Page 13 of Mine Again
“What is it?” I ask, sitting straighter.
The hairs on my arms lift, something inside me on alert.
I stare at the phone in his hand. It keeps ringing. Stops. A beat of silence. Then it starts again.
Luca looks at me. There’s something in his eyes now, hesitation and tension, something coiled and bracing. He answers.
He doesn’t put it on speaker, but the voice on the other end is loud enough to carry.
“Luca, where are you?”
His mother. Panic edges her words.
Every part of me stills.
Something’s wrong.
Badly wrong.
Her next words spill out even more frantically.
“We’re at the restaurant. You need to come out. Now.”
Chapter Four
Isabella
“What happened?” Luca snaps, his words cutting through the room like a whip.
His whole body stiffens as he listens. Whatever he hears makes his face go hard. Cold. Like something inside him has clicked into place, something that doesn’t belong in this room filled with butterflies and rose petals.
Leonora’s voice continues to crackle from the phone, but I can’t make out the words anymore. My heart is pounding too loudly, the rush of blood in my ears drowning everything out. Each beat echoes in my skull like a warning.
Something is wrong.Very wrong.
Luca shifts the phone between his ear and shoulder as he grabs his pants and pulls them on. He doesn’t rush me, but moves with a kind of controlled urgency, handing me my clothes without taking his eyes off me for long.
“Here,” he murmurs, tension coiling in his muscles. “Take your time,farfalla.”
But we both know there’s no time.
I nod, my fingers trembling as I dress. My bra, my panties, my skirt,my top. My body is clumsy, shaky, like it’s not quite mine. I slip into my heels as he hangs up the call.
He paces the room once, twice, three times, then stops abruptly. His jaw is clenched so tightly it looks painful. His whole body radiates with a fury he’s barely holding back.
Then he explodes.
“FUCK!”
The word detonates in the air. He grabs the hanging veils and tears them down in one violent motion, the sound of fabric ripping louder than it should.
“FUUUUUCK!”
My heart slams into my ribs. My hands grip the edge of the bed. I’ve never seen him like this.
Yes, I’ve felt the storm in him. The pressure beneath the surface.
But this? This is itbreaking loose.
