by Zavi James
The sheer intensity of the loyalty that came from Dante made me feel like I’d misjudged the entire relationship between both men. When Dante called them brothers, when he said Luc was his blood, it wasn’t just words. It was a fact.
“You treat me like a friend and yet you won’t give him the time of day,” Dante pointed out. “Trust me when I say he’s trying, Mia. He’s no angel, but he’s better than me in that sense. At least with Luc, what you see is what you get. He doesn’t try to be anything else.”
I sank back in my seat and let his words wash over me before I spoke. “Everyone keeps trying to defend him.”
“Funnily enough, all of us have known him for most of his life,” he said.
I sat with Dante for a little while longer before Dom arrived to take me home. I kept quiet for the drive back to the house, Dante’s words swirling around my head. He knew Luc better than anyone, so if he said Luc was trying then it had to be true. But if this was Luc trying, then I didn’t want to know what he was like when he didn’t care. As we pulled up, I noticed that Luc’s car was already in the drive.
“I’m surprised he’s home,” I commented.
“Same,” Dom agreed.
Not in the mood for conversation, I made my way up to my room. The visit to Dante had exhausted me. It was easier to believe Luc was a monster than a human who was more flawed than average. As I walked into the room something caught my eye. Sitting on the bed was a blue velvet box with a note. I walked over and picked up the note, reading, ‘I’m sorry. Maybe we can start again? Luc x’
I placed the note back on the bed and picked up the box. It felt heavy in my hands, and when I opened it my jaw dropped. Sitting inside, snug against the deep, dark silk lining, was a choker entirely made of diamonds. I was holding more money in my hands than I had made and could hope to make in my entire life. The jewels had been intricately crafted together, and my heart ached at how beautiful the piece was.
Snapping the box shut, I walked out of the room on a mission to find Luc. I searched the house and heard a high-pitched laugh. Following it through to the kitchen, I could see Luc through the glass doors lying out on the grass with a young boy who couldn’t have been older than five or six.
“My grandson.” Lydia’s voice drifted over to me.
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t realize you had grandchildren.”
“My first. His sitter had to cancel so I offered to take him for the afternoon,” Lydia explained.
My attention turned back to Luc and the way he pointed to the sky and spoke. Whatever he said made the little boy laugh again.
“He’s good with Oliver,” Lydia said to me.
I found myself nodding in agreement. The last time Luc had looked that relaxed, he had been in bed with my hands running through his hair.
“Everything alright, love?” Lydia asked, walking over to me.
“We had a fight,” I admitted, my voice small and quiet.
“I assumed as much. Neither of you seems yourself at the moment.”
“I think I need to speak to him,” I said more to myself than Lydia. Dante’s words and now the gift had sent me into a spiral. I hadn’t given Luc a fair chance in the way I had the others. Maybe we could start over.
“Go ahead, love. Oliver’s had him all day.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lucas
A shadow fell across me, and craning my neck I saw Mia standing nearby. I sat up almost instantly and Oliver imitated me and followed my gaze. I’d spent the afternoon in the company of the bundle of trouble so that Lydia could get on with her job.
“Hello,” the little boy greeted her.
“Hi there,” Mia said, waving at him.
“Are you coming to see the dinosaur clouds too?” Oliver asked.
“Well, they are the best type of clouds,” Mia told him, matter of factly, and I almost laughed at the way she indulged him.
She sat herself down on the grass and I noted that she had the box in her hands and, for the first time in years, I felt nervous. Mia didn’t look at me, her slender fingers fiddling with the box as she spoke to Oliver about the clouds above us. It was the end of August and a beautiful day with faint wisps of white in the blue sky overhead.
Oliver’s interest in the clouds began to wane, and instead he turned his attention to me and asked, “Is this your girlfriend, Luc?”
“Mia’s a friend,” I told him as she went red. “I hope.”
She looked at me but her expression remained neutral, not willing to give me any hint as to whether she had accepted my apology.
“How about you go inside and get some ice cream?” I suggested to him. “I need to speak to Mia.”
Oliver hesitated for half a second before he got up. “Okay! Bye, Mia!”
He disappeared into the kitchen and left Mia and me sitting in uncomfortable silence.
Eventually, she broke it. “You can’t buy me, Lucas.”
I sucked in some air. Of course, Mia would be someone who would take issue with an apology gift.
“I’m not trying to buy you,” I told her. “It’s a gift.”
“It’s an expensive gift,” Mia returned.
“Oliver helped me pick it out,” I shrugged. Though she was spot on in her assumption: I hadn’t thought twice about dropping money on a gift to try and help put things right between us. I wanted Mia to know just how sorry I was. “Kiddo has expensive taste.”
“Lucas, it’s beautiful,” she admitted quietly. “But I can’t accept this. It’s too much, and when am I even going to wear it? It doesn’t exactly fit with the rest of my wardrobe.”
An image of her dressed in nothing but the choker sprung to mind, and I made a conscious effort to walk my mind out of the gutter.
Mia had to be one of the only women I knew who wasn't impressed by money. She refused to take my card when I gave it to her, and now she was ready to reject a diamond gift. Who the fuck rejected not one but a string of diamonds?
“You know in some cultures it’s considered rude not to accept a gift,” I told her. Mia wasn’t interested in receiving anything from me other than the same respect that I demanded from her. She hailed from a less glamorous life than the one I’d brought her into. “You don’t have to wear it. You can sell it once you leave here if you want. It’s yours to do with what you want. It’s my peace offering, Mia.”
“Can I ask you to put it towards my Dad’s repayment?”
I should have known she would try something like that. “No. It’s for you, not for him.”
She nodded slowly and placed the box on the grass before hugging her knees to her chest. “Thank you. I still think it’s too much.”
“That’s not for you to decide,” I told her as I stretched my legs out in front of me and leaned back on the palms of my hands. “You saw the note?”
She nodded again and turned her head to look at me. Mia was someone who caught the sun with ease, her skin more bronzed now than when she first moved in. Everything about her reminded me of the sun. She radiated warmth in more ways than one; Mia had a personality that had people gravitate towards her, and I was also powerless. I had been sucked into her orbit without even realising it.
“I meant it. That I’m sorry.” I didn’t apologize very often but apparently around Mia it was a word she expected to be used and needed to be said. It held more wealth than the stones that she had held in her hands. “And I would like to start again. I would like to be your friend.”
I would have liked to be more than friends with Mia, in fact, because friends did not think about their friends in the way I thought of her. They didn’t imagine them pinned beneath them, and watching them slowly come undone. I wanted to tease her, please her, and illicit those sweet, satisfactory moans from her again. Not only that, but I wanted her to look at me in the way she did Dom and Dante. Unguarded and with trust. But I needed to tread lightly. I’d already caused multiple storms where Mia was concerned.
“Lucas, if we’re going to be frie
nds, then you need to follow some rules,” Mia said after a moment of thought.
I raised an eyebrow at the statement. “You can’t be serious. This is my home,” I told her.
“Okay,” Mia said. “If you don’t want to listen, then we don’t need to be friends.”
She started to push herself off the ground and I shifted quickly and grabbed her hips to pull her back down. I was not happy at the fact she wanted to set out her own rules, but was more than willing to listen. This was yet another instance of Mia trying to negotiate. What she didn’t know was I would be more receptive, because in this instance she had something I desired. Something no one apart from Mia could give me. “I’m listening. What are the rules?”
I’d spent a lot of my life ensuring that people knew I was in charge. I took what I wanted, when I wanted, but this little piece in front of me had made a habit of putting me in my place and making me work for it. I’d never admit it out loud, but it was a nice change in pace from what I was accustomed to.
“If you want to be friends, then call me that. I hate being called business. It makes me feel dirty,” she told me.
I should have never introduced her like that to Amber, but I was dealing with a lot and wanted to give Amber an answer that wouldn’t cause her to hit the roof. There were only so many fires that I could attend to at any given time.
“From now on I’ll introduce you as my dear friend, Mia,” I agreed.
She rolled her eyes, but a smile came to her lips and I was glad to be responsible for it. It was a nice change considering all I’d managed was to piss her off lately.
“I saw what you did to Dante,” Mia said quietly. “Don’t hurt me.”
All amusement left me at that moment as I sat up straight and looked at her. That was not something I was comfortable with. Leaning over, I took her face in my hands so I could look her directly in the eye, my forehead resting against hers.
“Mia, I would never ever do anything like that to you,” I told her gently.
She was probably thinking about the bruise I left on her wrist, and I still hadn’t been absolved of the guilt. Teamed with what I did for a living, Mia had every right to worry, but I wouldn’t harm her.
“You can’t hurt Dante or anyone because of me,” she pressed on.
“Mia, I’m not agreeing to that,” I told her, letting go of her face and leaning back again. She didn’t understand what she was asking of me. Not hurting Mia wouldn’t be a problem. I would never intentionally do anything to harm her, but the same rule did not apply to others.
“Then we can’t be friends,” she told me again.
“You don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to hurt someone. Talk to them,” Mia explained to me as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
I rolled my eyes. Talking had never put the point across as clearly as the snap of a bone or slice of skin or bullet to the brain, but I wouldn’t give voice to those thoughts. Mia was diplomacy but why be diplomatic if brute force was the more efficient route?
“I mean it, Lucas,” she said, sounding stern. “I don’t want anyone being hurt because of me. Plus, I can handle myself.”
Snorting at the sentiment, I ducked as Mia shot me a glare. I recovered quickly and told her, “I just want to make sure that no one disrespects you.”
This time she didn’t yell at me. “And I appreciate that but please, for me, just tone it down.”
I had no intention of following that rule, but made the decision that she didn’t need to know that. “Done.”
“I just have one more rule for now.”
“Go ahead,” I encouraged her.
Her cheeks turned pink and she could no longer hold my gaze. Instead, she found the grass to be of more interest. “I… we… whatever was happening that night, it can’t happen again.”
Something inside me deflated and I knew exactly what night she referred to. The night that I had been so close to claiming her body as mine.
“That is definitely not how friends behave. Plus, Amber…”
“Amber is not my girlfriend,” I cut across her to clarify. It came out more forcefully than I had intended, but I wanted Mia to understand this fact. I wanted her to see that I was not attached to anyone in any sense. Amber was fun but nothing serious. We had both always been clear on that fact.
“I don’t need to know about your relationship,” she told me quietly, picking at the grass. “It would just make it easier for us both to make sure nothing like that happens again. We’ll call it a blip. Maybe we’ll laugh about it one day.”
Highly unlikely. I knew what I wanted, and what I wanted was Mia. I had tasted the sweetest nectar from the forbidden fruit, and I wouldn’t be able to rest with the thought some other man would claim her as his own. I wouldn’t back down, but again, she didn’t need to know that.
“Just a blip,” I echoed her words.
“I think we can start over,” Mia told me finally, happy that I had met all the requirements.
She flashed me a proper smile, all teeth and crinkled corners of her eyes and I felt my heart give a small skip in my chest. Mia was a stunning woman when she was pissed off and tearing a strip from me for being idiotic, but she was something else entirely when she was happy. She stole the air from my lungs and gave me a renewed purpose to have been responsible for her joy.
“I’m going to grab a shower and get ready for dinner,” she said.
“I think Oliver and Lydia are joining us.”
“Sounds like great company.”
This time, I let her get up off the ground, collecting the gift and brushing herself down. I couldn’t help but glance at her ass as she did so, but Mia caught me in the act.
“Lucas! Rules!” But she laughed as she scolded me.
I shot her a grin, “I’m following the rules.”
She rolled her eyes and turned towards the house before she stopped and looked back at me. “Luc?”
The name sounded so good coming from her lips. The familiarity of Mia calling me Luc instead of Lucas warmed me inside. How had I become so weak that something as simple as a change of name made me happy?
“Mmhmm?”
“Call D,” she told me. “Don’t be mad at him. He loves you.”
“You spoke to him?” I asked her, surprised.
“I went to see him earlier,” she said with a shrug. Mia had proven herself to be more trouble than I gave her credit for. “He’s partially the reason I’m giving this friendship a chance.”
I nodded in response and watched as she disappeared back inside the house. Lying back on the grass, I pulled my phone from my pocket and called Dante, ready to smooth things over with my brother.
Chapter Fourteen
Mia
“You’ve barely touched your food,” Lydia said as I got up from the table.
“I don’t have much of an appetite,” I told her apologetically.
As I started to wash the plate, Lydia placed a hand on my back and spoke gently. “You shouldn’t worry about him. This happens sometimes. Would you like me to stay with you?”
Ever since our chat in the garden, Luc and I had both made an effort to work on our relationship. He still snapped at times and I still bit back, but it happened less. Meals had more laughter and it hadn’t escaped my notice that he worked shorter hours on the weekend, and we drifted towards each other for company.
Every accidental brush of fingers, every compliment he paid me, every cursory glance at Luc, set rampant butterflies in my stomach. I had hoped by setting out rules, that I would have defined the lines and taken control again, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“No, you head home, Lyds,” I told her.
Tonight, Luc was late for dinner. Not the usual late, the type of late that had Lydia force me to sit to eat at 10 PM when it was clear Luc would not return soon.
The heavy weight of dread sat in my stomach. Although Luc still refused to answer questions about his job, it had become crystal clear
the rumors were no longer just sinister tales spun by idle tongues. Every rumor was steeped in truth, and so his late return had set my nerves on edge. With every passing minute the uneasiness grew until it was suffocating me.
When Lydia left, I retired to my room with the aim of sleeping. If I slept, I couldn’t worry, but it was no use. Instead, I found myself sitting on the bed as the clock ticked the hours away.
It was the early hours of the morning and my eyelids were heavy when the sound of the door closing made my drooping head snap up once again. It took me a few moments to register that the sound had come from downstairs and wasn’t part of a semi lucid dream.
I shot out of bed and ran down the hallway.
When I met Luc, it was on the second floor of the house and the sight of him made me skid to a stop, my heart mimicking the motion of my feet.
Luc stood at the top of the stairs, looking at me. His usual black attire was stained with dirt and his hands and face were decorated with dark splatters of blood. Nausea rolled in my stomach and the bile burned my throat as it tried to win, but I swallowed it back down.
It was crystal clear what Luc did, but I had only ever been introduced to the surface. I had still never seen evidence of the darker side of his work, until now.
The respect, the money, the power: they all came with a price.
I couldn’t find my voice, couldn’t find the words as we stared at each other. The ticking of the clock in the hall was the only noise that crashed through the silence.
Luc was the first to make a move. He walked towards me, but his gaze had shifted past me. The blood and the dirt may have caused the visceral need to vomit but the dead look in his eyes made my blood run cold.
“Luc.” It came out as a broken whisper that I couldn’t be sure he had heard as he marched past me and up the stairs to the third floor. I stood, stunned by his appearance. This wasn’t a Luc I had seen before. It was as if he was completely lost.
My feet moved before I could truly register what I was doing. Down in the kitchen, I spooned sugar into a mug of decaffeinated coffee I had brewed from a box of pods that had been pushed into the back of the cupboard. By the looks of it, it had barely been used. The mug burned my hands as I carried it back up the stairs, a small trail of brown liquid splattered behind in my wake.
