VEDA
I stared at myself in the full-length mirror in my room. With Luca wounded, I'd managed to argue my way into keeping my own room for a
few more days, at least, so I didn't accidentally hurt him. I thought I needed the alone time, but after the first night, it became very apparent to me that… yeah, not so much. However, I wasn't about to tell him that.
I smoothed down the skirt of the blush pink dress he'd bought me.
No. Scratch that. The dress he'd bought Nicole. The material was soft and breezy, and it hugged my curves perfectly. My eyes traveled from the top of my newly highlighted hair to my blue eyes (thanks to some really uncomfortable contacts) to my painted pink toes. I had a feeling of disembodiment as I looked at the woman reflected back to me.
I wasn't me anymore. The woman staring back at me with emotionless eyes didn't just look like Nicole, she was her.
The bedroom door opened, and Luca came in. Tearing my eyes away from the image of my dead sister, I looked over at him, and immediately wished I hadn't.
He was dressed in a double-breasted, dark navy suit with a subtle plaid print of a slightly lighter blue. The shirt beneath it was black, as were his loafers and the sling holding his right arm close to his body to minimize any jostling of his shoulder. No tie. Nothing flashy. But he didn't need it. This man was devastating in nothing but a pair of gym shorts.
"You look lovely," he told me with an odd tone in his voice.
"I look like her," I responded, and I wondered if my eyes were as dead as my voice when he looked into them.
Luca said nothing at first. Then he held out his uninjured arm. "Shall we?"
Walking over to my shoes where I'd left them by the bed, I slipped my feet into them, bending over to adjust the straps. The heels were higher than anything I would ever normally wear, and I prayed that if nothing else, I wouldn't fall and make an ass of myself tonight.
I was feeling comfortably numb as he escorted me out of the room, down the stairs, and out to the waiting car. Ever the gentlemen, he helped me in, then walked around the front of the car to get in on the other side. I watched him through the windshield. If he was nervous about taking me out as Nicole for the first time, he didn't show it.
And so, the game began.
"Where are we going exactly?" I asked him once he was beside me in the backseat.
"My uncle is turning ninety-years-old tonight. In"-he looked at his watch -"precisely one hour and seventeen minutes."
"You know what time he was born?"
"Only because he started telling everyone from the day he turned seventy. He was convinced he wouldn't live long enough to see his birthday party, and kept trying to get us to move the time up."
I smiled, forgetting for a moment why I was there. "He sounds like a piece of work."
Luca laughed softly. A real laugh. With little lines creasing the skin around his eyes. I caught my breath as I stared at him.
He was beautiful. And dangerous. And he made me feel alive, despite the fact I was a walking dead woman.
"He is," he told me. "He's also my favorite uncle." He looked over at me, and his blue eyes were warm, yet chills scuttled across my skin to be on the receiving end of that look. A rare occurrence. "He's going to love you." "Me? Or Nicole?"
He huffed out a little laugh. "I don't think he would've liked your sister much, from what you've told me."
"Unfortunately, I won't be able to act like my normal, charming self if we're going to pull this off."
He frowned. "Why wouldn't you? I happen to like your normal, charming self."
He did? "Um, I just figured people would be there who knew Nicole. They would know right away I wasn't her from the difference between us."
"Only my family will be there. No one who would've known her since she met my brother after he exiled himself."
"Oh." Then what was the point of getting me dressed up like her?
As if he'd read my mind, Luca answered my question. "I believe Mario has his men watching me at all times. Where I go. What I do. And with who. They won't get close enough to notice any differences between your personality and Nicole's. However, they will run right back to him to tell him what they saw."
Ah. I looked out the window, a little unsettled by what he'd told me.
"What is it, amore?"
If I didn't know better, I would think he was truly concerned. "Nothing," I told him. I wasn't sure I could explain the feelings coursing through me, even if I wanted to.
He clasped my chin in his fingers and forcefully turned my face toward him, his eyes searching mine. Looking for…what? "Veda, tell me what's on your mind." Although the words were spoken quietly, I didn't miss the undertone of dominance. He wasn't going to let this go.
I pulled my face from his grip to look down at my hands, twisted in my lap, as I tried to get my thoughts together.
"Dammit, what the hell is it?" he asked again.
"Won't they come after you again?" I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, then looked back out the window. I didn't want him to see the concern on my face, misplaced as it was. What did I care if they finished the job next time they came after him? If they could manage not to fuck things up again, I would be free.
Instead of the sensation of euphoria I expected to feel when I imagined him gone forever from my life, a wave of sorrow crashed over me, hitting me so hard I had to catch my breath before I drowned.
Luca took my hand, and when I looked over at him, I could swear I saw the same struggle within him. "That's what I'm counting on," he told me. "But don't worry, they won't get so close to me next time."
"I'm not worried," I lied.