Dreadnought (Nemesis #1)(50)

“This isn’t his room, is it?”

“No, it’s Leo’s. Lucca started sleeping in here a little bit after you got here.”

Chloe bit her lip. “He did?”

“Yes.” He turned the light off, a not so subtle sign that it was time to leave.

She clasped her hands together, beginning to wring them, as she let that piece of information set in. Then she followed Drago again, this time to Lucca’s real bedroom, passing the steps and going toward the other wing of the house.

Finally, Drago opened the door at the very end of the hall, allowing her to go in first.

This room definitely seemed more like Lucca. It was huge and darkly lit, with dark wood and dark colors. It seemed and smelled almost earthy, manly, and Chloe found it pleasing.

“Lucca will be in later.” Setting her things down in the middle of the room, Drago turned to leave.

“D-Drago …?”

“Yes?” He stopped, turning back around.

“Thank you for telling me.” She knew it probably wasn’t his place to tell her about Lucca sleeping in Leo’s room, as Lucca seemed like a very private man where it concerned his men, but she appreciated it all the same.

He gave a brief nod before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Taking a shaky breath while she looked around the dark room, she held herself tightly at the mere fact of being in the boogieman’s most intimate space. She couldn’t help wondering at what moment her path had led her here, or if this wasn’t her rightful path and she had been stolen off hers to walk down another.

The chains that held her body and mind gripped even tighter.



Lucca waited until he had calmed himself down before leaving his office. He had to let the darkness simmer enough before he could be near Chloe again. Though, he wasn’t entirely sure what he had to calm down from the most: finally kissing her, or Amo finally seeing he wasn’t the man for her. Both had brought the darkness out equally.

Heading toward his bedroom, he passed Drago along the way.

“I took her things to your room. Chloe’s waiting for you there.”

“Thank you.” He nodded his head and then stopped. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

Drago paused, turning around to face him.

“Did you break Amo’s hand in hopes that I would think that was punishment enough?” Lucca studied his face, seeing a slight change in his stoic demeanor, which told him he had been right to think that. Drago had known Lucca wasn’t going to let him leave without physical pain.

“It will not happen again,” Drago told him firmly.

“Thanks for doing it for me,” Lucca said from over his shoulder as he continued toward his room, satisfied with Drago’s answer.

“Why?” Drago asked in confusion.

Lucca smiled. “Because now I get to tell Chloe you were the one who hurt him.”

“Fucking asshole,” Drago mumbled under his breath.



Chloe sat alone on the edge of Lucca’s bed, nervously waiting and not knowing what else to do. The door opening had her back straightening, hoping her wait was coming to an end.

When she saw that it was, in fact, Lucca coming in, her back somehow went even straighter.

“You didn’t unpack?” he asked when he saw her bags on the floor, untouched.

Looking down at the hands in her lap, she started wringing them, wanting to scrape her skin off. “N-No. I didn’t know where to put them.”

His hands suddenly appeared on top of hers, stopping her from the damage she wanted to inflict. “You’ve been good about not doing this all month. Is it because of him, or because I moved you here?”

Biting her lip, she wanted to blame it on having to sleep in here with him, but truthfully, she had started wringing her hands when Amo had come for her.

“Did you hurt him?” she whispered.

“Drago broke his hand—”

“He did!” she exclaimed more than asked, her eyes shooting up to his.

He gave her hand a squeeze. “Yes. His hand will heal, though. It’ll be fine.”

“That wasn’t very nice of him.” Chloe relaxed a bit. She supposed she had hurt him way more than Drago had. I broke his heart … again.

A smile tugged at Lucca’s lips. “You’ll have to tell him that, darlin’.”

“I’ll think about it.” Drago still scared her from time to time.

The hands that covered hers now moved in a light, soothing motion over her palms.

“Thank you for letting him go,” she told him.

“You’re welcome.” Keeping one hand on her hands, he lifted the other to swipe her hair behind her ear so she couldn’t hide her face from him. “You know, if he does anything like he did again, there will be no saving him,” he warned her, promising her she wouldn’t be able to help him next time.

Swallowing, she could barely get the words “I know” out.

He was making it very obvious how possessive and protective he was of her. A part of her secretly appreciated it—needed it after all she had been through—never having to worry about being touched by anyone other than him.

Amo was the only one she was worried about Lucca’s protectiveness hurting.

Reaching into his pocket, Lucca pulled out her cell phone, placing it in her open palm.