Page 23 of Restless Hawke

No one talks to Luca Abello like that and lives to tell about it.

He merely raises dark brows at me, unaffected by my vibrating anger. “Shouldn’t I be askingyouthat question?”

Offering an annoyed huff, I storm away from him, back into the suite, and directly to the bar. I down Allegra’s remaining bourbon, pour myself another scotch and one for him, then nudge it toward the edge in offering, before I go and lean against the windows overlooking Monaco. “How’d you find me?”

He smirks as he wanders over and lifts the glass, taking a sip of it. “When the ceremony ended and nobody could find you…”—he glares at me in a way that ensures I feel every single bit of the reproach in it—“there was a panic, as you can imagine.”

I definitely never intended that.

Though, I should have known it would be the result. Despite my text to everyone when I left that I knew what I was doing and not to look for me. Despite insisting I was going to fix things and to just let me do it…

I stillleft.

I simply disappeared during Cass and Kennedy’s reception.

One minute, I was there, standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching Atlas propose to Wren, and the next, I was slipping past security and everyone else while they were distracted and making my escape during the only chance I knew I would ever get.

My texts wouldn’t have done anything to quell their fears or anger at my disappearance.

And the fact that I turned off my phone so no one could track meorreach me only made things worse in their eyes.

It’s beenweeks, and the Hawkes aren’t known for their patience.

Luca swirls his drink and stares down at it almost absently. “We knew you were still in the States for a while because we have a tracker on your passport and would have been alerted if you’d used it.”

“I fucking knew it.”

He glances up at my muttered comment and offers me a half-smirk. “Good call not using your cell phone or the passport.”

I release a heavy sigh and run my hand back through my hair. “Until I came here…”

My fucking passport did me in.

Luca nods slowly. “Until you came here…”

He wanders over to a leather chair in the center of the main living room area of the suite and settles into it, casually dropping one ankle over his knee.

“So, what?” I narrow my eyes on him, trying to figure out why we’re even having this conversation at all and why he didn’t just appear with the muscle he needed to force me into the car that’s undoubtedly waiting outside to take us to the airport and one of the Hawke jets waiting to bring me home. “They sent you to drag me back?”

His hard gaze softens for a split second. “They sent me to make sure you wereall right, Coen. Everybody’s fucking worried. What the hell were you thinking? It’s been a month and not a fucking word from you. For all we knew, Satriano had already snatched you and taken his pound of flesh or worse.”

“I wish…” I mutter before I take another sip and focus out the window.

“Enough of the fucking games, Coen.” The snap in his tone forces me to look at him again. “Tell me what you’ve been up to the last month because all we’ve been able to piece together after getting in touch with all of our contacts is that you’ve played in a few tournaments—California, Texas, Atlantic City…” He scowls. “Pretty fucking ballsy heading to my old stomping grounds, by the way.”

I smirk. “You may have connections, but so do I.”

“My connections received a fucking earful about not alerting me of your presence, believe me.”

God only knows what Luca did to them…

The man may have stepped back from his role as the head of the Abello crime family, but that darkness still lingers just beneath his polished surface.

Like a coiled cobra, waiting to strike.

Clearing my throat, glancing out at the dark water and vibrant lights. When he doesn’t say anything for a while, an awkward, tense silence settling over us, I glance back to find Luca’s lips pressed into a firm line.

“I think you need to start with what the fuck happened after the wedding and what all this”—he spreads out his hands—“is supposed to be. Are you hiding from us or fromhim?”