Page 59 of A Game of Ruck

---

“Just business, mostly,” he says, oozing charm like motor oil.“Though it seems I’m crashing the family party.”

He says it like a joke, but there’s steel beneath it.A glint in his eyes that sets every one of my defenses on high alert.

Because he didn’t just stumble into this.

Anthony Moretti doesn’t crash parties.

He infiltrates.

Tests boundaries.

Leaves chaos behind.

I glance down.

Annabeth’s hand is trembling now.

So I do the only thing I can.

I hold her tighter.I press my palm to the small of her back and anchor us both.

Because if he thinks he can waltz in here and unmake the progress I’ve clawed my way toward?

If he thinks he can rattle me, control me, make me feel small again?

He’s about to learn something.

I’m not a boy anymore.

I’m a man.With a future.With someone I want in that future.

And I will burn the world down before I let him touch it.

Chapter Fourteen-Annabeth

Please don’t letthis be true.

I stand there, every cell in my body locked in panic, watching Luca talk to his father like the world hasn’t just tilted on its axis.

Anthony Moretti.

The name alone is enough to make my stomach twist.

The man is a walking cautionary tale, infamous for turning on his crew after years of racketeering.

He’s been on the news.

In documentaries.

In whispered warnings podcasters used to rant about, ones I listened to at the otherwise empty dinner table when I was growing up.

My father didn’t have a lot of time for me then.Still, I know he knows who this man is.

I just didn’t know he was related to my—to my what?Fake date?Weekend lover?Latest heartbreak.

Now, I’m standing here with the famous Luca Warden—or the infamousLuca Moretti, I guess—and he is still just there.

Like some sexy, charming, completely fake dream I never should’ve let myself believe in.

---