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I snap my mouth closed and shoot him a furious look, because Popescu or Lupu, he’smafieand getting the police involved is downright taboo. “That’s low, even for you.”
“You want to be the reason I find myself sitting in jail, keep going,” he adds carelessly, amplifying the indignation burning in my chest.
I might not be able to scream but that doesn’t mean I’m all out of fight. I pull back on his tugging so that he has to drag me across the avenue toward the subway station. I glance over my shoulder at Crina and see her gaze snapping between me and Marku, who’s got a hand on her as well. I shake my head. She lets out a little scream of frustration but thankfully stops fighting him.
They’ve got us and they’ve got us good because they know we won’t violate themafiegolden rule. He’s just added to the reasons I want to leave this community: protecting our men from outsiders. When you’ve grown up in a society like ours, it’s bred in you to trust no one outside of your clan.
Outside of ourmafieworld? Well, that’s out of the question.
When we reach the subway kiosk, I trip over my feet. Lucian interprets it as me increasing my struggle and chides me, “As if I need to remind you, I told Cristo you’re under my protection. What do you think that means, Star? It means you’re as good as a Popescu.”
I inhale sharply and he glances back at me with a frown. “Oh, what? We’re not good enough for you, huh?”
“That’s not what I think and you know it, Lucian. It’s just like a Popescu man to take insult when none was given.”
“Please, now you’re the one being coy. The Lupu are snobs. We moved the school from a perfectly good building in Sunnyside, Queens just because the Empire Academy Board, filled to the gills with members ofyourclan, complained about fake problems so that they could move to a fancy building in Manhattan.”
“Everyone has a reputation,” I retort. “Lupu are snobs. Popescu are violent. Ionescu are good with money. Albu are expert snipers. But we’re individuals too, you know. To hear you claim me as one of your own was a shock, that’s all.”
Of course, I don’t believe him. He’d only said that as an excuse to drag me off like a naughty child. He didn’t really mean it.
He stops halfway down the stairs leading to the station.
Staring up at me, he says something but I can’t hear him over the rumbling of the subway train in the station below.
“What?” I ask, cupping my ear.
“I said, Popescu or not, you’re mine.”
I stumble back, almost busting the back of my head on a metal stair behind me, but Lucian’s other hand whips out, grasping me around the waist and steading me.
Standing a couple of steps above him, we’re eye to eye when he breaks the spell by saying, “I told Cristo you were mine. If something happens to you, it looks like I can’t take care of what’s mine. And anyway, if you’re gone, who’s going to help me graduate?”
I roll my eyes at him. “Of course, it’s always about you. How willyoulook to yoursef? How willyougraduate? You, you, you. Always you.”
“It’s about you now,” he grumbles. “I have more places I need to check on, but I’m cutting it short to take you home.”
“No one asked you to take me home, and you just said you’re only doing it because of how it will make you look, so don’t put this on me.”
“It’s not just that, but…fuck it, you’re impossible to talk to,” he mutters as he tugs on my hand to resume going down the steps.
That’s rich coming from him.
“Me???”
Great. Now I have a long train ride home shackled to the guy I hate, who’s doubling as my prison guard.
Knowing him, he’ll walk me right to my door. I’m not so worried about my mom. She should be napping off her liquid lunch right around now, but if Ms. Ana is looking outside her living room window like she does every day, I’ll have to answer her question of why “that Popescu boy” was walking me home.
When we get back to Queens, I’ll shoo him home with the excuse that he doesn’t want anyone linking us together, what with me tutoring him and him helping me escape.
If that doesn’t work, then I’ll stomp on his foot and make a run for it. Hopefully, he’ll be in too much pain to run after me. Bottom line, there’s no way I’m walking down my street with him by my side.
To think that once upon a time, that was my fantasy.
Now, I shudder just thinking about it.
CHAPTER10
