Page 119 of What's Left of Us

“And what am I supposed to do about it now? I can’t go back and change what’s already happened. I don’t want to.”

“I didn’t ask you to. I’m here because Leani seems to think that you coming to dinner will relieve some previous tensions. She thinks your appearance will make him less testy.”

It doesn’t make sense why he cares. “I have a feeling that my presence will do the exact opposite. And there’s no way that Lincoln—” I wince at his name in front of the person I married him over. “—will agree.”

Luca’s eyes spark. “Trouble in paradise with the cop?” he guesses, watching my face heat. “You seem a little tense over the subject matter.”

I force myself to smile. “Your presence does that to people, I’m sure.”

His eyes flash with amusement. “Howisyour husband doing? It must be hard not having him around with his work schedule as crazy as it is.”

How would he know anything about that? “I don’t get why you’re here delivering the message. Why couldn’t Leani? Andwhat do you have to benefit from this? I already told my father that I’m not going to marry you.”

“Good,” he replies with a shrug. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t want to marry you either.”

His statement makes me pause, blinking at the easy smile he gives. “You…don’t?”

“Nope.”

I don’t know what to say.

“So, why are you here?”

“Because my father has been on edge since you ran off and disobeyed your family. He thinks I’m going to rebel since their original matchup didn’t pan out. I don’t particularly enjoy dealing with my father’s mood swings, and I can’t imagine Leani likes dealing with Nikolas’s. So I’m asking you on behalf of your stepmother and me to come to dinner. Maybe then our fathers will get off our asses.”

This can’t be real. “Luca, I offered to help my father before and he refused. How much can I let him get away with by coming to his rescue despite everything that’s happened. He’s not himself, and I don’t think there’s anything I can do to fix that.”

Luca steps forward, dropping his voice. “You have to understand that it wasn’t your father making those calls. Trust me, I’m well-versed in the type of people who cross his path. They want results that he’s not getting, and they’re withholding funds until they get what they want. It’s put him in a very tricky situation.”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

“That,” he says quietly, his eyes uncharacteristically soft, “has everything to do with you.”

We fall into silence, his presence suddenly less evasive as I realize the genuine concern on his face. “He wants a marriage contract signed. I can’t give him that.”

His hand gently wraps around my arm, his warm, breath brushing against my face when he says, “He wants freedom far more. We all do. But some of us aren’t as lucky.”

Swallowing, I look him in the eye and wonder what that even means. Before I can ask, a throat clears from the entrance, and Luca lets go of me. I stumble back, putting a safe distance between us, when I see Lincoln standing at the door in his uniform.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asks, looking between us.

Luca stands taller, smirking at the man who put a ring on my finger. “We were just talking about you, actually.” He walks over, holding out his hand. “It’s good to officially meet you, Officer. I’ve heard…things.”

Not good things.

Just things.

Internally, I sigh at his baiting tone.

I can tell from here that Lincoln’s grip on Luca’s hand is tight—tighter than it should be. Not that I can blame him.

Lincoln closes the distance between him and Luca, towering over the devil’s spawn by a few inches. But neither of them says a word to the other as they standoff.

When they stay like that for a solid sixty seconds, it’s me who’s clearing my throat. “I need to finish closing,” I tell them both. “Goodbye, Luca.”

It takes a moment for them to finally break their contact, Luca backing down first. I know for a fact Lincoln never would have, and we’d be stuck here all night.

Luca turns, smiling at me in a way that makes nausea coil in my stomach. “It was lovely seeing you, Georgia. Consider what I said.”

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