"When did you become such a bitch, Dante?" Lucifer snickered. "I put the hit out on your wife, had her killed, and you are willing to let me walk away? You are a disgrace to this city."
I'm so sorry. Staring into Lucca's eyes, her heart broke for him. The man who had stolen her soul was responsible for stealing his mother's.
The feeling and bond between them made more sense.
Dante flexed his jaw, taking a step forward, his voice becoming more powerful as he said, "The girl for your man, Luciano."
Lucifer put his hands on Chloe's shoulders, squeezing her harshly. "What do you want with her? She is nothing to you, nor does she belong to any Caruso." He moved one of his hands, running a finger down the scar across her eye. "She has my mark. She belongs to me and me alone."
The devil's touch scorched her, but her eyes still didn't waiver, finding strength in the blue-green eyes that didn't move from hers.
"You took her from my home, my protection, and from my son." Dante paused, his ice-blue eyes growing colder. "She belongs to Lucca."
A creeping fear pulsing off the Luciano men filled the air the second he said Lucca's name. They had all taken a step away from her, not wanting to be near her. The only ones who hadn't moved were Lucifer and the twins.
"No! She's mine!" Lucifer screamed.
"Chloe is mine," a low, lethal voice filled the space, hitting the ears of every living thing in here until their blood ran cold, whispering over and over in all their minds. "Give her to me now, or I will blow his fucking brains out." He pushed the barrel of the gun against the man's head while the man kneeled, unmoving.
"There's not much of him left. He's better off dead." Lucifer laughed. "He serves no purpose to me anymore if he can't hold her precious body dow-"
POP.
Lucca had pulled the trigger, and the body fell forward to the floor.
Keep them to me, his eyes told her when she jumped from the noise.
"Kill them!" Lucifer demanded.
The room went silent. Lucifer's men looked around at each other, trying to decide what to do.
"What are you doing? Kill them!" Lucifer crazily screamed again, pulling his hands off of Chloe to back up and look around at his men. When he did, the twins stepped closer to her.
Lucifer's son, who stood in the front, hadn't yet moved. He had simply kept his eyes on Dante. But now he finally moved them to Lucca's.
"She's yours?"
"She's mine," Lucca told him with certainty.
"Step aside, Dominic. Let us take those who should be held responsible for their crimes, and no one else will have to die"-Dante paused-"today."
"I SAID, KILL THEM!" Lucifer was becoming deranged now.
Chloe's chest rose and fell with the force of her breaths while all the other Lucianos waited to see what Dominic would do.
Dominic slowly put down his gun, stepping to the side. The air felt like it had been sucked out of the room. Then they all followed suit, dropping their guns to the floor and stepping to the side. You could practically touch the shift of power from Lucifer to Dominic, from father to son. Now, the air that had been sucked from the room returned in a whoosh that felt different.
A stunned and crazed Lucifer went for his knife before going straight for Chloe. The twins immediately grabbed him, pulling him back and away from her.
It finally hit Chloe then. They were protecting me … this whole time.
Lucca took a step forward then, the only one in the room moving as he came toward her. The Carusos followed behind him with every step he took to her.
As the boogieman's blue-green eyes came closer to her, she tried to wiggle out of her bonds, tears falling from her eyes.
When he pulled out his knife, she didn't move an inch. Not even her eyes moved from his as he brought it close to her face, cutting the fabric wrapped around her face and head, letting it fall to the ground. Then the boogieman fell to his knees in front of her, cutting the rope away from her ankles.
Her heart was pumping out of her chest, the tears still falling, when he finally and carefully cut away the bloody rope that had bound her wrists together.
There was this split second, a moment in time that surely stood still. A moment so powerful it had been stopped by an equally powerful force when the two of them looked into each other's eyes. Only the two knew what was going to happen next, what they were thinking, how they were feeling. It was a power that went beyond this world or any other.
When time resumed, Chloe, who would have once run away, terrified of the dangerous being who stood before her, opened her arms and jumped into the embrace of the boogieman who kneeled before her.
It was beautiful.
"You saved me." She began to cry into his chest.
"I promised to save you, darlin'." Lucca held her to him with a tight force. "I will always save you."
Picking her up and cradling her, he stood as she held on to him, keeping her eyes closed and her face pressed into his neck as fighting and screaming replaced the beauty of their reunion with horror.
She never saw the moment when Sal decided the fate of terrified men by a simple point of his finger.
She never saw the real, true heartbreak on Amo's face when he had to watch Lucca pass by him, carrying out the girl he loved.
She never saw the daunting look Lucca had given Amo, promising to make true the threat he had given him.
Chloe never saw that the exact moment she had finally been saved was the exact moment Lucca had been saved from his own nightmares.
Forty-Three
A Soul That Could Only Be Returned to Her by Him
Lucca carried her up the steps and into the house, passing the doorframe where Drago's blood still stained the floors.
"Is he … ?" Chloe swallowed, unable to say the words.
"We'll talk about it later, darlin'." Holding her tighter, he started packing her up the stairs.
She slammed her eyes shut, putting her face into the crook of his neck, her legs and arms wrapped tightly around him. Drago had given his life for hers, something I will never, ever be able to repay.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he smoothed his hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her while he took her into his room, passing through to the bathroom where he placed her on the vanity counter between the two sinks. When he stood between her legs, Chloe kept her eyes on his chest.
The softness in him seemed to disappear as he looked over her disheveled body, removing his black suit jacket from her shoulders. "Did he hurt you?"
"N-No." She found Lucca a little frightening. The darkness in him had yet to be released. "I-I did that to myself," she said when he pulled up her sleeves, exposing the raw and broken skin on her wrists.
"Did he touch you anywhere I need to know about?" Lucca growled, his possessiveness showing.
Knowing what he meant by that, she shook her head, hoping her answer would ease him just a little and shoo away the darkness. However, as she looked down at her lap, she could still feel the trails of fire where the devil had touched her.
Lucca put a finger under her chin, lifting her head and making her look up at him. "What is it?"
"I-I-I still feel him," she confessed. All over me.
He turned away from her then, and she didn't know if her confession had broken him or if it had made him more furious.
Leaving her on the vanity, he went to the glass shower and turned the water on before he returned right back to her. Then he pulled her off the vanity and to her feet, telling her, "You're going to let me help you."
"W-What?" She grew nervous, which made her body shake. She had felt like her frozen skin was finally beginning to warm, only to go back to feeling doused in ice.
"I will not touch your skin, nor will I join you, even though it kills me not to." There was slight pain in his commanding voice. "But you will let me help you undress and dress. I can't leave your side right now, Chloe. I just can't."
I don't want you to leave. She couldn't take not being with him, either, not after what had just happened. Slowly, she nodded her head.
When Lucca grabbed the hem of her sweater, gently removing it from her body, his eyes went directly to the scars on her arms. Then he gazed over the ones on her stomach he hadn't seen before.
Even though she wasn't able to look in his eyes, she could feel how hungry he was.
When he went to unsnap the back of her black bra, she became increasingly nervous. The scars on her body weren't her only insecurity. She had grown into her body early, having a womanly figure at a young age that she had never been able to hide. Her short stature didn't help; it only exaggerated her already overstated hips and breasts.
As soon as the bra fell away, she covered her heavy breasts with her arms, becoming embarrassed. Why am I doing this? The old part of her wanted to run, while the new side wouldn't let her.
Lucca could see her second-guessing and didn't waste any more time. He went to the hem of the black jeans around her hips, removing them and her thin underwear altogether.
"Shower," he gruffly ordered.
She ran to the safety of the shower as she held herself, trying not to die of embarrassment. When she closed the shower door behind her, the steamy warmth of the air gave her more privacy.
The second the water hit her skin, she felt like she could melt away. It was so warm, heating up her body that had been frozen for hours.