Chapter 20

CHAPTERTWENTY

SO CLOSE. HOW did he know I’d go for the phone?

Luca brooded as he unpacked the medical bag for the second time in a matter of hours. If he didn’t know better, he’d think this was his sole purpose for being here, to stitch up Dom and his buddies every day, because from what he could tell, they managed to find trouble pretty damn easily.

You’ll get another chance to escape. He can’t have eyes on you all the time.

Dom drummed his fingers along the edge of the table, so bruised and battered that Luca was surprised he could even move his hand.

“We need to get some more ice on that,” he said.

Dom stood up, his lounge pants resting low on his hips, and the rest of his chiseled body on full display. Hell, if Luca looked like that, he’d probably go naked or shirtless all the time too.

But he wouldn’t think about the way Dom looked. Or remember the way he’d touched himself in the shower, knowing full well Luca was watching.

Why had Dom done that? Was he playing some kind of game, or did he really not give a shit who was around when he wanted to get off?

Or, more implausibly, maybe he’d wanted Luca to watch for a different reason.

Luca shook the thought out of his head. No, there was no way Dom would ever be attracted to him, not when he hated every ounce of Luca’s being and threatened to kill him on an hourly basis. Besides, someone in his position couldn’t be gay…

Could he?

Dom set the refilled ice bucket on the table and sat back down, then plunged his hand inside. At least he could take direction occasionally.

“When I fix this, try not to bust the stitches again,” Luca said. “I know that may be impossible for you, but if you could try, it’ll actually heal.”

“Are you really giving me a lecture?”

“That’s my job. Or it will be. You know, if I ever get out of here.”

“You seem to think that’s a possibility.” One side of Dom’s mouth curled up. “Leaving. Going back to your boring lie of a life. Studying instead of getting laid. You really want that?”

“As opposed to being held against my will and being your personal fixer? Yes. That’s what I want.”

“So mouthy,” Dom murmured as Luca began to clean up the reopened wound. “You should see what I do to people who talk back to me.”

“Aren’t you gonna show me? Cuz I’m next, right? All of what you’re doing is just showing me what I have to look forward to. Your fists, your knife, maybe throw in Joe to fuck my face up.”

“Maybe not your face. It’s the one thing you’ve got going for you.”

Luca paused, hand in midair. Did he hear that right? Because it sounded an awful lot like Dom just admitted Luca was attractive.

Huh. He didn’t even know what to do with that piece of information, if it was true.

A flash of Dom in the shower crossed his mind, the way he’d been rock hard and ready for release. That couldn’t have been because of Luca…right? Dom was a monster who got off to violence, not a man who got off to a pretty face.

Or was he?

Don’t think about that. Focus. Luca finished removing the busted stitches and went to work threading the needle. But being so close to Dom, touching his warm skin…it was fucking with Luca’s brain.

Less than an hour ago, Dom had walked into this place with the blood of another man on him, someone Luca was sure wouldn’t last through the night, if he wasn’t dead already.

How was it possible to find someone like that attractive? Luca should be disgusted, horrified, and he was. But there was also a part of him that couldn’t help the reaction of his body when Dom wasn’t being a complete asshole or covered in blood.

Oh God, this is so messed up. Something about being here has me Stockholm-syndroming all over the place. You don’t like him, not even a little bit. He’s a terrible person. And also, apparently, your mortal enemy.

That made it sound a little too Romeo and Juliet for his tastes, because nothing about this situation had the makings of a love story.

“Hello?” Dom snapped his fingers in front of Luca’s face. “You planning to do anything with that needle or just stare at it?”

That, right there—proof that Luca wasn’t himself, because he was too busy daydreaming instead of focusing on the job at hand.

Dom narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t bother trying to stab me in the eye with it. It won’t end well for you.”

Now that he mentioned it, that should’ve been Luca’s first thought. Hello, a weapon in his hand and he was actually using it to heal and not harm.

Everything about this situation was fucked.

“I have a question.”

“Of course you do.”

“What were you and Chef talking about earlier? About an apron or something?”

“Why? You want one?”

With all the stitching up Luca had been doing, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have something to protect his clothes, but that wasn’t what he meant.

“No, he asked if you left anything for him and that he bought a new apron for the occasion. What did he mean by that?”

Dom’s lips twisted. “I’m sure you have a theory.”

“Then why would I ask?”

“To confirm that the guy you think is so wonderful and charming is, in fact, just like me.”

Luca’s mouth went dry. No… Chef wasn’t like Dom. He was personable and decent and didn’t treat Luca like gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. He wasn’t violent or a killer.

But the sinking feeling in the pit of Luca’s stomach told him he knew the truth.

“Deceptive, isn’t it?” Dom continued. “He’s been the most dangerous one all along, but he’s the one you feel most at home with. Interesting.”

Luca’s mind whirled back to the smiling man who had made him breakfast, the one he’d sat at this very table with, and he tried to make sense of what Dom was telling him. Chef… The nickname had to mean something, right? And if not the literal sense, then what?

Luca shuddered as several different possibilities came to mind, each more gruesome, more disturbing than the last, and decided he was best not thinking about it at all. But that was easier said than done, as Luca’s mind kept wandering back to the words chef and apron, and Dom’s warning not to ever eat Chef’s food…

Luca’s stomach lurched, and Dom nodded.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s much worse. Remember that the next time you want to do something stupid.”

Luca stared at the jagged skin on Dom’s arm and shook his head. “How do you do that? Talk about someone’s life as though it’s so inconsequential? How can you be so unfeeling?”

“I’m not unfeeling. In fact, I have many feelings about your life.”

Luca didn’t even bother to look at him before he stabbed the needle into Dom’s arm. “As in you wish it was over? Too bad for you your father seems to want me alive.”

“For now.”

Luca’s hand froze, but then he made the second pass across the wound and tugged a little harder than necessary on the stitch, making Dom hiss.

“Your life? Your very existence? It’s a complication to our overall plan. And I don’t care whether you grew up in Connecticut or in the Fiores’ fucking living room—you are in my way, and eventually I will move you out of it.”

Luca swallowed and went back to the task at hand, his thoughts never clearer than they were right then.

I need to get the hell out of here—fast.