54
CLAIRE
Johnny shook his biological father’s hand.
And neither one of them had a fucking clue who the other was.
Johnny probably assumes Luciano is just a random café owner, and Luciano thinks we’re only another set of patrons who enjoy his place’s food.
I should have paid more attention to where Johnny was taking us, but I really needed to get that chapter read before class, and I had no idea he would bring us to the one place on the entire Eastern Seaboard that we should avoid.
Last night, when I saw Luciano for the first time, I thought there was a strong resemblance, but seeing them together, practically side by side, it was startling how much they resemble each other. Their eyes especially—they’re almost the exact same shade of emerald, which in itself is incredibly rare.
I wonder if they noticed it, the similarities between them? Or if they thought it was a weird coincidence that they happened to share a few physical qualities.
One thing that definitely drew my attention was Luciano’s quick cover up when Johnny called me out on having Rosie with me. Luciano easily could have thrown me under the bus, but instead, he went right along with it, even layering a strangely believable detail about Rosie being chatty.
Luckily for me, that’s how Rosie really is, which made Johnny buy into it even more.
Another lie added onto the stacks of deceit between us. If I don’t come clean soon, it’s going to raise too much suspicion and create issues with me and Johnny. We’ve been through too much; I can’t afford for us to fight over shit that we can easily handle.
How do I tell him that I fibbed and got his DNA, not to test his allergies, but to see if he had any living relatives, and on top of that, that the man he met earlier for breakfast was his bio dad who I semi-stalked?
Oh, and that I’m pretty sureI’mthe reason Griffin is dead.
You know, no big deal.
And on top of all of that, it feels like Johnny is hiding something from me, too.
He’s been paranoid since the moment we initiated our plan in the hospital, but lately, he’s taken it to a whole new level. Constantly looking over his shoulder, quite literally, scanning every single body that passes us, like he’s waiting for a threat to form out of thin air.
I don’t want to pry too much, because I don’t want to draw attention to his paranoia if that’s all it really is, but what if there’s something he hasn’t told me? A danger I’m unaware of. If there is, I should probably stop wandering off on my own, but if there isn’t, I don’t see any issue with doing a little more investigation into this Luciano Bane and seeing whether or not he’s worthy of being in Johnny’s life.
“J…” I place my hand on Johnny’s shoulder, pulling his attention from the notepad he’s jotting down stuff on.
“What’s up?” He immediately pushes it aside and gives me his full focus. He raises his arm to run his fingers through his hair but stops himself, realizing that his long locks are no more.
“Is everything okay?” I hate the idea that he might be holding back from me, but aren’t I doing the same exact thing?
Johnny’s brows scrunch together. “Yeah.” His expression darkens. “Did something happen?”
I can sense the immediate shift in his heart rate. “No.” I take his hands in mine. “I’m just checking on you. Making sure nothing had changed that I should know about.”
Johnny sighs, and for a second, I think he’s about to confess something to me.
Instead, he shakes his head. “No, nothing you should know about.” Johnny brings my knuckles to his mouth and presses soft kisses along them.
Despite it feeling like that’s not the whole truth, I don’t push anymore. If it were a real concern, he would tell me. It would be foolish of him not to.
“Okay.” I tilt his head up to stare into his beautiful eyes. “Good.”
I guess that means I’m in the clear to do a bit of digging on Luciano before I decide when or if I’m going to tell Johnny the truth about his father.
* * *
Ifinish class and send Johnny a quick text.
Me:Going to grab coffee again and study a little, want me to bring home dinner?