Page 40 of Luka

I whine at the thought, earning a glare from Tall before he turns back to his brother.

“And you figured that out in the course of a night?How?”

Leo’s mouth opens, but he looks away and closes it. An understanding passes between the brothers as shame crosses Leo’s expression.

Tall runs his hand through his hair. “Shady-looking Mexicans does not equalcartel, Leo. If they’re at the bar instead of looking for the girl, they obviously don’t give a shit about her… Let it go.”

Leo tries to protest more, but Tall bats away every concern as nonsense with such ease that I start to question ifhebelieves his lies. If maybe he’s developed some delusion that involves his brother’s girlfriend running off, alive and well, instead of in pieces at the bottom of a lake, much of her eaten away by various creatures.

But no. He’s just an impeccable liar.

And an even worse person than I imagined.

11

LUKA

After my door shuts on Leo, I press my forehead against the cool metal, allowing my eyes to close.

That was too close.

Waytoo fucking close.

A minute passes while I wait for my heart to slow and for the adrenaline to dissolve. Once I feel myself settle, I turn and make my way up to my loft where Lucia waits for me on the bed, her eyes downcast and body turned away. It isn’t until I sit down with her and go to take the tape off her mouth that I notice the bruises forming on her red, swollen neck.

My hand pauses mid-air while discomfort rears me back. Several seconds of staring pass before I recognize the discomfort as guilt. It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve felt the emotion.

Why didn’t I consider the possibility that he’d show up here unannounced?

I guess I hadn’t thought about it because it hadn’t occurred to me that it would matter. He was never supposed to know about Lucia, and even if on some freak chance he came to my apartment, she begged him for help, mentioned I’d murdered some poor woman who offered her a ride, there shouldn’t have been any reason my idiot brother would connect that to hisgirlfriend. Butof course, Piper just had to have told him about Lucia.Of course, she couldn’t have just been offering the girl a ride without some ulterior motive.

Twisted fucking bitch.

Lucia’s angling away from me pulls me back into the moment, and I lower my hand to my lap, leaving the tape for now. It’s telling that she’d rather it be left on than ask me to touch her. She won’t even face me, turned on the bed with her black hair shielding the half of her face I might see if she wasn’t tipping her head forward to hide. I think I get the message.

Go away.

It’s fair. It’s more than fair. But it still bothers me.

“I’m sorry,” I say, relieved at the sincerity I hear in my own voice. I’ve been told I can sound cold and certainly insensitive. But right now, I truly am regretful. “I had no idea my brother was going to come here, but if I had, I would have warned you about his temper. He isn’t well.”

She turns to look at me, glaring at me through her curtain of wavy hair. She holds my gaze like she’s itching to say something, and though I know it’s a mistake, I lean forward to gently remove the tape from her mouth.

She flexes her jaw, anger etched into her expression. Anger, not fear. That strikes me as strange, yet oddly relieving.

“You're sorry about your brother’s temper,” she says, rolling the words on her tongue like she’s tasting them, and ultimately scrunching her nose like she finds them bitter. “You have got to be the most vile human being on this planet.”

I pause a moment, as if I’m taking that in. “Okay.”

“I watched you strangle that man’s pregnant girlfriend out ofrage, then pull her body apart like alunatic, and ever since you’ve been telling me how you’re going to kill me too, but … you’re … sorry about your brother’s temper.” She shakes herhead, her shoulders trembling with anger. Or maybe it’s disgust. But it certainly isn’t fear.

Where did her fear go?

“I didn’t kill Piper because I was angry,” I carefully say, although the argument seems unnecessarily absurd when I say it aloud. Lucia doesn’t care why I killed Piper. But I feel the need to say it. “And she wasn’t pregnant. She was lying about her pregnancy to trick my brother into marrying her while simultaneously pumping me for abortion money. She was a snake who bit one too many times.”

The ridges between Lucia’s eyes loosen just a touch at the new information, but I can tell it isn’t enough.

“I don’t know if you were daydreaming during my conversation with Leo,” I continue, “but she picked you up just so she could take advantage of your vulnerability. So are you going to keep feeling sorry for her, or have you learned yet that when people look at you, they see a tasty lamb to slaughter?”

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