“You think I’m happy?” Lucy puts her hand on my wrist and steps closer, the hard glitter vanishing from her eyes as she whispers, “I’m in hell, but I would suffer any torment to remain close to you, Damiano.”
“You do not love him?” I ask urgently.
“I could never love him.”
“He doesn’t make you feel the way I make you feel?”
“He does not,” she insists.
“Good.” I close my eyes, pull her into my arms, and press my brow against hers. Breathing deeply, I inhale her sweet scent. Out here in the moonlight, I can pretend she’s all mine. “Or I’d have to kill him right now.”
Lucy’s fingers graze over the gun holstered under my arm. “I love that you’re always armed, Damiano.”
“All the better to protect you with, my love.” My lips find her ear, and I whisper, “Ask me to kill him for you. I’ll do it now, as he heads for his car in the dark. You want him dead, don’t you?”
Lucy shakes her head. “Murder him unprovoked and in cold blood in the parking lot? Don Cristiano would kill you in an instant.”
And Dad would kill Lucy, but right now, I’m desperate enough for us to take our chances and go on the run.
“Ask me to kill him for you,” I insist. “Prove to me that you want me, not him.”
Lucy pretends not to hear me. “Will you take me home with you, one last time?”
My insides feel like they’re being submerged in acid. One last time. The only person in the world I love is being taken away from me, and I don’t know how to stop it other than by murder, and, apparently, that’s not what Lucy wants.
She pulls herself out of my arms, slides into my car, and holds my hand tightly in both of hers all the way home.
Lucy goes to her bed, and I go to mine, but it takes a long time for me to fall asleep.
As soon as I do, I dive headlong into nightmares.
Lucy, laughing and carefree, running unknowingly into a burning church.
Lucy in her wedding dress, dousing herself in gasoline, and striking a match.
Lucy and Andreas in bed together, writhing in pleasure among burning flames. I call out to her again and again, but she doesn’t hear me.
I feel hands on me, dragging me out of the hell I’ve fallen into.
“Damiano, wake up.”
My eyes snap open, and I gasp for frantic breaths. Smoke is burning my throat and lungs, and flames are dancing in my vision, but when my eyes clear, I see her.
“Lucy.” I clasp her in my arms, rocking her back and forth in my lap as though she’s the one who needs comforting and not me.
“You’re all right. It’s just a dream,” she assures me.
“It’s not just a dream,” I remind her fiercely. “This is a living nightmare because you’re being taken away from me. I can’t lose you, Lucy. I’ll go mad if I lose you. Don’t marry him. Please don’t marry him.”
I’ll crawl over hot coals if she’ll let me kill her fucking fiancé.
Lucy takes my face in her hands, and there’s so much pain and longing in her expression that I can’t take it anymore.
I kiss her.
Lucy inhales sharply, and then she’s kissing me back. Our mouths and tongues move with feverish desire, and we clasp each other urgently, afraid to let go even for a second. Lucy hurtsas much as I’m hurting, and she wants me as much as I want her, but she’s still going to marry Andreas.
“Lucy, I am begging you—”
