Page 21 of Luca

Stalking past the man in front of me, I stomp out of the kitchen in search of my father.

“He’s in his office,” Luca supplies as I head in that direction.

“Thank you.” My tone is prim and doesn’t express any sort of gratitude for his input.

Two quick knocks and my father calls for me to enter. When I open the door, what I find on the other side stops me in my tracks. My father sits behind his desk, pale as though he hasn’t stepped out in the sun for years and skinnier than I’ve ever seen him. In the last five months I’ve been away, he looks like he’s aged ten years.

He looks from the paperwork on his desk to me, then flips a page over and goes back to reading whatever I interrupted without showing any emotion on his gaunt face.

“You made it home,” he says indifferently.

“I did. Uncle Louis sends his love.”

He doesn’t respond. It’s as though I’m not even standing here.

“I wanted to talk to you about having a personal guard.”

My father finally looks up from his oh-so-important papers and nods to the man standing behind me. “Close the door, Luca.”

I turn my head and see Luca standing in the doorway before he dips his chin and does as my father asks, like the good little lapdog he is.

“Father, I’ve never had a personal guard. There really isn’t any reason for me to have one now.”

“You had one in Italy.”

I don’t bother telling him that Benny’s only mission in Italy was to get drunk at dinner and promptly pass out, allowing Isabella and I to do whatever the hell we pleased until the early hours of the morning.

“Right,” I concede. “But that was different. I was away from home and—”

My father slams his bony hand on the desk and meets my gaze, nothing but anger behind his eyes. “And nothing, Giada. I want you to have a guard, so you will have a guard. There is no room for argument or discussion. You don’t decide what’s best for this family. I do. You seem to have forgotten that in your time away. Maybe I need to rethink my leniency on such matters. It seems I’ve given you too much freedom.”

He hasn’t given me anything but an opportunity to be out from under the oppressive life that I’m unfortunately tied to for a few brief months a year. A life I never asked for and don’t want.

“No, Father. You don’t need to do that. I think I’m just tired from the travel.” The last thing I want is for him to suddenly decide that to make Luca’s job easier, he’s going to confine me to the house. “I’m sorry.”

My father studies me for a moment before returning his attention to the papers on his desk. “You’re too much like your mother, Giada. It was a tragedy what happened to her. See to it you don’t make the same mistakes.”

I’m stunned silent. My mother died in a car accident. Why would he say that to me?

“Is that all?” he asks, annoyance rippling through his tone with the fact I’m still standing in front of his desk.

“Yes. I’ll see you for dinner, Father.”

“You won’t. I have a meeting that is going to run late.”

I nod, though he doesn’t lift his head to notice and turn to leave. Straightening my spine, I walk toward the door and Luca opens it for me. When he steps out of my father’s office and shuts the door firmly behind him, he grins at me.

“Didn’t turn out how you planned, did it, princess?”

I want to rage, to tell him to go to hell with his smart remarks and devastating blue eyes. Instead, I roll my eyes and cross my arms. “So you have to trail me everywhere like a puppy?”

His jaw clenches. In fact, his entire body seems to tense before he narrows his eyes. “Yes.”

A wide smile stretches across my face. “Good. Be ready to leave the house at ten.”

“We aren’t sneaking out again, princess.”

I shake my head from side to side while my cunning smile remains. “Of course not. I don’t need to sneak out anymore, Luca. I’m a grown woman now, or haven’t you noticed?” His eyes flare for a moment. “I’m meeting Bianca later, and since you’re my new shadow that means so are you.”

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