Page 75 of The Prices We Pay
I clap him on the shoulder. “We did the right thing, Luca. She was afraid. That’s not who we are.”
His dark eyes—the ones I’ve known my entire life—soften. “You’re right.” A harsh sigh leaves his chest. “That’s not who we are.”
“Okay,” Seb adds, “but what is Novikov going to do with that information? And why the fuck is he messing with Joe? Let alone getting Joe’s dad out of prison.”
“If I had to guess, they’re counting on the fact that they don’t know that we know and are going to try to use it against us somehow. We just have to wait for the opportunity to present itself.”
“And about Joe?” he asks Luca.
“The morning Damien cornered her in the cafe, they were just trying to see how much she knew about the missing shipments. But when Damien saw her with Enz, he realized he had a different card to play.”
“He saw that she was a weakness.” The thought of her being used as some sort of pawn in a sick game makes my fucking skin itch as I flip the pen around between my fingers. “And John?” I snarl.
“I don’t know. I have no idea why they’d bother with him.” Luca eyes me warily as I chew on the end of my pen, my leg now bouncing up and down at a rapid pace.
Wrapping his hand around my thigh, Sebastian stills my movement. My eyes meet his, and his expression matches that of my best friend. “We will figure it out, Enz.”
“She’s staying here,” I demand harshly.
Luca shakes his head. “She’s not going to like that. You said so yourself; she wants to be in her apartment. She—”
“I don’t give a fuck.” I can feel my anxiety growing rapidly by the second. I’m spiraling, and I have to get it together before I spiral. “Until we deal with the Russians and get a handle on John, she’sstaying here.”
It’s rare that I get so argumentative, but I can’t help it. Not when it comes to Joe’s safety. Not whenthere are so many unknowns. Not when everything feels out of control. We were lucky to have been able to piece this much together. We’ve been in the dark about this for too long. Got too careless. Not anymore. Not when she’s involved. It won’t happen. Itcan’thappen.
My stare wanders to the bar cart against the window, and I chew harder on the end of my pen.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sebastian and Luca look at each other before Sebastian closes his laptop, and Luca moves to crouch down in front of me. With his hands on my knees, he says, “Enz, look at me.”
I pull my eyes from the bar cart and look down at Luca in front of me. Sebastian rubs his hand along my back and asks, “Do I need to go dump all of that out?”
Shaking my head rapidly, I clear my throat. “No. No, I’m fine. I’ll go to a meeting in the morning. I just—”
“Nothing is going to happen to her, Enz,” Luca consoles. “We will figure it out. We will explaineverything in the morning and ask her to stay here. She will understand. We can keep her safe.”
Sebastian asks, “What do you need, Enz?”
I huff out a sarcastic laugh. “Neither of you can give me what I need right now.”
The two of them stare at each other again, except this time it seems as if they share an entire conversation with just one look. Sebastian nods, and Luca takes a breath of relief before rubbing his hands against the tops of my thighs. “We can’t give you what’s in that bottle, Amico, but we can give you something else you might need.”
What the fuck is happening?
Running his hand down my arm, Sebastian takes the pen from between my fingers and tosses it onto the coffee table. “Let us help you.”
There’s no fucking way.
“Guys, shouldn’t we be trying to figure out—”
“No,” Luca cuts me off, shaking his head. “The only thing that needs to happen right now is getting that look off of your face. Because I’ve seen it before, and I promised myself I’d never let what happens next happen again.”
No. No way. No, this cannot happen like this.
“I don’t want you both to feel like youhaveto do this. I’m really fine. I just—”
“Oh, would you just shut the fuck up?” The last word is barely out of his mouth before he stands from his crouched position and crashes his lips into mine.
Luca Vittori is kissing me—Enzo Santoro. My best friend, the person who knows me better than I know myself, is kissing me while his boyfriend is sitting next to me, watching the entire thing happen.
