Page 25 of Scarlet Embrace

I waited for him to elaborate, but he simply looked at me as if expecting me to know what he was talking about. “Care to tell me what it is?”

“Lucas Cruz,” he said.

Not him again.

It had been three weeks since the kidnapping event, and the first four nights had been tough. Bianca had asked me a whole lot of questions about Lucas, wanting to know exactly how I had gotten involved with a handsome man like him. All my attempts to convince her that there was nothing between Lucas and me did not go well.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.

“The both of you. You know,” Kaze said with a knowing look. Nothing he was saying made sense, and I looked at him for more explanation. “Come on, you don’t need to hide it. Everyone knows you two are together. I heard it from one of my friends who worked with the Street Kings.”

“What?” I asked, not sure if I had heard him right. “What do you mean we are going out?”

That was a rather wild claim. Neither of us had seen the other ever since that night, and I wanted to keep it that way. When I told Roland what happened with Diana, he made it clear how dangerous things were getting. First Lucas Cruz, then Diana LaRosa, he made it clear that things weren’t looking good.

“Come on. You don’t need to hide it, Elena,” Kaze told me. “A brother understands.”

“No. There’s no understanding because nothing is going on between both of us,” I insisted.

Kaze was pretty much convinced, and I realized I needed to get to the root of this rumor. The last thing I wanted was to be in some sort of relationship with a man I barely know about. Reaching Lucas Cruz was next to impossible, but I wasn’t giving up that easily. I asked Linda if I could meet with him, and she told me that he’s been fairly busy the past few weeks.

She told me that I could come up to the mansion and meet with him. That didn’t sit right with me, but I needed to talk with him. Driving up to the Cruz estate made me a little bit concerned as it seemed like I was going out to look for trouble. Waiting at the door was Linda, who seemed a bit excited to see me.

“It’s nice to finally see you again,” Linda said as she held my hands. “Lucas told me to limit my contact with you because of what happened.”

Yeah, and I was glad to keep things that way.

“Yeah. I understand. We can’t take any risk,” I said with a nervous laugh.

Linda was different, and if things were slightly different, I would have loved to know her better. She had mentioned that she was interested in interning at my place, and I had simply laughed it off, knowing that was never going to happen. Linda Cruz was never going to work in a law firm with no name. She led me inside, and once again, I was taken away by the splendor of their living room. My apartment could fit easily into their living room. Linda offered me a seat, but before I could tell her that I was only there to talk with Lucas, Hannah Cruz stepped into the room.

“Who’s your friend, Linda?” Hannah Cruz asked.

“This is Elena. She’s friends with Lucas, and now she’s also my friend,” Linda answered almost immediately.

From the look on her face, I don’t think she was pleased to hear that I was either Lucas’s friend or her daughter’s friend, and honestly, I didn’t really care much about what she thought. The only reason I was there was to talk with Lucas to sort things out.

“She’s also a lawyer, mom,” Linda added.

“Oh really? With which firm?” Hannah asked.

“I own a firm of my own,” I told her.

“Oh, really?”

She asked for more details, and it felt like I was being interviewed for a position. As much as I wanted to talk with Lucas, I had no choice but to endure Hannah’s scrutiny. Once she was done with her line of questioning, she told me to enjoy myself, but I knew she did not mean those words. I asked Linda to lead me to Lucas’s room, and she asked me to follow her.

“Lucas. I brought you a visitor,” Linda said as she opened the door to what turned out to be Lucas’s study.

“How many times do I have to tell you that—” Lucas started before he noticed me. “Elena.”

Suits were his thing, but today, Lucas wasn’t wearing a suit. This time, he was wearing a shirt and had glasses on. I stared at him in surprise, not wanting to believe the man in front of me was the same Lucas I was used to.

“Sorry. I was shocked to see you,” I admitted.

“He looks different, doesn’t he? This is the Lucas people don’t get to see very often,” Linda said with a chuckle.

“Thank you, Linda. Can you please leave us alone?”