Chapter 3 Chapter 3

He was leaning against the passenger door, his dark coat unbuttoned, smoking a cigarette like he owned the entire city of Kingsbury. Adrian was standing nearby, tossing a set of keys up and catching them with a lazy grin.

"You're acting weird, man," Adrian was saying, his voice drifting across the quiet asphalt. "Ever since that scuffle on the quad a few days back, you've been scanning every crowd like you're looking for a sniper." He took a slow drag of his cigarette, his eyes narrowing as he exhaled a thin cloud of smoke into the cold air. He didn't answer right away. He just stared straight ahead, right toward the edge of the hedges where I was standing hidden in the shadows.

My heart started beating against my ribs, hard and fast.  He can't see me. He doesn't know I'm here.

"I'm just bored of this place, Ade," Luca finally muttered, his voice was low and raspy, carrying that arrogant, untouchable weight that made people step out of his way. 

"Everyone's predictable. Every single person on this campus moves the exact same way. They want something, they smile, they lie. It's boring." he said.

"Boring?" Adrian laughed, shaking his head. "Bro, Chloe has been trying to corner you all week. That's not boring, that's a full-on stalker situation."

Luca's jaw tightened so hard I could see the muscle twitch from twenty feet away. 

"She's annoying. If she doesn't back off, I'll make sure her dad's firm loses the Valenti account by Monday." Luca said, in the most calm matter of fact tone. He was cold and ruthless. He had complete control over everyone around him. That was how Luca operated. He didn't raise his voice; he just pulled the strings and watched people fall.

I bit the inside of my cheek, a dark, wicked thrill rushing through my veins. God, he was terrifying and the crazy part? I wanted to see how far it went. I wanted to see what would happen if someone pushed him past the breaking point. Adrian tossed the keys again and checked his watch. "Come on, let's head to the club. Everyone's waiting."

"Go ahead," Luca said, flicking his cigarette butt onto the pavement and grinding it out with the toe of his expensive boot. "I've got something to take care of first."

"Alright, man. Don't stay out too long." Adrian said climbed into his own car, he revved the engine, and sped out of the lot, leaving a trail of exhaust in the cold air.

Luca watched him leave, waiting until the tail lights disappeared down the drive. Then, slowly and deliberately, he turned his head and looked straight at the exact patch of thick hedge where I was hiding and my breath caught in my throat. The air turned ice cold.

He didn't say anything or act surprised. A slow, heavy silence stretched between us across the empty parking lot. Did he know? Could he actually see me standing there in the dark? Panic hit me, hot and sharp, mixed with an electric, twisted rush of adrenaline. I should have turned around, I should have booked it for the bus stop and never looked back. But my boots were glued to the dirt, I couldn't move. I just stared back at him through the narrow gap in the branches, waiting for the trap to snap shut.

My fingers dug into the cold, rough bark of the hedge, my nails were pressing so hard against the wood that it practically hurt. My breath hung in the freezing air between us, a tiny cloud of white mist that felt too loud in the dead silence of the parking lot.  Luca was staring straight at my hiding spot. His grey eyes were locked on the leaves right in front of my face like he could literally see right through the branches, right through my skin, right into the dark, twisted thoughts rattling around inside my head.

Every single survival instinct I had spent my entire life building up screamed at me to run. My legs twitched, ready to bolt through the dirt and sprint past the athletic fields, and catch the late bus back to the District. Then he moved.

He didn't yell my name or  pull out a phone to call campus security. Instead, he pushed off the side of his car with a slow, heavy drag of his boots against the asphalt. His long stride carried him across the empty lot, straight toward the overgrown bushes where I was standing frozen like a damn statue.

My heart was beating so fast and loud in my ears I thought it was going to burst right out of my chest. This is it, I thought, a bitter mix of panic and dark adrenaline spiking through my veins. He caught me. He knows I've been watching him.

He stopped walking just ten feet away from my hiding spot. I held my breath, squeezing my eyes shut for a split second, bracing myself for the confrontation.

Instead, I heard a tiny, pathetic mew and my eyes snapped open. He wasn't looking at the bushes. He was looking down at the patch of dead grass right beside the curb, just a few feet away from my boots. He crouched down slowly, his coat brushing the dirty pavement, and reached out a large, heavy hand.

From the shadows of the concrete barrier, a scrawny, trembling ball of gray fur stumbled forward. It was a tiny kitten, half-starved and shivering like a leaf in the wind, its eyes crusted over with dirt. He didn't flinch. The cold, ruthless billionaire heir who broke guys' wrists against brick walls gently scooped the filthy, mewing stray up into his palm.  He cradled the tiny thing against his chest, completely ignoring the grime getting all over his expensive designer sweater. For a second, the hard, dangerous lines of his face softened into something entirely unreadable.

He stood back up, looking down at the pathetic little animal cradled in his hands. Then, without a single word, he turned around and walked back toward his car.

I stayed frozen behind the hedges, my jaw slightly slack, watching as he opened the driver's side door with one hand, carefully placed the kitten on the passenger seat, and climbed in after it. The engine roared to life with a deep, aggressive rumble, and within seconds, the car tore out of the parking lot and vanished down the private drive.

I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding, my shoulders slumping against the cold brick wall behind me.

What the hell was that?

The campus golden boy, the guy everyone whispered about in fear, stopped to pick up a mangy alley cat? It didn't make any sense. It didn't fit the profile I had meticulously built in my black leather journal. But as I finally dragged myself out from behind the bushes and started the long walk toward the campus gates, my mind was spinning. There were layers to him. Dark, hidden layers that he kept locked away from the rest of the world, just like me.