Off Limits

✦CHAPTER 8— Between Brothers

Luca POV

The garage smells like oil and rain. I’m half under the hood of a blacked-out coupe when the side door creaks. I don’t have to look up to know it’s him; Mason wears cologne like a flag and walks like a dare.

“Got a minute?” he asks, voice too casual to be real.

I shut the hood and wipe my hands. “Always depends who’s asking.”

He laughs once. “Don’t do that thing where you turn a simple question into a threat.”

“Then don’t come here to start a war.”

Silence stretches. The neon clock ticks. He’s dressed down—hoodie, cap—but his eyes are wired, red around the edges like sleep took the night off.

“I thought about breaking your jaw,” he says, conversational. “But I figured you’d like that. You’d get to be the victim again.”

“Try it,” I say. “See who bleeds.”

He glances around, like Elijah might materialize from the shadows. “Relax. I didn’t bring backup. I brought a question.”

“Ask it.”

“Do you love her?”

The words land harder than any punch. I hold his stare and don’t answer fast enough.

He exhales, a brittle sound. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“Mason—”

“No, let me talk for once.” He paces, words speeding up. “I tried to be decent after the breakup, you know? I told myself Nova and I were wrong timing, wrong everything. Then you show up—mister knight in a blood-stained cape—looking at her like she’s the last good thing in a rotten world.” He stops. “She isn’t a prop in your rebellion against Father.”

“She isn’t a prop at all.”

“Then prove it. Leave her alone.”

“You think she’s yours to decide for?” My voice drops. “She’s not an asset on a spreadsheet.”

He flinches like I struck a nerve. “Funny you say that. Sienna thinks she is.”

Every inch of me goes still. “What did you do?”

“Met for coffee,” he says. “She brought pictures.”

Heat spikes through my veins. “What pictures.”

“You on the bike. You under the bridge. You two walking into your building.” He swallows. “She wants names. She wants leverage.”

“And you gave her—”

“Nothing.” A beat. “Yet.”

I step forward. He doesn’t back up, which I respect and hate. “You hand her Nova, and this stops being a family thing. It becomes blood sport.”

He barks a laugh. “You started the blood sport the second you touched her.”

We stare each other down, the kind of quiet that ends one of two ways.

A bootfall breaks it.

Elijah pushes the door with his shoulder, eyes taking in the spacing—me, Mason, the tools that could become weapons if we breathe wrong. “Morning,” he says. Neutral, the way a loaded gun on a table is neutral until you pick it up.

Mason bristles. “Your pet shadow always around now?”

Elijah’s mouth barely curves. “Depends who keeps walking into rooms they shouldn’t.”

I cut in. “Sienna has footage.”

“I know,” Elijah says. “I also know which PI she hired and how much he likes money.”

Mason snorts. “So you’re buying silence. That always lasts.”

“It lasts long enough for me to make the originals disappear,” Elijah replies. Then to Mason, mild: “And for you to decide if you’re mad at your brother or desperate to impress a girl who doesn’t love you anymore.”

Something ugly flashes in Mason’s eyes. “You don’t get to talk about her.”

“Then stop dragging her into a fight she didn’t ask to be in,” Elijah says, a thread of steel in it now.

Mason looks away first. He squeezes his cap brim, knuckles whitening. “You’re going to destroy everything, Luca.”

“Maybe,” I say. “But not her.”

He shakes his head, exhausted anger falling into place. “Father won’t let you choose this.”

“Then he’ll have to stop me.”

Mason laughs again, but it breaks in the middle. “You think you’re the only one who knows how to make moves?” He starts backing toward the door. “Keep your phone on.”

“For what?” I ask.

“So you can watch what happens when a man who’s lost everything stops caring about consequences.”

The door slams behind him, the sound echoing off concrete.

Elijah sighs. “He’s either bluffing or reckless,” he says. “Bad odds either way.”

I rub my jaw. “How much for the PI?”

“I already paid him to stall.” He pauses. “But you know Sienna—if money doesn’t work, she’ll go for spectacle.”

“Public,” I say.

“Public,” he confirms. “You need to get in front of it.”

“How?”

He glances toward the street like the answer might be parked there. “Start by telling Nova the truth you keep editing.”

I want to argue. I don’t. “Text Bri,” I say. “Make sure Nova’s safe today.”

“She’s safer if she stays invisible,” he says.

I think of her laugh in the rain. “Not asking you to cage her,” I say. “Just keep the wolves from sniffing.”

Elijah’s gaze softens a fraction. “Wolves smell fear. Don’t give them any.”

He disappears again, quieter than a man his size should be. I lean on the car and let the adrenaline drain. My phone buzzes. An unknown number. Sienna never uses the same one twice.

I don’t pick up.

[Nova]

Bri insists on coffee before class, like caffeine can fix men. The shop is noisy enough to feel safe. I clutch a paper cup for courage and try to convince her with my face that I’m fine.

“You look like a crime scene,” she says.

“Thanks.”

She lowers her voice. “Did he text you?”

“Not since last night.” My phone vibrates on the table like it heard me. I flip it over.

Mason: Five minutes? Outside the library. No drama. I promise.

Bri peers at the screen. “Block him.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, you just don’t want to.”

“He sounds… broken,” I say, surprising myself. “I owe him five minutes.”

“You don’t owe him anything, but okay.” She grabs my wrist before I stand. “If he says anything sideways—call me, scream, bite, run.”

“You want me to bite Mason?”

“If he deserves it.”

I smile despite myself. “Back in ten.”

The sky is a pale, dishonest blue when I step outside. Mason waits by the steps, hands in his pockets like a boy waiting for detention. He looks tired, angry, beautiful in a way that used to be mine.

“Thanks for coming,” he says.

“What’s this about?”

He studies me, and guilt swims behind his eyes. “Us,” he starts, then shakes his head. “No, that’s a lie. It’s about him. And Sienna.”

I go very still. “What about her?”

“She has people watching.” He swallows.