“Am I going to see you again?” Adalyn bit her lip, not wanting to leave his side. She didn’t know what this meant for Angel, if or when he could go back to watching her at school, or even if Lucca would allow it, considering the Carusos hated him so badly.
“I don’t know when I can see you again, but I’ll find you, sweetness,” he made his own promise this time. “I still need the ring you stole from me, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” She smiled, but you’re definitely not getting it back anytime soon.
Taking a breath, assured she would see him again, she started to leave, but then she remembered she at least needed a name for who to return the ring to.
“What’s your friend’s name?”
Getting up from his bed, hurt and stung by the name he had given her, she walked away from him.
Hearing that name had burned her soul. It was in the way he had said it, the way he had formed that beautiful name, the way it had sounded as it had passed his lips, and the look in his eyes as it did. It was something only a woman would understand when the man she was falling for said another woman’s name.
It was a name she wouldn’t ever forget, no matter how desperately she wanted to.
Bella.
Seventeen
I Am and Always Will Bleed Luciano Blood
“How do you feel?” Lucca asked, taking a seat in the corner of the room.
Angel didn’t even turn his head to look at him, knowing who it was. “How the fuck do you think? Your men almost beat me to death.”
Flicking his lighter on and off, he started to twirl the fire between his fingers. “Sorry about that.”
Damn fucker wasn’t even apologizing for his men.
“Can you name them?” he asked, flicking his lighter closed.
Angel looked at him then, knowing exactly why he wanted to know. And let you have all the fun? “No.”
Nodding, Lucca stood, going over to him so he didn’t have to use energy to look at him. “I promise you this, it won’t happen again.”
“So, I guess you’re still not letting me go.” He sunk back in the bed, defeated. He at least thought getting the shit beat out of him was going to give him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“I can’t do that. Not until our families find peace again, and not until I find out who killed Tom.”
Fuck. He was going to be surrounded by Carusos forever.
“I can, however, start treating you like one of my men,” Lucca said simply.
Shocked, Angel didn’t know if he had heard him correctly. “What?”
“Starting tomorrow, you will be a soldier for the Caruso family and will be compensated as such for the time being. This means you answer to me or my father.” The last part was the most important that came with a warning from the underboss. If he was to agree, it would mean he would now bleed and die for the Carusos, who he was now working for, who he had been led to believe were his sworn enemies his entire existence. Then again, beaten, bloodied, and trapped didn’t give him much of a choice. His blood was Luciano, and there was no changing that.
Angel nodded, silently hoping that consenting wouldn’t come back to haunt him.
Before Lucca could leave, there was something he wanted. “I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
Staring Lucca down, he let him know it would be a deal breaker. “I do my job and protect Adalyn without one of your men watching me.”
“Fine.” Lucca glared back, his voice taking a deadly turn. “You betray my trust, though, Angel, it will be the last thing you ever do.”
One Week Later…
As she walked outside, the air seemed crisper. It was going to start snowing anytime now. Adalyn would welcome some change right now. It had been one long week since she had seen Angel last; she just hoped he was still breathing.
School didn’t seem the same anymore without him. Truth be told, her life didn’t seem the same anymore without him. He had ended up being the surprise of her lifetime, and she truly felt he had changed her life forever. There were some people who could do that to you, even if you had only met them for a second. You just could never forget them.
Waiting for the Escalade to pull up, she was shocked to find that it never did. Instead, it was the car Tom had used to pick her up.
Great, another one.
It wasn’t until the car pulled up right next to her that she was able to see who it was through the dark tint.
Angel, wearing sunglasses, rolled down the passenger window when she just stood there in shock. “Are you going to get in, sweetness?”
“You’re still alive,” she whispered, still stunned, never in the slightest having expected him to come back so soon.