What happens when he discovers the secret I’m still hiding?
As much as I want to be honest with him, there’s no way I can tell him now. The second he learns I’m a De Luca, I’ll be following in Alayna’s footsteps.
A fraught and vulnerable silence unfurls between us. After a while, Rory tilts his head toward me. His walls drop, and his expression remains unguarded.
“If I say I’ll keep you safe, would you believe me?” The look he’s giving me suggests that my answer matters to him.
“Yes.” My whisper brings tears to my eyes.
And it’s true. I really do believe him.
The realization sandbags me. Despite the fact that this man kidnapped me, I actually trust him.
Rory leans over until our foreheads touch. “Come here.”
My body obeys him without a single thought. I scoot closer, and Rory maneuvers us until we’re reclining on the couch, with me tucked against his chest.
His heart thumps beneath my ear. The rhythmic sound is so peaceful and soothing that I could fall asleep right here, even in the arms of this very dangerous man.
I close my eyes, allowing myself to rest in the tenderness of this small moment, awed by the fact that this could have easily never happened. If things with Shane had gone differently, I might be tied up and locked in a van this very moment, being carted back to Leo…
I shudder just imagining that scenario.
“What is it?” Rory’s voice is warm near my forehead.
I shake my head against his chest. “What’s going to happen to me?”
I feel Rory’s exhale vibrate through me. “I don’t know what they’re going to decide to do with you, but I do know this. I’ll be fucking damned before I allow them to ship you back to those monsters.”
The grim resolve in his voice lets me know he means those words. And my heart melts a little more when he doesn’t even pressure me for information or to talk to Shane.
Relief and gratitude spring up inside me like wildflowers popping out between cracks in the concrete. Everything still seems a little hopeless, but Rory’s vow to protect me not only from my family, but from his too… I don’t know what to say.
“What about you?” I murmur into his shoulder. “Wouldn’t there be fallout for you?”
“Probably.” He kisses my forehead, dismissing the possibility of trouble. Which is absurd.
I know mafia family trouble.
Mafia family trouble isbad trouble.Life and death trouble.
How can he promise to protect me when we both know doing so means potentially putting his safety on the line? I don’t know how to process that question or the possible answer. And can Iallow him to do that? When all I need to do to reduce his risk is reveal my true identity to Shane?
The tension in Rory’s body radiates into my own. I’m scared, but being this close to him somehow calms me. His demeanor, the strength of his body and will…who knew I could be comforted by these things?
Despite the charged situation we’re in, Rory and I keep talking.
The energy between us is different. While it’s not the intense sexual energy of this afternoon, the intimacy is still there. It’s real.
I tell him about how when I was little, my mother would spread paper all over the ground near her easel and let me go to town. Half the time, I ended up wearing more paint than the paper, but she’d just laugh and tell me that art was messy work. I tell him my father was barely in the picture, which was for the best.
Rory folds his arm around my shoulders, turning our bodies toward each other a little more. “My dad died when I was a teenager, and my mom basically…never recovered.”
“What do you mean?” I tilt my head back and find myself staring at Rory’s chin.
“I think I’ve mentioned my mom’s Alzheimer’s before. We learned about her diagnosis a few years ago…” Rory squeezes me a little tighter. “It came on so fast, none of us saw it coming. And then last year, she got out of the house on her own one day. She was found wandering the streets alone and confused after almost getting hit by a car.”
I squeeze Rory back, empathy pinching my insides. Thinking about his mom spurs me into thinking about mine. “I’m so sorry that happened.”
