“He’s fine.”
She bumps me lightly with her hips. “Is everythingfineto you right now?”
“What else do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know! Something! You’re about to marry a total stranger. Aren’t there feelings knocking around in that head?”
I meet her teasing frustration with silence.
But yes, there are feelings. A lot of feelings, and all of them conflicting. I’m afraid and sad. I never wanted to get married, especially not this young. From what I’ve seen, Luca is aterrifying bastard. He’s vicious and violent. I keep thinking about him beating my attacker into a human-shaped pile of Jell-O and teeth.
I’m also excited. I still haven’t forgotten that stupid and incredible mistake in Luca’s office. My legs wrapped around his middle. His dick plunging into me. His warm mouth on mine. The way he made me submit broke me. It’s still breaking me.
Most of all though, I’m optimistic.
Because very soon all the attention on me is going to fade. I’ll return to being just some girl in Luca’s life. Just another woman he has to feed and occasionally speak to. Once that happens, I’ll start my real plan.
Step one: steal money from him over a relatively long time period and make sure he doesn’t notice.
Step two: finish rebuilding my Spider.
Step three: convince Elisa to escape with me into the sunset.
Honestly, it’s going to be easy.
I just have to get through today, and tomorrow, and the day after.
But soon I’ll be driving fast out west with the wind in my hair, and nobody will stop me.
The group stops outside of a municipal judge’s office. We pile into a moderately large room filled with law books, a flag on the wall, and framed degrees on the other.
“Thank you for seeing us on short notice, Judge Hensley,” Luca says, shaking the older man’s hand.
Judge Hensley is a big man with pale skin and graying hair. He’s at least in his sixties and doesn’t seem excited about all this. “Happy to help my good friend Adriano,” he murmurs, glancing around at the others. I know Luca’s guys are named Enzo and Stefano. They lurk off to the side, looking intimidating.
Raf, meanwhile, comes back to stand with me and Elisa. He leans in and talks quietly. “Please make this simple, alright?”
“What else would I do?”
He gives me a meaningful look. “You know.”
Okay, that’s fair. I do know. “I’ll be a perfect angel,” I say sweetly.
Even Elisa looks doubtful about that one.
“As requested, this should be very fast. I just need proof of identification and some signatures, please.” Judge Hensley gestures for me to step forward. He frowns slightly when he gets a good look at my beat-up throat and face, but he doesn’t say anything. Elisa covered the worst of it with makeup anyway. “I was told there won’t be any rings?”
“Actually, I brought one.” Luca takes a black box from his jacket pocket.
I stare at Luca in surprise. “You did?”
“I wasn’t going to show up to my wedding empty-handed.” The look he gives me is pure molten lava and dumps right down into my core. My god, he’s obscenely attractive.
It’s a shame I hate him and can’t wait to get out of here.
Though I keep thinking about finding him slumped outside my door this morning.
It was creepy, but also endearing. I’ve never been with someone who cared about me enough to be that uncomfortable for hours. It’s weird thinking he was out there staring at the door while I was snoring away, but also reassuring.
