Chapter Twenty
Lucas
She must be loathing my guts by now. For stalking her without reprieve, for showing up wherever she goes.
And most of all, she must hate me for flashing my gun hidden under my jacket every time the fucker Ethan comes too close to her, until she pushes him away with a panicked look on her face.
But I don’t care. Because I’ll take contempt over indifference, over her absence anytime. At least now she sees me.
I stand leaning against my car in front of her building, waiting for the fucker to come out. I am breathing hard, ruthlessly pushing down the beast that paces under my skin, urging me to storm inside and tear his throat out with my bare hands. She wouldn’t like it, I tell myself.
But why the fuck isn’t he coming out? It has been almost thirty minutes now. He better not be spending the night, because I won’t let that happen, her feelings be damned.
My hands are fisted so tight my nails dig into my palms. Just as I’m about to storm up the stairs to tear her door off its hinges, it opens and he steps out.
As soon as he is on the sidewalk, I have him slammed against the side of my car with my forearm pressed against his throat.
Although he is a couple of inches shorter than my six-foot-four, he is staring right up at me with a steady glare, and I admit that his grit pisses me off almost as much as it impresses me.
“What the fuck were you doing for so long in her apartment.”
“Talking,” he rasps as he strains against my hold.
“Bullshit,” I grit out, pushing harder. “If you touched her, I’ll—”
“She’s not mine.” The words cut through my rage like a blade slicing through a veil.
I go rigid and my hold slacks a fraction, enough for him to breathe again.
He shoves me off with surprising strength, eyes still locked on mine.
“She never was…mine,” he says flatly, throat working as if it cost him to admit it.
“Even when she tried, her heart wasn’t in it. ”
My chest constricts, my fury morphing into something darker, more desperate. Now that the blinding haze of madness has lifted from my mind, I see it, the look in his eyes. It’s the same look I see in the mirror every morning.
We are both breathing hard, gazes locked.
Ethan takes a step forward, invading my space, and growls into my face with a hard voice.
“But hear me, Romano. I walked away because she deserves the world and I can’t give it to her if she doesn’t love me.
When she showed up here, she was broken and lost. Then she built herself up, all alone, piece by piece.
That’s how strong she is. But if you break her again”— he leans in, hissing between his clenched teeth—“I’ll find you, and you’ll wish you’d never known her. ”
He slams his shoulder against mine as he walks past, and I stand there, dumbstruck.
I let out a long breath and look up at her windows.
He only confirmed what I already knew—my sweet little princess has become a fierce queen by her own right.
And it’s time I claimed her. I will tolerate no one standing in my way, not even herself.
Ethan might be the bigger person and walked away from her because she doesn’t love him, but I’m nothing like him.
I’ll fucking die before I let her leave me, even if I keep her chained to me, even if she looks at me with loathing in her eyes for the rest of my miserable existence.
Because living with her hate is better than living without her.
I slip my hand in my pocket, gripping the key I’ve borrowed from that old lady’s house, the one with a tag on it saying Spare key—rental flat.
Now I lean against my car again, watching the daylight fade into darkness, waiting for her bedroom light to go on, and for the glimpse of her silhouette walking past the window like every night. But this time, when the lights go out, she’s mine.