Finally, forcing myself to detach from him, I stand and watch as his semihard dick falls back onto his stomach, shiny from our mixed fluids.
Luca doesn’t move to fix himself as he watches me; his eyes reflect nothing but pure, unadulterated love for me as he stands and pulls his pants back into place.
I watch as he takes my panties and wipes my inner thigh with them, cleaning up his mess, before pocketing them into his jeans.
He smiles at me as I put my shorts back on. The friction of the seam hits my swollen clit just right.
“Fucker,” I petulantly call him.
He meets me with a lopsided smile, knowing what I’m speaking about. “Come, it’s time to go home.” Grabbing my hand, he leads us back to the funeral home. Sated and happy to hear those words.
Chapter Eight
Luca
Having Rowan back home, safe and sound, I feel like I can finally take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the air they’ve been needing for a while. I watch her from my office window as she jogs around the property.
I was constantly alert while we were at Matteo’s, never feeling like I could relax. But now, on my twenty acres, knowing she is safe, I can.
From my office and bedroom, I get a full view of my land. Not all of it, but enough. Enough to have a warning, time to prepare. I have trail cams sporadically placed. I know we’re never truly safe, but I’ll do what needs to be done to make sure we have a fighting fucking chance.
In my line of work, you can never truly let your guard down. No matter the due diligence I take to cover my identity, there is always a way for someone who wants to find it.
Damian will take up residence in the apartment above Hard Knocks, which used to be my home before the house in the woods.
Those long nights of staying awake, going over every piece of evidence I could find about the fraternity, the people involved—it was a never-ending cycle. On the rooftop was where I finally had to burn the photos of Lauren's autopsy. The feeling of her finally being released. Now, with the fraternity and those whowere involved burned to the ground, maybe we can get back to normal…or whatever normal is.
I had to take a step back because I was becoming my father, a man I used to look up to, who had become a shell of a man. Losing his two women, his daughter and then wife, changed him forever.
The man who taught me to be the killer I am is forever gone. Eaten away by haunting memories and alcohol.
The day my mother died of cancer is the day he packed a bag and left the States. Leaving me with everything. He didn’t stay to tell my mother goodbye. And I know mentally he couldn’t, but I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for leaving me alone to take care of it all—no matter what age I was. Sitting alone in that front row pew cracked my already fractured heart even more.
He calls every few months to check in, a few words, and then the line goes dead. I used to wait with bated breath for those calls, to know he was still alive. To know I wasn’t alone in this world, but now if they come, they come. He left me alone. I have every resource to find him and monitor him, but I don’t. I refuse to be weighed down with worry about him. Rowan has given me a reason to make my life more than it was. More than the Delta Alpha Pi, Briggs, Lauren, and the tomb. More than the need for payback. She’s given me a reason to be Luca, once again…or to at least find out who Luca is. Because in truth, I don’t really know who he is without the thought of a constant need for revenge.
The smile that overtakes my face when I see Rowan peek over the hill feels foreign to me… I stop when I spot something behind her. The hair on my arms stands up. Alarm bells are sounding. In a second, I’m standing at the window; the next, I’m running down the stairs and out of the house.
“Rowan!” My scream doesn’t alert her. Her fucking earphones, which she now proudly wears both. A testament to her healing.
Running to her, my voice continued to scream her name.
Her eyes become wide when she spots me, yanking her earphones out.
“What!” she calls in confusion as her jog slows.
I stop, and in that moment, I want to slap myself for overreacting. Trotting behind her is a big dog, looking anything but menacing, as I thought it was as I looked out the window.
Rowan’s eyes notice mine looking behind her.
“Awe,” she coos to the dog as she falls to her knees, hands out.
“No, you don’t know if it’s dangerous,” I tell her as if she’s a child.
“It’s not,” she grumbles to me as her hand lands on top of its furry head. Immediately, the dog closes the gap between her and it.
I slowly walk behind the dog, but it takes note, the hair on its tail standing, and I get a glimpse of what I needed. It’s a female German Shepard.
Rowan speaks quietly to it as she sits on her ass in the gravel dirt. The dog, with no worry, lays down next to Rowan, rolls over, and gives her its stomach.
