Page 24 of Legacy
She gives me a look. “You act like you worked the case yourself.”
“I’ve learned everything from this show,” I say, completely serious. “Interrogation techniques, legal loopholes, how to tell if someone’s lying, it’s all in Law and Order.”
She lets out a soft laugh. “And I thought I was intense.”
I start rubbing her foot absentmindedly. She doesn’t pull away.
Instead, she sighs soft; content. A little hum of satisfaction.
I glance down at her, the TV flickering across her skin, and something tightens in my chest.
This feels easy.
Her foot in my lap, pizza grease on our fingers, half-arguing about murder plots and fake courtrooms while she lets me touch her like she trusts me. It’s quiet and simple and warm.
It’s everything I didn’t know I wanted.
This whole thing, it’s the most natural thing in the world—itfits.
Like she belongs here.
Like I could do this forever.
And that’s when I short-circuit.
Because I catch myself thinking it. Forever.
Marriage.
Fuck.
She wants to be a lawyer. She’s eighteen. But she’s Pre-Law. She’s bright, ambitious, still figuring herself out and I’m a man who’s been killing for Cosa Nostra since I was old enough to drive.
She doesn’t know who I am.
She doesn’t know anything about the blood on my hands.
How the fuck would that work?
Could it?
Should I even want it to?
I glance at her again.
She’s smiling at the screen now, curled into herself like she’s found the perfect position, and I feel it in my bones…the truth I don’t want to say out loud:
I don’t want her to leave.
Chapter 6
Scarlet
The morning starts with coffee. His, black and bitter; mine, cream and sugar with cinnamon and oat milk I had him buy when we went out.
I lean against the kitchen counter, sipping from one of his oversized mugs that reads“World’s Best Cook,”and watch him try to toast bagels; for a man who cooks really well he’s extremely tense. He mutters under his breath like he’s negotiating with a hostage. I bite my lip to keep the grin at bay.
“You toast bagels like you’re defusing a bomb,” I say, watching him flip the bagel with exaggerated care.
