Page 75 of Burning Beauty

Maria frowned. "What do you mean, if you can get out of here?"

Lucy studied Maria for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, my boyfriend is an overbearing asshole who’ll be lucky if my sister doesn’t shoot him before the night is over and my brother-in-law is way over-protective and currently has me followed around by two bodyguards. So, as much as I’d love to just leave this wedding reception, go home, have a bath and curl up with a good book, I’m probably stuck until Vlad and Jane are ready to go."

Maria lifted an eyebrow in surprise and then looked at Lucy a little closer, studying her. Maybe this little chick would understand Maria better than she thought. "Is this what you want, Lucy? To wait around for the men to decide when and where we should be?"

Lucy tipped her head and returned Maria’s mischievous look. "Nope, I really, really don’t want to wait for the men, Maria."

Maria pushed herself off the step and stood. She turned and gave Lucy her hand, pulling her up.

"Good girl!" Maria announced happily, all traces of tears and sadness gone now. "Because if I have to spend one more minute with Nic, I’m going to find a way to stab him. And I know I would regret it, because I really do love that fucking criminal." Lucy’s mouth fell open, but before she could process Maria’s bold statement, Maria hooked her arm and began dragging her down the stairs. "So, I have a plan on how to get us out of here. It’s not fool-proof. Hell, it’s not even part proof since I just thought of it, but let’s do it anyway."

Lucy laughed and went willingly. "Lead the way," she said agreeably, and clattered down the stairs with Maria in the opposite direction of the drama-filled wedding reception.

"Hey," Maria said suddenly. "If we do manage to bust out of this wedding without my kidnapping asshole of a man catching me and skinning me alive, do you want to skip the bath and book and go find a bar somewhere? I mean we’re all dressed up. Why let all this hotness go to waste, eh chica?"

Chapter Forty-One

Maria told Lucy her whole sad story. She didn't know why she did it. Maybe she needed a friend, or maybe it was because Lucy was a rapt audience who was willing to be plied with booze and cried on. But, in that moment, Maria found an unexpected ally and friend in the younger woman. She wanted to stick her tongue out at Nic and tell him he was wrong to keep her from the mafia family. There were some good eggs in that weird basket.

"And he kidnapped you right out from underneath another kidnapper? And you went along with the first kidnapping to save your brother?" Lucy asked incredulously. "That’s... that’s just on another level, Maria!"

Maria chuckled, picked up her glass of whiskey on ice and clinked it against Lucy’s screwdriver. "Technically Nic kidnapped me from my blackmailer. At least Nic never tried to use my brother against me. I guess that makes him the more decent kidnapper."

"Mind. Blown." They both nodded and drank to that.

Maria looked at Lucy over the rim of her glass, studying the other woman. She wasn't strikingly gorgeous, but there was an enduring prettiness to her, a glow that gave her an almost otherworldly appearance. Unfortunately, her youthful glow was somewhat tempered by an air of confused depression. Someone as young and pretty as Lucy shouldn't know the heartache that Maria was seeing in her eyes.

"This man that pursues you, the one at the wedding who was watching you and following you around," Maria began. "He doesn’t make you happy?"

Maria told her story; now it was Lucy’s turn to share. Lucy shrugged. "Sometimes he does."

"And sometimes he doesn’t," Maria said nodding in understanding.

"Yes. He has set ideas of who I should be to him and I feel trapped by his demands. I feel overwhelmed by him." She fingered her glass, catching a drop of the orange juice and vodka on her finger and licking it.

"But..." Maria prompted.

Lucy sighed. "But I do love him. And... I want to be with him. Most of the time. When he’s not being an overbearing ass."

"Ah," Maria said, picking up her drink and draining it.

"Ah?" Lucy repeated with a frown. "What does that mean? Do you have any wisdom to impart since you’re older and seem to know better?"

"Hey, watch it!" Maria snapped. "I’m only like a few years older, little chick. Stop implying I’m old and shit, or I’ll snap your scrawny neck like a twig."

Lucy burst out laughing and finished her drink too. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Yeah, fuck you," Maria snarled and then laughed loudly, hitting the table with her palm. "I have no wisdom. My man is a kidnapping asshole. I love him too, but I also hate his guts with equal measure, so where does that leave me? Up the same shit creek as you. Sneaking out of weddings and paying for our booze instead of staying put and drinking the free stuff at the open bar."

Lucy blinked a few times. "Well crap. Hadn’t thought of that."

Maria sighed, then laughed again and asked for two more drinks when the waitress passed their table. "I just thought of it when I realized I don’t have cash and we’re going to have to use a credit card. The moment we do, BAM, bodyguard pick up in five minutes if they aren’t already tracking our phones."

"I wonder if that’s how he’s been getting to me so quickly?" Lucy mused.

"Who?" Maria asked.

"Mack," Lucy said, reaching for her drink when they were placed on the table. "Every time I took off, or wasn’t where he wanted me to be, he would show up very shortly after and collect me faster than a man whistling for his dog. It was eerie, almost as though he had a way of tracking me."

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