Page 2 of Call You Mine

Fear paralyzes me as more sirens bellow in the distance, but it’s not the fear of falling or of death, it’s the fear of what will happen to me if they discover what I’ve done.

I’ll die before I let that happen. I’ll end my life before I allow them to have the privilege of my continued suffering.

Staring down at my bloody hands, I frantically wipe them clean against my silver dress, crimson stains soaking through the delicate rhinestone fabric. My entire body trembles as the metallic stench of blood burns through my nostrils, making bile rise in my throat, painfully burning as it begs to be released. They’ll think it’s my blood if I time my descent correctly, making sure I fall in the precise position to cover it up. It’s not a complete lie, some of it is mine and I have the open gashes to prove it.

“Mrs. Marchesi, please. I’m here to help.” The stranger's voice echoes closer, almost directly behind me, his warm breath tickling the back of my neck like a delicate feather in the early spring breeze.

I close my eyes and inhale sharply, willing the tiniest ounce of courage left in me. “Please, just leave me alone. I can’t do this anymore. I won’t live like this.”

The silence that follows floods me with relief until he speaks again. “I can help you escape, Wynnie.” Hearing my hated childhood nickname, one no one uses anymore, leaving his lips causes me to turn abruptly, unsure what or who to expect.

My heart races as confusion and dread fill me with so many questions the moment I turn and catch sight of him standing there along the concrete. A ghost who’s come back to life stares at me, unmoving. His eyes are unreadable, but his demeanor shifts when they meet my wounds.

“Luke?” I mutter in horror afraid he’s seen the blood coating my skin. Despite our history, he’ll have no choice but to turn me in. Or worse, he’s a witness they’ll also make disappear. “What are you doing here?” I stutter anxiously, losing my balance and almost toppling off the ledge to my death, but before I fall, he reaches out for me, grabbing my arm and cradling me in against his chest.

He’s quick to set me down on the concrete below, though he doesn’t immediately release me. By now my heart's beating at more than a hundred beats per second, adrenaline coursing through me from the raw fear of almost plummeting down fifty stories and landing in a bloody mess on the dirty pavement below.

Even if it was the sole reason I came up here.

Luke Prescott—a friendly ghost from my past, an inconsequential lover, and the brother of my ex-best friend Carrington, looks at me like he understands my pain. It’s not shock that maims his green eyes, it’s recognition.

Understanding.

Sorrow.

Yet it’s horror that flickers in mine.

After working for Wesley for most of his adult life, I figured Luke had disappeared just like every other one of my father’s associates in fear of what was waiting for him if he stayed back in Hillcrest Hills. It had been over three years since the last time I saw Luke, and I will admit I mourned him after neither Carrington nor I heard from him following Wesley’s death. We feared he’d faced the same ill-fate.

My shocked expression must give away my thoughts, causing Luke to tighten his hold on me. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you, Wynnie.” He leans forward and runs his nose through my hair. “God, I’ve missed you, baby.”

I’m frozen in place, unable to react, to push him away. My raw emotions are whirling around inside of me. The joy of knowing he’s alive and well, the bewilderment of why he's here, and the fear of what he might do now that he’s caught me fleeing.

“You called me Mrs. Marchesi,” I murmur under my breath, realizing he’s used the name I forcefully adopted. The one no one outside of Manhattan knew. “Why did you call me that?”

Sensing my discomfort, he pulls away, regretfully unable to meet my gaze. “When Enzo showed up in Hillcrest after Wesley’s death, he spared me. Really, he gave me no choice, Wyn. Enzo had kept tabs on me, on all of us who worked for Wesley, and he singled out those who would be of use to him. I guess I was lucky to have made a name for myself amongst Wesley’s clowns. Enzo needed me more than he’d first realized. Once he found out about our relationship, he realized he could use it to his advantage.”

“We didn’t have arelationship,” I remind him, focusing on that tidbit of information after the bomb he just dropped on me. But I definitely wouldn’t call fucking him—no more than three times, then toying with him when I couldn’t get what I needed from who I really wanted—a relationship.

Luke ignores my remark, brushing it off like it wasn’t the truth. “Regardless, he knew we were close and needed someone to keep an eye on you when he wasn’t around. Enzo could have asked any of his men to do it, but he feared they’d lose control if you were to do something that warranted more than a warning or broke the rules he’d set. He knew I could never hurt you and, despite everything, your safety was his priority.”

I gasp, unbelieving of what he’s telling me.How dare he say that monster cared about anything other than making me suffer only to entertain him and his sick needs.

“How? Why?” I murmur in shock, unsure what it is I’m even asking.

At this precise moment, like mockery, the sky growls—a fearsome sound accompanied by the descent of acid rain which burns against my open flesh. At least that’s what it feels like as the droplets kiss my chest. I close my eyes, letting the rain mask the tears slipping down my cheeks. Mascara runs down my face like coal, painting a tortured portrait of helplessness and betrayal.

Reaching out for me once again, he continues his story. “He used our relationshipto control me, threatening me with hurting you if I didn’t comply and become his puppet. I couldn’t bear the thought of you getting hurt, so that’s what I became,” he says, acting like he had no other choice in the matter. Like he did me a fucking favor by being some twisted version of a protector who watched my misery from behind a glass door without doing a goddamn thing about it.

My jaw drops as I try to break free of his hold, outraged by his confession. He’s been here the entire time and he never once tried to help me escape. Three years he watched as the small glimmer of light I once had in me vanished without a trace, not even a flicker of it left behind.

It’s true that when Enzo Marchesi, the Capo of the Marchesi Famiglia, came to collect what he believed was owed to him for his cousin Franco’s death at Wesley’s hand, almost everyone who was involved disappeared without a trace. Luke’s connection to me saved him, and until this very moment, I would have been glad it had.

Now, seeing him again only tastes as bitter as his betrayal.

Luke tilts his head down to meet mine, his shaggy dark hair tickling my forehead while piercing green eyes hidden behind dark smudged liner watch me with adoration. His bottom lip and right eyebrow are both pierced, and a small diamond stud fits perfectly in one ear, giving me a glimpse of the guy I used to know.

A modern-day Captain Hook now dressed in a three-piece suit instead of his usual black shirt and leather pants. TheLost Boyfinally grew the fuck up. Too bad he still chose the wrong side.

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