Mind Games

Chapter Fifteen: Charitable Affairs

Kanas arrived to picked Lucca up for the gala twenty minutes before it was due to start. The car ride was just over thirty minutes in duration. She knew that by doing so, they would arrive at the venue tastefully late. All of which, she was sure, had been carefully planned.

Much like Lucca had been carefully planning her evening. The main events, at least. Like finding Martina Gianelli and ending this threat on her family as soon as she was able, away from suspicion. Shrouded under carefully veiled excuses. She was excited to be so close to the danger she was putting herself within, excited because she knew what awaited her on the other side. A life free of one less torment.

Though she wasn't naïve enough to be over-confident with her coming evening. No. She was nervous, for her safety. For the safety of her family. For the safety of the doctor... which, shouldn't have been concerning for her, and yet...

Well, she hoped she managed to keep him out of danger during this. She hoped she kept him oblivious to her intentions for this evening.

She didn't want to be explaining any of it to him. She didn't want to have him questioning her, or her actions.

Lucca was already waiting outside, on the stone steps of the Alpine. She'd been alerted not a minute or two before that Kanas's car had pulled into the long driveway leading into the house, and she wasn't disappointed a moment later when the car came to a stop in the circular drive.

There were two things that Lucca noticed as Kanas climbed from the car. One, if she had any grievances about attending the gala on the arm of Kanas, they were thrown out of the proverbial window as soon as she saw him, and two, Dr Oliver Kanas could wear a suit.

He looked prominently lethal. Like James Bond, or one of the notorious villains that an old-fashioned spy would take down.

There was never any doubt that Kanas came from money. Or that he was dangerous.

His tuxedo fitted him as stunningly, as gracefully as a second skin. Exerting his power and control, showing off the money he wielded. It was designer, and well-tailored and looked to be Ralph Lauren, if the peaked satin lapels were anything to go by.

Beyond his suit, he had done himself up. Freshly shaven, his hair a little more styled, and his cologne wasn't overpowering. Subtle and heady.

She looked at him, met his ever inquisitive gaze and the air between them seemed to sizzle. To come alive with the words of their last face-to-face encounter, with the remembrance of what he'd said. Of the way he had said it. Like a promise. Like a note of finality.

You need me.

As Lucca stood across from him now, she feared that she would always be reminding herself that she didn't, in fact, need him.

And she didn't. She just wanted him, and she seemed to remember that she wanted him as they stood there, standing and staring. The air around them charged. Bodies reacting to the other's presence.

Kanas smiled, like he knew.

"Eager to leave are we, my dear?" Kanas asked with mirth in his hazel eyes.

Who said chivalry was dead?

She breathed out a sigh of relief as he effortlessly seemed to skirt around any of the awkwardness that hovered between the two of them.

"My excitement has gotten the better of me," she excused herself, just as effortlessly, carefully descending from the stone steps and onto the cobble-stoned foundation of the circular driveway as Kanas moved to open her car door.

In truth, she hadn't wanted Victor or his children knowing of her plans for the evening. Something about plausible deniability in the event that everything tonight went wrong. Added with the fact that she didn't want their endless questions or Victor's concerns or knowledge about where she was going with Kanas.