Before dawn | Dark romance

Chapter 27 - Eye of the Tiger

May 8, 2024

Wednesday

Dear diary,

Let me tell you about my day.

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[1/2]

"So, if I understand correctly, he whacked him because he called you a whore?" Taj's voice is filled with a mix of incredulity and curiosity, his eyes wide as he tries to process the chaos I had just described. We are in our office, the sunlight streaming through the half-open blinds, casting stripes of light across the room.

I nod, my gaze drifting to the cup of tea on my desk. "Yeah, well, Will said I was whoring behind his back," I nod again. "But yeah, that's about the gist of it. Luca lost it when he heard William say that."

Taj leans back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Wow. And how's William holding up?"

I sigh, the events of the previous night replaying in my mind. "Well, he ended up with a broken nose and needed a few stitches. We spent the whole evening in the emergency room. I barely got any sleep."

Just then, the door to the office burst open, and Emily waltz in, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor. "I heard you were in the building," she says breathlessly like she has been running, "What's the latest?"

I roll my eyes but cannot help the small smile that tug at my lips. Emily is always the first to jump on juicy gossip. "You really want to know?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah!" she exclaims, pulling up a chair and sitting down with an expectant look.

I take a deep breath and start recounting the events of the previous night again "Luca showed up at my pilates class with Dante and asked me if I wanted to walk home with him because he wanted to talk," I begin. I just know I will have to repeat this story about another hundred times. Emily has likely already spilled the tea with our colleagues downstairs, and they all will want to know what happened.

"What did he want to talk about?" Emily interjects, her curiosity piqued. That is the stuff she really wanted to hear about.

I hold my hand up to stop her. "Hold on, I'll get to that." I continue explaining. "So, when we reached our apartment, Will was there too, and he was drunk. I could tell he was in one of his moods. I asked him multiple times to leave because, well, you know how Luca is."

"The man is very possessive," Emily says, looking dreamy. "They all are." God, of course, she finds that attractive.

I nod. "Yes, they are. I've never met men like them. However, I told Will that it was over and that he should stop harassing me, and then he started yelling and calling me all sorts of names. That's when Luca snapped. And, well, the rest you know."

Emily and Vinny were having a night in instead of going out, God knows what they were doing.

Em nods her head. "Vin and I were watching a movie," she says. I raise my eyebrow at her, not believing for one second that that was the only activity they were engaged in. "Don't give me that look, bitch. We were, in fact, watching a movie. We needed to cool down from our loving making marathon." She smirks, and I shake my head, smiling at her. Dirty bitch, I knew it. "However, we heard the commotion outside. There was so much blood."

Taj let out a low whistle. "Damn, the man really lost it."

I nod. "Yeah, he did. I wanted to call an ambulance because William was unconscious for a while, but one of Luca's bodyguards offered to drive us to the hospital and stayed waiting for us in the waiting room."