Page 8 of The Secrets We Keep

He released her but didn’t move away. “Tell me, Sienna. What the fuck is going on?”

She flinched when he said her name, her hands moving up to sweep her hair over her shoulder, hiding her scar from view. “There’s too much to tell. I-I can’t here.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again. At this distance, he could clearly see the unnatural blue of her eyes, the hazel peeking through what must be colored contacts. Her hair was dark at the roots, her natural brown. Hair he’d run his fingers through countless times, eyes he’d stared into, wishing they could have more than stolen moments with each other.

He’d spent so many hours trying to figure out how to make it happen. How to make his father agree to let him marry Nero Gallo’s niece. He’d almost done it. Almost gotten close to softening his father up enough to ask. Then he’d woken up one day to a headline in the paper. Prominent Members of Gallo Family Slain. Police Have No Leads.

Her entire family was wiped out at her twenty-second birthday party. Just two days after he’d seen her, held her, made love to her for the last time.

“What are you doing here, Luca?” she asked, her voice thick with the tears swimming in her eyes, jerking him out of his memories. “Why are you in Catania?”

His laugh was bitter, cold, and for the first time, she shrank away from him. “I live on this island. How are you back from the fucking dead?”

“I can explain, but I…” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and released it, and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching up to rub his thumb over her mouth.

“But you don’t want to.”

“No! I do.” He heard the click of her throat when she swallowed. “But not here. Not in public. I’m renting a place not far from here. We can go back there, and I’ll tell… I’ll tell you everything.”

He left one hand braced against the wall by her head and reached into his jacket pocket with the other. Keeping his eyes locked on her face, he dialed and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Hey,” he said when his brother picked up. “Something came up, and I have a thing I need to handle. I’ll meet you back in Palermo later.”

Luca hung up on his brother’s grumbling protests and slipped his phone back into his pocket. His eyes dipped down to her lips when they parted, and he was hit with the memory of how she tasted and the little sounds she made when he kissed her.

Before he dipped his head to make his memory a reality, he shoved away from the wall, turned his body so she could walk past him, and gestured toward the door.

“Lead the way.”

Chapter Five

Every step was torture as she led him away from the hotel and back to her apartment. Never in a million years did she imagine she’d run into Luca when she returned to Sicily. He lived on the other side of the island.

The year they’d spent together had been stolen moments when they could both get away from their families. Trysts in hotels and the backseat of cars—and that last time in a field of wildflowers.

But it had been the happiest year of her life. She’d wondered, in the years since disappearing, if she remembered it that way because of everything that came after or because she loved him as much as she thought she did.

Seeing him, even with anger flashing in his eyes and a gruff growl in his voice, she knew it wasn’t in her imagination. She’d loved him then, and she loved him still. The thought didn’t soothe her. She’d already lost him once. This felt like losing him all over again.

He was silent on the walk, matching her pace but staring straight ahead. When the foot traffic thinned as they neared her apartment, he put distance between them. It shouldn’t bother her. She’d grieved him, let him go a long time ago. She’d never expected to see him again.

But the anger radiating off him was palpable, his jaw tight, hands clenched into fists. It was probably better this way. For him to be angry, to hate her. If she got lost in him again, she’d never get what she came for.

This would be over soon. She’d explain as best she could without giving away too much. She didn’t want him to stop her. And he’d want nothing to do with her. He’d retreat to Palermo, and they could avoid each other until it was done. Once it was, she wouldn’t be anyone’s problem anymore.

A mother and a young toddler were waiting for the elevator when they stepped into the lobby of her building, and they rode up in more silence, punctured by the occasional happy babble of the baby’s gibberish.

When the door opened on her floor with a ding, she led him down the hallway and into her apartment. His eyebrows winged up when he stepped inside, and he appraised the space with shrewd eyes. Setting her bag and keys on the counter, she turned to face him, wrapping her arms around her torso.

“Would you like to sit?”

His gaze flicked past her to the couch, then back to her face. “How long have you been back?”

“Three days. Give or take a few hours.”

He seemed surprised by that, but he made no move to come any further into the apartment. “I want all of it, Sienna.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Every detail.”

It had been such a long time since anyone had used her real name. It sounded so good in his deep voice, even when it dripped with anger. Moving to the fridge, she pulled out a bottle of water she’d ordered with her takeout the night before and took a deep drink. She set a second one on the edge of the counter for him, but he didn’t take it.

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