Luca's Pov
Salvatore hesitated. Then, slowly, he stepped toward Teddy. Reached out. Touched his chest. Gently. Briefly. Like he was afraid of being burned.
Teddy's smile disappeared. "Did you fucking touch my chest? I don't like people touching my chest."
I bit back a laugh. "Where do you like people touching you, Teddy?"
"My cock."
"Maybe you should show Salvatore how to do it, then."
Teddy nodded seriously. "With pleasure." He wrapped an arm around Salvatore's shoulders, friendly, familiar. "Come with me, Uncle Sal. We should do this in private. It involves me touching you in your no-no place."
Salvatore looked around wildly, searching for help. His men looked away. Every single one of them.
"They won't help you." I watched him squirm. "Or did you forget what you did to Leonardo's sister?"
Leonardo—one of my father's soldiers, a good man with dead eyes—looked away. But I saw the anger in his jaw, his fists. Saw how hard he was working to stay still.
"I'll be gentle," Teddy promised, voice soft as silk. "Or not. Depends on you."
He led Salvatore into the shadows.
Marcus tried to limp away, phone in hand. "I'll call the old man—"
"Magnolia, darling." I held out the gun. "Here. Have fun."
Marcus froze. The phone slipped from his fingers.
From the darkness, we heard sounds. Grunts. Cries. The wet thud of flesh meeting flesh. Then screams—high and broken.
Then Magnolia's voice cut through.
"I have a question." She held up one finger.
"Yes, Magnolia."
"Is Teddy fucking Uncle Sal?" She asked her blue blinking rapidly like a doll.
I rubbed her arms to warm her up.
"No, sweetheart." I answered ignoring the stares from the boys who knew exactly what was going on. "That would be illegal and wrong. Remember, Consent is everything. NO means No. Now , put on your headphone, honey" I took the headset and placed it on her ears and cranked the volume to the highest.
No reason, sweet Magnolia should be subjected to the grunts of a man who should be enjoying himself.
Magnolia hummed a little tune, swaying in her red dress.
A few minutes later, Teddy emerged from the shadows, beaming. Behind him, Salvatore stumbled out, clothes disheveled, face pale, eyes fixed on the ground. He couldn't look at anyone. Couldn't look at me.
"So?" I asked Teddy. "What's the verdict?"
"He was right." Teddy clapped Salvatore on the shoulder, making him flinch. "It wasn't so bad. Right, Uncle Sal?"
Salvatore whimpered. Then he walked away—fast, hunched, ruined—and didn't look back.
I watched him go. Let the silence stretch. They say that evil men do lives among them. I say double it and return it to them in folds.
Magnolia took off her headset.
"Can I ask another question?" She didn't wait for an answer. "And does pretty Emilia know you're the man she's actually engaged to? You know. Enzo Marchetti Jr.?"
I closed my eyes. "Luca."
"Damn it!" She slapped her forehead. "I forgot again."
She grabbed the gun from my waistband and shot Marcus in the other leg.
He went down screaming.
"Jesus! Magnolia. Stop shooting my uncle" I took the gun back. "Sorry, Uncle Marcus"
"Sorry." Magnolia told him sweetly. "My bad. I overreacted. I think I'm hungry"
I turned and walked toward the mouth of the alley. Toward the road where Emilia had disappeared. Teddy fell into step beside me. Magnolia followed, humming again.
"Wait." She grabbed my sleeve. "Does she know? Does Emilia know you're her fiancé?"
I didn't answer.
I just kept walking.
Because the truth was simple and complicated and fucked up all at once.
Emilia Conti ran from a marriage to Enzo Marchetti.
And she ran straight into my arms.
She thought I was a stranger. A one-night stand. A pretty boy with brain damage who made her laugh.
She didn't know I was the monster she was running from.
She didn't know I'd been watching her for months.
She didn't know I followed her into that club the night she escaped. Didn't know I let her pick me. Didn't know I'd planned to be there, planned to meet her, planned to—
Planned to what?
Fall in love with her?
That wasn't part of the plan.
I touched the rose in my pocket. The one I'd stripped of thorns. The one I'd left on her pillow like a confession I didn't know how to make.
She had it. I saw it in her car, pressed against her thigh.
She kept it.
And now she was gone, and I was here, and Salvatore's screams still echoed in my head, and none of it mattered because she was gone and I'd let her go.
I will find you, I'd told her.
I meant it.
Even if finding her meant telling her the truth.
Even if the truth made her hate me forever.
"Luca?" Magnolia's voice, small for once. "Are you okay?"
I looked up at the sky. Somewhere beyond the city lights, Emilia was crying. I could feel it.
"No," I said. "But I will be. Once I get her back."
Teddy grunted agreement.
Magnolia nodded like that made perfect sense.
And the three of us walked out of the alley, leaving the blood and the screams and the questions behind.
Because there was only one question that mattered now:
How do you tell the woman you love that you're the reason she had to run in the first place?