All Chapters of Bend Me : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I didn’t even want to know what that meant. But I could see the lines of pain around his eyes when he talked about her. I tried again. “You were going to marry her. That has to mean something.” The words were barely louder than a whisper. And in a way, I felt betrayed for my sister. My mind couldn’t wrap itself around the fact that she’d been willing to give up her life for this man. “She was an actress…”“Yeah, that shit was gonna stop as soon as she said ‘I do.’ Too high profile. It was my mistake that I thought my secrets were safe—namely the fact that I was alive and well—until we tied the knot. How the fuck was I supposed to know she’d open her big mouth on TV? What the hell was that interview for anyway? She hadn’t had any work in over a year.” He seemed to almost forget me as he looked off into the distance, as though the answers to his questions were hidden somewhere in the wall. A few tense seconds ticked by, and then his attention snapped back to me, his eyes falling to his

My temper flared before I could control it and I had to take a few deep breaths so I didn’t snap at one of the few true friends I had. My father was the last person on this fucked up earth I wanted to turn to for help. It was a testament to the friendship Tristan and I shared that I managed to keep the volume of my voice level. “No. I’ll handle this myself. This is between me and Mario. My father has made it clear he’s not getting involved, even if I wanted him to. He won’t choose between his sons.” The mafia boss apparently did have a weakness after all. After all these years of him lecturing me about how disgusted he was by my own, he wasn’t such a hard ass himself. Not when it came to his family. However, he’d also made it very clear he wouldn’t interfere, as long as I kept Mario alive.That was going to be hard to do this time around.“Look. I’m here for you, Luca. What do you need me to do?”I stared into the amber liquid that filled the glass in my hand and felt my mouth twist w

VEDAHe wasn’t lying. My room was exactly as I’d left it, all the way down to the crumpled blankets on the bed and my sneakers kicked off in the corner.Grateful to be alone, I took a deep breath and froze. It smelled like Luca in here. Had he been creeping around in my room while I was gone? Looking for what? Too tired to think about it, I just shook my head and went to the closet to find something to sleep in. The sun was coming up, but I was so fucking tired. I needed to sleep. And strangely enough, I felt safe here.As I pulled off my dead sister’s clothes and left them lying in a heap on the bathroom floor, I had to wonder, what was he planning to do with me now? The game was up. Mario knew who I was. Or rather, who I wasn’t. And Luca hadn’t so much as asked me to close my eyes when we drove to his house, which meant I knew the location of the house now. His private sanctuary that, by his own words, not even his own family knew about.What the hell did that mean?Turning on the s

LUCA“Luca, can I talk to you for a sec?”Tristan was waiting for Enzo and me when I got out of the SUV. I was just getting home from my newest club, I was tired and hungry, and I wasn’t really in the mood for whatever the hell it was that made Tristan have that look on his face. Some shit had gone down between one of my guys and a member of the cartel who was in town to make a collection from me. The bartender called me as soon as things started to get heated, and I’d gotten there just in time to keep my cousin from getting shot. I didn’t need this shit right now. I had other things to worry about here at home.“Can it wait?”“No. I don’t think it can.” He and Enzo exchanged a look I couldn’t quite read.My stomach growled. I was anxious to get inside to see if I could coax Veda into having dinner with me. “Can we at least go in the house?”Tristan put a hand on my arm as I went to walk past. “Luca, just give me a minute here.”I stopped, glancing back at him over my shoulder. Someth

Fear twisted my bowels. “Veda…” I said quietly. “Don’t ever fucking talk like that. You hear me?”The life drained from her as quickly as it had appeared. I saw it happen with my own eyes, like a balloon deflating. Dropping her eyes, she shuffled around me and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. I heard the lock click.My fists clenched at my sides and took four steps away from the door, barely stopping myself from spinning around and punching a hole through it. As she got ready for bed, I stared out the window, not seeing the dance of lights across the lake that normally brought me such a sense of peace. Fed up with her, myself, and this entire fucking situation, I turned on my heel and walked out.But I stopped just outside the bedroom. No. This was bullshit. I’d tried giving her space, and it hadn’t done any fucking good. If anything, it only gave her a reason to withdraw even more.No. I was done giving her her space.Marching back into the room, I went into the close