Page 25 of Stolen Kisses
Ava stopped when she saw him, placed her hands on her hips and glared at him, her foot tapping.
“Claudius, if you keep breaking my things, I’ll have nothing left. What the hell was that now?” Ava huffed.
Jesus Lord, that was her husband.Claudius was her husband?
“The table, this asshole didn’t fit the shelf in properly.” Claudius pointed at Luc.
“Me? I’m not the fucking asshole who thought it was a good idea to put a shelf so high up and without the proper fittings.” Luc retorted.
That voice, it made me freeze. It seeped into me and I remembered that last time we spoke.
Someone was following him and I tipped him off. He knew I’d be in danger, because the guy I had tipped him off about saw me. Luc gave me his credit card with close to twenty thousand dollars on it and told me to take everything on there. I used the money to leave and head to Florida and start a new life.
That was what happened to me, if I’d stayed, quite likely I would have ended up dead.
Not sure which was worse, that or my current debacle. I left him, knowing he didn’t love me, never had, and I ran to Florida, ending up with Franco.
“Lucian don’t let me kill you,” Claudius balked. They were always like that—Always. It was the way they talked and they didn’t tamp down the fact that they were mobsters for anyone.
“Please, try it.” He was about to say something else, but then his gaze landed on me and he stopped talking.
He looked the same, same bright blue eyes.
Still the same perfection in his face. Handsome and always looking like he meant business. Looked like he would at least hear you out first if there was a problem, while Claudius still had that look of death. Claudius was definitely the boss, bad to the bone in every sense and you knew not to look at him for any longer than necessary.
Like now as I was staring at the both of them.
If not for Flynn tugging on the edge of my shorts I wouldn’t have looked away.
Flynn.
Luc looked at him and damn it I could see his mind working. It was the same expression Dante had earlier, except this was worse.
Luc, looked at Flynn and thought he was his son.
I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I definitely didn’t want to talk to him and explain anything either.
I took Flynn’s hand and left.
* * *
We got back to Vira’s and I devoured that sandwich. Thankfully she was out. The place was empty so that gave us time to have some privacy.
We must have been inside for half an hour before the doorbell rang.
I always thought you could sometimes tell who the person was ringing the bell before you saw them depending on how they rang the bell. Today, I didn’t think I needed to guess who it was.
I knew when I walked out of the restaurant with Flynn that Luc would come at some point. It was logical for him to do that with the big question in his mind. And it pissed me right the hell off.
If this had been my house, I would have left him outside. I definitely would have.
And, sure it seemed like I was acting ungrateful and irrational, because he gave me all that money to disappear. Still there was so much more to our story than simply doing that. I took the money, because I was scared.Terrified,and without him, I didn’t have anyone to look out for me. I’d always felt bad about Christina. Five years ago, I would have felt the pain worse than I did now so I wouldn’t have gone to Dante who was wrapped up with Luc and the precious mafia princess, Raphael Rossi’s long lost daughter. I wouldn’t have gone to any of them.
It felt like I was just given the money and sent on my way. I sent a message to let him know I got to Florida, but after that there was nothing. No one checked on me. It was like I was nothing. Not important enough for them to concern themselves with.
Now he started knocking on the door. If Vira came back and saw him outside, she’d have a fit at the fact that I treated such an important person like Luc so badly.
I sighed with frustration and went to open the door.
