CHAPTER 5 — THE COFFEE SHOP

The bell above the door chimed when Luca stepped inside, and Evelyn felt the sound in her chest.

He stood in the doorway, rain dripping from his dark hair onto the floor, his shoulders filling the frame. The barista looked up, then quickly looked away. Everyone knew who he was. Even in a dim coffee shop three miles from the training ground, the Wolf was recognizable. But nobody approached him. Nobody asked for a photo. There was something in his face that warned people to keep their distance.

Evelyn stayed perfectly still. Her cold coffee sat on the table between them like a shield. She didn't invite him to sit. She didn't speak. She just watched him cross the room and slide into the booth across from her, dripping water onto the cracked vinyl seat.

"I said we needed to talk," he said.

"So talk."

The words came out harder than she intended. It was easier this way. Hostility was armor. Hostility was safe.

His jaw tightened. "What did Damien say to you?"

"That's none of your business."

"It is when his assistant pulls me out of the locker room ten minutes after you leave his office. It is when he sits me down and tells me to stay away from you or lose everything I've built." Luca's dark eyes didn't waver. "So I'll ask again. What did he say to you?"

The rain hammered against the windows. A car passed outside, headlights cutting through the grey. Evelyn wrapped her hands around her coffee cup. Still cold. She didn't drink it.

"The same thing he said to you, apparently."

"And how did you respond?"

"I didn't. I left."

Luca let out a short breath, something between a laugh and a scoff. "Of course you did. That's what you do, isn't it? You leave."

The words landed like a blade between her ribs. She kept her face still. Barely. "You don't know anything about why I left."

"I know you didn't say goodbye." His voice cracked on the last word, just slightly, a fracture he covered with a slow blink. "I know I woke up one morning and you were gone. No call. No message. Just gone. Like I was nothing."

The barista dropped something behind the counter. A mug shattered. Nobody moved to clean it up.

"Did you ever love me at all?"

The question came out quietly. Almost like he hadn't meant to say it. Like it had been sitting in his chest for five years and finally clawed its way up his throat.

Evelyn's hands tightened around the cold cup. Her eyes burned. She could feel the tears gathering but she refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him.

The silence stretched between them. Heavy. Unbearable.

"That's what I thought," Luca muttered. He slid out of the booth, standing abruptly. The chair scraped against the floor. "This was a mistake."

He was halfway to the door when Evelyn moved.

Her hand shot out, grabbing his wrist. His skin was cold from the rain. The contact sent a shock through her entire body, five years of silence broken by the simple act of touching him.

Luca froze.

He looked down at her hand. Then at her face. His expression was unreadable, but his pulse hammered beneath her fingers. Racing. Just like hers.

"Sit down," she whispered. "Please."

For a long moment, she thought he would pull away. Then slowly, carefully, he lowered himself back into the booth. She let go of his wrist. Her hand felt empty without him.

"Someone sent me a photograph," she said. Her voice was steadier now, though her heart was still slamming against her ribs. "Of us. On the balcony. Five years ago. They said you know about it."

Luca's face changed. The anger drained out of it, replaced by something colder. Guilt.

"I've known for years," he said quietly. "My agent found out six months after you left. Someone was trying to sell it to the tabloids. He paid them off. Buried it." He paused. "I thought it was over."

"It's not over." She pulled out her phone, opened the email, slid it across the table. "Someone sent me this tonight."

He stared at the screen. The grainy photograph. The two figures on the balcony. His hands on her waist. Her back against the railing. The city lights blurring in the background.

"When did you get this?"

"Right after I left my father's office."

Luca's jaw tightened. A muscle jumped in his cheek. "Someone's been watching you. Both of us."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you."

He pushed the phone back toward her, his fingers brushing hers. Neither of them pulled away.

"There's something you need to know about the night you left," he said slowly. "Something I've never told anyone."

Evelyn's breath caught. "What?"

His phone rang.

The sound shattered the moment. Luca glanced at the screen and his face went pale. He silenced the call, but the damage was done. The moment was broken.

"I have to go."

"Luca—"

"I'll find you tomorrow." He stood, already moving toward the door. "Don't go anywhere alone tonight."

He was gone before she could ask why. The bell chimed again. The door swung shut. Rain blew in through the gap and speckled the floor.

Evelyn looked down at his phone, still on the table where he'd left it. The screen was dark now, but not before she'd seen the name.

Damien.