Page 13 of Weaponized

He smiles and it is breathtaking. His dimples pop out and his blue eyes light up. This big, scary guy has thebestsmile, and it’s for me. I can’t help but grin back and give a little wave as I follow Rowan away from him. As I walk down the driveway with my brother, I know my decision about which of the four potential suitors I’ll pursue has been made.

Luca

What the fuck was that? Seriously. What just happened? I’m in a daze as I watch Gráinne O’Toole walk off my property after she gives me a smile and a wave. A little fluttering of her fingers. For me. What the fuckwasthat? Gráinne O’Toole. At my house. Touching me. Somebody needs to walk me through this because my mindmustbe playing tricks on me.

I held her hand. No. She heldmyhand. Her soft grasp was around my fat, clumsy fingers. She smelled like sugar and honey. Her blue eyes were such a startling, well, blue.

“Why do you hate me?”

Hate her? Christ. I can’t think straight with how badly I want her. I’m still half hard, standing here like a grinning idiot, watching her walk away. Still, I had no intention of ever touching her. Before. Before I knew how soft her skin was or how sweet her scent would be up close.

“What’s up, buttercup?” My cousin interrupts my racing thoughts, and I look over to see his easygoing smile as he approaches with Gianni. Gianni.

He grabbed hold of me, but he didn’t hurt me.

I step up to purposefully use my height and size against him.“You touch Gráinne O’Toole tonight?” I know I sound like a menace. It’s probably because, at this moment in time, I want to literally kill him. I’m sure that’s likely obvious given the murderous glint in my eyes.

Gianni blinks at me. “I don’t know what she said, man, but I shrugged her off. I’m not into desperate chicks. Besides, I’ve seen her hangin’ with Matteo. I’m also not into sloppy seconds.”

My temper spikes and my volume increases. “I said: Did. You. Touch. Her.” A few people have stopped to look our way. Gianni is beginning to pale. I can see Matteo approaching from the corner of my eye.

“Come on now, cous.” Anthony is trying to lighten the mood, but his voice sounds off. Distant. The red haze has already set in. “No one hurt Matteo’s girl.”

“Not my girl.” I can vaguely hear my brother correct. It’s as if he’s talking in a tunnel. Still, this is good, because hearing Gráinne called “his girl” makes me want to tear this whole place apart. I can’t explain it, and I don’t even care.

More words are being exchanged, but I only hear white noise. I’m breathing like a bull, still staring at Gianni’s twisted, sweating face.

“I didn’t know she was yours. I thought she was the type of girl who’s everybody’s.” I finally make outthosewords from his already bruised lips. I am right in his face, and I feel Matteo and Anthony grabbing my arms to pull me back. I’m making a spectacle in front of the few people still lounging around our pool, and as far as I’m concerned, they can all fuck right off. The guys know they can’t hold me back, just like Gianni knows it. It’s why he’s turned completely white, making his bruises stand out even more.No, they are trying to get me to think before acting, but it’s far too late for that. Every breathing exercise I ever learned has been forgotten. The darkness inside is going to win.

He grabbed hold of me…

Gianni is up off the ground in a heartbeat, fear and pain showing on his face. He grunts, whimpers. He has a fractured rib, so my yanking him up in a bear hug has to hurt like hell. Good. I squeeze a little. I’ll show him how it feels to be grabbed.

“Come near her again, and I will end you.” I’m snarling into his face, directly at eye level now that I’m holding him up against my chest. I know I look like a rabid animal. But fuck him and fuck them all. No one gets near my girl. No one.

I drop Gianni back to the patio as I try to control my breathing. My girl? I have no idea how to actually make that happen. We’ve barely even spoken. I’m really losing it. I remind myself to breathe. Remember who I am. I am more than my monster. In. Two. Three. Out. Two. Three.

Anthony is helping Gianni limp away, while Matteo stays at my side. “So, I wondered if you’d run into Gráinne upstairs.” The recent drama hasn’t affected him. It’s as if the past few minutes of ugliness never happened, and he’s ready to have a normal chat, standing here casually with his hands in his pockets. His face shows no emotion but I’m finally beginning to understand him more clearly.

“You wanted me to see her.” It’s so obvious now that he was baiting me by flirting with her, and that he allowed her into our inner sanctum tonight, hoping I’d run into her. “Why?”

“Look at you. I haven’t seen you care about something—someone—this much since…” He stops. “It’s good to see you have an interest, that’s all.”

“She thought I hated her,” I confide in him. I have no idea where Gianni and Anthony have gone off to, and I don’t really care. My anger is dissipating and uncertainty about what happened upstairs is quickly taking its place.

Matteo snickers. “Yeah, you can be pretty intense sometimes, brother. Easy to see how she could mistake that look, not knowing you like I do.”

I grunt. I have no fucking idea what I’m doing. “I may have really hurt Gianni.”

My brother shrugs. “He probably deserved it.”

“What makes you say that?” I’ve worked pretty fucking hard on my impulse control. I’m not sure I deserve Matt’s support right now.

“You wouldn’t have grabbed him otherwise.”

Sometimes I’m leveled by Matteo’s faith in me. He doesn’t question my intent or second-guess if I maybe misread the situation. He just quietly supports me. The knowledge that you have someone in your life who will always have your back, absolutely, unconditionally, is probably the greatest gift there is. I don’t think about the hell we went through to get here. I’m just thankful for what we have now.

“I’m not going to apologize to him.”

---