His words were like a bucket of cold water and I pulled away, turning my back on him.
“You’re hurting.” It wasn’t a question.
Luca stepped up behind me, running his hands up and down my shoulders. “Nora, look at me.”
Slowly, I turned around, meeting his intense stare. “You are so fucking beautiful, and strong, and funny… I hate this guy, whoever he is, for making you doubt yourself.” He pushed the messy curls from my face. “But if I have you, I’m going to want all of you. And I don’t think you’re ready for that.” His thumb dropped to my mouth, lingering on the pillow of my bottom lip.
Energy pulsed around us, so thick I could almost taste it. I wanted him to kiss me. For the first time since I met Luca, I really really wanted him to kiss me.
So why didn’t he?
“Luca?” His name fell from my lips in a whispered plea, but he didn’t move.
He didn’t do anything.
“This was clearly a mistake.” Dejection burned through me as I tore out of his arms and retreated back toward the door.
“Nora, wait,” he called, but my hand was already on the door handle. “Nora, please.”
I spun around and met his apologetic gaze. “What, Luca? What is there left to say?”
He closed the distance between us until his hands gently cupped my face.
“I had a change of heart.”
“What do you—”
His mouth captured mine in a bruising kiss.
Luca was kissing me.
He was kissing me.
And I was letting him.
Chapter 13
Enzo
“I got a lead,” Gino said the second I reached him.
It was a little after eight and we were at the restaurant beside the motel getting breakfast. The other patrons gave us a wide berth, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before.
“About fucking time,” I grumbled.
It had been six days since I left Verona. Six days of us chasing dead ends.
Whoever was orchestrating this whole thing knew how to stay off the grid.
The server brought over coffee and took our order. The second she turned her back, I said, “Before we get into what the hell we’re going to do about this fucker, I need to ask you something.”
“Go on.”
“You ever seen Zander get violent with his girls?”
Gino’s brow pinched. “He gets a bit handsy now and again but hurting them? Nah. He’s all talk and no action that one.”
I rubbed my jaw. “He asked me to go over and check on one of his girls. Caitlin O’Connell. But when I got over there, I recognized her. Found her crying in the bathroom at the club the other night.”
“You think he’s hurting her?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me what happened. But if DiMarco is putting his hands on his girls… that shit don’t fly with me.”
He hissed between his teeth. “Word of advice, kid, don’t get involved in another man’s business. DiMarco is already a loose cannon. Don’t give him a reason to cause a shitstorm we don’t need right now. It was probably a John who got a little too enthusiastic.”
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. But Gino was right. I was here to find out who was coming after the Family, not to get all up in Zander DiMarco’s affairs. Besides, Caitlin had been unwilling to even let me inside her apartment, let alone interrogate her about what had happened. I’d left my number with her in case she needed anything, but I didn’t expect to hear from her anytime soon.
“What’s the plan?” I changed the subject.
“It’s an address, an abandoned warehouse out by the river. The guy we worked over. I let him go.”
“The fuck?” I gawked at him.
“Relax. Oldest trick in the book. Let a rat free and it’ll lead you right back to its nest.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I put a tracker on him and followed him out there. He met with another guy, but I didn’t get a good look at him. Marc and Dixon have been staking out the place overnight. After our guy left, nobody else came or went.”
“You think it’s Alejandro?”
Gino nodded, and I clenched my fist against the table.
“When do we go?”
No one was supposed to know the truth about my father, especially not this asshole.
“Relax. Eat.” Gino relaxed back in his chair. “It could be a long fucking day.”
My skin vibrated with the need to find this motherfucker and get answers: who he was and what the fuck he hoped to achieve coming after the