“How do you feel?” Lucca asked, taking a seat in the corner of the room.

Angel didn’t even turn his head to look at him, knowing who it was. “How the fuck do you think? Your men almost beat me to death.”

Flicking his lighter on and off, he started to twirl the fire between his fingers. “Sorry about that.”

Damn fucker wasn’t even apologizing for his men.

“Can you name them?” he asked, flicking his lighter closed.

Angel looked at him then, knowing exactly why he wanted to know. And let you have all the fun? “No.”

Nodding, Lucca stood, going over to him so he didn’t have to use energy to look at him. “I promise you this, it won’t happen again.”

“So, I guess you’re still not letting me go.” He sunk back in the bed, defeated. He at least thought getting the shit beat out of him was going to give him a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“I can’t do that. Not until our families find peace again, and not until I find out who killed Tom.”

Fuck. He was going to be surrounded by Carusos forever.

“I can, however, start treating you like one of my men,” Lucca said simply.

Shocked, Angel didn’t know if he had heard him correctly. “What?”

“Starting tomorrow, you will be a soldier for the Caruso family and will be compensated as such for the time being. This means you answer to me or my father.” The last part was the most important that came with a warning from the underboss. If he was to agree, it would mean he would now bleed and die for the Carusos, who he was now working for, who he had been led to believe were his sworn enemies his entire existence. Then again, beaten, bloodied, and trapped didn’t give him much of a choice. His blood was Luciano, and there was no changing that.

Angel nodded, silently hoping that consenting wouldn’t come back to haunt him.

Before Lucca could leave, there was something he wanted. “I have a condition.”

“What is it?”

Staring Lucca down, he let him know it would be a deal breaker. “I do my job and protect Adalyn without one of your men watching me.”

“Fine.” Lucca glared back, his voice taking a deadly turn. “You betray my trust, though, Angel, it will be the last thing you ever do.”

* * *

As she walked outside, the air seemed crisper. It was going to start snowing anytime now. Adalyn would welcome some change right now. It had been one long week since she had seen Angel last; she just hoped he was still breathing.

School didn’t seem the same anymore without him. Truth be told, her life didn’t seem the same anymore without him. He had ended up being the surprise of her lifetime, and she truly felt he had changed her life forever. There were some people who could do that to you, even if you had only met them for a second. You just could never forget them.

Waiting for the Escalade to pull up, she was shocked to find that it never did. Instead, it was the car Tom had used to pick her up.

Great, another one.

It wasn’t until the car pulled up right next to her that she was able to see who it was through the dark tint.

Angel, wearing sunglasses, rolled down the passenger window when she just stood there in shock. “Are you going to get in, sweetness?”

“You’re still alive,” she whispered, still stunned, never in the slightest having expected him to come back so soon.

When she still didn’t get in, he opened his door and got out to go to the other side. Amused, he opened the passenger door for her. “I’m a lot harder to kill than that.”

Her lips turned up in a smile, and she was finally able to get in the car. “I can see that.”

Watching him close her door before getting back in, she could see by his slow movements that he still wasn’t back to normal, and looking at his profile now, she could see why he was wearing the big shades—his face was still bruised.

Still staring at the bruises, she actually hurt for him. “Does it hurt?”

“No,” he answered truthfully. “Pain isn’t really an issue for me.”

Looking at his inky hands as he turned the steering wheel, she knew he had to be a freak. “I bet not with that many tattoos.”

“I enjoy getting tatted,” he admitted with a half-sinister smile.

I knew it.

“How many do you have?”

“Too many to count.”

Her brow rose as she became too curious for her own good. “How covered are you?”

He was silent a moment before he answered, “Almost completely.”

That didn’t help her imagination. It only made her want to know how much of a freak he was. However, she figured it wouldn’t be polite to ask if his ass or dick was tatted, too, so she asked a reasonable question instead. “How old were you when you got your first one?”

“Sixteen.”

“Sixteen? Is that even legal?” No wonder he was already covered in tattoos.

Smiling, he laughed. “With a parent’s permission, yes. But in my case, it was illegal. I have a great tattoo artist, though, so it came out good.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“No. Tattoos aren’t a big deal in our family. Almost everyone has them.”

“Oh.” The Lucianos were a lot different than the Carusos; that was for sure.

With silence filling the car and now that her shock at seeing him had worn off, she realized that he alone was taking her to school.

“No one else came with you?”

He looked in the rearview mirror at the cars following behind him. “Lucca’s agreed to trust me, but I assume I’m still being watched.”

Lucca’s agreed to trust him? “So, what does that mean?”

“He asked me to work for him legitimately while I’m here.” Well, here as in forced to be here.

“Really?” She almost couldn’t believe it. It was unheard of.

Angel nodded as he pulled into the parking spot beside the Escalade.

“So, it’s like you’re kinda a Caruso?”

Looking at the girls’ and the Carusos’ faces that were a mixture of disbelief and disgust said it all. “No, I am and always will bleed Luciano blood.”