Page 62 of Beautiful Dangerous

I hang up as the sound of a motorbike fills the silence, roaring to a halt down below. I get up and lean over the wall, and I frown, why is Angel here?

Heading back inside, through the kitchen and out into the hallway, I find Angel talking to Jorge, but the second he senses I’m there he breaks that conversation and shifts his attention to me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Meet your new bodyguard.”

He grins at me, but right now I’m finding few things funny. And I think he gets that, thankfully.

“Okay, you aren’t stuck with me permanently, we’ve got some rota system going, but apparently Javier wants Lucca with him, now he’s back. So you get the bikers.”

“Aren’t I the lucky one,” I deadpan.

It stands to reason that Javier would want Lucca back with him, he’s trying to establish some level of normality as quickly as he can, and that’s understandable. But I can’t shift the dull ache in my gut that’s appeared at the way my own kind of normal has now been disrupted; taken away from me in the blink of an eye. I’d got so used to Lucca being around…

…because you were falling in love with him…?

Because I was falling in love with him…

“Olivia?”

Angel’s voice snaps me back from thoughts of Lucca – thoughts I need to erase – and I look at him. None of this is his fault, he’s just playing the part he’s been asked to play. And I like Angel. It’s not a bad thing, to get to spend some time with him.

“You got me for now. Is that okay?”

I don’t have a great deal of choice. So I nod and head into the living room, the one that leads out onto the central courtyard. Angel follows me outside, leans back against the wall and lights up a cigarette. I also stay standing, I’m too on edge to sit still.

“How are you holding up?” Angel asks, and I smile at him because he really is a genuinely good guy underneath all that macho shit.

“As well as can be expected.”

He takes a drag on his cigarette, dropping his head as he blows smoke at the ground. “It’s fucked up, right?” Raising his gaze, his eyes lock on mine.

“Yes. It is.”

I don’t know what else to say. Everything just feels a little crazy right now.

“I should go and get ready. The party’s due to start in a couple of hours.”

A party I’m really not in the mood for.

“I get it, you know. How you must be feeling.”

I frown. “How could you possibly get how I’m feeling?”

He takes another drag on his cigarette, his eyes fixed on mine. “I’m just trying to be a friend here, Olivia.”

Maybe. But trusting anyone right now, no matter how comfortable I feel in their company, feels nigh-on impossible.

“You can trust me.”

“Can I? I thought I could trust Javier. I thought I could trust Lucca, but… he knew, Angel. Lucca knew…”

I stop talking. Angel’s aware that Lucca knew about Javier, he knows that now. Everyone does. But he doesn’t know what Lucca and I did. That we slept together. He doesn’t know that we fell in love, he doesn’t know that. Nobody knows that, and nobody can. Because if Javier finds out…

“He lied to me. Javier lied to me. How can I trust anyone anymore?”

He shrugs, stubbing his cigarette out on the ground, which irritates me actually. Our team of gardeners and grounds people work hard to keep this place neat and clean and there’s a place for cigarette butts, right there at his feet.

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