“I’ll do anything.” He tugs against his handcuffs.
“We’re not going to kill you.” I’m starting to get annoyed with Oliver’s pessimism. It’s getting in the way of my lesson. Next to me, Luca’s grin droops. I guess he was hoping I’d change my mind. “At least not yet. I believe in second chances.”
“I promise, I’ll never do it again,” he says quickly.
“What you’re feeling now is nothing compared to what they felt. You’re not a man. You’re an insect. Do know what happens to insects, Mr. Hawthorne? They wind up under a boot. You don’t want to meet me if I have my boots on.” I let that threat linger until he knows I mean it. “And you’re going to donate one million dollars to the women’s clinic at Valmont University.”
“How am I going to explain why I’m doing it?” he asks.
“Tell them it’s reparations,” I say coolly.
“That would ruin my life!”
“Just like you ruined theirs. You’re still not getting it, are you? This is getting off easy. You’re not in real danger unless I let my friend here take over,” I add just to see him tremble. “You’ve only lost control for one night of your life. One night spent helpless, but still safe. No one’s hurt you. No one’s violated you. The most you’ve lost is your dignity. You deserve to lose a lot more. You’ll make the donation. Say what you want about why, but we’re watching you.”
“Otherwise, have you ever considered joining a monastery?” Luca asks. “It might be your safest option if you don’t make that donation.”
“I’ll do it,” Oliver says, sounding defeated “Just let me go.”
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Luca says before knocking him out with the knob of his bat.
“You could’ve just kept the hood on.” Not that he’s going to take my notes on this.
“And listen to him bitching the whole way?” Luca shakes his head. “He deserves a headache, at least. You let him off too easily.
“I have a lot of people to teach around here,” I remind him. It’s better not to draw too much attention to our revenge business before it’s off the ground.
“Fair enough.”
It takes both of us to drag Oliver’s limp body to the back of Luca’s BMW.
“Roomy trunk,” I comment as we arrange him inside it.
“It really does have best in its class cargo storage,” Luca agrees. He shoves Oliver’s legs in and slams the lid shut. “Jack told me you left with Adair last night.”
“So?” I ask.
“Jack likes her,” Luca says.
“It’s not Jack’s place to like her,” I growl.
“He also predicted you would react that way.”
“What about you?” I say, feeling betrayed. “Do you want me to reconsider?”
“I do not have a horse in this race, brother, but you do,” he says. “What’s it worth for you to win?”
“Everything.”
“Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby?”
“Have you?” I ask. What the fuck is he on about now?
“The horse that wins doesn’t always survive the race.”
“Are you threatening to shoot my horse?” I ask flatly. I see the point he’s making. Apparently, he’s taking Jack’s side.
“Are you willing to pay that price?”
“I don’t know,” I admit.
“Because the reason he’s in here”— he taps the trunk —“is because of her.”
“So?”
“Are you really prepared to do the same thing he did?”
Adair’s betrayed face flashes to mind. She’s lost faith in me already. She didn’t care about who I was then or how little she knows about me now.
“I don’t kid myself about the kind of man I am. Someday someone will come for me,” Lucas says. “And I’ll deserve it. I know who I am. I know what that means. Do you? Does she?”
“I’m not sure it matters. She’s made up her mind about me.” This thing with her isn’t a black and white. Adair exists in the gray.
“Then change her mind.”
Maybe it’s that simple to Luca’s lizard brain, which seems to work in binaries, but Adair isn’t so easily swayed. “How would you suggest I do that?”
“Send her flowers. Be romantic. Take her on a date or some shit.”
I look from him to the trunk that holds a man we just shoved inside it. “Are you really giving me romantic advice right now?”
“I have layers,” he says, pretending to be offended. “And, word to the wise, so does she.”
“You know an awful lot about her for spending one evening with her.” I don’t want him to be right, but he might be.
“Women and torture aren’t all that different. You just gotta find the right button to press.” He shrugs and opens the driver’s side door. “Speaking of, where do you want me to dump this piece of shit?”
I’m too preoccupied to come up with an answer. “I trust you.”
Luca slides into his car, a slash of a smirk on his face. “You sure about that?”
He takes off before I can process that I might regret giving him free rein. It’s too late now and I have other things on my mind.
Like hair the color of wildfire and emerald-green eyes that see right through me. I love her. That’s how this started. That’s how it ends.
33
Sterling
The Past
The library is dead even for a Saturday. I guess the weekend combined with Halloween means normal people are on their way to parties. They probably don’t have to maintain an insanely high GPA like I do. Given how much time I’ve been spending with Adair, I’m falling behind in a few classes. Enough to worry me. There’s still plenty of time to get my grades up. At five, I pack it up and head back. Adair is coming over in an hour, so I’m surprised when I spot her white Roadster parked in front of my building. She’s still inside, singing to some song only she can hear.
I poke my head in and startle her.
“Sorry.” I hold up my hands in surrender. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Where were you?” She asks barely concealing the suspicious
