins me so fast I nearly collapse.
“Stop!” He commands with so much authority in his voice I almost surrender.
Adrenaline pumps higher as fight or flight kicks in. He pulls me against his chest and wraps his arms around me so tightly that I can’t struggle. So, I bite him naturally. Right on the arm, in hopes that he will loosen his grip enough to put some space between us.
I’ve bitten him enough times by now that I should know better.
“Katya!” He hisses. “You think you’re the only person who has ever lost a mother?!”
His voice is venom and rage in my ear, but it doesn’t sound like it’s actually directed at me. He’s only mentioned his mother in passing before now.
“I won’t do it again. I won’t lose you too. Not when there’s something I can do about it!”
Something breaks in his voice and takes the fight right out of me. My body sags in his grip as we both realize that he hadn’t meant to say that part out loud.
Slowly, I spin in his hold and look up at the stoic expression on his face.
“Your mother?” I ask softly, trying to give him space to speak.
Luca lets me go and scrubs a hand roughly down his face as if he doesn’t want to tell this story, but he knows that he has to. “My father… let’s just say his blood lust was well established before he had a defenseless child to take his anger out on. It started with those weaker than him, for reasons that I’m sure that I will never know. My grandfather was not this way.” Luca shrugs. “Or maybe he was just better at hiding it. Perhaps he just didn’t indulge it in the same way. But my father? After he convinced my mother to marry him… he spent every day of their marriage making her regret that choice. After he had his heir he didn’t even bother attempting to hide the bruises anymore.”
I don’t know what to say.
My heart breaks for young Luca. For his mother. For the nightmare that their lives must have been.
“Before he bought the private hospital on Dunn Street, my mother was a frequent flier at the ER. The doctors were on his payroll so the cops were never involved. My mother begged for help, time and time again but there was no one that she could turn to. There was nobody to help her… I guess after a while she took the only way out she thought she had left.”
My eyes widen as the implications of his words weigh on me.
“After the umpteenth hospitalization… she took matters into her own hands. My father kept it from me for the longest time. I don’t know if he just didn’t care or if he was pissed that he would have finally lost that leverage over me when we lost her. I can still remember being so worried, waiting for her to come home just to have the news that she was dead hurled at me like a punch to the gut.” Luca’s voice was tinted with his rage. “He might not have been the one to take her last breath, but he killed my mother.”
There’s nothing that I can say to make it better. My heart feels like it’s breaking inside of my chest and I don’t know what to do. I want to cry, or scream, or rage for the pain that I feel for this man standing in front of me. A whole lifetime to try to correct a mistake of a human that never should have been given even half of the power that he has.
My hands lift to gently cup his jaw in my hands. His hands reach out slowly to me, resting on my hips and slowly pulling me forward before wrapping me up in his arms all over again. Luca’s hold on me is so fragile that I feel like he’s worried that he’s going to break me. Such a large man, folded up in me, his lips press into my shoulder softly before I feel the words whispered into my skin.
“I can’t let him take you too.”
Before I have a chance to answer, the front door to my apartment is kicked in. Luca’s grip changes as he practically flings me behind him. I don’t have any idea where the gun in his hand even came from before it’s aimed directly at the intruder.
“No!” I scream, recognizing Nora’s face despite the fact that she’s presently white as a sheet.
Luca’s grip on the gun changes so that it was no longer cocked to fire as he flicks a look back at me.
“What is it? Is Alexei okay?” I rush over to Nora who clamps onto my arms so hard that I start to instantly fear the worst. If something happened… if we missed something and Alexei is…
“Marci is missing.”
It’s worse. My knees buckle and I go down into an awkward lump. The ringing starts to pulse in my ears as my blood kicks into high gear. My vision starts to pinprick as dread for Marci, for thebaby,starts to thunder through me. Somewhere above me, I can hear Luca asking for more information.
“The manager of the club called when she didn’t turn up for her shift. Marci’s never late for her shift. Alexei sent some men over to her place to investigate… struggle… broken into… car still…”
Nora’s explaining everything to Luca as quickly as she can but the words start to break up. The thudding of terror for my best friend is wiping out my sanity. I can’t process the words being said.
Luca’s phone vibrates in his pocket. When he answers, I can actually finally hear a voice on the other end speaking in quick,clipped tones. It must be Dario reporting in. Luca said that he had been tailing Marci since girl’s night at Luca’s request.
“He has her…” I whisper lamely.
Luca bends and hauls me to my feet. He levels his gaze with mine. “Snap out of it.”
