Page 80 of The Vengeance You Crave

"What? Got me, didn't it?"

"Because this," she says, waving her hand toward me. "Is anything like what we went through."

He shrugs, clearly seeing things differently to his girl.

"Luca hates you, right?" he asks, turning back to me.

Pain slices through my chest at his words but I nod, because he's right. Luca does hate me, and he wants to make sure I know it.

"But he can't stay away from you?"

"I… I don't know about that."

"He locked her in the Kappa pool house all weekend," Letty helpfully supplies which amuses him.

"Well then. Just like I said, don't go down without a fight. You never know what might come out at the end of it."

He drops a kiss to Letty's temple and my heart melts at the sight.

They make it look so easy, so real, so… perfect. I have no idea what they went through to get there, but I'm pretty sure it was all worth it.

"I gotta run. I've got a meeting in the study center then I wanna hit the gym this afternoon."

"Okay. See you at home later?"

"You got it, Princess."

He leaves her with a knee-weakening kiss before nodding at me and striding from the coffee shop, taking the adoring stares of every female around with him.

"You two are too damn cute."

She smiles goofily before muttering, "Kane is anything but cute."

"He is with you."

She shakes her head. "What are your plans for the rest of the day?"

"Other than going home to hide?"

"Peyton," she sighs.

"I was planning on the library. I've got all the work I should have done over the weekend to complete."

"Awesome. Let's go."

Just like that, I find myself walking side by side with Letty and realizing that my plan to put some distance between us all so I'm not in the middle of Luca's life and friends has already gone to shit.

I briefly wonder what Leon's going to find at the place I sent him, probably nothing but old memories and the hopes of two young, naïve kids.

I blow out a long breath that Letty doesn't miss.

"Despite Kane's opinion, Luca is one of the best people I know. We'll get him through this. All of us."

My lips part to tell her that I can't be a part of that, that I'm already in deeper than I should be and hiding too much but I don't find any words.

Instead, I nod and follow her inside the building, hoping like hell that when the truth does get revealed, it won't tip him over the edge any more than he already is.

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