“Tristan, you can’t keep her locked up in there.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Okay. Fair enough. You can. But you shouldn’t.”
I shrugged. Societal rules had never meant much to me. “I couldn’t leave her there, Enzo.”
He searched my face, but this time, my stare didn’t falter. Although he knew how I was raised, there were things that happened during my upbringing he didn’t know about. Things I would never tell him.
Finally, he sighed heavily. “What do you plan to do with her?”
“She’s safe in there. No one, including her fucking rapist father, will be able to get to her, even if I’m not here. Unless he plans to try to shoot her again.” I stared down at the cold glass between my hands and frowned. The odds were good Gino would do exactly that. To remove the temptation she represented and to keep her mouth shut.
"He tried to shoot her? How do you know that?"
"She told me."
Enzo scrubbed his face with his hand. "Why would he try to kill his own daughter?"
"Because he was fucking her. Using her as a replacement for the wife he lost." I spun the half-filled glass around with my fingers, watching the ice clink together.
“And you’re absolutely positive that he was having sex with her?”
I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat and shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “I saw it with my own eyes the first night I went to his house to see her. Before I knew who she was to him.”
“Wait.” He held up his hand. “You were in the house?”
“No. Outside. Watching through the window.”
Disbelief crossed his face. “How many times have you done that?”
I shrugged one shoulder. It wasn’t important. What mattered was that I’d seen what I had, and Luna had no idea she was playing the whore for her own fucking flesh and blood.
Enzo scrubbed a palm over his jaw, staring down at the black tabletop like it held the answers to all of life’s questions. When he realized he wasn’t going to find them there, he sighed again. This time with resignation. “I take it Luca doesn’t know she’s here.”
I picked up the glass and swirled the tea around before taking a drink. I was bored with this conversation. I wanted to check on Luna. “No," I told him, setting the glass back on the table a bit harder than necessary. "He gave me a direct order to leave her with Gino.”
“Which you ignored.”
I raised an eyebrow in question. “Yes. We’ve established that. What’s your point, Enzo?”
He gave a small shake of his head. “Sorry, T. I’m just trying to figure out what the hell is going on with you.”
I met his eyes and let a tiny sliver of vulnerability show through. “I can’t answer that question.” Because I didn’t know either. I didn’t know why this woman was so fascinating to me. Or why I gave a shit about what happened to her. I only knew that she was. And I did. To the point that I was completely distracted when I wasn’t near her and all I could think about was rushing back to her side. “I’m not going to hurt her, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
He didn’t try to deny it, and that was something I appreciated about both him and Luca. They always gave it to me straight. And knowing what they knew about me, it was a legitimate fear.
“What is it that you feel for this woman, T?”
“Feel?” I felt nothing. And everything.
“Yeah. Do you wanna fuck her? Brush her hair and dress her up like a doll? Or just keep her in that cage like some kind of sacrificial bird and make her sing for you?”
“I told you, I’m not going to hurt her.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Because it’s none of your fucking business.”
