Page 58 of Vendetta
His eyebrows disappeared under messy strands of his raven hair. ‘Is that what you came here for? To call me names like a child?’
I crossed my arms. ‘I thought I was coming here to see Nic.’
He pursed his lips. ‘Sorry to disappoint you.’
‘You’re not sorry.’
‘You’re right, I’m not.’
I fought the urge to stamp my feet.
‘So did you launch yourself on an express mission to thank him and only him? Or do I, the actual person who helped you, merit some kind of gratitude?’
I bit back several curse words. ‘This can’t be happening.’
‘Well, it is.’ Suddenly Luca was pulling me by the arm until we were standing on the other side of the SUV, sheltered from the street’s view and most of the house’s windows.
‘Get off me!’ I snapped, shrugging him off. ‘What’s your problem?’
‘What’smyproblem? Are you kidding?’
I stepped back, pressing myself against the SUV, and suddenly a memory flashed against my brain.I was being mashed up against a stone wall. I shook my head and it flew away. ‘Why do you have to be such an ass?’
Luca lessened the gap between us by another half foot. ‘Why did you drink yourself into that state the other night?’ he countered viciously. ‘Have you no regard for your own safety?’
‘How dare you,’ I snapped. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about, so just shut up!’
‘I was the one scraping you off the sidewalk!’
‘For your information, I wasn’t drinking!’
Luca curled his lip, and anger, like a shot of hot metal, rose in my bloodstream. Before I could stop myself, my hands were against his chest, shoving him so hard that he stumbled backwards. I landed against him, pushing him further and further. ‘I was roofied, you ass!’
For a moment, we stood against each other, bound by the force of my anger and the sound of our mingled heavy breathing. Then, with exaggerated slowness, he grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me away from him with ease.
I tried to focus on my breathing, to steady myself, but I was panting hard.
‘I see,’ he said at last. ‘I didn’t know.’
I shrugged, feeling deflated. ‘I guess I should have beenmore careful.’
He scrunched his nose in disgust. ‘And he should have been a lot more respectful, regardless of what state you were in.’
I felt a lump form at the bottom of my throat, but I had been keeping it at bay for the last two days and I wasn’t about to give in to my tears now, especially not in front of Luca. ‘I don’t remember anything,’ I said, setting my jaw and looking at the patch of grass behind him. ‘I’m still struggling to.’
‘Don’t.’ Luca stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. ‘Some memories hurt when they hit you.’
‘Are you saying it will hurt me to know what Robbie did?’
He shook his head. ‘He didn’t hurt you, OK? He was just some idiotic drunk guy trying his luck with a pretty girl.’
My eyes widened at the inadvertent compliment.
‘I was just making a point about that guy,’ Luca went on quickly. ‘He was dumb, OK? He shouldn’t have tried to take advantage of you.’
‘W-where was it? Where were we?’ I hadn’t imagined talking about the night would be this difficult – and I definitely never thought I’d be talking about it with the obnoxious Luca Priestly – but I had to know.
‘A couple of blocks away. I saw him with you sometime before…’ He stopped abruptly and changed the direction of the sentence. ‘I didn’t like the look of him, so I drove around to make sure he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t be doing. And when I found you guys, I could see you were pretty out of it, so I decided to intervene.’
