I clenched my fists.
I hated that he’d spoken to her. Hated that he even knew her name. I didn’t want his shadow touching her. I didn’t want her to be part of this world, the one I was clawing my way through. I was working hard to be someone who could stand beside her, not someone who dragged her into the same darkness I came from.
I could feel him watching me. Amused. Always amused.
“Don’t look at her like that,” I muttered, teeth gritted. “She’s not a pawn.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Relax, Luca. I’m not the one who turned her into your motivation.”
I turned sharply. “What the hell does that mean?”
“You tell me.”
I glared at him, breathing hard, and his expression — the tight control he always wore — slipped just enough for him to laugh.
A short, amused, chest-deep laugh that filled
