Page 40 of Luca

Leaving the property was the easy part. The guard at the gate simply nodded to me as I drove away. There’s a sense of relief that I won’t ever have to come back here. I’ve hated the last seven years playing nice with men who I’d rather see buried six feet under than share a beer with. By the time all of this is over, I won’t be surprised if that’s where several of them end up.

When we pull into the small garage under my building next to my old SUV, I immediately pop the trunk, allowing Giada to see where we are. I rush to the back of the sedan and help her out.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been shoved in a trunk and driven across town, but I can say I’d rather never do that again.”

I smile down at her, but she doesn’t return the gesture.

“I have to grab a few things, then we need to get out of here.” I grab her bags and toss them into my vehicle. It’s old as shit, but it’s all I got, and I know for a fact the Cataldi cars have trackers on them. I don’t particularly care if they find the car here after they realize I’ve disappeared with Giada. This is another place I don’t ever plan on stepping foot in again.

“Come on up.” I guide her to the small stairwell that leads to the apartment I’ve kept even though I’d been staying at the Cataldi estate.

When we enter the apartment, she looks around at the bare walls and the sparse furniture the apartment had when I moved in.

“How long have you lived here?” she asks.

“About seven years, but I haven’t stayed here in four months.”

“If you have your own place, why were you staying at the estate?”

“Your brother wanted me there to keep an eye on you. Make sure you stayed out of the way and stayed put. When those two assholes your brother started working with came around and leered at you any chance they got, I was so fucking thankful you weren’t in that house unprotected. It’s the only time I’ve been grateful to your brother for making sure I stuck around after your father’s arrest. Guess it didn’t work out how Carlo had hoped, though.”

Her gaze drops from mine as she absorbs the truth I gave her. “Get your things, Luca. We need to get out of here before anyone realizes we’re both gone.”

“Right.”

Giada isn’t ready to hear the lengths I’ve gone through—the lengths I’ll go through—to make sure she’s safe. I’m still the man who came into her life under false pretenses. The man whose sole purpose of being at the house was to find anything I could to destroy her family.

Walking into my small bedroom, I head to my closet and open the crawl space to grab the box with the few things I brought with me from my past and a few other essentials. I take all the cash, guns, and the letter-sized envelope that contains pictures of my life with Frank and the pictures of my parents.

Giada is standing in the doorway when I turn around in the closet and she eyes the box in my hands.

“Can I show you something?” I ask, setting the box on the bed and opening it.

She nods and walks closer to me as I open the box and pull out the envelope of pictures. Reaching into the old manilla envelope, I pull out a picture of our fathers together and one of my real parents and me when I was a baby.

I hold the picture of the three men out to her first. “That’s Frank, your father, and my real father, Elio.” Then I hand her the other picture. “And that’s my mother, Ciara Byrne, Maeve Monaghan’s sister.”

She studies both briefly, her eyes darting between mine and the picture of my mother. “You have the same eyes.” Her voice is soft, and it’s the first time I’ve felt anything from her other than distrust mixed with a healthy dose of rage since I told her who I really am.

“That’s what Finn said. Told me my aunt has the same eyes, too.”

I offer a small smile, but Giada doesn’t return it, the walls slamming shut once again behind her eyes. “I’ll wait for you in the other room,” she says, handing the pictures back to me before spinning on her heels to walk away.

After throwing several changes of clothes into a bag, I walk back to the living room and find Giada still standing there. Well, at least she didn’t take off. That’s something, I tell myself.

Grabbing the keys for my SUV from the beige parquet countertop, I leave the keys for the sedan I drove here.

“Let’s go.” I open the door and allow Giada to step out before shutting it and locking it behind us.

“Where are we going?” she asks as I lead her back down the stairs.

“New Hampshire.”

“What’s in New Hampshire?” Her voice is breathless as we hurry back to the garage.

“There’s no three-day waiting period in that state like there is here. We have time to get there, get a marriage license, and see the justice of the peace.”

“Wow, and all before lunch.”

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