Soulless Devil (Sons of Valentino #3)(29)

“Romeo, I’m gonna go. I’ll, uh…” Livvy doesn’t finish her sentence. She turns around and starts walking towards the entrance.

“I would think very carefully about what leaves those lips next, because I won’t hold him back when he guts you alive,” Luca growls at the chick—again, I have no idea what her fucking name is.

I don’t bother to stick around. Instead, I run off to catch up with Livvy. Fuck me, I can feel God laughing at my ass now. He gave me something precious, and of course he’s not going to let me keep her. It was too fucking good to be true. Maybe I should just cut my losses now.

Fuck that. Nope, Livvy’s mine. No matter what anyone says.

“Livvy, wait up.” I catch up with her outside the cafeteria. Wrapping my hand around her elbow, I spin her around to face me. Fucking hell, she’s crying. Tears fall from her eyes, each one cutting into a soul I didn’t even think I had. “Please don’t cry. I don’t know who the fuck that girl is.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not… I’m not… I can’t do this, Romeo.”

“You can’t do what?” I ask.

“This.” Livvy points between the two of us. “It shouldn’t have happened. We don’t run in the same circles. We’re not compatible.”

“Well, it felt like we were pretty fucking compatible this morning, Liv. It’s too late anyway. This is happening. We are happening,” I tell her.

“Do you really think that girls like her are going to be our biggest hurdle? You’re, well, you… I’m sure there will be plenty of girls just like her. But that I can deal with. What about our families, Romeo? What do you really think my dad is going to do when he finds out who you are and what we are?”

“We are endgame. That’s what we are, Livvy.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her up against my chest. “I don’t care who they are. I won’t let anyone take you from me, Livvy, not even you.”

“That’s… I need to show you something,” she says, pulling away from me. I watch silently as she draws her phone from her pocket. Pressing a few buttons, she turns it around to show me a text.

Unknown:



He can’t always be with you. I’ll wait for the right time to pounce, little mouse.





I read the message, and my vision blurs. I don’t even hear Luca approach us, not until he looks over my shoulder and starts cursing in Italian.

What the fuck is this? “When did you get this?” I ask aloud.

“Just before I left my last class.”

“And you didn’t come straight to me?”

“I thought… I don’t know. I was scared, okay?” she yells.

“Shh, it’s fine. You’re okay, I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I say, tugging her against me again. This is where she should always be. “Luca, get Marx and Adrian here. I have some shit to do and I’m not leaving Livvy home alone.”

“Already on it,” he says, tapping away at his phone.

We walk over to the parking lot and I place Livvy on the front passenger seat. “Who are Marx and Adrian?” she asks.

“Our friends,” I tell her. I don’t think the word soldier is really what she needs to hear right now. I know she’s not stupid. She’s Googled me. She knows who my family is. I’m just not completely ready to face the reality that we do really come from two different stratospheres. Us being together never should have happened. But it did. So the world can burn down around us before I’ll ever let it—or anyone—separate us.





Chapter Sixteen





As much as I’m trying to focus on the text in front of me, I can’t. My mind keeps drifting to Romeo. I slept in his bed last night. Alone. I don’t know where he went. I don’t know when he came home. But when I woke up, there was a note from him on the bedside table, telling me he’d see me this afternoon for our tutoring session. Luca made me breakfast, told me that Romeo had to go home and see their parents about something. Although he didn’t elaborate more than that.

I’m worried. He hasn’t texted, called, or emailed me all day. I don’t want to be the needy girlfriend who has to know where he is at all times.

Shit. No. Not girlfriend.

I am not Romeo Valentino’s girlfriend. Am I?

I mean, he says I’m his. But what does that really mean? I have no idea. We haven’t discussed labels. Is it too early for that talk?

It’s too early. It has to be.

I look back down at the text in front of me. I can’t believe I’m even thinking like this. I need to concentrate. A pretty boy is not going to make me lose focus on what I want in life. Even if he does look like an Adonis and has moves that should be illegal. I get about five minutes of reading and highlighting done before a body fills the chair next to me. I smile. I don’t need to look up to know that it’s Romeo. I can smell his woodsy scent, and the anxiety I was feeling moments ago is gone, replaced by an eerie calm. The saying “if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is” repeats in the back of my mind.

“Miss me?” he asks.

“Were you gone?” I smile up at him. I swear his beauty takes me by surprise every time I see him.