Chapter 10 · Brother in the Van

"Don't stop." That's what I said, mouth against Luca's throat, ten seconds before my phone screamed on the desk behind me.

He didn't stop right away. His teeth caught my earlobe, slow and deliberate, like he was underlining a number in the ledger he liked. I felt it all the way down my spine. Then the second buzz hit and the whole room changed temperature.

"Vale line," he said into my skin. "Nobody has that number."

"Apparently somebody does." I was breathless and I hated that he could hear it. His hand stayed flat between my shoulder blades, tipping me back over his desk like I was a page he hadn't finished. "Let go, Luca."

He let go. Slow. Like proving he could cost him something.

I grabbed the phone off the blotter. Unknown number, 312 area code, third ring. In my life, unknown numbers are never nothing.

"Who is this."

"Look out your window, Miss Vale." Bored voice. Like he was reading a delivery slip.

I want to say I didn't move. I moved. Ten stories up, glass, the whole skyline laid out like something Luca owned outright, and there it was —