Sienna POV
Lily’s call came while I was still in Adrian Moretti’s car.
It was very late — why would she call at this hour?
I answered.
The other end was loud: men shouting, glasses clinking, music underneath it all.
Lily’s voice came through in broken pieces.
She was plainly drunk.
“Sienna… Aurelius, 4888… help me…”
I sat up straight.
“Lily? What’s wrong?”
Only a tangle of noise, and then nothing.
“Mr. Moretti, take me to Aurelius.”
Adrian turned to look at me.
“Aurelius, at this hour?”
”My friend’s in trouble.
I have to get there now.”
He didn’t ask anything else, only lifted his chin.
“Aurelius. Take the fastest way.”
The car swung around onto the main road into the city center, faster than before.
Adrian took a cigarette from the case in the armrest, put it between his teeth, and turned a lighter over in his hand.
“Your friend’s alone in there?”
”Yes.”
”Want me to come in with you?”
”No, thank you.” I shook my head.
“I can handle it myself.”
I didn’t want to owe Adrian anything more, least of all over something private.
When the car stopped at the main entrance, the doorman came forward.
Adrian didn’t get out.
“If you need help, use my name.”
”Thank you.”
I went straight in.
Warm air and perfume hit me in the face.
I gave the room number, and a waiter led me down a long corridor; the further in we went, the clearer the music and the louder the laughter.
The door of the private room stood half open, and Lily’s voice came from inside.
“I told you I’m not drinking. Let go of me.”
A man laughed.
“Out having fun and playing the innocent? You think I don’t know what you are?”
I pushed the door open.
The room was a wreck: three or four men around the sofa, the table covered in empty bottles and shot glasses.
A bald man had one arm around Lily’s shoulders, the other on her waist.
Her hair had come loose, her clothes disheveled, her face streaked with tears and wine.
I stood in the doorway.
“Let her go.”
They turned.
The bald man released Lily and got to his feet, swaying, glass in hand.
“Want to take her? Fine. Drink her drinks for her. Drink until the brothers are satisfied, and you can both walk out.”
I ignored him and went to Lily, lifting her off the sofa.
She leaned into me from behind, clutching my clothes, trembling.
I looked at the table.
Whiskey, vodka, tequila.
All of it hard liquor.
“Just drinking is boring,” I said, raising my eyes.
“Shake the dice. Loser drinks double.”
The men stared, then roared with laughter.
They hadn’t put me anywhere near the category of threat.
What they didn’t know was that the first thing I learned at Blackwood wasn’t how to fire a gun.
It was how to work a dice cup.
Victor Kane had thrown me into the underground casinos for three months.
Every night from eight until four I sat at the table across from card sharks and gamblers.
Round after round, they fell behind on the drinking.
One started talking nonsense.
Another waved a hand and gave up.
The last two were swaying too hard to hold a cup steady.
I set the cup down and went back to Lily.
“Let’s go.”
Outside, she leaned her weight on my shoulder.
After a few steps: “Sienna… I owe you for tonight…”
”Don’t talk.” I held her tighter and lowered my voice.
“Did they touch you?”
Lily was silent a moment, then laughed.
“Someone like me stopped being clean a long time ago.” She wiped the tears off her face, her voice thick with self-mockery.
“A few hands on me, some liquor poured down me — that’s nothing. As long as they didn’t actually drag me into bed, I count it as not having lost anything.”
I knew what she had been through.
I didn’t argue.
I held her, hard.
“I’ll take you home. Get some sleep.”
It was past midnight when I got back to my apartment.
I made her something for the hangover and sat with her until she slept.
Downstairs I stood in the cold wind for ten minutes, my head muddled.
The hallway sensor light was on.
I fished out my keys and tried several times before one went into the lock.
I was about to turn it when a voice came from behind.
“Enjoy yourself?”
I startled so badly I nearly dropped the keys.
Luca stood against the wall in a black overcoat, collar turned up, several smoked-down cigarette butts at his feet.
“Mr. Hawthorne?” My tongue tripped over the words.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked at me.
“Coming home this late. Must have found yourself a new backer. Having such a good time you forgot the way home.”
After tonight, my mood was sour.
“Where I go and who I’m with doesn’t seem to be something I have to report to you anymore.” I stared at him.
“After all, you fired me.”
Luca ground out the cigarette and came toward me.
I stepped back; my shoulders hit the door.
He caught my chin and forced my head up.
“So you couldn’t wait to run to somebody else?” His voice dropped.
“A man like Adrian Moretti, and you dare touch him?”
”Yes.” I knocked his hand off hard.
“I’m shameless. I’m free now. Where I go and who I’m with has nothing to do with you anymore.” I lifted my head and looked straight into him.
“What gives you the right to ask? What am I to you?”
Luca’s face went dark.
He grabbed my wrist and pinned me against the wall.
Before the pain had time to spread, he was kissing me.
I struggled, and he caught both my wrists and held me there, his other hand at the back of my head so I had nowhere to turn.
He stopped only when I tasted blood.
“Say it. Who kisses better?” He looked at me.
“Me, or Adrian?”
I was shaking all over, my mouth burning.
Looking at the face so close to mine, I found the man in front of me a stranger.
Five years ago, Luca had kissed me like this too.
He protected me when I was frightened, put himself in front of me, pulled me out of every mess I landed in.
The man in front of me now had gone further and further from the one I remembered, and I knew better than anyone that half of what he had become, I had made with my own hands.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” My voice came out thick, and I turned my face away.
“You said you liked me. That you wanted to be my lover.”
His voice was low.
“Fine. Granted.”
My head came up sharply, and half the alcohol burned out of me at once.
Luca watched my eyes widen, and said slowly:
”From now on, you move into my place.”