Page 24 of Restless Hawke

Satriano…

It would make sense to hide from the man I owe so much to, who now has the power and ability to twist my arm and keep me constantly on the edge of panic, wondering what he will ask for. But deep down, I know he isn’t the one I’ve been running from.

Still, I’m not about to admit that to Luca.

I shake my head. “Neither, really.”

His gaze goes cold. “That’s a fucking lie, and you know it.”

A heavy sigh falls from my mouth, and I drop my temple against the cool glass, hating how fucking well he knows me. It takes a moment for me to process what to say, how to explain why I left.

“You’re right…” I pause to try to regain enough composure to lose the tremble in my voice. “I didn’t want to face any of you. I couldn’t after what I did.”

“And you thought running off and exposing yourself, where Satriano could hunt you down like a fucking wounded animal, was a good idea?”

I lift my head, allowing my eyes to find his. “No…”

It would be stupid to fight telling him.

Luca can make me talk if he wants to, a hundred different ways. Some I probably can’t even fathom. And he’ll know I’m holding something back. He’ll be able to smell the lie from a mile away.

“Satriano isn’t going to be hunting me down because Satriano knows exactly where I am. Just like with the family, I sent him a message. I offered him a deal…”

Luca’s face falls and tenses. He drops his other foot to the floor and shifts forward in his seat. “What did you do?”

“What I had to in order to protect Wren and Atlas. What I had to do to protectallof you from the fallout of what I did.”

He slams his free palm against the armrest. “You fucking idiot. What did youdo?”

I stare him down, far longer than I thought I had the courage to. Eventually, everyone withers under the stare of Luca Abello, which is precisely why they sent him instead of Dad, Savage, Isaac, Saint, or Gabe—or anyone else, for that matter.

He looks every bit the mob boss right now.

An angry one.

“I told him I’d pay him back for my losses and that I’d do whatever he wanted to work off any debt he believed was owed to him because of what Atlas did in the ring.”

Luca winces, then squeezes his eyes closed. He sits back in the chair, releasing a long, hard sigh. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

I push off the glass and stalk over to his chair, towering over him and feeling big for the first time in my life when he normally has several inches and at least forty pounds of muscle on me. “I made a deal that protects everyone else. It was my mistake. You know what he would have done to Atlas and Wren, and God, their fucking baby… I couldn’t risk any of that, nor could I allow him to have that debt to hold over the rest of the family, either.”

Luca stares up at me. He drums his fingers on the side of the glass. “Did he respond to your offer?”

“Yes.”

And I still remember how badly my hand shook when the reply text came through.

As soon as I read it, I turned off my phone for good, knowing that man would find me if he needed to, even without it.

“What did he say?”

Sweat beads across my brow, the words flashing through my head. “He said, ‘You’re mine.’”

He clenches his jaws so tightly that a muscle there starts to tic. “You’re coming home with me.”

“No, I’m not. I’ve already won back over half of what I owe him. Another tournament or two, and I’ll be out of debt.”

He shoves up from his chair, getting up in my face. “Yourdebt. But you gave the man a blank fucking check to cash against you once that’s done. What do you think he’s going to ask of you? What do you think he’s going to demand that you do to ‘pay off’ any perceived debt that Atlas may owe him? Do you know much he told Atlas that fight was worth?”