Chapter 85

LUCA

For a moment, I couldn’t move. But then I burst from the bed in a flurry of movement. Enzo quickly stepped back out of the way, not in the least concerned about my nakedness. “Where is she?” I asked him. I wanted to ask him if she was alive, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

“At Lisa’s.”

I froze with my hands on the button of my jeans. “What?”

“She’s at Lisa’s. Woke them up banging on the door after she found her way to their house. Apparently, she was dumped near there.”

Found their house. That meant she was up and walking on her own. “He just left her there?” It wasn’t lost on me that my brother had found the home of one of my most trusted employees. “Who dropped her off? Did they see anything?”

He shook his head. “No.”

I picked up my shirt from the floor, unable to look at him as I asked my next question. “Is she all right?”

“I just know she’s alive and walking and talking.”

That’s all I could really ask for. So why was my gut clenched with the need to see her? Hear her voice? Enzo on my heels, I rushed down the hall to my own room, carrying my shoes. “Call for the car. And call Lisa. Tell her and her husband to pack their things. They’re coming here. Just what they can fit in the car for right now. We’ll get the rest of their stuff later.” Enzo was already on his phone, barking out instructions. “Actually, make it two cars. I want one of you with me and Veda, and one with Lisa and her husband.”

“I’m on it.”

He left me at my bedroom door, striding down the hall to the stairs to carry out my orders while I ran inside to brush my teeth and change. Five minutes later, I was heading downstairs in a clean, black T-shirt and jeans, my gun in its shoulder holster. I didn’t bother with a jacket. I didn’t want anything to get in the way if I needed to use it. When I got outside, Enzo and Tristan were waiting beside the first SUV, dressed similarly to me. Two of my best drivers were behind the wheels in case we got into a situation. As I rushed up to the first car, Tristan opened the back door for me.

“Let’s go.” They both climbed in with me and ten seconds later, we were on our way. No one spoke. There was no need. We’d been in situations like this enough times to know what needed to be done.

Lisa’s house was forty-five minutes from mine, with traffic. However, it was still dark, and the roads were relatively empty, so we made record time. Still, they were the slowest fucking twenty minutes of my life. For the fifth time, I rubbed my sweaty palms up and down my jean clad thighs, my eyes out the window, watching for anyone who was following us.

“You okay, Luca?” Enzo asked from the passenger seat.

“Fine.”

He gave me a nod and turned back to face the front.

“We could be walking into a trap,” Tristan said quietly from beside me.

“I have no doubt,” I told him.

“How do you want to handle this?”

“Drop Tristan off a block away,” I told my man behind the wheel. “Don’t stop. Just slow down enough around the corner so he can jump out.”

“Yes, sir.”

Without another word, Tristan drew his weapon and checked it.

“Let me know what you find.”

One hand on the door handle and his eyes watching out the window, he gave me a nod.

“Here we go,” Enzo said.

The car slowed to take a sharp curve and Tristan opened the door and jumped out. Leaning over, I pulled it shut again as the car sped up. Tristan would cut across the empty property around Lisa’s on foot, arriving at the house before we did. If anyone besides Lisa and her husband were there waiting for us, we would know well in advance.

Many would think I was a fool to only send in one man, but they didn’t know Tristan.

When we arrived at Lisa’s small home on the outskirts of Jonestown, I wasn’t surprised to find Tristan standing at the dead end of the road, just before it turned into dirt and curved off into the trees. We had about an hour before sunrise, if the glow in the sky was any indication. I scanned the trees surrounding us as the SUVs pulled off the road in front of the house, still not convinced I wasn’t going to be shot the moment I left the vehicle. Lisa’s car and her husband’s truck were parked in the driveway, and there were lights on inside the house. Nothing else stirred. “Leave the engine running,” I told my driver.

Tristan came around to my side and opened my door. “It’s all clear.”

I made no move to get out. “You’re sure?”

“I searched the grounds. There’s one set of tire tracks that shows whoever dropped her off turned around there”—he pointed to the beginning of the dirt road—“and left. No one else is around. I made sure of it.”

Then why did my gut still tell me this was a setup?

Enzo got out of the passenger side and headed toward the house, one hand on his gun and his eyes scanning the area all the way to the front door. When he got there, he didn’t immediately knock or go in. Instead, he put his back to the door, scanned the area one more time, then gave me the signal that it was safe for me to get out. Tristan walked with me, watching my back.

When I reached Enzo, he moved out of the way, the two of them acting as human shields behind me, just in case. But it was eerily quiet as I opened the door and went inside. “Veda? Lisa?”

“In here!” Lisa called from the kitchen.

I pulled my gun and kept it in front of me as I carefully made my way along the edge of the living room until I came to the archway that led into the kitchen. “Lisa?”

She walked over to the archway to meet me. She was wrapped in a softlooking pink and gray robe, her hair sticking out all over her head, but her eyes were calm and steady, and her posture relaxed. “She’s in here,” she told me. “I made her some tea.”

Ah. Tea. Lisa’s magic cure all.

Holstering my weapon, I hurried into the kitchen.

Veda was sitting at the table, her hands wrapped around a steaming mug. All I could do was stare at her. She had a bruise on her jaw and a haunted look in her eyes when she raised them to mine. “Are you hurt?”

“Define ‘hurt,,” she said.

“Physically. Are you hurt physically?”

She looked up at me then, and there was no life in her eyes. “Nothing that won’t heal.”

“Veda—”

But she held up her hand and cut me off. “Don’t. Just…don’t.”

I took a breath. She was here. And she was alive. That’s all I fucking cared about right now. I turned to Lisa. “Did Enzo get through to you?”

“Yes. Kevin is in the bedroom packing some bags. I just need to get dressed. I didn’t want to leave Veda alone.”

“Thank you,” I told her. “Go do that and bring your things out. I’ll stay with her.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise when Lisa turned to Veda and asked, “Is that okay?”

She nodded, and Lisa patted her shoulder and went to do as I’d told her, shooting me a warning look on her way out.

I watched her go, half amused and half annoyed at that little performance.

“So what are your plans for me now?” Veda’s voice was dull. Lifeless. Like her eyes.

“I just want to take you home.”

A small spark of hope was there and gone in a flash. “I don’t suppose you’re talking about my home?”

“I’m talking about the lake house. Where you’ll be safe.”

“Safe from who, exactly?”

“Veda…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Taking a last sip of her tea, she rose from the table and walked stiffly over to the sink, where she rinsed out her cup. I watched her closely, searching for any sign that she was injured, despite her assurance otherwise. She was wearing tight black leggings and a leopard print blouse that was too tight across her breasts. My cock stirred as I noticed the buttons straining to hold it together. She had something black and lacy underneath.

“These are my sister’s clothes,” she told me. “His closet was half full of them.”

I nodded. I wanted to close the distance between us and take her into my arms so I could hold her close and feel the warmth of her body, feel the way her curves fit against me so perfectly, but she stood so stiff and still, and I knew she didn’t want me touching her. It made me angry. A stupid reaction. But it seemed that’s all I was capable of these days. “Did you bring anything with you?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Let’s get out of here, then.”

She didn’t try to argue with me, just gave a resigned sigh and walked out of the room, giving me a wide berth. I reminded myself she was allowed to feel the way she did. I mean, what the hell did I expect? That she would run into my arms? Profess her undying devotion to me?

No, I deserved the way she was treating me. I deserved her hatred. Her disgust. Her distance.

But I didn’t accept it.

Following her out to the SUV, there was a bit of a delay when Veda didn’t want to ride with me until I physically picked her up and put her in the vehicle after I ordered her inside and she refused. But despite the trouble she gave me, my heart soared, happy to see she hadn’t completely lost her spirit. I could handle her when she fought with me; that only told me she still felt something. It was when she stopped fighting that I got worried.

Once Lisa and her husband, Kevin, were loaded up into the SUV behind us, we headed back to the lake house, taking a roundabout route to make sure we weren’t being followed. Once we arrived, I sent the guys up to one of the spare bedrooms with their things.

“Oh, Mr. Morelli, you don’t have to do that,” Lisa insisted. “We can stay out in the guest house, if Tristan doesn’t mind.”

“I insist,” I told her. “I know it’s not ideal for your privacy, but I want you both in the main house where it’s safe. Just in case.”

Lisa’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.”

I gave her a nod, uncomfortable with her gratitude. “Of course. You’re a part of the family. And I have plenty of room.”

As she and her husband followed their things upstairs to one of the spare rooms, I felt Veda’s eyes on me. “What?” I asked her.

She stared at me a moment longer. “I’m just trying to figure out how you can be such a decent man and yet such a fucking bastard all at the same time.”

“It’s a natural talent.”

“Obviously.”

We stood at an impasse, our eyes on each other. Both wary, but for completely different reasons. Unable to stand the silence anymore, I asked her if she’d like to go take a shower and change. “All of your things are still in your room. Just as you left it.”

Without another word, she left me standing there by the front door. I watched her walk slowly up the stairs, wishing she would allow me to help her. She looked beyond exhausted. But I knew I wouldn’t be welcome, so I headed to my office and the empty glass I’d left on my desk that desperately called to be filled.