Dreadnought (Nemesis #1)(43)
“L-Lucca, p-please.”
He didn’t move his arm from Amo’s throat, the darkness in him getting closer and closer to the surface.
She tried again in hopes to calm the darkness. “L-Let him go … f-for me.”
At that, Lucca lessened his hold, warning him, “You touch her, I’ll rip your goddamn throat out.”
Each word had been spoken with a lethalness she had never heard from Lucca before.
When Amo nodded, Lucca released him. Then, letting him walk past, he stood by as Amo slowly stepped toward her where she still stood inside her bedroom.
She started backing up when Amo reached the doorframe.
“Chloe …” He paused. “I’ve … I’ve missed you.”
She couldn’t help looking at Lucca, who stood behind him, waiting to hear what she had to say just as much as Amo. Then her eyes drifted to her wringing hands. “I-I’ve missed you, too,” she confessed.
Amo closed the distance between them. “I’ve called you so many times, and you never call me back.”
Chloe wasn’t sure what she could or couldn’t tell him, so she gave him a half-truth. “I wanted to, but I didn’t know what to say.”
It was obvious how much he wanted to touch her when he said, “I’ve been so worried about you. I knew something wasn’t right, and I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out sooner. I’m so sorry, Chloe.”
Biting her lip, she wrung her hands even tighter. She had waited for him to save her in the beginning, but now … now he was too late.
He held out his hand to her. “Come with me, Chloe. I’ll get you out of here.”
She shook her head. Please go. I don’t want to break your heart again. She wasn’t sure she would be able to handle it a second time.
“Why?” He took another step toward her, making her back up because of his closeness.
“I-I just can’t,” she whispered.
“Yes, you can, Chloe.” Amo continued looking down at the girl who was now hiding her face under her veil of hair. Her not agreeing to come with him was making him more furious, shaking with rage and the force it took to control it. “What is he doing to you? What has he done?”
She looked up at him, wanting him to know that Lucca wasn’t hurting her. “Nothi—”
“I know he’s done something!” Amo’s anger was full-blown. Unable to face the truth that she would want to stay with Lucca, he grabbed her. “I’m getting you the fuck out of—”
She instantly tried to jerk away, his foreign touch feeling like a sting, unwanted.
He took his hand off her the second he realized what he had done. “I’m sorr—”
Lucca didn’t even let him finish before he had stepped in front of Chloe and pushed him halfway across the room. “I told you what would happen if you fucking touched her.”
Somehow, Lucca was even more lethal than he was before. The darkness had fully reached the surface now as he stalked Amo. Chloe was sure he would kill him. He had promised he would, and Lucca kept his promises. She either had to watch her friend die, or she had to try to talk the darkness in him down. Both scared her just as equally, but only one would end in death.
She feared the other would seal her fate forever.
Chloe began begging, “P-Please, don’t do it. Don’t hurt him.” Closing her eyes, she reached out, touching his arm. “Please, Lucca, don’t hurt him.”
Lucca stopped stalking him, but his heavy breathing, along with the heat that came from his body, showed her he hadn’t been persuaded yet not to rip his throat out. Therefore, she wrapped her hand around his strong arm as she brought herself closer to him, touching her body to his. She held on to him as hard as she could, hoping he wouldn’t move, afraid that the slightest movement would end in Amo’s death.
Finally opening her eyes, she saw Amo’s face from behind Lucca’s arm and regretted ever opening them.
Chloe had done it again, except much worse. Now she had completely shattered his heart.
“Take him to my office,” Lucca directed toward Drago. cutting his fierce eyes deeply into the man before him.
Stepping inside the room, Drago grabbed Amo roughly by the arm.
Chloe closed her eyes again, hiding behind Lucca, unable to look at how heartbroken Amo was any longer. She tried to melt into Lucca in hopes of disappearing.
She might have saved his life for now, but it sure felt like she had killed him, anyway.
I’m so sorry, Amo.
Amo had to look away from the girl he loved, unable to stand the fact she was touching another man. He had only touched her once before today, when she had run into his arms. Now she couldn’t wait for him to let go of her; couldn’t stand the feel of his touch. She had been completely repulsed, jerking away from him as if he had hurt her, as if he was a monster, as if I was holding her captive.
However, that didn’t happen when she had touched Lucca.
He could feel her slipping through his fingers.
Amo had always thought himself one step ahead of Lucca by becoming friends with her, hiding the family and the things that made him a soldier, only ever showing her the good in him. He even had the one-up of being closer to her in age and protecting her at school. Now, he was sure Lucca had always been a step ahead of him.