Page 72 of Cruel Love

“I pictured you meaner,” she says.

I glance toward the bathroom. “Why?” I ask, genuinely curious.

She shrugs. “The things people say about you…” Her eyes fall to my shoes and back. “I figured you’d be this roided-out douche covered in teardrop tats wearing a dirty wife-beater but, other than that scar, you look totally normal.”

“Because I am.”

Her head tilts in disbelief.

I look straight ahead at the bathrooms again. “I’m just a normal guy who had to do some not-so-normal things to survive.”

“Bet it came in handy.”

“What?”

“I took one look at Dante and I knew exactly what he was,” she says. “If I ran into you in a dark alleyway, I wouldn’t think you were there to kill me.”

“Yeah.” I nod slowly as I repress a few of those not-so-normal memories. “That did come in handy once or twice.”

She gives a smug smile as she studies my face.

Dante finally emerges from the bathroom across the hall. He looks in both directions before heading toward us through the small, constantly-moving crowd.

“And no offense to you, Lucy,” I say to her, “but you look a little out-of-place in the Hart family, too.”

Her brow bounces in amusement. “No offense taken,” she says.

Dante bends over and grabs his duffel bag next to Lucy’s feet. “So, how do we get to Lutrova’s estate?” he asks.

“It’s a bit of a drive,” I say. “How’s your Russian?”

He laughs. “Rusty.”

Lucy perks up. “You speak Russian?”

“I speak a lot of languages,” he says.

“I didn’t know that. Say something in Russian.”

He shakes his head. “No.”

I look into her rejected face. “YA vas lyubil. Lyubov' yeshche, byt' mozhet,” I say softly.

Her eyes widen with every word and I see her pupils dilating behind her long lashes.

“Hey,” Dante says. “Fox…”

I ignore him, locking eyes with her. “V dushe moyey ugasla ne sovsem…”

“Not cool.”

Lucy’s jaw drops. “What the fuck was that?”

Dante guides her backward away from me. “It was nothing,” he says.

“Old love poem,” I answer. “One of Dani’s favorites.”

She spins in his direction. “He speaks Russian to his girlfriend.”

---