Present
Lila knew she was being watched and she didn’t care. Her silent stalker wasn’t a threat to her yet. She understood why he was here, but she didn’t want to confront him yet. Old emotions swirled deep in her chest, threatened to rise and drown her again, but she stuffed them back.
Lila shut her eyes and blocked out all the negative emotions. She’d left her father’s funeral grief-stricken and full of rage. Five years later, she returned, not for vengeance but to learn to forgive. To let go and for other reasons as well.
She opened her eyes and gazed at her father’s tombstone. He’d been lain to rest right next to her mom. Lila pushed aside her own personal problems. Standing here in the quiet cemetery felt peaceful.
She noticed the wilting roses next to the fresh white ones she’d lain earlier.
Someone else had been here recently and she wondered if it was him. She sent a silent prayer above before turning to face the man waiting for her.
Marco Severin looked older than she remembered, his profile harsh under the bright afternoon sunlight. Five years ago, she still saw hints of the boy he’d been, the boy she’d shared her first kiss with. Now, a man stood before her. Deadly and beautiful.
Today, he wore a dark gray suit perfectly tailored for him. Marco seemed to have gotten only bigger. He’d bulked up. There were a few grays in his dark-brown hair now. Those blue eyes looked like a dark storm cloud today, troubled. Haunted.
“Hello, Lila,” he said in that deep voice of his that made her suppress a shiver. She wondered if he also used that same voice whenever he was having someone tortured for information or seducing other women.
Other women. She bet he had women falling all over him. His last girlfriend had been a model or an actress. She remembered reading the article online once.
Lila stayed clear from that line of thought. Going down that path would ensure she’d have a tombstone right next to her parents. Marco and the Familia would probably make all the funeral arrangements as well.
Violence was in Marco’s blood, just like it was with her father and everyone else she knew from the Severin Familia.
“Did you have someone place those roses on his tombstone?” she asked because she didn’t know how to start a conversation. Remembering the way she’d acted the last time she saw him appalled her.
Lila hadn’t forgiven him completely, but she could’ve acted more mature back then. Instead, she’d acted like a brat. A child.
“I did. I come by here often.”
“Why?” she had to ask.
Lila had only stayed until the burial. She’d lingered in the back, never spoke to anyone. She was thankful Marco kept his distance. Lila hadn’t visited her parents in five years. She didn’t have the guts to. Hatred held her back from returning to this place but now, desperation forced her to return to her beginnings.
“To remind myself of the sacrifices others made for me over the years. People like your father are the reason why I’m alive and where I am today,” Marco said.
Lila glanced over his shoulder but saw no one for miles. Was it only the two of them here in the cemetery? “No bodyguards with you today, I noticed.”
“They’re around,” Marco said with a shrug. “Let’s get a coffee. Catch up.”
Refusal came to mind, but Lila surprised both of them by saying, “Okay.”
Guilt crept into her. She wondered if Marco knew just how much trouble she’d landed herself in.
“Did you drive here?” Marco asked.
She shook her head. “I took a cab.”
“My car’s parked nearby. Come.” He held out his hand to her. A truce? Of course, a man like Marco issued commands and expected others to obey his orders. Lila stepped forward, gave his fingers a squeeze, and then let go. His hands were big compared to her own, callused and rough.
Marco didn’t make a big deal out of it, merely started to lead the way. They said nothing to each other until they arrived at the parking lot. Lila began to feel self-conscious around him, like she was a nervous teenager again.
No one spoke to Marco the way she did and lived. Lila knew that well enough. Maybe he only let her off that day because she was grieving. Did he hate her as much as she despised him? With her father dead, there was no reason for him to talk to her, much less invite her on a coffee date.
This isn’t a date, she reminded himself. Why was she acting this way around the man whose guts she hated with a passion? Right. Because she was desperate and needed his help.
What did that make her? Worse than her father?
Marco opened the car door to his black Ferrari for her. She slipped in, wondering why the hell she hadn’t politely refused. She could still back out, except Marco closed the door for her and took the driver’s seat.
She didn’t expect him to act like a gentleman. He started the car and the engine gave out what sounded like a purr.
“She drives as smooth as she sounds?” she asked out of curiosity.
“Yes, she does.” He paused. “You’re interested in cars?”
“I worked at a car dealership before. We only had one Ferrari. Never sold and an old model.”
“Worked. Past tense?”
Lila bet he knew that already, that he was making small talk for conversation’s sake. “Let’s cut to the chase. You keep tabs on the people who work for you or used to, and their loved ones.”
Marco let out a laugh, which surprised her, because it seemed out of character for him. “I forget you speak your mind. It’s a welcome change.”
“Let me guess. You prefer your women quiet and obedient.” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself and she regretted them immediately. Lila didn’t come here to start something, especially not with a man whose help and protection she needed.
“Don’t,” he said in such a quiet, frightening voice that chilled her to the bones, “presume to know what I want.”
Silence in the car again, but that was fine. Lila was used to being inside her own head. She looked out the car windows. She had to start over, avoid antagonizing him.
“You knew I was here. No lies. Please.” The please must’ve worked because he lightened up.
“I heard you moved back to your dad’s old apartment.”
“I did. I lost my old job, but you knew that already.” Lila paused and wondered if she should say more. Losing her job was the least of her problems. Did Marco know the full extent of why she was back here? Before leaving the city she’d tried to make her home, she had the distinct impression someone was watching her. Not Crane but someone else. A guardian angel.
“You’ve never cashed in any of the checks the Familia sent.” A statement, not a question.
“I can stand on my own two feet.” Lies easily came out of her mouth and she hated herself for it.
“You’re drowning in debt.”
The truth felt like a slap in the face. She clenched her fists on her lap. “You know all about me, then?”
He certainly didn’t deny it. “And about John.”
“John’s history. I don’t want to talk about my ex.”
“He’s the reason you’re back here. You ran to this city, to me, to avoid the fuckers John owes money to.”
Lila drew in a shaky breath. “So, you do know enough.”
“We’ll talk about it more after we have some coffee.” Another order, but Lila could only nod. She hated the fact she needed something from him but she didn’t relish dying quite soon yet.
Marco parked the car across the street from a coffee shop. Through the sideview mirror, she saw another black, nondescript car doing the same. Marco’s watchers, she guessed. They got out of the car. She looked at the coffee shop he’d brought her to.
“Does your family own this joint?” she asked.
“We won’t be bothered here,” Marco replied.
Once again, he held out a hand to her, which she hesitantly took. Marco held all the cards and he knew it. He led her inside. They ordered their coffees. He offered to pay for hers and she let him.
“And two chocolate muffins,” Marco added to the waitress.
“I’m not hungry.”
Marco gave her a once-over and Lila felt suddenly hot all over. Why did she have a feeling he was silently appraising her? He didn’t bother hiding the hunger in his eyes either. At the cemetery, he’d been polite, a complete gentleman, but that had been a mask. She knew that now.
Once Marco mentioned he knew about her debts, every bit of pretension had gone out the window. She wanted something from him, and men like Marco didn’t give out freebies. Marco would demand payment and she had a sneaking suspicion it was her he’d ask for.
“You need to eat,” was all Marco said. She blushed for no reason at all.
Marco grabbed an unoccupied seat in the corner, one that faced the door. Her father had the same habits, she remembered. They sat down. She nibbled on her muffin and took a sip of her coffee.
Despite the awkward situation, she let out a contented sigh, unable to help herself. The coffee was just that good. Marco curved his lips slightly upward, to what she guessed passed for a small smile.
“You love coffee. I remember,” he remarked. “Your lips tasted of it when you kissed me all those years ago.”
“You remembered that?” she asked, astonished. Marco must’ve kissed and taken plenty of women since then. Was he bringing that memory up out of nostalgia or for other darker reasons? Her father did his best to keep her out of the life, but Lila wasn’t naïve.
Marco wasn’t done. He went on, “I remember everything about you. The taste of your lips when we stood under that mistletoe, the heat of your body, the weight of your breasts when you pressed close. Everything.”
Lila set her cup down before she spilled any hot liquid on herself. No other man had ever spoken to her like this, so bluntly and to the point. She bet her cheeks and neck were red by now. God. Just that brutal, searing look and her tits started to perk up in her dress. She could imagine herself standing in front of him again, except they weren’t teenagers anymore.
Marco could grab her close, would take the lead. He’d crush his body against hers, plunder her mouth, and steal the very breath from her lungs. For those few, short, stolen moments under that mistletoe, Lila had drowned in him. Nothing else in the world had mattered and she wanted to feel that again.
She closed her eyes for a second, savoring that little daydream of hers. No matter how hard she tried, she could never forget Marco. Even when she was with John, all she ever thought about was the one man she told herself she hated.
Lila opened her eyes again to see Marco watching her like a hawk, no, a wolf. She had plenty of pride, just like her old man. Lila had been raised to be independent. That was why the moment she saw those checks in the mail, she tore them all up. This time, she needed to accept she couldn’t get out of this particular mess alone. It was time to set her pride aside.
“I need your help, Marco. I feel so lost and I don’t know who else I can turn to. Please. Tell me what I need to do.”