Page 31 of Their Reckless Thief
“There’s no place for defiance here,” Vincenzo said. “Not when so much is at stake. Another woman went missing this morning. A regular. We’ve also sent samples of the drug from the latest overdoses for testing. Someone’s been fucking with my supply, and I need answers before this whole thing blows up in my face.”
I swallowed hard. Vincenzo was fighting a war on all fronts, and for some fucked-up reason, I was stuck in the middle of it.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I muttered, trying to regain some semblance of control. “But locking me up won’t solve your problems.”
Vincenzo stared at me for a long moment, then turned to Dorian. “She’s not going with you to the club.”
“Come on, man,” Dorian protested. “I’ve got it under control.”
Vincenzo’s gaze hardened. “Clearly, you don’t…man.”
I could feel the panic rising again. The idea of being locked away…alone, isolated…was too much. I needed to be out there, to at least pretend I had some autonomy left.
“Don’t lock me up,” I blurted. “I’ll... I’ll go with Luca. Whatever he’s doing, I’ll go with him.”
Luca raised a brow, his eyes narrowing as he looked between me and Vincenzo.
“Seriously?” Dorian muttered, crossing his arms.
I didn’t answer. The truth was, I didn’t care where I went, as long as it wasn’t back to a fucking cage.
Vincenzo looked at Luca, then back at me.
Luca shrugged. “It’s a low-key mission. In and out. No complications. I guess she can tag along.”
Vincenzo nodded slowly, still not looking entirely convinced. “Fine. But if she steps out of line even once...”
Luca gave a small, humorless grin. “She won’t.”
“Good.” Vincenzo turned back to me, his eyes narrowing. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Heart racing, I wondered just how deep I’d gotten myself into this mess… and how the hell I was going to survive it.
9
CELESTE
Vincenzo’s garagewas an underground palace of horsepower and wealth. The sleek, predatory machines looked like they’d cost more than anything I could steal in a lifetime. A subtle, but palpable haze shimmered around them. In The Below, magic powered the engines, but everything else looked eerily similar to the cars in the human world. Except, of course, the price tags.
Luca’s grip on my arm tightened, and the world suddenly went black. In a split second, we had moved to the opposite side of the garage. I covered my face with my free hand, trying to breathe through a wave of nausea. “What the fuck was that?”
Luca smirked. “Veilstepping. I can travel instantaneously from one point to the next as long as I’ve been there before. And I can take people with me if I’m touching them.”
“It feels like someone turned me upside down and shook the hell out of me. A little warning next time, okay?”
“What would be the fun in that?” Luca strode toward a car that screamed excess, its black paint reflecting everything around it. It was sleek and deadly, just like him. He opened the passenger door for me, the chivalrous act completely out of place for someone who’d literally wrapped me in his shadows an hour ago.
I snorted and shook my head, but slid into the leather seat. The interior was as opulent as the exterior, making me feel even smaller and more out of place. Luca closed the door softly and rounded the front, then got behind the wheel without a word.
The silence was almost suffocating as he pulled out of the garage and onto the streets. The eerie magic of The Below cloaked the world in a strange half-light and made everything feel a little off. I wasn’t sure where Luca was taking me, but the fact that he hadn’t spoken since we left the mansion was starting to grate on me. He appeared perfectly content with the quiet, but it gnawed at me, prickling under my skin.
Just as I opened my mouth to break the silence, a vision tore me from the present.
Tendrils of dark smoke bound Luca’s hands behind his back and wrapped around his body. Blood stained his shirt from the fresh welts marring his skin. His head hung low, his face obscured, and shadows clung to him as if they were trying to shield him, but they, too, were weakened, barely visible. The image shifted, the dark tendrils of shadow attempting to rise but collapsing under another’s force. Then came a figure—smoke and shadow merged—delivering another punishing blow that drove Luca to his knees, his breath rattling as he choked.
I jolted back to the present, my breath catching and a cold sweat breaking out along my skin. Beside me, Luca was completely unaware. I blinked, grounding myself in the real world, but the image clung to my mind, sending a chill down my spine.
“What’s wrong?” Luca’s voice broke through my daze. He must’ve felt my stare because he glanced at me, his silver eyes studying my face for even the faintest shift in my expression.
