Fugitive (Deceptive Series Book 2)

by M. D. Melai

  “After you and Gabe left, we talked for a little bit and then he taught me how to salsa and then I left, that’s it,” I replied.

  “Well, from what I heard, Miguel thought it was more than just a dance. Apparently you two connected,” she said, raising her eyebrow at me.

  “Nope. It was just a dance in my eyes. But, on a different note, how was the walk home with Gabe?”

  “Oh God, amazing! He walked me all the way up to my front door and then he kissed me and asked me to go on a date with him tonight!” she said with more excitement than I ever saw in anyone before.

  “Em, that’s great! Congratulations!”

  “And before I forget, thank you Cat,” she said as she hugged me.

  “Don’t mention it,” I replied.

  Once Emily and I opened the store, we went from doing absolutely nothing to basically running a marathon. Two of our mid-shift waitresses called in, so Emily and I were trying to keep up with everyone while two workers were on their way in to help cover. It was a Saturday, and the place was packed.

  “Hey Cat, there is a man at table six asking for you personally, and I must say, he is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” Emily exclaimed.

  “Okay, what does he want?”

  “He said a small black coffee and a blueberry muffin,” she said before taking the next order out.

  “I’m on it!” I said as I grabbed everything I needed to take to this mysterious guy.

  I weaved in and out of everyone as I made my way to the back of the store. All of the tables were filled with at least three people, but there was only one person sitting at table six. I couldn’t see his face. His back was to me, but he had dirty blonde hair that was perfectly cut.

  I sucked in a quick breath as I approached him.

  “Here you go, one small black coffee and a blueberry muffin,” I said as he slowly turned my direction.

  I dropped the muffin and coffee I was holding. My heart started racing, and I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out. I had been smiling, but that faded quickly.

  “Lucas?” I said, my voice almost unrecognizable.

  “Hello, Caterina,” he replied.

  Chapter 14

  “Lucas, what are you doing here?” I finally snapped at him after gaining control of my own thoughts. I grabbed a napkin and bent down to clean the mess I had just made.

  “Well, I was just getting a cup of coffee and a muffin until you dropped it,” he said as he smiled at me. The same smile that used to send my body into overdrive, but now it only had a small effect on me.

  “No, I meant, what are you doing in Barcelona?” I grimaced.

  “I wanted to check out the scenery,” he explained, “and right now it’s looking pretty good.”

  “Typical,” I said as I stood up.

  “I’m here to watch out for you,” he said more serious this time.

  “Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m out of the family business. I don’t need a bodyguard anymore. I can take care of myself, and I sure as hell don’t need you,” I said walking away.

  “Wait,” he said as he reached out to turn me around, and when I did, he held up his hands in surrender. “There is a reason I'm here, I promise. Violet wanted me to keep an eye out for you. I swear she is the one who told me where to find you. She said after Palermo you just might need some help.”

  “I don’t understand, how long have you been here for?” I asked. Palermo was months ago.

  “A while, but if you’ll have dinner with me tonight, I can explain everything,” he pleaded.

  And by everything he meant everything, not just this moment, but all the moments before this.

  “I don’t think so Lucas. There’s a reason I left my old life behind and never looked back. That included you,” I said.

  “Please Cat…,” he pleaded.

  “Lucas, you hurt me,” I said through gritted teeth. “You betrayed me and you lied to me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t get the manager and have you thrown out of here?”

  “Because I’m sorry, and because I still work for Emilio. And your friend who loves you more than life itself has sent me here to find you,” he rushed out. “Your family still trusts me, isn’t that enough to warrant me at least a damn dinner?”

  I stood there and looked at him for a moment.

  “Okay fine. One dinner, that’s it. Meet me here at seven,” I said as I turned on my heel and headed back to the counter. The line was starting to get long, and I needed to distract myself from my past catching up with me.

  I called Violet on one of my breaks to yell at her and get some answers as to why Lucas was actually here. She said she couldn’t explain and told me to just go out with him and he would tell me everything.

  “Just give him a chance,” she said, so I told her I would try.

  Work had gone by so fast that I didn’t realize it was already five and my shift had come to an end. I was thankful, because my feet were killing me.

  I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Lucas tonight. I was still upset with him, even though it had been almost eight months since I last saw him. The only thing I was interested in knowing tonight was why Violet had sent him to look out for me, and that was it.

  Emily and I met each other outside after work, and I wished her luck on her date with Gabe tonight. I told her that I expected full details about everything. Neither one of us worked tomorrow, so she said she would come over and we could spend the day together. At least I already had an excuse if Lucas said something about seeing me tomorrow.

  Once I was home, I procrastinated getting ready. I didn’t know what to wear. It definitely was not a date, but what does someone wear to a dinner with an ex as he explains why he was stalking you?

  I took a quick shower to wash off the grim from work, fixed my hair, and put on my makeup. The clothes I picked out were casual. I had decided on black skinny jeans, my tan sweater, brown boots, and then topped it off with a scarf.

  Before I left the apartment, I took a look at myself in the full length mirror. I wasn’t sure that it really mattered what I was wearing. I wasn’t dressing up for him, but I guess my subconscious wanted him to know what he had been missing.

  As I walked up to the coffee shop entrance, I saw Lucas standing there leaning against the corner of the building. He was wearing a blue button down with a pair of jeans that fit perfectly and his hair was in the tousled mess that I used to love so much. As soon as he saw me, his face lit up and a smile stretched across his face.

  Oh. My. God. He is gorgeous.

  I couldn’t help but smile back at him. I would have to be blind or dead not to notice how handsome he was.

  Lily, get a grip! Remember what he did to you!

  “Wow, you look beautiful,” he said as he approached me.

  “Thanks. So, where are we going?” I asked a little ruder than normal.

  “Well, there is a nice restaurant not too far from here. It’s actually one of my favorites.”

  I was half-tempted to say ‘in that case, we can go somewhere else,’ but I didn’t. Instead, I agreed to go, and he showed me the way.

  We didn’t talk the entire walk there. It only took five minutes to get there, and they were the most excruciating five minutes I've ever had in my life!

  The place was nice, but a little too romantic for the current situation. I needed to be on guard tonight, because in this moment, I had no idea what Lucas had up his sleeve.

  “Two please,” he said, and then the hostess showed us to a table fit for two.

  She said that our waitress would be with us soon and handed us our menus. I looked over it and tried avoiding eye contact with him. There were times I could feel his eyes boring into my head, but when I would look up at him, he averted his gaze.

  The waitress came by shortly after and took our orders. We sat there in silence for a couple more minutes before he finally spoke up.

  “Are you doing okay Lily?” he asked.

  It took
me a second to respond. I had been so used to people calling me Cat, but I was glad that he said Lily. I missed it.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Right, the universal code women use for saying they are indeed not fine,” he said with a smile.

  I just stared at him and raised my eyebrow.

  “Okay, don’t use humor to lighten the mood, got it,” he said.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just you being here. I’ve moved on and I finally have a normal life,” I sighed. “But my old one keeps getting in the way.”

  “I get it, and I shouldn’t have surprised you like that, but if I did it anywhere else, then you would have just walked off. At least surprising you at work kept you there, you couldn’t leave.”

  “Okay, well, you have my attention now,” I said waiting to hear what he had to say.

  Lucas started explaining everything from the time we last saw each other. He told me about how Emilio had shot him purposely in the shoulder. It had been an uncomfortable injury, but it had healed quickly. Then he explained how he had started back to work soon after his recovery.

  “Wait, how is that possible that Emilio still let you work for him even after you betrayed our family?” I asked.

  “Because you don’t know about my past and they do. So, will you please let me explain?”

  I just nodded and allowed him to continue.

  “My parents died when I was twelve years old. They were both murdered in our home. I was in the house huddled in a closet where my mom had hid me. She told me ‘Lucas do not come out of here no matter what you hear, do you understand me?’ I had agreed, and looking back, I have no idea why. If they would have shot me, then at least I would have died with them, you know?” He paused for a moment like he was deep in thought before he began again.

  “Anyways, it was like my parents knew they were coming to kill them. I can’t explain it. I remember hearing the knock on the front door, then muffled voices, and finally the echoing of the gunshots that took their lives.

  “Once I heard the front door close again, I remember racing down the stairs, praying they were still alive. I grabbed the nearest phone and dialed nine-one-one on my way down the stairs. I didn’t have to wait for the paramedics to get there to pronounce them dead. I already knew they were gone.

  “I was an orphan after that. I didn’t have any other family members. Nikolas and I were best friends back then and his family took me in. And that is how I first got associated with the Heinrichs. They ended up becoming my legal guardians. Shortly after that, I joined their family business. I even considered hyphenating my name to Jones-Heinrich, but decided against it.”

  “So your last name is Jones? I thought it was Trivelli?” I asked.

  “Jones is my real last name. I used Trivelli when I worked for your family, so if the Heinrichs ever happened to find any information on your family that had me included, they wouldn’t get suspicious.”

  “But wouldn’t they be suspicious that a guy named Lucas worked for the Dapprimas?”

  “I never used my name in any paperwork. It was always label with an L, and that’s how I signed paperwork too,” he explained.

  I listened intently, absorbing everything Lucas was telling me. My heart ached for him, for the loss of his parents, and his childhood that was forever changed. I guess that was why Stefani never brought up Lucas when I visited her. I hadn’t realized it until now. She didn’t know Lucas was a part of the family, because he didn’t become a part of it until later.

  “I had been working with them for five years before I came across the documents that had my family name written on top. To make a long story short, the Heinrichs killed my parents. Apparently my parents had betrayed them, so they killed them because of that.

  “It wasn’t too long after that that I met up with Emilio. I met him by chance and decided to pledge my loyalty to him and your family. I started playing both sides that day. Your family and the Heinrichs had been at war, per say, for a while. They figured having me on their side would put them at an advantage.

  “I had worked alongside your family for a while when the Heinrichs decided that they needed you. To this day, I still don’t know why. I met you for the first time two days later at the store. Do you remember what I told you that night on the cliff?”

  I did. Lucas had told me the Heinrichs wanted him to get to know me, and for me to fall in love with him so that our families could be joined. Later on, Lucas had questioned their motives, but he had always questioned them apparently. He had to continue to act on whatever Viktor Heinrich said or he would have been seen as a traitor. And, like his parents, he would have been killed.

  “So, my family was okay with you trying to merge the families?” I asked.

  “They knew all about it. It was never my intention to merge the families, but I had to do what was ordered by Viktor. As soon as he told me, I went straight to Emilio and your father and explained what Viktor had instructed me to do. They told me to go along with it, but not to act on it. I guess I screwed up there, because I actually fell for you,” he said stopping to look up at me.

  “That makes sense, well at least most of it does,” I confessed.

  “I was hoping you would say something like that. Now you know how torn I was about everything.”

  He then told me how he knew the Heinrichs were going to take me, and he and Emilio had devised a plan, but the Heinrichs came for me early, and it caught Lucas off guard. He then texted Emilio and, through texting, they came up with a new plan and Emilio shooting Lucas was a part of that.

  “What happened after you started working for Emilio again?” I asked.

  He went on to explain that he was always around, still working both sides. The Heinrichs still saw him as loyal since he took a bullet and fought Emilio. That was why it was a part of his and Emilio’s plan, because he knew the Heinrichs would see it as honorable.

  Faith and Nikolas had seen the whole thing happen and vouched that Lucas tried his best to take down Emilio.

  Lucas admitted that he really wanted to see me, and explain in better detail about things, but Violet had told him that I made myself very clear that I didn’t want anything to do with him.

  “And then the next thing I knew, Violet was asking me for help, because you wanted to escape. I helped her get your name changed, passport, credit cards, and phone so you could go. I even filled her in on how the security system worked so she wouldn’t make any mistakes trying to get you out,” he said.

  “Wait, so you’re the one who helped Violet with my escape?”

  That sounded exactly like something Lucas would do.

  “It was the least I could do, Lily. I had brought you so much misery. I not only wanted to help you, I needed to help you.”

  “I don’t know what to say…,” I said meeting his eyes. “Thank you.”

  And in that moment, I forgave him for everything that had happened. I just didn’t know if I was ready to admit it out loud yet.

  “You’re welcome,” he said and then smiled.

  Our food came out after that, and we both ate in silence. I was still trying to process everything that Lucas had told me. There was so much information. He was so open and honest with me, which was a change from my family.

  After we finished eating and the waitress had taken our plates and refilled our glasses, I turned to Lucas and asked the one question he had yet to answer tonight.

  “So,” I said dragging it out, “Lucas, why are you really here?”

  “When your family found out you were in Italy, Violet got worried that if they kept coming after you, and you had to continuously run, that it would prolong your stay…here.”

  “Can I ask how exactly my family found me?” I asked interrupting him.

  “Some girl named Bianca. Apparently she knew Elle, and when she talked to her, she told her about a girl she met that looked exactly like her and how weird it was. She said how you spoke English with what sounded like an American accent. That’s when Elle knew
you had to be over there. So, of course, she told your father and he sent out a search party.”

  “I figured as much,” I murmured and motioned for him to continue.

  “After that happened, Violet and I agreed that it would be best if someone came over here to make sure you were okay and to keep an eye out for you. Since no one else could know where you were, I volunteered. I hoped that you would give me a chance to explain myself and here we are.”

  “So you’ve been in Barcelona for the whole two and a half months?” I asked.

  “Yes, I have a place not too far from here.”

  “If you have stayed hidden this entire time, then why show me yourself now?”

  “Because your father is sending a new group over to look for you. It’s been three months since you left and they are getting worried.”

  “I doubt that.” I smirked. “Okay, last question.”

  “Shoot.”

  “If you’ve been here for the past two and a half months, what do my family and the Heinrichs think you’re doing?”

  “Right, I forgot to mention that. They both pretty much think the same thing. Your family thinks I’m on a mission for the Heinrichs, and the Heinrichs think I have a lead and that I'm pursing it. So, technically everyone thinks I'm in Italy, but really I'm here in Spain.”

  “Interesting.”

  Lucas was quiet for a few minutes. I could tell he was thinking about something.

  “I lied,” he said finally.

  “You lied?” I asked confused.

  “I did show myself to you, because I needed you to know I was here to help you if needed, but the real reason was because I was so damn tired of watching you go on about your life and me not being able to be a part of it.

  “I have watched you day in and day out go out with your friends, smile, and laugh. I want to be the one you share those moments with. And I’m sorry for everything that happened to you. I’m sorry for hurting you mentally and emotionally. It is my burden to bear and I will regret it until the day I die.

  “I guess what I’m getting at is… I’m hoping you and I can start over, maybe even become friends again? I know it’s early, and I’ve explained everything the best I know how to,” he paused for a moment before he continued, “but I need you to forgive me Lily. Can you ever forgive me?”