I shook my head. “No.” Bracing my weight with one hand on his desk, I leaned down and read more of the report, careful to keep plenty of space between Luca and myself. I didn’t really worry about him touching me, accidentally or otherwise, but I’d kept the habit for so long it was second nature now.
Scanning the rest of the email, I chewed the inside of my lower lip. Nothing stood out to me. “Was her name always ‘Wilde’?”
“If it was something different when she was younger, there’s no record of it here.”
Straightening, I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I can ask around more,” Luca told me. “But I don’t know that we’ll find anything else. It seems like she was a typical kid in the system who got out and ended up doing sex work like many of them do. I don’t think there’s any other way you would’ve run across her. Perhaps you saw her dancing, and that’s why she seems familiar.”
“Maybe,” I agreed, although I already knew that wasn’t it. It was more than that. I would’ve remembered her if it was only a matter of her tits catching my eye.
Luca shut down his email and turned his chair until he was facing me. “I must repeat my original order, Tristan. Stay away from the girl. She’s nothing to you. And pursuing this strange obsession you seem to have will only cause us a shit ton of problems that I really don’t need right now.”
“Capisco,” I told him. I understand. And I did. I understood why Luca gave out orders, and why we needed to obey them. I always obeyed him. He could completely depend on me.
But not this time.
That night,I returned to Gino’s and watched Luna through her bedroom window. Something was wrong.
Luna—dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt—paced the room with long, angry strides, her arms stiff at her sides and her hands clenched into fists. When she shoved her hair back off her face, I saw her eyes were bright with unshed tears. She stopped short in front of the door and banged on it, screaming for Gino, for anyone. Gripping the doorknob, her entire body strained with the effort to turn it, but nothing happened. She gave the door a final slap before dropping her forehead to rest on the wood.
My cell phone vibrated in my pants pocket. It was a text from Luca, wondering if I’d made it to the drop-off location yet, where I was meeting with his contact from the cartel. I shot off a text letting him know I’d be there on time. When I was finished, Luna had gone back to pacing. Quickly and quietly, I made my way back out to the road where I’d left the SUV.
For the next few nights, I watched her from outside her window. Her behavior didn’t change much, although as the days went by her actions became more and more lethargic. She looked…fragile. Weak. By the third night, her hair had lost its shine and there were bags under her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Her skin was pale. She was still beautiful to me, just muted somehow. Tired.
Staying in the shadows, I crept closer. Her door suddenly opened and two guards entered her room. I recognized them as the two who were always closest to Gino. One of them grabbed Luna as she made a rush for the door, wrapping his arms around her from behind and lifting her until her bare feet kicked nothing but air. The other set a covered tray and a glass of water on the dresser and walked back out of the room. As soon as he was out, the one holding her threw her onto the bed and left the room, slamming the door in her face when she scrambled to reach it.
She slammed both hands against the door, then rushed to the tray. Lifting the lid and dropping it on the floor, she picked up a piece of bread and tore into it. There was nothing else on the tray.
Gino was fucking starving her.
My upper lip lifted in a snarl as my stomach remembered the long-ago ache of hunger pains. I didn’t want her to feel that pain. And I didn’t want her thinner. She was perfect just the way she was. Whatever offense she’d made to make him punish her this way, it couldn’t be so bad that she deserved to be locked in her room and starved.
If Gino wasn’t going to feed her properly, I would bring her something to eat.
Luna stopped eating suddenly, and her head whipped toward the door. Setting the last bite of bread back on the tray, she turned to face it. The door opened, and Gino filled the frame, body blocking the exit like he was afraid she’d squeeze by him and bolt. His eyes raked down her body briefly before sweeping around the room. I withdrew deeper into the shadows of the tall bushes beside her window, obstructing my view of Luna, but Gino was the one I needed to keep eyes on now.
“I just found out I need to go to a dinner tonight,” he announced. “If you think you can stop all of this racket and behave yourself, I’ll bring you with me.”
“Will I be allowed to eat something besides bread?” she asked.
“I might let you have a salad. As long as you smile and don’t start any shit.”
Was he being serious? She clearly needed more to eat than a salad.
“I can do that,” she said after a moment, her tone hard to decipher, but definitely not the confident voice of the woman I met at the wedding. I didn’t like this new, meek Luna. My hand went to my gun, but before I could do anything, Gino spoke again.
“Good,” he said. “Get cleaned up and meet me in the entry in thirty minutes. Do not be late.” He went to leave, then stopped and turned back to her. “Wear the blue dress. The one that matches your eyes. You know the one I like.”
“I need to shower, but I’ll be ready.”
Satisfied, Gino left, closing the door behind him.
Luna appeared in my line of vision as she walked over to the door, opened it, and shut it again, testing the lock. Then she disappeared from my view again. Seconds later, I heard the shower come on.
While she got ready, I checked the window to see if it was wired to a security system. There were no visible magnets or transmitters, and the frame looked old. Out of curiosity, I pulled the screen off and hid it behind one of the bushes. Then I tested the window. The lock was an old-fashioned mechanism that wiggled when I tried to raise the window. Glancing behind me to confirm none of the guards had wandered over this way, I braced my palms on the glass and shoved upward.
The lock moved, but it wasn’t quite enough to break it.
