Page 76 of Legacy
Now it just feels like a warning.
I do one last sweep of the apartment, not because I forgot anything, but because I want to remember it.
The polished quartz counters I picked out myself. The velvet curtains that never quite hung right. The faint scorch on the windowsill from the time I dropped incense mid-meltdown during finals week.
This place wasn’t perfect. But it was mine.
A space I carved out of chaos.
Even if it never really felt like enough.
The knock comes at exactly 9:45.
Not a second early. Not a second late.
My heart leaps up into my throat. There’s something about that kind of precision, like a blade pressed against the edge of routine, that makes me feel like prey.
I force my hand to the doorknob. Open. Breathe. Smile.
And then I see him.
Tall. Towering, really. He fills the doorway like a shadow that doesn’t need the sun. Thick arms crossed over a broad chest, both covered in black and gray tattoos, etched over muscle and scars like history carved into skin.
But it’s the one on his face that stills me—the scar that slices through his left eyebrow and runs down to his jaw like someone tried to take him apart and failed.
His eyes, though… they’re hazel. Sharp.Striking.A contradiction.
“Adriana Castillo?” he asks, his voice like cracked stone.
“Yes,” I say, politely. Automatically.
He gives a single nod. “Nico Conti. I’ll be taking you to the hangar.”
I don’t know what I expected, maybe some hint of kindness, some assurance in his tone—but there’s none. Just the kind of quiet that makes you afraid to fill it.
He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t blink. He just waits.
I grab my bag with fingers that won’t stop trembling and follow him out, locking the door behind me even though it feels like I’m leaving everything I ever knew on the other side.
The sun is too bright. The car is too black. Nico opens the passenger door without a word.
I slide in, smoothing my blouse, pretending it isn’t sticking to my back with sweat. Pretending the scar on his face isn’t still etched in my vision.
He gets in beside me.
The engine hums.
The silence screams for so long as we drive.
I can’t take it.
“So you work for Angelo?”
I swear a the corner of his lip lifts. “What gave it away?”
I open my mouth and close it.
Okay.
