Luca

“I have wipes you can use, but I don’t think wipes or band aids will help your lip will they?”

“No.” He broke my heart, he was so beautiful I hated to see the bitter, painful storms raging in his eyes. It reached out to me and held my heart in a vice; any pain Luca felt I felt it too.

On impulse I leant forward and put my lips gently against his, giving him a delicate kiss so as not to hurt him anymore than he already was. Being so close to him, feeling his warm breath mingle with mine made me faint and giddy all at once.

“What are you doing Chloe?” He screwed his face up and pulled away from me sharply. “You can’t kiss me.”

“Why not? My Dad kisses me when I hurt myself, he says a kiss makes anything feel better.”

“He says that because he’s your Dad and he’s kind, not like ours. He loves you Chloe, but kisses don’t make anything better.”

“They make me feel better, anyway I wanted to kiss you Luca. You’re mine.” I told him this most days but it still hadn’t sunk in yet. Boys were stupid.

“I can’t be yours Chloe I’m too old for you. You need to find a boy your own age.” He said that most days too but I never listened.

“You’re only fourteen Luca and I’ll be eleven soon any way.”

“I’m fifteen next month. Anyway a fourteen year old boy can’t kiss a ten year old girl it’s not allowed.” His rules were rubbish.

“That’s a silly rule and I don’t like it. If I want to kiss you I will.”

“Chloe Ellis, You’re a stubborn little girl who never does as she’s told. You need to go home now before you get caught. I have enough to do protecting Freddie I can’t protect you both.”

I huffed in protest but he was right. So I sneaked back to my warm safe house in record time and slinked up the stairs missing the parts where the floorboards creaked, then headed into my pink princess bedroom. Out of my window I could see the Marquez’s back yard and the shadow of Luca sitting as still as a statue on the porch, his head bowed in sorrow and I couldn’t stop myself blowing him a secret kiss from my window and praying it would touch his heart of stone.

Chapter 3

We drove on in uncomfortable silence for another twenty or so minutes before we pulled into a secluded car park surrounded by buildings and totally deserted apart from a few cars scattered around. This must be the back entrance to wherever Freddie was taking me. I had no idea what I was going to walk into, but I had my badass attitude gage cranked up to maximum and I wasn’t about to

show any weakness right now.

Freddie opened his door then grabbed my arm and pulled me along the back seat of the car with him to exit on his side.

“You don’t have to dislocate my arm you know, Jesus.” I whined like a kid.

“I can’t afford to let you run Chloe, I need to keep you safe now more than ever.” His eyes bored into mine but I just rolled mine in a blasé way to show him he wasn’t scaring me.

“I think you’re over exaggerating how valuable a stripper, and an average one at that, could mean to a club like Jack’s.”

“It’s the boss I’m worried about not the club.” He replied yanking my arm again to get me to walk towards a dark alley in between two buildings.

I stumbled along reluctantly, I could hear the familiar noise of club music, bass thumping and reverberating off the walls around us. It was biting cold out so I pulled the lapels of Freddie’s jacket tighter round me to give my scantily clad body some form of protection from the imminent bout of pneumonia that I was sure to develop tomorrow. Freddie stopped at a door and knocked, he was growing anxious I could tell, he wasn’t just biting his nails he was tapping his foot too, a nervous habit he’d had since he was nine.

“Chill out Freddie, I’ll protect you.” I joked.

“Quit joking around Chloe, this is serious.”

The door swung open and two men build like mountains stood before us, dressed in black suits with ear pieces fitted to them indicating they were some type of security. They nodded to Freddie and he pushed me through the door first before following behind. The heavy door slammed shut and the male mountains shoved past me, each one turning back to look me up and down with lascivious expressions on their faces. They led us to a staircase at the back of what I now assumed was a nightclub, or probably a strip club like the one I had just left. Was this what it was all about? Strip club wars or something?

“Are you stealing me from Jack’s to make me strip here instead?” I asked, but Freddie shook his head.

“Always with the questions Chloe. No this isn’t a strip club and no I don’t want you dancing, not like that. It isn’t you.”

“How would you know what’s me, you haven’t seen me for seven years Freddie.” I snapped.

“You’re right I don’t know you as well as I used to, but I know enough to say that is not how you want to make a living, and I know enough about your boss to tell you things could be a whole lot worse for you right now if I’d have walked away tonight.”

“How Freddie? How could things possibly be worse for me? I’ve probably lost my job tonight, Teresa and I have zero rent money, our rent is due in like three days and we have no idea how we’re gonna pay that. Oh and the landlord is a sleazy asshole who will probably try to get me to pay him in kind. That’s not even touching on the tuition fees and other stuff I need for uni. You’ve fucked up my night and my life.”