Page 180 of Green Flag
“Because he’ll be dead. I’ll be a murderer.”
“Yep,” I said, taking his hand. I didn’t doubt for a second he was capable.
“I’ve already thought about how I’d do it,” he warned.
“Of course you have.”
His frown deepened. “You don’t seem to have an issue.”
“Nope, I don’t,” I said with a nod. “Because you wouldn’t get caught. You love me too much to get locked away from me. You’d break out for missing me.” I sighed, taking his other hand too. “Or I guess we’d have to get married. Is it just married couples that get alone time in prison?”
His blinks were frequent, but at least he was thinking about something other than killing. “Your mind works in weird and wonderful ways. But I guess you’re right. A murder and a marriage. I could get behind that.”
“But you won’t,” I said softly, lifting myself on my tiptoes, ready to climb him to kiss the dwindling anger away. “Because you’re not going to kill anyone, Luca. The only murdering you’re doing tonight is my pussy.”
He choked on a laugh and bent his forehead to graze mine. “You’re mine, Everly. I can’t stand there in the same room as that—”
“If anyone gets to throw a punch here, it should be me.”
He tugged me back with him to lean against the wall as a couple of workers came past us, shooting us awkward smiles.
When they were out of earshot, I said, “He hurt me, Luca. But it’s in the past. He can’t hurt me again. He wouldn’t dream of it with you around.”
His kiss on my forehead was warm as his breaths went back to normal, his hold on me remaining protective.
“What I want is to show him I’ve moved on and he can’t affect me — us — anymore.”
He breathed in deeply, then nodded. “Let’s get my shit out of the locker and we’ll go to the hotel.”
We held hands in the pit box and ignored everyone around us, and when Nix tried to speak to Luca, he only lifted a hand in response. “We’ll talk privately,” was all he said.
Pedro wasn’t there.
Like a damn ghost in the night, appearing and disappearing to make it seem like Luca’s sanity was slipping.
Nix had known. He should have said. But he hadn’t.
Why hadn’t he?
Luca changed and we left, swinging our joined hands the whole way home. In the taxi, his anger had evaporated into secretive smiles and glances my way.
“What are you giggling at?” I laughed.
“Thank you,” he said and placed his hand on my knee. “You calmed me down. I don’t know how you do it, but… you’re always exactly what I need.”
“I’m just that talented,” I said and flipped my hair back. “But that’s not what you were laughing at, acting all chuffed.”
“You said I loved you,” he beamed with a boyish grin. “You said I loved you so much.”
I rolled my eyes, but when they snagged on how happy he was, I felt the heat creep into my cheeks. “Yes. I guess you do.”
“I do,” he agreed.
35
Chapter 35
Everly
