“I told you I know everyone.”
“But you push drugs on the street and police the dealers in the city. He’s got nothing to do with that.”
He gave a quiet chuckle and returned his arms to the table. “Everything is connected in one way or another.”
“Did he owe you a favor?”
“No.”
“Then why did he agree?”
“Because I’m a good person to have in your pocket.” He grabbed a piece of bread and took a bite.
“Clearly…”
Dinner arrived a few minutes later, and as usual, he inhaled his food like he’d skipped all his meals for the day. His steak was rare, and my duck was hot and fresh. We enjoyed the silence and the food, comfortable not saying anything at all.
He finished before I did and washed it down with the rest of his scotch. Patient, he sat and watched me finish, and when the waiter came over to check in, he ordered another scotch.
“What else have you done this week?” I asked.
“My life mostly revolves around work.”
“You don’t have friends or family outside of it?”
He shook his head. “It’s hard to maintain a relationship with someone when you can’t share any aspect of your life. There’s a hard line in the sand, and you have to pick a side to stand on.”
“So, the women you’ve been with…they knew what you did for a living?”
“I don’t have the energy to put on a production. Don’t have the energy to lie. Too much work. I went to my uncle’s house last night for dinner. We usually get together once a week or so.”
“That’s nice. Is he in the same line of work?”
Luca nodded. “Meth.”
I took a few more bites of my food as I absorbed that answer. “Are your parents still around?” I thought I already knew theanswer to that question, based on everything else he’d told me…and not told me.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
He gave no reaction, like my words fell on deaf ears.
“What happened to them?”
His eyes flicked away like the question intruded into his private space. He let the silence linger between us for a while. “Now isn’t the place.”
“Of course,” I said. “Fair enough.”
22
ALIÉNOR
He put my suitcase on a table in his walk-in closet so I could easily access whatever I needed. Then he stripped, pulling the long-sleeved shirt over his head and leaving it on the floor for his butler to take care of later. He stepped out of his boots and dropped his jeans until he was in nothing but his boxers beside me.
I stared at his back, so chiseled and defined, the scars almost unnoticeable in the collage of muscles.
He opened a drawer and revealed a stack of sweatpants, in different shades of gray and black. He grabbed the one on top and pulled them over his tight ass before he returned to the bedroom.
