Chapter 23 Giuliana #2
The hallway is empty when I step out. Taking a deep breath, I hurry to Luca’s study, my heart hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
The door is slightly ajar. Through the gap, I can see Luca and Danny, both standing rigid.
Luca’s back is to me, his shoulders drawn tight beneath his shirt, the fabric stretched across the broad expanse of his back.
Even from here, I can see the blood staining his knuckles dark crimson against his olive skin.
“—can’t just storm Romano’s compound without a plan,” Danny is saying. “You’re talking about starting a war—”
“He killed Marco!” Luca’s voice cracks on his cousin’s name, and I watch his hands curl into fists at his sides again. “He’s been socializing with me, shaking my hand, while knowing he ordered my death. And I didn’t know because—”
He stops. Because of me. Because I didn’t tell him.
I push the door open before I can lose my courage.
Both men turn toward me, and the expressions on their faces—Danny’s concern, Luca’s fury mixed with anguish—almost make me retreat.
But I can’t. Not with Dad’s life on the line.
“Romano called me,” I blurt out, my eyes fixed on Luca’s face.
Those dark eyes narrow immediately, suspicion flashing across his features.
“He has my father. He wants us both to come to a meeting place within two hours, alone and unarmed, or he’ll—” My voice breaks.
“He’ll kill him, Luca. He’ll make me listen while he—”
“You realize it’s a trap, right?” Luca’s voice is flat. He still won’t look at me properly, his gaze fixed somewhere over my shoulder like he can’t stand to actually see me. The muscle in his jaw jumps as he grinds his teeth together.
“I know it’s a trap!” I snap, hating that he sounds so condescending. “But what choice do we have? If we don’t go, my father dies. If we call the police, my father dies. Romano made it very clear that—”
“Your father is a coward who got my cousin killed,” Luca interrupts, finally meeting my eyes.
The coldness in his gaze—those eyes that were once warm when they looked at me, that went soft and almost tender when we were alone—makes me step back involuntarily.
Now they’re hard as obsidian, reflecting nothing but rage.
“Why should I risk my life to save his?”
My heart stops. He’s right though. Why should Luca risk his life for my father?
“Because despite everything, you’re not a monster,” I say quietly, even though I’m not sure I believe it anymore.
Luca stiffens. “Because somewhere under all that rage, there’s still the man who promised me a future.
The man who converted a sunroom for injured animals.
The man who—” My voice breaks and I look away briefly before returning my gaze to his. “The man I fell in love with.”
Something flickers in his expression, but it’s gone too quickly for me to identify. His lips press into a thin line, that beautiful mouth that’s kissed me so lovingly now set in a harsh, unforgiving line.
“That man was an illusion,” he says harshly. “A role I played to make you compliant. You said so yourself.”
“No.” I shake my head, watching the way a lock of his dark hair falls across his forehead with the movement.
He still hasn’t fixed it from earlier, and I ball up my fists to force myself not to do it.
“No, that’s what I said when I was hurt and angry.
But it wasn’t true. I know it wasn’t true because I felt—” I struggle for words.
“I felt you in those moments. The real you, not the monster you try to be.”
Danny clears his throat, looking very, very uncomfortable. “I’ll, uh, I’ll give you two some privacy—”
“Stay,” Luca orders, his broad shoulders tensing even further under his shirt, and Danny stiffens as if he would rather be anywhere but here.
Same, Danny. Same.
Still not taking his eyes off me, Luca says, “Whatever she has to say, you can hear it.”
The dismissal stings, but I push through it.
“Fine. Then hear this. Romano has my father. Whether we like it or not, we’re both involved now.
He knows I told you something tonight—his people heard the fight, heard enough to make him nervous about what I might have revealed. He’s making a preemptive strike.”
“So let him,” Luca says with a casualness that makes my body heat with anger. His face remains impassive, that sharp jawline set in stone. “Let him kill Antonio. One less problem for me to deal with.”
“You don’t mean that,” I argue. But even as I say it, I’m not sure. The man standing before me right now—cold, utterly unmoved by my tears—is the man from the warehouse. The one who planned to kill me without remorse.
“Don’t I?” He moves closer, and I have to force myself not to back away.
This close, I can see the faint scar along his left eyebrow, the one that disappears into his hairline.
Can see the way his nostrils flare slightly with each controlled breath.
“Your father is responsible for Marco’s death.
The fact that he was coerced doesn’t change that.
The fact that Romano used him doesn’t absolve him.
” He smiles cruelly. “So explain to me, Giuliana, why I should risk everything to save a man who destroyed my life?”
“Because I’m asking you to.” I’m this close to begging, and I don’t care if it’s beneath me or if Luca finds me repulsive for it. “Because despite everything between us, I’m asking you to help me save my father. Not for him. For me.”
The silence that follows is excruciating. I watch emotions play across Luca’s face—rage, grief, maybe a bit of longing—before his expression goes blank again. His hands flex at his sides, those long fingers curling and uncurling like he’s trying to physically grasp control.
“Danny,” he says quietly, never breaking eye contact with me. “Start the car. We’re going to need to leave in the next ten minutes.”
Relief floods through me so intensely I nearly collapse. “Thank you—”
“Stop.” He says sharply, halting me in my tracks.
“Don’t thank me. I’m not doing this for you.
I’m doing it because Romano needs to die for what he did to Marco, and apparently he’s handed me the perfect opportunity.
” His smile is terrible to behold, not reaching those cold dark eyes.
“If your father survives in the crossfire, consider it a bonus. If he doesn’t…
” He shrugs, the movement making his shoulders muscles shift beneath his shirt. “At least you’ll know I tried.”
It’s not comfort. It’s barely even a promise. But it’s all I’m going to get, and for that I’m thankful.
Danny leaves to prepare the car, and suddenly we’re alone for the first time since our fight. The air between us is thick with everything unsaid, every accusation still burning in both our throats.
“Again, you know this is likely a trap,” Luca says after a long moment, sounding bored. “We both know that. Romano isn’t going to let any of us walk out of there alive if he can help it.”
“You think I don’t know? Marrying you was a trap too.” My voice is steadier than I feel. “But—but I have to try. He’s my father, Luca. He’s the only parent I have left.”
“The parent who sold information that got Marco killed,” Luca reminds me, but there’s less venom in it now. Just exhaustion that makes the fine lines around his eyes more pronounced. “The parent you’re asking me to die for.”
“I’m not asking you to die.” I move closer, drawn by some magnetic pull I can’t resist even now. “I’m asking you to—”
“To what?” He turns to face me fully. The expression on his face—raw and vulnerable and so full of pain it takes my breath away—makes me pause.
His eyes aren’t cold anymore but burning with anguish.
“To forgive you for lying to me for over two months? To pretend I’m not still furious that you protected Marco’s killer? ”
“No.” I meet his gaze without flinching, forcing myself to look into those dark, tormented eyes.
“I’m asking you to acknowledge that we’re both guilty.
That we both made choices driven by fear and self-preservation.
That maybe, just maybe, underneath all the lies and betrayals, there was something real. ”
His jaw clenches so hard I can see the muscle jumping beneath his skin. “Was there?” he whispers.
The question hangs between us, simple and devastating.
“Yes.” The word gets stuck in my throat, but I force it out anyway. “My feelings for you were real, Luca. Even when I was terrified. Even when I knew I should hate you. I fell in love with you, and that love was real, not something I manufactured to survive.”
For a moment, hope and desperate need cross his face, before it’s swallowed by anger again. He scoffs. “And that’s supposed to excuse—”
“It doesn’t excuse anything,” I interrupt, wanting to pull my hair and scream at his obstinance. “Not what you planned, not what I hid. I’m just saying that whatever we had—” My voice breaks. “It wasn’t all a lie. At least not for me.”
He’s silent for so long I think he won’t respond. His phone chirps, and he breaks eye contact to look at it. He reads the message then looks up at me with cool eyes. “The car’s ready. We need to go.”
We walk to the car in silence, the space between us a chasm I don’t know how to cross.
I wait while Danny and Luca have a tense conversation.
Danny doesn’t look too thrilled by the scowl on his face and the way he’s gesturing.
And from the way he stomps away, Luca has definitely said something to piss him off.
Luca moves to the driver’s side, and I climb into the passenger seat, both of us maintaining as much distance as possible in the confined space.
He starts the engine without a word, his hands gripping the steering wheel with white-knuckled intensity. Those elegant, deadly hands that have held me so gently are now stained with his own blood from his misery after our fight.