Page 83 of Ruthless God

I clenched my fists, then unclenched them, and forced myself to relax. I kept the mask firmly on my face before making my way over to her.

I stopped when I was in front of her, her eyes directed on my shoes.

I waited to see what she would do. Nothing. She didn’t acknowledge me. Didn’t look up.

“Won’t you look at me?” I asked softly.

She let out a small sigh and tilted her head back to look at me. Her eyes were red and wet.

Fuck.

I bent down so that we were at eye level.

I cupped her cheek. She scowled at me, surprising me.

“What did I do?”

That was the thing. I didn’t know what I had done wrong.

“You treated me like one of your men. Why do you need me to get all the points right when I told you I wouldn’t be able to? You’ve obviously trained Matteo yourself?”

I nodded. It was true. I trained all my brothers. In our world, only the strong survive. And I made sure my brothers were strong. There was no other option.

“Then you know I would be no match for him. Or for Elio.”

“I didn’t want you to be a match for him,” I said. I knew Luna would never win in a fight with Matteo. Just like she would be no match for whatever man decides to hurt her to get to me. And with the way I was feeling, it wouldn’t be hard to guess just how much she had become my weakness.

Fuck me, but Luna De Luca had finally become the very thing that could be my downfall. And she didn’t even fucking know it.

“I need you strong enough to survive.”

“You were too tough on me.”

“Was I?” I asked, surprised. Had I been too tough? I just hated the thought of her defenseless.

“Perhaps having my brothers there wasn’t a good idea.”

She didn’t say anything to that, but the look she shot me told me she agreed. I nearly smiled. Luna was getting comfortable with me. Comfortable enough for me to see the real her. And what I saw, I wanted more.

More and more until I knew her inside out. Until I knew her better than herself.

“Why don’t we keep the training between you and me? And I’ll teach you how to shoot a gun?”

She smiled a little. “I like that idea better.”

“I do have some good ideas sometimes,” I joked, earning another smile from her.

She moved to stand when I stopped her, placing my hand on her thigh. She looked at me questioningly. “There’s still something I want to ask you, and I want you to answer me honestly.”

She tilted her head to the side.

“Did Andre ever hit you?”

The color seemed to be drained from her face then, giving me my answer.

“Why do you ask?”

“The way you acted with Matteo earlier. How you’ve been since we landed in Las Vegas, and how you were with your family.”

---