Page 68 of Cinder
“Please don’t hurt her,” I beg quietly into the phone.
“Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it,” Luca warns.
Lars is listening to Rogue, but his eyes are trained on me.
“I will do what you want. Just keep Lucretia out of this.” Anger and fear bubble to the surface. I am afraid of this man. But there is still a lot of fight left in me. Perhaps Luca should know there are consequences too. “If you don’t, things might go wrong for you too?—”
“Like what? You have no power here. There is nothing you could do to me.”
“If you hurt her, I will tell them everything.”
He chuckles. “And they’ll kill you for it.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they’ll come looking for you.”
The silence that follows is full of menace.
The seconds tick over painfully slow.
“Like I said, sister, Lucretia’s safety is up to you. No more fuckups and she’ll be fine.”
He ends the call, but I’m frozen to the spot.
When Rogue walks away, Lars walks over to me.
He gives me a quizzical look. “Everything all right?”
“I have to go,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. I’m rattled. It’s like I can feel Luca’s eyes on me. Like he’s everywhere. And if I put one step out of place…
I can’t let myself think about it.
“Now?” His knowing eyes roll over my face. “Who was on the phone, Ella?”
Think fast.
“My sister.”
He frowns. “You have a sister?”
“Yes, she’s seventeen.” I blow out a nervous breath. “Look, I’ve got to go.”
“Why?”
Because my half-brother will kill my sister if I put a step out of line.
And what I want to do with you is not just stepping out of line.
It’s blowing the line to smithereens.
I shove my phone into the back pocket of my jeans. “I’m sorry, but this was a mistake.”
His jaw tightens. “You didn’t kiss me like it was a mistake. Something happened to change your mind…what was it?”
“I stopped long enough to realize we were about to do something we’d both regret,” I say, hating the way he’s looking at me. Like I just drove a nail into his gut.
“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t going to regret anything we were about to do,” he says with an edge to his voice.
But I can’t let it get to me. I have to put some distance between us.
