She felt uncomfortable with him calling her that. If I tell him my name, he’ll stop.
“M-my name is Chloe.”
She watched him smile as he took a puff, holding the cigarette between his thumb and index finger. He exhaled. “The mayor’s daughter, right?”
Chloe nodded gently. She knew that practically everyone was aware she was the mayor’s only child. Right?
“You were in that car wreck a few years back. I remember reading about it in the papers. Is that how you tell everyone you got those scars?” Lucca tapped his ashes in the snow without moving his eyes from her.
Chloe swallowed and looked back down at her hands. “That i-is how I got them.”
“No, it’s not. I know a knife cut when I see one.”
Chloe glimpsed back up at him. How did he know? “I-I d-don’t know what you’re t-talking about.”
Lucca flicked his cigarette in the yard. “Yeah, you do.”
A chill went down her spine at his words, causing her to stand, not able to stay around him any longer and not liking where this was headed.
She walked a step forward, hoping he would move. His muscular frame was blocking the whole entryway. She didn’t want to know how many hours he’d spent in the gym; she could see his muscles through his thick, dark sweatshirt. When he still didn’t move, she gradually moved up more. Please move, please move.
Chloe was now just a few small steps away, refusing to go any farther. “C-can you let me through?” Her legs started to shake when he dipped his hand back into his pocket. Her heels made it hard for her to hold herself up.
Lucca pulled out another cigarette and flipped his lighter open. He slowly lit the end, not moving his eyes from her. He blew the smoke out, making it roll over her body. Instead of putting the lighter back in his pocket, he flicked it again and the silver Zippo shot out a flame. Lucca did one of his tricks, rolling the lighted Zippo in-between each of his fingers.
“I will if you tell me how old you are.”
Wait, what?
Chloe became entranced, staring at the flame expertly passing through his fingers. She didn’t know how he didn’t let it burn himself.
Chloe mindlessly answered and asked her own question, captivated by the glow. “Seventeen. You?”
Lucca suddenly flipped the lighter closed. “Twenty-six.”
Something told her he wasn’t very happy about her answer by the look on his face.
Twenty-six. She had no clue why she’d asked how old he was.
After she’d watched him move slightly to let her pass, she really wished he would give her more room than that.
Chloe slowly walked up and turned her body to the side, keeping her eyes on him, afraid he would move when she passed through. She held her breath as she carefully started to move by him. Her face came to the middle of his chest, even in heels, and his shoulders came right above her head.
When she had successfully passed him, somehow with just mere centimeters apart, Chloe started walking as fast as she could, trying not to run back to the house.
Lucca’s voice carried across the yard. “You can’t run from the truth forever, darlin’.”
Chloe picked her feet up faster.
Yes, I can. I’ve been doing it for years.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Sound of Defeat
Nero waited until his crew had walked out the front door before he pulled his sister to the side, asking her to take Elle to her closet to pick out something to wear to school tomorrow. He lucked out right after when Chloe told her to go on, and that she was going to leave now, too.
He watched Elle run out of the living room with his sister, loving the way she looked wearing his shirt. Nero had managed to win her back, panting and moaning underneath him. I love the sound of defeat.
However, he still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he hadn’t fucked her right there. She was hot and ready, yet still he had denied his body to claim her. What the fuck is wrong with me?
He didn’t know if fucking her too early would taint her and make her think she was like all the other girls he’d fucked, or if fucking her before she learned the truth bothered him. Regardless, Nero had been given a little taste of her, and he was ready for the whole damn strawberry cake.
I really need to fucking thank Lucca. Then he remembered her lying there helpless, and he changed his mind. He understood why Lucca had done those things. Lucca had tested the water with the college kid in the diner to see if he rattled Nero. Then he broke them up, because clearly Lucca had been following them and knew he couldn’t get close to her with Nero constantly around her, which all brought them to her being snatched. It was a test because Nero shouldn’t have cared what happened to her. Elle turning up dead would be the best thing for his family, but instead, Nero had fought for her life, showing his cards to Lucca—his brother and his underboss. That could have turned out very badly for Elle and him. It still could if Lucca tells Dad.
Nero didn’t think his brother would. He wanted something to gain from the whole thing, and Nero needed to figure out exactly what that was.
Nero watched Chloe put her coat on and then walked up to her. “Could I talk to you? I need to show you something.”
“Um, yeah,” Chloe said nervously.
Before he’d even asked, he knew she wasn’t going to be comfortable with what they were going to talk about.
Nero grabbed a jacket that hung beside Chloe’s. “Here, walk with me.”
Nero walked towards his backdoor that she had gone out earlier. He opened the door for her and saw her nerves had kicked in.