✦CHAPTER 6 — He’s Trouble, I Know It
842 Words
*Nova POV^
The door opens before I can breathe twice.
A tall shadow fills the frame—broad shoulders, combat jacket, calm eyes that look like they’ve already counted every exit in the room.
“Luca,” he says. No warmth. No surprise. Just awareness.
Elijah.
I’ve heard his name before—whispered between bar stories and gossip about men who can make problems disappear. Seeing him up close feels like meeting the warning label printed on Luca’s life.
“You alone?” he asks.
Luca nods once. “For now.”
His gaze slides past him and lands on me. A pause long enough to hurt. “Guess not.”
I stand even though my knees shake. “Hi.”
Elijah gives me a polite nod, but there’s nothing friendly in it. His expression says you shouldn’t be here.
He steps inside, closes the door quietly, and that somehow feels louder than Mason’s shouting.
*Luca POV*
Elijah’s presence changes the oxygen in the room. Same as always.
He doesn’t waste time. “Sienna’s men were parked outside your building. I scared them off.”
I feel Nova tense behind me. “What did you tell them?”
“That you’d shoot them if they didn’t leave.”
I glare. “Subtle.”
He shrugs. “They believed me.”
He moves closer, lowers his voice. “You know what she’s doing, right? This isn’t jealousy. It’s leverage. If she figures out who the girl is—” his eyes flick toward Nova—“you’ll hand her the perfect weapon.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“You’re already losing control.”
The words hit like truth.
I want to argue, but Nova’s watching, trying to understand a world she doesn’t belong to.
*Nova POV*
They speak a language made of half-sentences and danger.
Every phrase means something bigger than it sounds.
“Sienna’s men.” “Leverage.” “Weapon.”
I swallow. “Why would she send people to watch you?”
Luca turns, expression softer now. “Because she’s scared of losing control.”
“Of you?”
“Of everything attached to me.”
Elijah cuts in. “Don’t romanticize it. She’s protecting her family’s investment. You’re a liability, Nova. That video gets out and it’s not just gossip—it’s blackmail material against a Cole business partner.”
“I’m not part of your business,” I say.
Elijah’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “You are now.”
Luca shoots him a look that says enough. Elijah lifts both hands. “Fine. I’ll handle the clean-up. But you need to decide if she’s a secret or a weakness.”
He leaves before either of us can answer, the door clicking like a countdown.
*Luca POV*
The silence after Elijah leaves feels heavier than his words.
Nova stands by the window, arms crossed, staring at the city. “So that’s what you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Threaten people. Hide bodies. Lie for each other?”
Her voice trembles, but it’s anger, not fear.
“I never wanted you to see this part,” I say.
“You mean the real part?” She turns, eyes bright. “You live in a world that watches people, Luca. You chose this.”
“I was born into it.”
“Same difference.”
I step closer. “You think I don’t hate it?”
“Then leave.”
The simplicity of her words knocks me off balance. “It’s not that easy.”
“It’s always that easy when it’s killing you,” she says quietly.
For a second, the noise outside fades—the rain, the traffic, the city’s pulse. There’s only her, standing there in my sweatshirt, daring me to be someone better.
“I can’t walk away from everything,” I say. “But I can keep you out of it.”
Her laugh is soft and hollow. “You already failed.”
*Nova POV*
He reaches for me, and I step back.
Not far—just enough for the space to hurt.
“You think I’m scared of Sienna?” I whisper.
“You should be.”
The way he says it chills me more than any threat.
I brush past him toward the door. “I’m going home.”
“Nova—”
“I need to remember who I was before this.”
He doesn’t stop me, but when I glance back, he’s standing in the middle of the room like a man trying to hold up a crumbling ceiling.
His phone buzzes again. He looks at it, jaw tight, and I know it’s her.
Sienna.
The woman who has everything he’s afraid to lose—and the power to take the rest.
Outside, the rain starts again, washing the city in noise. I tell myself I’m walking away for good.
But even as I reach the corner, I can still feel his eyes on me.
The look that stayed.
The one that means this isn’t over.
- Writer
