Page 26 of Vows of Blood

“No. I don’t know him. I was just distracted… and I didn't think anything of it at first.”

Luca moves forward, crowding me, making my head spin.

“Distracted by what?”

I step back.

He steps forward.

We continue this dance until my shoulder blades hit the cold plaster of the wall, and there's nowhere left to go.

Luca rests one palm against the wall beside my head, caging me in. “There’s more. We both know it. So just spit it out.” He grits his teeth, getting more and more worked up.

Panicked, I blurt out the truth before I can think of something better. But the admission costs me dearly.

“By you, Luca.” I look away, unable to bear his stunned face as I share my weakness. “You were there, with her, and I was… flustered. All I could think of was running away."

His anger cools, and the predator pulls back, though just slightly, irritation replaced by what appears to be sympathy. He eases off, giving me room to breathe, as one hand settles on my hip, his thumb finding the bare strip of skin between my jeans and T-shirt.

I’m struck by a memory of our first kiss outside a restaurant on our first official date, which Luca insists was our third, counting the night he peeled me off the road and a trip to a bicycle repair shop as dates one and two.

He did the same thing then. Thumb stroking my hip, looming over me, turning my brain to mush. Unfortunately for me, it still works.

"You're coming with me,” he insists, the demand no less bossy and domineering. “I’ll keep you safe."

“Safe from who?” I demand. “You’re the one who picked my lock and sat in the dark waiting for me like some kind of psychopath."

“Just safe,” he replies evasively, and I battle back the urge to roll my eyes.

"No." Stubbornness flares to life inside me, a combination of my earlier humiliation and the stark realization that this man is not the sweet Luca I knew, who walked me home after late-night study sessions and slipped notes into my coat pocket when I wasn’t looking.

This is the Luca who left the country without saying goodbye.

"This isn't a request, Sienna.” Each word is enunciated clearly, so I’m left with no doubt that he means business.

Well, that tone might work on his mafia underlings, but not me.

"I don't care what it is." I shove against his hard body, forcing him back another step, then jab my finger into his sternum. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

His hand snaps up, closing around my wrist, a grip like iron that’s making me immediately reconsider the notion that I forced him back. He was clearly just humoring me.

"He saw you, Sienna." He shouts, exasperated. "He looked right at you, knows that you saw him too. Do you understand what that means?"

My heart pounds.

"It means nothing. If he thought I could identify him, he would have killed me then and there."

"Or he's biding his time because doing it then and there would have made it too obvious that you knew who he was." Luca’s thumb brushes across the inside of my wrist as he tugs me a little closer. “Maybe he’s waiting until the heat dies down. Until you're alone. If it were me, that’s what I’d do."

Trying to sound braver than I feel, I ignore the hold he has on my arm. "You’re just trying to scare me."

Blinking, he tilts his head and looks at me. "You’re right. I am. Because you should be scared, Sienna. The sooner you realize that, the better."

“I'm not a threat to him.”

My attempt to yank my arm back is futile and only serves to get me off balance, teetering forward when I pull pointlessly. I have to press my other hand to his chest to keep upright, and his heart thuds beneath my palm.

"He doesn't know that,” he growls, exasperation bleeding into his tone.