17. Dangerous Calm #2
I glanced toward the crowd, then back at Luca.
"I'll be five minutes."
His eyes followed Jax instead of me.
"Make it three."
The west bar had run out of the tequila Victor's team had insisted on featuring.
I was halfway through negotiating a substitute with the vendor when a shadow fell across the counter.
"Problem, sweetheart?"
Jax leaned against the bar, sweat shining at his temples, one hand wrapped around a glass he had no business needing refilled. Up close, the grin looked less charming and more careless.
"I've got it handled," I said, keeping my tone flat.
The vendor glanced between us, sensed trouble, and disappeared toward the service station.
Coward.
Jax's gaze dragged over me. "Santoro send you to babysit the bottles too?"
"I'm working here."
"That what we're calling it?"
The music swallowed my first breath. Around us, the party pressed closer, bodies slick with heat, phones already lifted for reasons that had nothing to do with me.
I stepped around him. "Enjoy the party."
He shifted into my path.
"Relax." His words blurred at the edges. "I'm just trying to understand the arrangement."
"There isn't one."
"Come on." He tipped his head toward the crowd. "You show up, he starts to come out of retirement, suddenly he's playing happy family. Must be one hell of a benefits package."
My stomach turned.
"Move."
His smile widened. "That sounded like an order."
I tried to pass again. He shifted with me, planting one hand on the bar and boxing me into the narrow space between his body and the counter.
Panic flashed through me before instinct slammed into place. Not weak. Not helpless. Just trapped for one sharp, breathless second.
I looked at the arm blocking my escape, then back at his face.
"Move."
A few people nearby noticed. The ring of space around us shifted, not widening enough to help, only enough to make room for cameras.
Jax leaned closer, liquor hot on his breath. "You always this bossy, or does Luca like you that way?"
My pulse hammered, but I held his gaze. "Last warning."
Someone laughed.
Someone else shouted, "Havoc!"
Jax's eyes flicked past my shoulder, and for the first time all night, the smile slipped from his face. I didn't have to turn around to know who had found us.
Luca stepped into my line of sight with a stillness that scared me more than shouting would have.
"Step away from her."
Luca's voice barely carried over the music, but Jax heard it. So did everyone close enough to matter.
Jax turned without moving his arm. "Relax, old man. We're talking."
Luca's gaze dropped to the space Jax had trapped me inside. His expression emptied. Not rage. Not yet. Something colder. Calculated.
One hand caught Jax above the elbow. The other caught his forearm. Luca rotated both with a small, precise twist, using the angle instead of force. Pain flashed across Jax's face.
Suddenly, I could breathe again.
Luca stepped between us without looking back. "You all right?"
"Yes."
The lie came automatically. My heartbeat still punched too high in my throat, but Luca's body blocked Jax from view, broad and steady, giving me room to breathe.
Jax stumbled, then lunged forward with a curse.
Luca caught his wrist again and turned him sideways. No punch. No shove. Just controlled pressure that bent Jax at the waist and sent his drink crashing across the tile.
The crowd erupted.
"Get off me," Jax snarled.
"Walk."
"You think this makes you look tough?"
Luca guided him toward the nearest bouncers, every movement measured. Jax fought just enough to make himself look foolish and Luca look dangerous.
Phones tracked them from every angle.
I pushed after them. "Luca."
His jaw flexed, but he kept moving.
Two bouncers finally broke through the crowd. Luca transferred Jax to them with the same calm precision he might have used handing over a piece of gym equipment.
"This man put his hands on staff," he said. "Get him out of here."
Jax jerked against their hold. "She's not staff. She's your little pet."
Luca went completely still. I saw the exact second restraint became a choice.
His shoulders shifted. His weight settled. The fighter in him surfaced so cleanly that the air seemed to contract around us.
I stepped in front of him and pressed both hands to his chest.
"Look at me."
He didn't.
"Luca."
His eyes finally found mine, dark and lethal.
"You got me away from him," I said. "That's enough."
Behind us, Jax laughed.
Luca's hand closed around my waist, not pulling me closer, only anchoring himself to something other than violence. But his gaze stayed fixed over my shoulder.
One more word from Jax, and I wasn't sure even I could hold him there.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The chant rolled across the rooftop before I could get Luca moving.
Jax twisted against the bouncers, grinning now that the crowd had given him exactly what he wanted. Phones rose higher. Someone climbed onto a lounge chair for a better angle, already narrating the clip to his followers.
Luca's hand tightened at my waist.
"Don't," I said.
"I'm not."
But his eyes stayed on Jax, and every line of him said otherwise.
The bouncers dragged Jax toward the exit while he shouted over his shoulder. "That all you've got, Santoro? Let your nanny fight for you?"
The crowd roared. Luca took one step forward.
I grabbed the front of his shirt. "No."
His gaze dropped to me. Up close, I could see how hard he was breathing. Not wild. Controlled. Too controlled. The kind of control that had edges.
"He cornered you."
"And you got me away from him."
"You were scared."
That silenced the easy lie waiting on my tongue. Jax hadn't touched me, but for one sharp second, he had trapped me between his body and the bar while strangers raised their phones instead of helping. My hands were still shaking.
I slid my fingers around Luca's forearm. "Get me out of here."
That reached him.
His focus shifted from Jax to my face, then to the wrist I still held close to my body. Something brutal flickered in his eyes before he turned and pulled me into his side.
"Make a path," he snapped.
People moved, though not quickly enough. Cameras followed as he guided me through the crowd, one arm around me, his body shielding mine from the worst of it.
The chant splintered behind us into laughter, questions, and shouted commentary.
"Luca, did you threaten him?"
"Riley, are you two together?"
"Was this staged?"
That last question stopped me cold. I looked back.
Victor stood beside the sponsor wall with one of his publicists. He wasn't shocked. He wasn't angry. He wasn't even watching Luca.
He was watching the phones. Watching the footage spread.
His publicist leaned close and murmured something in his ear. Victor smiled. Small. Satisfied.
My stomach dropped.
Luca tugged me forward. "Riley."
"I saw him."
"Who?"
"Victor."
We reached the service corridor, and the rooftop doors swung shut behind us, cutting the noise to a muffled pulse.
Luca cupped my face. "Tell me."
I stared past him at the door, already hearing the phantom echo of the chant.
"He wanted this," I whispered. "Maybe not Jax grabbing me. But the rest of it."
Luca's expression hardened. My phone buzzed in my hand. Then buzzed again. And again. Three alerts stacked across the screen before I could unlock it.
The first video was already online.