Vendetta (Blood for Blood #1)(11)

Nic pulled his arms from the table and folded them. He kept his narrowed gaze on Luca, like he was almost daring him to do something.

“Do you like it?” Luca appeared unaffected by the death stare.

I shrugged. “As much as anyone can, I guess.”

“And what about your coworkers? Do you like them?”

“Smettila!” Nic hissed, his accent flipping effortlessly again.

“Does it matter if I like them?”

“You tell me,” said Luca.

“Yes, they’re nice, mostly,” I returned evenly. “Why? Are you doing a police survey or something?”

For the first time since our rocky introduction, Luca smiled at me, revealing sharp teeth and pronounced cheekbones.

“Sophie,” Nic murmured. “Don’t worry about my brother. As you can see, he’s completely socially inept.”

The softness in his voice settled me, and I let myself be charmed by him, if only for a second, before leaving them with their menus.

“Look at those fine specimens!” whooped Ursula when I returned to the counter. “So these boys are the new Priestlys?”

I nodded subtly. Across the way, Nic and Luca were enthralled in another conversation. They were in their own beautiful little world again. And Ursula and I were on a planet beside that world, stalking them unashamedly.

“Is your shadow crush the black-haired one?” she teased.

“No, the other one.”

Suddenly he turned his head a fraction, like he could hear us. I held my breath — without knowing why — and squeezed Ursula’s arm, but she didn’t notice because she was too busy trying not to drool. And then he was engrossed again. It was as though he’d needed a breather from the intensity of his discussion; now that he had taken it, he was back in. And so was Luca. Their mouths sped up and their gestures became more expressive.

“It’s hard to look away,” Ursula teased, undeterred by the mounting anger in their conversation. “And just look at those eyes. Where are they from?”

“Heaven?” I guessed, and we both laughed. They were so exotic, so different from anyone I had ever seen around Cedar Hill.

“Do angels eat?”

That’s when I remembered I had completely forgotten to take their order. I slid around the counter and scurried back over. “What can I get you?” I grabbed the pad from my apron and flicked it open, ripping the bottom of the sheet.

Luca looked alarmed by my interruption, like he had forgotten where they were. He opened his menu again, scanned it for five seconds, and pulled back with a frown. “A coffee. Black. Strong.”

He gestured at Nic.

“I’ll have the steak sandwich, rare, with fries. And a glass of milk,” Nic said finally, before shutting his menu and shifting his gaze back to me, “please.”

“Is that everything?” I held eye contact with him, feeling my lips twitch into a shy smile.

“Cazzo, that is all!” Luca hissed into the space between us.

By now, I was used to dealing with difficult customers, but Luca’s attitude was unparalleled, and I found myself losing my temper quicker than I normally would have. “I’m sorry, but is my presence in the place where I work offending you? Because you don’t have to stay here.”

He threw me a contemptuous stare, and I held it.

“Just don’t spit in my coffee.”

I bit my tongue and left them again.

After I passed the order through to Kenny in the kitchen, I joined Ursula, who was cleaning up after Erin and Co. We busied ourselves wiping down the remaining tables and sweeping the floor as the minutes dragged by. When I served Nic his steak, I caught sight of the beginning of a tattoo above the neckline at the back of his T-shirt, then spent the following ten minutes behind the counter figuring it was probably the top of a large, ornate cross.

Five minutes before closing time, when I was balancing the books for the night, Luca’s phone rang, and he got up and left abruptly.

Nic approached the counter timidly, like he was walking into open gunfire. That same uncomfortable flicker of recognition stirred inside me but I pushed it away. Get a grip.

“Sorry about my brother.” He swatted his arm at something behind him. “We think he was dropped on his head as a baby … several hundred times.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so inquisitive,” I noted. It was the only non-negative thing I could think to say about Luca.

Nic jerked his head, like there was a bee buzzing in his ear. Maybe that’s how he thought of his brother. “I guess I’m just used to it by now. Don’t let him unnerve you.”

“He didn’t.”

“You don’t find Luca intimidating?”

I shook my head.

Nic’s gaze adopted a sudden fierce intensity, and I was instantly hyperaware of how loud my heartbeat was.

“Good,” he murmured.

“He’s definitely weird, though,” I added as an afterthought. “And unbelievably rude.”

“We should bring him here more often so you can keep him in line.” Nic produced a black credit card that gleamed with a level of affluence I could only dream about, and handed it to me. Suddenly every part of me was standing at attention, and I wondered if he knew it. He was probably used to having this effect on girls.