Page 30 of Contempt

“Christian Savino. Well, to be fair, he had to come in to overlook the contract and take a copy for his lawyers for me to acquire the piece of art he wants, but while he was here, he happened to notice you weren’t here, too.”

“Oh.”

Lucia was still trying to figure out why she should care about that, honestly.

“Anyway, he asked where you were,” Kelly continued on, clearly missing the confusion in Lucia’s tone, “and I thought he seemed … interested in you, so to speak. I hope you don’t mind, but I mentioned you had flown home to New York for a family thing. I didn’t give details, but yeah.”

Fuck.

Well, yeah, Lucia did kind of mind a little. She had no interest at all in Christian Savino. Not that the man wasn’t good-looking—he was. And sure, he seemed interesting enough. He’d certainly been charming, but most men were when they cleaned up well and put on a three-piece suit. Hell, she’d grown up around all kinds of men like that. Their charm didn’t particularly work on her.

Still, Lucia could put this issue out of her mind, for the time being, anyway. Christian could have all the interest he wanted, but she didn’t plan on answering it back. Besides, he was in California dealing with Kelly, and Lucia was here … in New York. A whole fucking country away.

That was fine with her.

“That was okay, right? I mean … I thought it was sweet that he remembered you, and thought to ask.”

Ugh.

“Yeah, no worries,” she told Kelly. “I’m going to head to my parents’ place for dinner. I’ll give you an update soon, okay?”

“You better.”

But maybe not.

Especially not if Kelly thought she was going to try playing matchmaker with Lucia and some strange Italian that she didn’t know from a hole in the ground. Lucia had better things to be doing than worrying about dating, or love.

Besides, she felt love.

She was still in love.

She just didn’t have the man she loved.

FIVE

Tucked inside the entrance of a damp alleyway, Renzo brought the filter of a lit Marlboro to his lips, and took a heavy drag. The thick smoke filled his lungs, and he refused to exhale, instead letting it burn and ache in his lungs until he didn’t have a choice. The smoke came out in a steady stream, lifting higher in spiraling streaks of gray.

He’d made a choice—one he might regret, sure, but it was too late to back out now. There was something familiar about the dampness in the air, and the way the city smelled polluted and yet wet at the same time that felt comforting to him. There was a chill in the air, despite it being spring, and he reveled in the feeling even through his leather jacket, and dark-wash jeans.

God.

Renzo sucked in a breath of air, no smoke this time.

He was finally home.

New York never looked better.

Oh, sure, Dare was going to kill him when he got back to Nevada. There was no doubt about it. He’d have Renzo’s ass on a silver platter for this, but it would be fucking worth it, too. How could it not be?

The last time he was in New York was two and a half years ago for a job that involved breaking into the home of a Senator, and busting open the man’s safe. Given the fact the safe was underground, and built into a concrete wall, Cree’s team had needed his skills with explosives to get it done quick, easy, and mostly clean, too. He hadn’t known what they were looking for in the safe, but it hadn’t mattered to him, either.

As fast as they were in New York back then, they’d taken him away from it, too. He hadn’t been able to visit his sister, or brother. Shit, he barely left the hotel room, and he couldn’t even get a piece of roadside pizza, for fuck’s sake.

Well, he was going to do all of that now.

He had time, after all.

Renzo would deal with the consequences later, especially those that came from Nevada, and The League. Besides, they had to know where he was right now. He’d not tried to hide what he did after spending two weeks following that stupid fucking Italian around California and to neighboring states.