Chapter 6
Chapter Six
LUCA
The house smelled like sugar and cinnamon when I got back.
I paused at the door.
Muffins.
Not store-bought.
Delivered.
Still warm.
“Who ordered food?” I called.
Cameron was at the counter, shirtless, peeling the paper off a chocolate chip one.
Kingston was sitting on the arm of the couch with a second in hand, already halfway eaten.
They both looked up when I entered.
“Emilia,” Kingston said, mouth full. “Said she had them delivered from the bakery in town. The one I mentioned last week.”
He said it like it meant nothing .
But it meant everything .
Because she’d remembered .
A throwaway comment, in passing .
Something Kingston had said on the way home from class — that he missed the muffins from Villain’s Sugar Crate.
No one cared when Kingston said shit like that.
No one listened long enough to remember .
Except her .
And now they were sitting there, grinning like fucking schoolboys, eating muffins that had her name all over them.
“She went out?” I asked.
“She’s in the courtyard. Left these on the table with a note.”
I walked over, reading it silently.
Thought you could use a sugar boost — E.
I gritted my teeth.
Of course she was sweet.
Of course she thought of everyone.
Of course she made it impossible to hate her, even when she was being stupid and naive and saying yes to boys who’d rip her apart for sport.
She was killing us softly .
And we were all letting her.
I grabbed one of the muffins. Didn’t eat it. Just held it.
Heat bleeding into my palm.
Jaw tight .
Kingston was still smiling. “She’s cute.”
I looked up. Slow.
“Say that again.”
He raised his brows. “Relax. I didn’t mean it like that.”
But I didn’t relax . Because I knew that look in his eye. I’d seen the way his gaze tracked her hips when she walked into a room.
And the worst part?
I wasn’t even sure why it bothered me.