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Confusion marred her pretty features. “What are you talking about?”
“What am I talking about? I’m talking about this.” He thrust a flyer at her, and she snatched it out of his hand.
She shook her head, but he wasn’t going to fall for her games. Not anymore. Game over.
***
Ella’s eyes widened as she took in the words. A fundraiser to save Joe’s Lobster House from closing its doors… Who would do that? Ella met Lucas’ eyes, realizing the anger was directed at her.
She shook her head, unable to form words. “No.”
“I trusted you,” Lucas all but growled at her.
“I didn’t do this.” How could he think she’d go behind his back and do the one thing he asked her not to do?
“I thought I knew you,” he said. “Thought you’d never lie to me, and here you are, lying right to my face.”
“Lucas, I didn’t do this!” she cried out, desperate for him to believe her. She might’ve been lying since the minute he came to town, but not to him. Never to him.
“Was it to embarrass Joe? Make your family look more successful, the clear winner of the lobster roll battle? If Joe’s Lobster House is going out of business that only means more business for you. Were you going to spin it somehow, use it to your advantage?”
Her teeth gritted, hands clenched into fists. If he thought any of that then he didn’t know her at all. She would never. If anything, she’d been relentlessly trying to get their grandfathers to call a truce.
Was every male she loved going to chip a piece of her heart away today? It was almost too much to take.
His blue eyes, dark with a bitter anger, pinned her in place. “So were you just using me? A ploy to secure your spot as best lobster roll? Did the sex even mean anything to you or was that just another way to …”
His words cut off as her hand landed solidly against his cheek. A dull sting ran through her fingers as she pulled her hand from his face. His blue eyes widened in shock, lip curled in anger.
“I thought I knew you, too. My mistake,” she said and stormed passed him, refusing to look back.
With each step she felt the cracks in her heart expand until there was nothing left but a black hole of regret.
Chapter 19
An unexpected piercing pain gave way to a nasty sting as Lucas looked around to the crowd that had formed. He’d wanted to let the world know that he and Ella were together and now they definitely knew. They also got to be witness to the fiery end.
He crumpled the flyer and turned to toss it in the nearest trash can when hands grabbed his shirt and slammed him up against a building. A sharp throb shot through his shoulder blades.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?” His brown eyes were black with rage and solely focused on Lucas. Determined tension pulled tight at the skin around his eyes, his jaw set in stone ticked an intimidating beat. Based on what Ella had told him he knew it had to be Marco Moretti.
“The only thing I ever did was love her,” he said. He’d already lost everything; he might as well go for broke. Whatever Marco did to him now wouldn’t compare to the hurt Ella caused him.
Marco pulled back and drilled his fist into Lucas’s eye. Pain exploded in a symphony of white stars that floated around his vision. He shook his head, trying to get his bearings but stumbled back into the building.
The guy had one hell of a right hook. People shouted, but their voices were white noise fading into the distance. Marco grabbed him by his shirt again and held him against the building. “What did you say?”
“I said…” Lucas met his eyes. “I love her.”
Marco shoved at Lucas’ chest and stepped back, running a hand through his hair. “That’s what I thought you said.”
“Then why the hell did you punch me?”
Marco shook his hand out. “You made my sister cry.”
“Nice. Real nice.”
“Oh, come on, it wasn’t even that bad, I held back,” Marco said.
