Finally, Jordyn moved her arm so she could see Lucian. A faint smile played at the edge of his mouth, but the concern in his heady gaze was all too clear.
"He's really dead, huh?" Jordyn asked in a whisper.
Lucian nodded. "Yeah, bella. Will's dead. And may he rot in hell where he belongs."
"You sound angry."
"I am."
"Why, isn't this a good thing? I mean, it should be."
"Sure it is. Except I didn't get to do a thing to him that I wanted to. I didn't get to make him bleed for marking your face, or break his bones for him breaking your skin. He didn't have to hurt or cry or beg … nothing. I feel like it was left hanging. That was too easy for him, Jordyn. It was nothing like what I would have done to him for what he did to you."
Jordyn felt the shiver crawling up her spine from Lucian's anger and darkness. Occasionally, the treacherous nature of his soul flashed harsh and bright, reminding her that beneath his sweet and gentle hands was a dangerous man. She loved it as much as she worried about it.
"Sometimes revenge leaves us nowhere but cold, Lucian."
He bared his teeth, sneering. "No, I think it would have left me sky-high."
"It's just hard to believe," Jordyn said softly, melting into Lucian's warm palm as he moved to stroke her cheek. "After everything, that's how it ends for me and him. I'm never going to know what I did to make that man hate me, or why I deserved his bitterness and abuse."
"Maybe it wasn't what you did," Lucian offered, shrugging, " … but what someone else wouldn't give him."
"My mom, you mean."
"That's the first place I'd start looking."
"I think he loved her once," Jordyn murmured. "She didn't love him."
"Bad men made monsters, sweetheart."
Jordyn sniffed away emotions. They felt useless now. "I guess I just don't understand the mindset."
"I think it's likely he went after the next best thing to hurt her. The closest thing he could stand tossing out his cruelty to, and unfortunately, that happened to be you."
"Is that what you would do, too, if you couldn't have what you loved?" she asked.
Lucian blew out a harsh breath. "No. I'd eat my gun before I would ever hurt someone I loved, especially you."
"It seems too easy, and I don't know where to go from here. What do I do now?"
"With me?"
"Who else would I do it with?" Jordyn asked, giving him a look. "Yes, with you."
"We live."
Jordyn's lips cracked with a smile that matched Lucian's, but it faded all too quickly. "Except someone shot up your Lexus this morning hoping you'd be inside."
Without saying a thing, Lucian urged her up to a sitting position on the couch. Kneeling between her knees, he traced the contours of her cheeks and lips with his thumbs softly. As his digit rolled over her plump bottom lip again, Jordyn kissed it.
"I was hoping you hadn't put that together, yet," Lucian said.
"Of course I did."
"You're anything but stupid, I know. I suppose asking you to trust us and let us handle it without you worrying is pointless, right?"
Jordyn shrugged weakly. "I love you, Lucian. I can't just ignore it."
"Being who I am, I'm always on some kind of a block, Jordyn. We all are."
"But it is always so blatant?" she shot right back.
"No," he admitted low. "Nothing is going to happen."
Jordyn wanted to believe him more than anything. "If you'd been in the car-"
"I wasn't."
"I hate how this works sometimes between you and me," Jordyn told him as his hand cupped her jaw. "I get a phone call, some car shows up, I'm told I have to leave, and that's it. I'm left to wonder and worry until I see your face, and even that really doesn't help by the end of it."
"Better to get you to a safe place than waste time with information."
Jordyn stared him down, frustration rising. "It's not for me!"
"I'm sorry, but that's how it works."
"What do we do now?" Jordyn asked, waving at nothing.
"About the threat on me, we wait until next time."
Something awful lodged in her throat. "Wait for the next time?"
Lucian didn't bother to avert his gaze from hers as he replied, "Wait and hope the next time, it's not so vague, and someone messes up. There will be next time, and it limits down the people every time."
"I don't like that," Jordyn mumbled. "Just play dumb and wait to be killed."
"No one's killing me. Quit it."
Jordyn sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with him on this. "Thank you."
Lucian's dark brow rose. "For what?"
"Keeping your promise and giving me safety. Taking me out of something I couldn't escape myself. Being you, I guess."
"Only for you, bella mia." Then, Lucian grinned, his teasing manner back in a flash. "Besides, something good came from this."
"Oh?" Jordyn snorted and rolled her eyes. "I doubt that."
"Sure. I get to go car shopping next week. What man doesn't want a reason to buy a new car? You can help me pick."
Jesus Christ.
"That's awful," she told him seriously. "It's not even funny. Frankly, it's pretty damn close to being worthy of you sleeping somewhere else besides with me tonight."
"Car shopping is serious business, Jordyn. I would never joke about it." Lucian stood, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Speaking of tonight, you don't mind staying here, do you? It's late, and I'm not in the mood to have a car drive us back to Manhattan. Antony already called about the Mercedes in storage for me to use until I get another vehicle, but that won't be here until morning."
"His Mercedes? How many cars does he have?"
Lucian shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "I collect guns, he collects cars. Besides, it's the only vehicle in his fleet with bulletproof glass."
Great, Jordyn thought. Because he needs that, now.
"I want to go to sleep," she said instead of voicing her thoughts. "This day needs to end already."
Lucian chuckled. "Okay, we can do that. Big day tomorrow, after all."
Damn it. Jordyn barely hid her groan. In the excitement over the day, she'd completely forgotten the party tomorrow evening. Dante and Lucian both happened to have birthdays within days of one another. Lucian would be turning twenty-eight in a week, and Dante was turning twenty-seven that coming Wednesday. Apparently the men often shared one party together as they were just a year apart in age and had the same interest when it came to a proper celebration.
Up until earlier, she'd been looking forward to the party. It would be the first time they all went out together and had fun just to have fun. Jordyn wasn't sure this was the right time for a party after what happened.
"Are you sure it's the best time for this?"
"Gio's gift to us was the VIP section of his club for Saturday. He's got it booked up for the next six months. Other than that, Marcellos don't hide, Jordyn. We're not fearful men."
"Maybe that's the problem, Lucian. You have no fear."
He didn't argue.
Sometime later, after Jordyn had long fallen asleep and the large home was quiet, Lucian's quiet murmurs in her ear, his kiss on her cheek, and his hand skimming her side woke her back up.
Jordyn groaned in the darkness, turning to her other side. "Stop it. We're not having sex in your parents' house. You're the one who warned me of discussions to come."
"That wasn't exactly the plan, but thanks for a rejection before I even get that far," Lucian groused.
"What is it?"
"I wanted to tell you the day is over, now."
Jordyn smiled, seeing the time blinking past midnight on the bedside table alarm clock. "Good. Can we go back to sleep?"
"No, get up."
"Lucian."
If this was one of his stunts, she was going to disembowel him come morning.
"Seriously, Jordyn, get up. I want to show you something."
Glaring and grumbling the entire time, Jordyn did as he demanded. Lucian wouldn't even let her slip on a pair of sleep pants from his old clothes, instead saying she wouldn't need them and the T-shirt and panties she wore were fine. Sure they were. He took her through the silent, dark house until they were on the bottom floor and at the very back where it led to the connecting building for the indoor pool. Quietly, Lucian keyed in numbers to the security pad at the French doors and opened it up.
Underwater lights glimmered under the water of the pool, the colors rapidly changing from one to another. Jordyn was almost too busy admiring the sight to notice Lucian was tugging off his T-shirt and kicking off his sleep pants. He didn't have a thing on underneath.
"Lucian, what are you-"
Jordyn's words were cut off when he dove into the pool without warning.
Not two seconds later, he popped back up, hazel eyes watching her like a predator wanting its prey. "Get in the water, Jordyn."