"Where?" is all he asks.
"It's just a small scratch on my leg, I promise."
He drops to his knees in front of me to examine the wound, and only after a few seconds does he stand and kiss the top of my head.
"And that's the only reason this building is still standing and the city hasn't been burned to the ground. Because if he'd hurt you worse, Luna, not all the prayers, not all the miracles in the world would've saved him from my hands."
I rest my forehead against his and let my heart settle.
Then another voice sounds, and I realize it's Damien.
"Come on, we need to talk," I tell Roman.
Chapter 26
Roxy
I stare at my best friend, my mind looping through the same mantra.She's okay, she's unharmed, it's just a scratch.
But no matter how many times I repeat those words, I can't silence the dark whispers. I could've been too late. Could've found her in a pool of blood, eyes vacant and a bloody dahlia next to her. They could've taken her. Could've done so much worse. The thought alone sends bile rising in my throat, my stomach clenching into a painful knot.
"I think one of them was Italian," Luna's voice breaks through my thoughts, and I frown.
"Why?"
"I grew up in a house where we had a slightly distinct accent compared to everyone else. There was something about the way he pronounced certain words. If not Italian, maybe Spanish, but he definitely wasn't a native speaker."
Damien's eyes find mine instantly, and I think about the wedding I organized for Luca. I don't like this coincidence. Not one bit. And from the charged look he gives me, neither does he.
Two of them. Two men who scared Luna, and I try to remember if I heard another voice the night my mother was attacked, but no. I could swear I only heard one male shout.
After Roman takes Luna home, I find myself walking through Damien's door, still lost in thought.
Roman's soldier had recovered by the time we left that warehouse, though I'm sure he'll have one hell of a headache from that blow, but I keep replaying the warning that psycho gave Luna.
What if I'm putting everyone I love in danger just because I can't accept my damn fate? What if he ends up killing someone, and I'll have to carry that weight on my conscience?
Suddenly, I feel warm hands framing my face, and my eyes lock onto Damien's.
"Don't let his threats get inside your head, because that's what he wants. To scare you, to isolate you."
"If today wasn't just a warning, if today he'd actually hurt Luna..." I whisper the thought that paralyzed every nerve ending until we reached that warehouse.
He swallows hard because he knows too—we would've been too late.
"We'll catch him. I have a lead, and now that Luna mentioned two people, we have more pieces to this puzzle."
"And what about Marco?" I ask because it seems too strange that The Bloody Dahlia approached me for the first time at his son's wedding. That Luna said she thought one of them had an accent.
For a few seconds, he just studies me, and without meaning to, I get distracted by his dimples and the way a few strands of hair fall close to his eyes.
And my heart, which until now felt trapped in a vise, breathes.
"I don't think so. I know Marco, and even though it seems like one hell of a coincidence, I don't think we need to worry about him."
"Okay," I tell him, and when his hands drop and he pulls me against his chest, I let him.
For thirty minutes, I believed I'd find my best friend in a pool of blood with a maroon dahlia beside her. For thirty minutes, I relived the moment I saw my mother, with empty eyes. For thirty minutes, I was once again the child who lost her entire universe in one night.
