Page 52 of Devious Lies

He is just the right amount of unhinged and benevolent.

Maybe I should get his advice about Maria?

“Maria’s worked for us for a while, bro, why now?” Angel asks.

“Because,” Nico answers, “someone fucked with what Luc here claimed as his, even if only in his mind. He fucked with her, and it was time Luc let everyone know who she belonged to. Right?”

I look at the king, and my eyes widen. I dip my chin.

He’s absolutely fucking right.

Maria is mine.

And someone did fuck with what’s mine. And they did it here.

In my house.

Motherfucker.

Fury fills me, and it’s a familiar old friend.

“What am I doing?” I rumble.

Instead of making sure everyone knows my woman is off fucking limits, here I am at the Den, in Nico’s office, on a Friday night, and she’s out there, alone, working the bar.

Now, I’m mad at myself.

What the fuck am I doing, wasting time chatting with these two knuckleheads?

“Where you going?” Angel calls out as I walk to the door.

“To take my woman home.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN-MARIA

Isense him before I see him.

When I look up from where I’m arranging a stack of cleaned glasses, I catch Luc rounding the bar.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

But he’s not talking. His steel gaze combs over me from head to toe.

I’m wearing ripped up black jeans, my perfectly worn boots, and a gold tank top.

I am all out of the temporary coloring conditioner I use, so I have my hair in two braids, hoping to hide my natural highlights that have already started to show through.

I don’t know what to do, so I just stand there.

“Luc?”

He exhales a breath and I see his chest move. It’s the only thing that lets me know he’s really there and not some figment of my imagination.

A week has passed since he brought me home with him. I haven’t really talked to him since, though I’ve seen glimpses of him walking to his office.

Luc is a busy man. I know this, so I don’t intrude.

Even though I want to.

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