Page 84 of The Devil's Fire

“But it is. That’s how our society works.”

“I don’t like that.” I frowned.

“You will get used to it.” He shrugged, not caring that he was ordered to protect me with his life.

“Will I though? It all sounds so… extreme.” I sighed. It was such a strange world; a world where only a scratch of the surface had been exposed to me. I never knew what to expect, and I kept telling myself I should expect the worst, but I didn’t know what the definition of that was in their world.

Luca and I ended up chatting quite a bit before I decided to get my hair and makeup done early, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later. Since my dress was backless, I did my hair in an elegant, low updo with a few loose strands around my face.

I also ended up ordering room service since I was starving, and I had some much-needed coffee. Since we couldn’t go out, I asked the receptionist if they had any card games. They didn’t, but they were happy to get us something.

“UNO!” I shouted and smacked my card down on the table.

“No, you can’t put a draw two on top of my draw four. So, you lose!” Luca threw his last card on the table with a smug grin.

“Yes, I can!” I insisted and removed his card.

“No, you can’t. Look, these are the rules.” He held up the packet and showed me the backside with the rules.

“Tsk, you’re the last one to lecture me about rules.” I teased, and he gave me a bored look. Luca was fun to hang out with and was a very competitive person. And so was I. Which meant hell broke out a few times. “Whatever, this game is boring anyway.” I huffed and leaned back in my chair.

“Only because you lost all rounds. Sucker.” He grinned, and I squinted my eyes at him.

“You so much cheated. Get up.” I jumped up from my seat, certain that he was hiding cards behind him.

“Accept your defeat. You lost.” Luca said, refusing to get up.

“Never!” I grabbed his arm with both hands, trying to get him up. I just didn’t realize he would barely budge from his seat. Luca was staring at me with a brow raised as if saying, ‘that’s all you got?’, which only made me more determined to get him up from the damn couch. Then he swiftly retracted his arm, making me lose my grip, and stumbled forward.

Right on top of him.

We both turned our heads quickly to the sound of the door opening and saw Damiano and Antonio entering the room.

Luca was the first one to react and sprang from the couch, taking me along with him. Damiano and Antonio’s back-and-forth glances made me take a few steps back.

“He cheated!” I erupted in panic, only to realize my mistake as Damiano looked at the robe I was still wearing. “We were playing UNO, and he cheated.” I quickly explained, pointing to the cards on the coffee table.

“And that’s why you were on top of him.” Damiano calmly stated, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“No, it’s not like that -” I watched in horror as Antonio approached Luca, his fists clenched and his eyes blazing with a murderous rage that made my own eyes widen. I gasped in shock and moved quickly to shield Luca from harm, my arms spread wide to keep him safe.

“Let me just explain!” I yelled in pure fear. I couldn’t understand why Luca said nothing when his ass was on the line.

“Antonio.” Damiano called after him. He retreated and stood to the side as Damiano approached me. His eyes scanned me briefly before settling on Luca.

“Get. Out.” Damiano hissed. Luca gave a quick nod and left with Antonio in tow.

“Don’t hurt him.” I said to Damiano with my heart still pounding at the close call.

“Why do you care?” He tilted his head.

“It’s not what it looked like. I thought he was hiding cards behind him, so I tried to make him stand up and I lost my balance and fell.” I explained, but Damiano didn’t look convinced.

His eyes wandered over to the robe I had on. He tugged it to the side, his expression hardening when he saw I wasn’t wearing anything underneath. He let out a scoff and turned around.

“Get dressed. We’re leaving soon.”

“Wait!” I followed him to the bedroom, but Damiano ignored me. He shut the bathroom door with a loud bang as he went inside. I stood still, gaping at the closed door, feeling my blood boil at his actions.

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