Page 35 of Bones

“If you forget, I’m happy to remind you, Butterfly.”

When I don’t respond, because I can barely even breathe, he grins. “Come on. Let’s go get lunch.”

Luca grabs the dress off the hook he put it on, and I follow him out of the dressing room and glance at the four other people in the store, and wonder if they heard us. I blush as we stand at the counter and he hands the lady his Amex Black Card. The blonde woman glances at him and bats her eyelashes, and when she gives him the total and it’s almost thirty thousand dollars, I almost vomit. I grab his arm. “Luca, no.”

He glares at me. “Not now, Athena.”

His security guys grab the bags, as we walk out of the store and head back to the waiting car. Luca opens the back of the Range Rover and I slide in. He pulls out his wallet and gets in beside me. Taking out another credit card, he hands it to me. “This is yours. If you want to shop online, or one day when you’re shopping by yourself, use it. You never need to worry about reaching a limit. I don’t want to ever hear a complaint about how much money I spend on my wife. If I didn’t want to do it, or couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t spend it. The fact is, I have more money than I can possibly spend in my lifetime, or in our children’s lifetime.”

I take the card, and put it in my purse without further conversation about it, because this seems to be something that pisses him off. At some point, I’m sure I’ll fight with him about things. When they matter. I’ll choose my battles, but I’m sure bigger things than money will come up. I realize a lot of women would kill to trade places withme financially. Most people struggle with money, and they don’t have a husband spending a down payment on a house on clothing. It’s ridiculous to get upset about.

“Thank you.”

He closes his eyes, like those two words are pleasurable.

“You’re my wife, and I want to take care of you without argument. I know you haven’t always had a man to do that, and I want to be that for you.”

I snort laugh. “I’ve never had that, Luca.”

“How did you end up with Manny?” He asks as the driver pulls away from the curb.

I avert my eyes, not really wanting to have this conversation, because there’s something about him that makes me feel safe and I know better. You can say too much, and I need to be careful not to.

“Talk to me, Butterfly.”

I take in a deep breath and release it. “Boy meets girl. He promises her the world, and then destroys her. It started with verbal attacks, but over time it became physical. At first it was once every couple of months, but it wasn’t long before it became daily. He wanted me to start stealing things so he could sell them. I agreed at first, because I felt like I had to. Manny bought me food a few days a week, and paid for the hotel in exchange for the items.”

Luca stares at me with obvious irritation. “How much of a cut did you take?”

I shake my head. “None.”

He closes his eyes tight and clenches his fists.

“I wish he were still alive, so I could fucking kill him.”

With a long drawn out sigh, I say, “Well, you already did that. You broke his bones. Who does that?”

His eyes pop open and he grins. “Me. I do that, and I’d gladly do it again if I could.”

“How did you start that?”

Taking my hand in his, he smiles softly. “It happened by accident. It’s hard to explain it without scaring the hell out of you.”

I move over and climb onto his lap. “Tell me. Please.”

Luca wraps his arms around me, pulling my body close to his. “It happened by accident. I was in a fight as a teenager with the son of a rival family. The sound of his arm breaking, I liked it, and knew I’d hurt someone again by doing the same thing. I learned how to break bones with ease. There are a million ways to physically hurt someone. Guns, knives, but breaking someone’s bones means more pain, because you can administer an awful lot of anguish before they die. A gun or a knife will kill much quicker. And I’m rarely looking to kill someone with speed.”

He notices the expression on my face and says, “I’ll never do that to you. Ever. I’ll never cause you physical pain you don’t want.”

I chew on my bottom lip nervously. “And the cage?”

Luca runs his fingers down my cheek, with a tenderness I didn’t know he was capable of. “Butterfly, never again. I swear to you, never. I will die before I ever do that to you again. The same goes for the chains.”

I kiss him softly. “Thank you, Luca. Thank you.”

He shakes his head when I pull away. “That’s not something you should be thanking me for. One day you’ll tell me why the cage is that terrible for you. Nobody likes being trapped in a cage, but your reaction tells me you had experience with it.”

I nod in agreement instead of denying it. “Far too much experience, Luca, and one day I will, but I’m not ready.”

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