How rude!
“Just because you and Kian have some sort of tie now doesn’t mean you two get to gang up on me.”
He shrugs. “Wanna bet? We get to do whatever the hell we want, Tesoro. Especially when it comes to your health and safety.”
“Can you just promise me one thing?” I ask in a soft voice that I know makes him crumble. He always does. That’s Luciano for you.
“Hm?” He stares at me blankly. I’m sure his mind is racing after tonight, but he’s sitting here dealing with me instead.
“Be open to love.”
Luciano’s eyes ice over, and he tenses. “The thought is nice, Lace, but monsters like me don’t deserve love.”
My eyes burn, and I can’t stop myself from reaching for one of his tattooed hands. “Then why doIlove you so much?”
He looks at me, studying. “Because you’re an angel who no one in this life deserves.”
“You don’t think Kian deserves me?”
Huffing out a breath, Luciano relaxes. “Fuck, no. That asshole doesn’t deserve you. Fucking hate that guy.” He shakes his head and sighs. “He’s not even fucking Italian.”
I laugh out loud. “Does that actually matter to you?” I ask, cocking my head at him.
“No.” He rolls his eyes. “Kian’s a good man. But no, he doesn’t deserve you. No one does. You’re too damn good for this world, Lacey Ricci. I’m glad it’s Kian you’re settling for, though. I trust him to take care of you.”
“You barely know him,” I say.
“I know him,” he answers quietly. “Time doesn’t determine whether he’s loyal and trustworthy. I didn’t like that he challenged me, and he’s lucky I don’t slit his throat for ambushing me. But I respect him for it. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters to me.”
Tears roll down my cheeks as I throw my arms around my cousin and sob against his shoulder.
“I am. And now I want you to find happiness too.”
Luciano hugs me back, squeezing me so tightly I can barely breathe, but I don’t say anything because I think he needs this.
If there’s one thing I know for sure is that my words matter to Luciano, so even though he isn’t acknowledging it, he won’t forget what I said. I just hope that when someone comes into his life, he remembers.
CHAPTER 46
Kian
“You look like shit, bro,”I say with a halfhearted smile.
Beckett blinks slowly and moves his hand that’s not hooked up to IVs, lifting his middle finger. He’s high as a kite and barely awake, but he’s still Beckett.
“Is Lacey okay?” Jordyn asks from where she’s sitting on Cash’s lap.
The entire family is here, including Cassian and Caleb, who almost looks worse than Beckett as he leans back in a chair next to the bed.
“She’s good. Luciano’s with her,” I say quietly, taking the only available seat on the other side of Beckett.
“New phone.” Cassian holds out a brand-new one to me. “I found yours at the graveyard. It was broken, but I was able to pull the data from it, so you still have all your numbers and photos.”
I give him a nod and slide it into my pocket.
“The security guard had surgery to remove the bullet from his arm. We met with him already. He’s now a security employee of Savage Entertainment,” Cash says after a while. “He’ll be on pain leave for the next six months, though. Triple what he was making before, and his mother’s house has been paid off.”
In other words, we bought his silence and are paying him a shit ton of money to take six months off to heal. That’s fair. The guy did nothing wrong. He was doing his job, and he’s obviously good at it, considering his aim was better than Beckett’s.
