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23
Imade it to the movie theater without a problem. I kept checking to see if I was being followed, but Cristo’s worries were for nothing. Waiting for a text from Simu, I hid out in a bathroom stall, crouched over the toilet. Fitting, since it felt like my heart was swirling down the drain of said toilet. Luca hadn’t bothered to follow me, further proof that he was done with me. I let out a strangled sound of despair and covered my mouth to suppress it. If he had any feelings for me, even hatred, he would’ve come after me.
But he’d done nothing, which had to be the worst thing he could possibly do. If only he hadn’t thrown me out, if only I had a chance to explain myself. I would’ve taken his shouts over his dismissal any day. I was so enraged with myself that I wanted to scratch my eyes out. I should’ve ignored my family’s wishes and told Luca everything.
“Oh, God,” I gasped out, staring up at the white ceiling as tears tracked down my cheeks. “It’s over.”
My phone vibrated. Simu was outside. Rushing out of the theater, I found his car idling at the curb and flung myself into it. It was midday traffic, but he casually ignored the blaring horns of cars turning sharply around his car and streaking past. The instant I slammed the door closed, he pressed on the gas and merged into the rushing traffic on Broadway.
His hand landed on my knee and squeezed, his anxious eyes roving over my face and body for an instant before returning to the street. “You okay, baby?”
I cringed at his touch coupled with the endearment. Bile rose up my gullet.
“Yeah,” I murmured, dropping my purse into the footwell and slipping on my seat belt. The back of my head hit the headrest. I closed my eyes, releasing a long breath of defeat.
“I’m going to fucking kill him. I’m going to fuck with him and torture him for an entire week. Keep him hanging from the ceiling on a steel hook until he bleeds out like a gutted hog. Then I’m going to dismember him, piece by piece, and scatter his body parts over the entire city. No one disrespects you or the Popescus like that. No one.”
My heart banged against my chest. There was no way I’d allow him to touch a hair on Luca’s head. It was bad enough that I had hurt Luca and ruined his love for me. I wasn’t going to see him get harmed by a Popescu. We’d done enough damage, thank you very much.
Crushing his hand in mine, I released it quickly and dug my fingers into my eyelids. “Simu, please stop. I can’t deal with this right now. Promise me you won’t touch him.”
“Why the fuck not?” he growled.
My eyes popped open. “Um, maybe because I betrayed him? Because I screwed him over? He did nothing wrong. And then he released me, Simu. He could’ve tortured and dismembered me. Think about that. It was in his rights to make me pay for my disloyalty.”
“Fuck that,” he grumbled, eyes narrowed and laser focused as he zipped between cars and whipped around a corner turning east toward Queens.
“No,” I replied tightly. “After what I did, he had every right to make me pay. Instead, he let me go without a scratch,” I finished in a cracked voice. Let me go and broke my heart. “I don’t know if Cristo told you—”
“Of course, he told me. I’m the consilier. Who do you think thought of trying to steal something from Luca in the first place? Regardless of what you did, Cat, you’re a woman and the daughter of one of the most powerful sefs in the country. Luca has no right to touch you.”
You bastard, I should’ve known you were involved.
“Oh, please, as if retribution doesn’t come to women who betray their clans. What don’t you get, Simu? I blood bonded with him. I was a Lupu.” I swallowed back the tears threatening to fall. “And then I deceived him. He had the right to hurt me. At the very least, he had the power to turn me over to Alex, who could’ve used me as ransom to extract something from Tata. He had any number of options at his disposal, but he let me go. So no, we won’t be hurting him,” I said with finality. My lips flattened as I gave him a hard stare.
“I can’t believe you’re protecting him,” he argued. “You’re giving him far more credit than he deserves. Regardless of what you did, you’re still a Popescu princess.”
“You mean, puppet,” I snapped. I had stupidly followed my family’s plan, which turned out to be Simu’s, instead of turning to my husband-to-be for help. Another wave of shame crashed over me. God, I was such an idiot to trust my family to fix this. This wasn’t the first time they’d messed things up. Despite their attempts at outwitting the Lupu men, their plans often turned bad. We were either cursed or just plain stupid. If I hadn’t panicked about Cristo and kept my head, I would’ve realized that my best chance of saving him was to turn to Luca. He and the Lupu men were diabolically clever, with a healthy dose of luck on their side. They’d always seen through every Popescu trick.
Instead, I spectacularly failed the first test between Luca and me. Now I was going to be a spinster. I sniffed and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. After having sex only a few times, I could kiss those moments of bliss goodbye. Knowing that I would never be touched again wasn’t even the worst of it. The worst part was seeing the stark pain in Luca’s eyes.
I was supposed to have his back. He was my partner, and I should’ve accepted that my future was with him. His love was unconditional, unlike my parents and brother. Their conditions wouldn’t have stopped me from helping Cristo, but it was the truth. Tears sprang to my eyes, my throat tight and clogged with remorse. I’d thrown away the best thing that ever happened to me. God, I was such an idiot. Now I would have to live with the consequences, but at the very least, I would make sure that they left Luca alone.
“Bullshit. You were taking care of your family,” Simu countered.
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Oh my God, are you delusional? I was going to marry into the Lupu family. They were my family. My loyalty should’ve been toward them. My common sense was clouded by Cristo, but what I did was wrong. On top of everything, I now realize that Luca would’ve helped me.” Simu made a sound of derision. “I deserve whatever punishment is coming to me,” I ended miserably.
“Baby, you’re killing me here. Cristo needed your help. And I have no idea what makes you think Luca would’ve helped. They hate the Popescus. Hell, I doubt he would’ve even gone through with the marriage. He was using you.”
I looked at him, horrified. “Are you for real? If there’s one thing I know, it’s that Luca grasps the meaning of honor. He would’ve never used me like that. Why would he have taken a beating from you, my father, and Cristo if he planned on tossing me aside? You’re grabbing at straws, Simu. A move like that would’ve gotten him killed.”
“Oh, it’s going to get him killed,” he muttered under his breath, but I heard him in the quiet of the car. We were on the Queensboro Bridge at this point, and the play of shadow and light flickered over us as we passed under the crisscrossing steel bars of the cantilever bridge.
“Simu!” I chastised. “I’m not joking. You cannot, I mean cannot hurt him. Do not touch a hair on his head.”
“Come on, Cat. He humiliated you and shamed the Popescu name. He had no right to toss you out like yesterday’s trash. At the very least, a real man would have approached Nelu and negotiated a way to make up for your faux pas.”
“Faux pas?” I stuttered. This guy was driving me crazy. I was emotionally exhausted, but Simu’s persistence made me want to throttle him. Yet, I had no choice but to try to convince him because he was a loose cannon when his feathers got ruffled. My fingers curled into tight balls, the urge to punch him was looming over me. I wasn’t having it. No one was going to hurt my Luca.
