Bound to Break

Chapter 42

"Where are you staying then? Here?"

I quickly wiped my tears away, hoping to hold my crying in till I got home.

"Where else?" Elmo shrugged.

"What about your job? Elmo you can't-"

"SHHH." He snapped, shutting me up. "I go by DeeJay now."

"Elmo-" my words were cut off again when he raised his brows. Sighing in defeat I continued. "Deejay, you can't live here forever-" My sight wavered around the snow covered park. "There's a storm coming in a few days."

"I'll survive."

A sardonic breath brushed past my lips. "You're just as stubborn as Luciano."

"Speaking of my brother, how did the wedding go..." his brows furrowed reading the name badge on my shirt. "Gloria?"

"Don't ask me that."

"Not good?"

"How did you expect it to go? We hate each other, and thanks to you, Nina is bonded to him for life."

Surprisingly, Elmo watched me with understanding. "So you ran away?"

Unease became heavy in the back of my throat. I never once dug up my past ever since I left, and it almost made me afraid. "I had to."

I didn't want to say why, how it hurt so much seeing Luciano with someone else that I wanted to disappear from the face of this earth. Elmo would never understand, not when he did the same thing his brother did.

"I just couldn't stand living in a marriage where my husband doesn't even like me." I admitted, and then started blowing on my hands. My fingers were turning purple, and he glanced down at my engagement ring.

It seemed to catch him off guard, but thankfully he didn't ask about it. "But you were ready to marry me."

"You were different Elmo- Deejay. You didn't hate me."

My words made a snicker leave his mouth, but it was nothing amused. "And you think he does?"

"I know he does."

"You're oblivious." He mocked. I shot him a puzzled look, but he was very serious. "My brother's had something for you for years Nina."

"That's where you're wrong."

Certainty swam in the depths of his eyes, so strong I felt a shiver run through my bloodstream.

"I lived with him." He continued. "And I know that when Luca wants something, nothing in this world can stop him from getting it." He pulled out a cigarette, put it between his lips and lit it up. "He obsesses. Like when we were kids and he tasted fruitcake. He still eats it to this day."

And I thought he was being deep. "Well I'm not fruitcake."

"You get the point, Dora the Explorer. I'm just telling you to be careful."

His remark made me fight an eye roll. "If what you're saying is even true, then why didn't Luciano have a problem with me marrying you?"