“You hungry?” She asks.
I wasn’t, but I find myself nodding my head. I sit in the large spacious kitchen as she makes us a sandwich. I’m stuck in my head for a while, and we both eat in silence. We both glance as security moves every few minutes past the door.
Anita rolls her eyes. “Lucca being dramatic.”
I smile at her words. I didn’t think Lucca could ever be dramatic. He was the least dramatic person I had ever met.
It’s like my thoughts of Lucca conjure him as he pauses outside the kitchen.
Anita is up.
“What the hell happened to you?”
Lucca waves her off and turns to me. “Take your sandwich to your room.” He sounds angry with me, and I’m not sure why. I don’t pick up the sandwich but get up.
His face is cut pretty bad, and I want answers about my sisters. This didn’t install much confidence in me.
“My sisters?” I ask.
“Sisters?” Anita repeats, her head jerking between Lucca and me, the large earring swinging widely.
“They weren’t there,” Lucca answers me, and my legs grow weak.
“You're lying.” I fire back. I want it to be a lie.
“I said they weren’t there, Evie.” He turns away from me, and I’m moving towards him.
He spins back around before I reach him. “They had been there, but they aren’t now.”
A lump forms in my throat, and an ache in my heart has me fighting the burning sensation at the back of my nose.
“You were attacked?” I reach up but don’t touch his face.
“It’s a flesh wound.” He answers.
Anita lets out a heavy breath, and I step away from her brother.
“You look like you went a few rounds with Jackie Chan.”
Lucca holds up his hands, a serious expression on his face, and Anita falls silent.
Lucca leaves the room, and I follow him. He glances back at me several times but doesn’t stop me as I follow him into the bathroom. The blood which has stained the front of his shirt still leaks from the cut on his face.
Lucca opens a glass cabinet and takes down some disinfectant wipes, along with some adhesive strips, and places them on the sink.
“Let me help.” I don’t wait for him to agree but reach around him for the disinfectant wipes. I meet his gaze in the mirror, and he holds it for a moment before turning to me.
He still hasn’t moved. “Do you want to sit down?” He’s so much taller than I am, and at this angle, it won’t be easy.
“No.” His jaw tightens.
I take out a wipe and step closer to Lucca until I’m surrounded by the smell of his cologne. His large hands hang at his side, and I try to focus on the task at hand.
I dap the wipe carefully across his cheek. The cut is deep, the skin puckered. I continue to clean the wound in silence before getting the strips and placing them across the cut, keeping it sealed. Lucca doesn’t move a muscle as I bandage him up.
“What did you find?” I finally ask, placing the second last strip to his cheek.
“They had been in the warehouse.”
My fingers falter, and I look into liquid silver eyes.
“I found where they had been sleeping. They were all together.”
Pain radiates across my body, I didn’t think the idea of them still together would make me feel homesick, but it does.
I pick up the final strip and press it to Lucca’s cheek.
“Do you think…” I look back up into Lucca’s eyes. “Do you think they are still alive?”
“They are too valuable to kill.”
My stomach churns at the honesty of his words.
“So yes, I do believe they are alive.”
“You were attacked? Did you find out anything from your attacker?”
I’m praying that he did, but Lucca turns away from me and faces the mirror. “You did a neat job.”
His remark on my bandaging him up shouldn’t have any impact on me, but it does.
“Thank you.”
Lucca faces me. There is a vulnerable look in his eyes like I’ve never seen before, and my heart starts to race.
“The men who attacked me are all dead. I didn’t get to question them.”
MY stomach squeezes at the thoughts of him killing someone. But I wasn’t stupid. I had known that, but it’s something I had pushed to the back of my mind, along with so much more.
“There was a man who saw the girls being placed in a van.” Lucca breaks eye contact and starts to remove his bloody shirt.
My heart thumps painfully in my chest. The girls were strong, we had come through the worst, but Leah, she wasn’t like us. She was fragile. I could imagine her being placed in a van, maybe blindfolded. She would be terrified, but the other girls would take care of her. They had to.
“I’m sorry, Evie.” Lucca’s words have my head whipping up to him.
He sounded so sincere, which wasn’t like him.
Heavy footsteps in the bedroom have Lucca moving me aside. I follow to see Anita in the bedroom.
“Igor is here.” Worry is etched into her words. Lucca moves past his sister and removes his shirt before placing a new one on.
“He’s here to take me back,” I say the words, and I knew this day would come. But, now that he was here in Lucca’s house, fear squeezes my throat, and the room tilts. I reach for the wall. “Please.” The air grows thin, and I have no idea what I’m begging him to do.
Lucca won’t look at me as he puts on his shirt.
“Lucca.” I plead his name, but he still won’t look at me.
