I keep my mouth shut as Silvia helps dress my wound, and when I ask her to give Luca and me some space to talk, she doesn’t argue. I wait until she’s left and the door is shut behind her before turning to Luca. “Do you know the guy your sister is going out with?”
His eyes narrow on mine. “Why do you care?”
"You don't?" I ask, trying to keep my voice as level as possible. "The man who shot me yesterday hasn't been caught yet. If he were watching this house, he could have followed Emilia when she left this morning. It’s not safe for her to be out there with a shooter on the loose.”
I try to push down the guilt when the suspicion in his eyes disappears and is replaced by panic. There's worry for his twin sister, and I hate to use that against him. It makes me an asshole, the worst of the worst, but I need Emilia here with me.
I would search the goddamn city myself if I could get out of this fortress without someone stopping me. I wouldn’t put it past my father to try to cuff me to my bed if it meant keeping me under lock and key until I’ve healed. So I have to depend on someone else for this.
“Bring her back," I tell Luca, and he nods, already walking out of the room.
Emilia is off limits, and I'll be damned if I let another man get his dirty paws on her!
Chapter Three
Emilia
How can someone be so cute and yet so boring?
And the thing is, Richard isn’t even hard to look at. His sandy hair is neatly combed, and he has pretty blue eyes that no doubt put many patients at ease. So gentle and calm. They carry none of the storm I see in Antonio’s hazel eyes—eyes that appear to have a warm, honeyed base color with flecks of gold and brown but carry such a fierce coldness in them.
No. No…I’m not going to think about him.
Nope.
I smile at Richard and take him in. He’s got a nice build too, with broad shoulders, but his best feature is his smile. And he knows it’s his biggest charm as he’s flashed it at least forty times in the fifteen minutes we’ve been seated here waiting for our food. Or maybe he's just happy to be on a date with me, which would then make me an even bigger jerk than the man I actually want.
Christ, what is wrong with me?
I knew this would happen. That I would look at this man, with his nice build and nice smile and compare him to Antonio Rossi. That man seems to be so imprinted in my brain that I can think of no one but him, even when I’m on a date with someone else.
But hell, Antonio is the furthest thing from cute. Even lying on that bed, he could easily intimidate everyone with those huge, tattooed muscles and that dangerous look he always wearswhenever he's angry. And Christ, he’s so tall and smells so good. Sometimes, when he’s close, I want to lick him like an ice cream cone and just…
“So, Emilia, how do you find New York compared to California? It must've been hard moving here."
I take a sip of my water to clear my throat the same way I wish I could clear my mind before turning to Richard. “Actually, I was born here.”
His eyes light up with surprise, “Really? One of the nurses told me that you moved to New York a month ago.”
I smile. “Have you been asking about me?”
“Oh, no… I mean—”
I chuckle, putting the poor guy out of his misery. “I graduated from high school early, started college at Cornell University at sixteen and got my degree in biology before going to med school at twenty.” I spent all summer before medical school trying to get Antonio Rossi to fall in love with me, and when he didn’t, I vowed to leave New York and forget him in California. “I went to California to attend medical school and stayed there for my first two years of residency.”
“Smart cookie,” he says, flashing me yet another one of his award-winning smiles. “So, why did you come back?”
I wanted to prove to myself that I was over Antonio Rossi, but I failed miserably. “I was accepted into the surgical residency program at our hospital and took it as a sign to come back home,” I tell him instead. It’s not a lie. Acceptance into a residency at a major NYC hospital meant I could be closer to my family, and New York’s all I’ve ever known. It’s home. "How about you? Were you born and raised in New York?"
The server arrives with our food before he can answer, and I smile when I catch the aroma of the creamy pasta, my mouth watering for a taste. He waits until the server has left before turning to me. “I heard this place has the best pasta in the city. Try it and let me know.”
I nod eagerly, grabbing my fork. Suddenly, a shadow falls over us, and I look up, expecting to see the server add one more thing to our table. Instead, I'm met by my brother's intense blue eyes, narrowed on me.
“Luca?” I blink at my twin, dropping the fork and looking around to see if he came here with a date, but it appears he’s alone. “What are you doing here?” And then a thought occurs to me. Did he track me down? Oh God, did something happen to Antonio?
I push back from the table as panic floods my system. “What happened?”
“Emilia, I need you to come home," he says, his voice low but urgent. His eyes flick briefly to Richard before returning to me. “Now.”
