The Marriage Debt (De Vos Mafia #2)(53)

Present



* * *



I blink a couple of times to remind myself I’m awake as the gun is lowered. The light turns softer until I finally see the one face that instantly makes me cry.

“Luca …” I mutter as a tear runs down my cheek.

One of the men on the ground groans, so Luca swiftly walks up to him, fishing a knife from his pocket. The same knife from all those years ago. The one he’s carried with him for so many years to torment whoever he wanted, including me.

He grabs the man’s head by the hair and rams it into his throat.

I flinch and crawl away, covering my mouth with my hand to stop the bile from rising.

One final groan and the guy is gone for good.

Luca swiftly pulls out his knife and wipes it on a napkin before chucking that on top of the body. He walks toward me in such a calm and collected manner it momentarily makes me forget I’m surrounded by dead bodies.

Then he homes in on me.

The dark, violent look on his face reminds me of my father when he first killed someone in front of me. But that was to save his family and to destroy enemies.

This?

This savagery was only meant to save me from my own mistake.

A bloody show of power by a cruel knight in not-so-shining armor.

So then why is my heart all fluttery?

And without even so much as looking at them, Luca goes to his knees in front of me, and asks, “Are you okay?”





Chapter 22





Jill



* * *



I nod, but I don’t even know what to say. Luca looks at me with such intensity in his eyes, as though nothing else matters but him and me. Not the fact that I ran, not these dead bodies scattered around us, or the pool of blood I’m resting in. Nothing.

He brings his hand up to my cheek and wipes away the tear rolling down in such a gentle way that I almost forget he shot five people point-blank.

“Don’t cry, bunny … I’m here,” he says, and he holds out a hand. His hair is still dripping wet from the shower. “C’mon.”

I grab his hand, and he helps me up from the concrete floor. But the blood is still caked in my dress and my hair, and the mere sight of it makes me want to jump into the water across the road.

“It won’t come off,” I say in a frenzied attempt to wipe it away.

“We’ll get you cleaned up at home,” Luca replies, tucking his gun back into its holster. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?” He grabs my shoulders and makes me look at him, which makes me hyperaware of the fact that I ran away from him.

“I …” I look away.

He tips up my chin. “Don’t ever run away from me again.”

Resentment boils up inside me, but I feel guilty as hell when I look down and see all of these bodies. They died because of me.

“Jill?” Luca says.

He killed five men point-blank, and it doesn’t even seem to faze him.

“You killed them,” I murmur, unable to look away from the onslaught in this warehouse.

Who were they? No one ends up in the gutter like this by their own volition, right? Do they have family that will miss them? Do they leave behind kids?

Luca grabs my collar and forces me to look at him. “I’d kill every last motherfucker on this planet before anyone ever takes you from me.”

I swallow. Hard.

“They deserved what they had coming for them,” he says through gritted teeth.

So he saw what they planned to do. More tears well up in my eyes. All of this is my fault.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking—”

“Hey,” Luca interjects. “Don’t feel guilty.” He leans in to get on my level, staring into the depths of my soul as though it comes easy to him. “I was the one who killed them. And I would do it again, and again, and again, if it means keeping you safe. No one touches my wife.”

Something about that makes me shiver, his words lighting a fire in my chest that I desperately cling to, the same flutters I felt before when he killed those men … for me.

What is this?

Have I suddenly gotten used to his sadistic needs?

Or is it because I’m in awe that someone would go through all this trouble, all this murder, just for me?

A cold rush of wind comes in through the door and onto my blood-covered skin. Someone storms inside, completely out of breath. I recognize him as one of Luca’s guards, and he has the same size shadow as the one following me earlier. It must’ve been him.

“Nicely timed,” Luca grumbles.

“She ran so fast,” he says between breaths. “I didn’t even notice she was gone until it was too late.”

“You’re lucky I heard her scream,” Luca snarls back.

He heard me?

So he was searching for me all along.

“I’ll deal with you when we get home,” Luca spits at his guard.

No. No one else deserves to be blamed for my actions. I don’t want any more fighting because of me. And I don’t want anyone else getting killed because of what I did.

So I grab Luca’s face and make him focus on me. “Blame me. I was the one who ran.”

Luca places his hand on top of mine. “Don’t try to run from a man like me,” he says, his voice low, gravelly. “I will always find you. And if anyone even so much as tries to hurt you, they will die a painful death.”