Page 45 of The Hidden Heir

Every bone in my body screams yes despite my rational side screaming the opposite, but an answer is needed, and honesty has always taken me further in my relationship with Luca than anything else.

“I’m trying my hardest,” I tell him.

“I guess it’ll have to do for now,” he mutters.

“I don’t understand.”

“Just stay close, and don’t let go.”

We pick up the pace, leaving Eddie and his colleague farther behind. They don’t seem to mind. On the contrary, they shift their focus immediately on the suspicious couple, turning around to question them. By the time the four of them clash, Luca and I have already turned down a side path, leading deeper into the park.

“Where are we going?” I ask him, my heels clicking furiously against the hard pavement. The heels are not exceptionally high, but at our current pace, they’re getting uncomfortable.

“I promised I would keep you safe,” Luca says.

A man of few words when he’s focused, he leads us farther down through the shadiest parts of the park. At one point, there isn’t a single soul around us. I hear the birds and the squirrels rustling through the trees and scuttling across the grass, but there isn’t another voice close by, except ours.

We hide behind an ancient oak tree, its trunk thick enough to conceal an entire car. Luca wraps his arms around me, and I soften against his chiseled chest, his heartbeat thudding in my ear and his breath brushing through my hair.

“Don’t move,” he whispers. He sees things I can’t from where I’m standing.

I’m too busy trying not to lose my cool. Perhaps I should be more fearful of the people who were chasing us, but oddly, between Luca and the bodyguards, I feel safer than ever before, even more so now that Luca has a hold of me.

We hear rushed footsteps.

“Which way?” a man asks.

“I’m not sure. Let’s split up. You take the left, I’ll take the right,” a woman replies.

They must’ve slipped past our bodyguards, or maybe they talked their way out of it. Or maybe they’re different people on the same mission. Either way, tonight was supposed to be a simple and hopefully romantic date night. Instead, I’m hiding out in the middle of Grant Park. But thinking back, it’s not the worst date night I’ve ever had either.

“Let’s go,” Luca whispers.

We move away from the oak tree and across a grassy field. Once we reach the water, we hurry along the shoreline until we reach the southern tip, with its street markers. Luca never falters, and I have a hard time taking my eyes off him, watching him make his decisions in real time.

No hesitation.

I’d be a fool not to follow his lead, because we end up back in the city, nestled in the booth of an old Irish Pub, with a couple of drinks at our table. The lights are reddish and dim, and the jukebox is playing some old anarchist punk songs while a handful of local patrons linger by the bar, drinking beer and watching a soccer game.

“We’ll stick around for a little while longer until Eddie catches up,” Luca says. “There’s only one way in from the main street. We’ve got the back door if we need to slip out the other way.”

“It’s not the first time you’ve had to shake people off, is it?”

He takes a deep breath, and I watch his chest rise slowly. “No, but it’s the most important time.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got you with me,” he says, his arm snaking around my shoulders. “We’ll make it back home alright, Valentina.”

“I know we will.”

“So you do trust me,” he says with a soft chuckle.

I offer him a wry smile. “You haven’t disappointed me so far.”

“This can’t have been your first time either,” Luca says after a while. “You were raised in the Mancuso family. That man always had enemies.”

“True, but he didn’t let me go out much. Besides, I was always the stepdaughter, not his blood, technically speaking. I guess his enemies didn’t think I was important enough for them to use me against him. I really don’t know.”