Page 38 of Three to Fall

Luca cringed, getting my message loud and clear that neither he nor his family were welcome in my kitchen. “Come on. Letme show you the sex club side. That’s where all the action really takes place.”

His father nodded and went to follow, but then he paused, bending over to pick something up off the floor. He opened the folded piece of paper and then looked at Kara again.

“Is this your daughter?”

The man flashed a photo of Kara and Hayley Jade. One I’d had printed for her that usually sat on her bedside table.

Kara dried her hands quickly and reached for the photo. “Yes. Thank you. That must have fallen out of my pocket.”

Luca’s dad moved the photo out of her reach. “Pretty runs in your family.” He showed Luca the photo. “She’d go six figures at an auction.”

The blood drained from my face. I lunged for the man, but Luca stepped in front of me swiftly, cutting me off before anyone else noticed I was moving.

He snatched the photo from his father’s fingers. “That’s not funny. She’s a child.”

But his father clearly wasn’t joking. “Yeah. A pretty one. Big market for that if you want to stop being such a princess and do as you’re actually fucking told for once.”

Luca lowered his voice, eyeing his father and the other older men all watching on curiously. “We’re in the way of my staff. Let them do their jobs. Tour’s over.”

Luca’s dad eyed him in challenge, neither of them budging an inch, the standoff real in their rigid postures. Father against son.

Luca was an inch taller, and I knew he had a gun at his hip, currently hidden beneath his suit jacket.

But his father had a domineering presence that couldn’t be ignored. As well as three friends ready to back him up if it came down to it. They all watched him, taking their cues from the elder Guerra.

Seconds felt like minutes.

Until he smiled and put his hands up in mock surrender. “Of course. Of course. It’s your business now. You get to run it as you see fit.” He turned to his friends. “Let’s go see if our drinks are ready, yes?”

They all relaxed visibly and walked out of my kitchen as a pack.

Luca let out a long sigh tinged with relief and leaned his elbows on the metal countertop, breathing hard.

All of us left in the kitchen stared as Luca’s shoulders shook silently.

I jerked my head at Jonie and Mitchell, my kitchen staff. “Take a break. Out in back somewhere. Go through the maze. You go nowhere near those men. Got it?”

They nodded quickly, pulling off their aprons and scurrying out.

Luca sucked in a deep breath and lifted his head. “Thanks.” He turned to Kara. “I’m really sorry.”

Her mouth dropped open. Then closed. Then opened again. “You are?”

She took the words right out of my mouth.

He straightened, clearly trying to get himself under control. “What he said about your daughter…that’s…I’m just sorry. You shouldn’t have had to hear that.”

I went to say something, but she cut me off, obviously needing to say some things of her own. “So you have a physical reaction to the idea of a child being sold but zero care when that person is a woman?”

Luca scrubbed his hands over his face. “At least they’re adults.”

“Not consenting ones.” Her voice was sharp. Unforgiving. “Don’t go thinking you’re some sort of hero just because you drew a wobbly line in the sand about not trafficking children. That doesn’t forgive your sins.”

Pride swelled inside me, watching her stare Luca down and confront him with the truth. She was so different from the quiet, meek woman I’d once known.

I’d loved her then. But I loved this version even more. She was brave. Bold. Unafraid to stand up for others, even if she didn’t always stand up for herself.

I’d never seen Luca so rattled. It wasn’t just Kara’s words getting to him. Something else had to be going on.

---