Page 148 of The Kingpin's Call Girl

“Who cares?”

“I do.” He leans down to kiss me. “I don’t run from my men, and I don’t put you in danger.”

“Fuck off, don’t kiss me if you’re gonna let yourself die!”

“Nobody knows the future.”

“I have a pretty good guess!” I yank desperately on the cuffs.

“Shhhh.” He pulls my panties back on and then my pants. He pulls the sheets up over me. “I’ll message your sister to come free you.”

“You can’t leave me here!”

He removes his archangel Michael medallion and puts it over my head.

“Omigod,” I whisper, my vision blurring as unshed tears burn behind my eyes. My chest tightens with a pain so raw it’s almost physical.

“A man protects those he loves.” His voice is steady, but there’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before—a vulnerability that cuts deep.

“Did you just tell me you love me?” The words catch in my throat.

“Yes.” Just one word, but it changes everything—the air between us, the rhythm of my heart, the entire universe.

Rage surges through me, hot and unstoppable. I yank at the cuffs until metal bites into my skin, but I don’t even feel the pain. “You can’t tell me that and then voluntarily go out in a hail of gunfire!” My voice breaks on the last word, a sob threatening to tear me apart.

“Edie.” He stands at the foot of the bed, gazing at me. “Do you mean go out in a standard-issue-criminal hail of gunfire?”

“Stop it! That’s not love, Luka—that’s goodbye.”

“A hail of gunfire straight from criminal Costco?”

“It’s not funny!”

He kisses me on the cheek.

“Fuck off!”

He takes one last look at me. “There’s that scorn.”

With that, he’s gone.

Chapter Fifty

LUKA

I stroll past trees with branches like fingers, the bright green buds appearing here and there. The steely sky above me stretches to infinity over the brick and concrete city. My city.

For now.

A text will go out to Edie’s sister later today. She’ll get free, and she’ll use the money to make a life. Live her dreams. Help her sister. She’ll use that money out of spite, if nothing else.

I never gave a shit about the future. I never planned for it. Until now. A woman got under my skin and made me weak. Made me strong in different ways.

It was good for a while. It was very, very good.

I turn the corner at Trevor Street, enjoying the crisp air and the din of traffic and birds and planes and the sense of the earth under my feet. This is my domain, whether I live or die. I feel it all with this strange ripple in my chest that might be gratitude. And love. Both foreign concepts until her.

My heart is still full. It feels rare and strange and wild as a hurricane. Is it possible that there are people who walk around like this all the time? Full of love and gratitude? How do they function?