Chapter 24

24

Jeanne

I pretend I don't notice him. I try to brush past him, but he moves with me so I'm confronted by that larger-than-the-Great Wall-of-China chest of his.

I swerve to the right, then feint left, but does that faze him? Nope. The alphahole simply parks his bulk in my way so I have no choice but to stop and scowl up at him.

"Get out of my way."

"No."

"I'm not coming with you," I retort.

"You are."

"I'm going out with my friends," I say through gritted teeth.

"I'll take you where you want to go."

"No," I snap.

"Yes." His lips twitch.

He finds this entire conversation a hoot, does he? I raise my foot and smash my heel down on his more-expensive-than-my-entire-monthly-salary boot. He doesn't even flinch.

"Who's this?" Penny's voice sounds from my left as she draws abreast.

"Is this the big, bad mob guy who rescued you?" Olivia asks as she flanks me on the other side.

"Ladies." Smooth as you please, the alphahole tips an imaginary hat in both their directions.

Penny visibly simpers. Olivia stares at him like he's an alien from another planet. Or a god who's descended from Mt. Olympus. Or an actor stepped off a runway at Fashion Week.

I clear my throat and both women seem to snap out of their befuddled state. Something burns in my chest. Clearly, it's because I haven't eaten dinner yet. I must be so hungry that my stomach's juices are attacking the lining. Yep, that's all it is. I'm not jealous at all that my friends find him so attractive. Not at all.

"If you think I'm going to simply fall in line with your command, then you have another thing coming."

"Think," he drawls.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"You have another think coming. It's think, not thing."

"No, it's not. Think?" I scoff. "That makes no sense at all." I try to brush past him, and this time, he grabs my arm.

"Have you been crying?" He peers into my face. "You have been crying." His voice hardens. "What happened?"

Damn him and his over-attentive gaze which never seems to miss a thing. And this time, it is thing. Not think. It couldn't have been think in that previous sentence, could it?

I try to pull my arm away, but he holds on. "Tell me, Angel. What made you cry?"

"Nothing," I snap.

"It's something."

"She was removed from the lead role," Penny pipes up.

I shoot my friend a murderous look. Penny raises her hands with a 'what-did-I-do-wrong' look on her face.

"They replaced her with me," Olivia says in a low voice. "I was her understudy. I never expected to go on, to be honest, but our director decided otherwise."

"Why?" He glances from them, back to my face. He must see something in my expression because his features go solid. His already pronounced cheekbones seem to hone to a razor-sharp edge that could, surely, cut diamonds.

"Because you were away the last three days. That's why you lost the lead role," he surmises.

I glance away.

His entire being seems to coil with tension. Anger thrums off of him with such intensity that my chest tightens. My pulse begins to beat so hard, I can feel it at my wrists, at the base of my throat. I jerk my face in his direction, and his gaze sears me. It's as if forest fires flare deep in those eyes, the way he surveys my features.

A pulse tics at his jaw and a nerve pops to life at his temple. He releases my arm and brushes past me and toward the door that leads into the theater.

I blink once, twice, trying to compute what he's up to.

Next to me, Penny and Olivia stare after him, then turn to me.

"Of course he has to stomp away in anger. Typical Mafia guy behavior," Olivia mutters.

I narrow my gaze on her. She really does know more about the Mafia way of life than she's letting on.

"Is he angry?" Penny giggles nervously.

Yes, he is. He's angry on my behalf. He's pissed off that I lost the lead role. In fact, he looks so enraged, he looks like he's going to tear the building apart with his bare hands. Or, more specifically, a man.

"Oh hell." Yep, I'm allowed to use hell when I swear, just not the F word. At least, not aloud. I can think it though. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

He reaches for the handle to the door and I leap forward. "Stop." I close the distance to him and grab hold of his outstretched arm. Not that I can stop him, for he grips the handle.

"Stop it. Don't do this."

He twists the handle.

"Luca. Stop," I yell.

He blinks.

"You can't hurt him. He had a point. As the lead actress of this musical, I should have been there for the rehearsals every day. And I wasn't."

"Because of me." He glares at the door as if he can shoot through it with laser eyesight. "You couldn't make it because of me."

"I didn't make it because I was kidnapped."

He swivels to face me. "That bastardo took you only because of some warped plan to get back at me and my family."

He's right and I don't know what to say to that. It could have been me, or it could have been someone else. But... "I'm glad it was me."

His gaze widens. His nostrils flare. "Care to repeat that again?" he asks in a low voice.

I release him. "You heard me." I wrap my arms around my waist. "I'm glad it was me, okay? I'm not happy I lost the lead role, but on the bright side, because of that, Olivia gets to be the lead. And if it's not me, then I'm glad it's her, so it's not all bad."

"And why is it that you're glad it was you?" His lips curl.

Jerk. He knows exactly why, but he's going to make me lay it all out for him. Typical.

"I'm not going to say whatever it is you are trying to get me to confess."

He releases the door and turns to face me. "And what am I trying to get you to say?" His eyes gleam. He puffs up his chest, and if his shoulders get any bigger, he's going to go into full happy Hulk mode. Is there such a thing as a 'happy' Hulk? No matter.

I tip up my chin and jut out my lower lip. "You know."

"No, I don't."

"You know and that's why I agreed to marry you."

A shriek splits my eardrum.

I don't need to turn my head to know that was Penny. "You're marrying the mobster?" she gasps.

Olivia doesn't say anything, but I sense the unspoken questions she's chucking in my direction.

I hold my hand, palm face up, in their direction, signaling I can't deal with their inevitable interrogation.

"You know why I'm marrying you," I say in a voice low enough only for him to hear. "Because you saved my life, and because it's a deal to help you with your family situation."

"You accepted the deal because you wanted to get back in time to make it on stage and now you won't."

I shuffle my feet. "It doesn't matter."

"It does to me." He, once more, reaches for the door handle.

I jump forward and plant myself between him and the door. "You will not hurt the director."

"What's his name?" He lowers his chin to his chest. His entire body, once more, seems to bristle. This is not the happy Hulk mode, but the other one. Where he's about to burst out of his skin and go apeshit. Or is that Hulkshit?

"I won't tell you."

"You think I can't find out who the director of the musical is, or where he's staying here, or where his family is?"

I stare at him in growing horror. "You will not hurt him or any of his family, or his extended family and friends circle, you hear me? This is not how things are done in my world."

"It's how they are in mine."

"And that's why whatever this… thing is between us can only remain a farce."

He glares at me. Those blue eyes of his darken until they seem like a sheet of night sky, the moonlight turning the dips in the clouds into sleepy hollows.

We stare at each other for what seems like a long time, but must be only seconds. I sense something shift between us, but can't put a name to it.

I lock my fingers together and search his face. "Promise me you won't do anything illegal."