The loud booming sound wasn't just any sound. It was gunshots. That's what Luca told me when we left that arcade looking restaurant.

"Are you serious?" I stared at his back. He turned around with a frown, making me stop dead in my tracks.

"Why in the hell would I joke about it?" He asked.

I looked back at the restaurant and saw how some security guards were trying to calm the chaos now. I felt bad leaving Fraser and Alice in there. Maybe I should've called them.

"Look, I know how nice it would be to stay here and figure out whether those are gunshots or not, but we can't do that." He looked like he was losing his patience.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Do you want to die so early, Rose?" He asked.

"What?" I asked, more confused than scared.

He inhaled deeply. "The guys back there, the ones shooting random people, they're after me." He explained. "And if we don't run, we die."

My eyes widened at that. "Why are they after you?"

My eyes widened even further when he took hold of my wrist, a strange feeling settling at the pit of my stomach. "Let's pretend you didn't ask that, okay?"

I didn't get to say anything before he turned around and started walking away, dragging me behind him.

He was into drugs. He threatened people with guns. And now, some people were trying to come after him.

He was right; a lot had changed.

I didn't know where we were going. All I knew was that we were going as far away as possible from that restaurant. For some reason, I was expecting someone trying to catch up to us. But nobody was behind us.

And I was starting to doubt whatever Luca had just told me.

Maybe he had just made that up. Maybe he was lying when he said those people were after him.

Before I could've opened up my mouth and asked him about it, we stopped in front of the big ferris wheel. The small cabins came down one by one as people got inside.

Were we–

"There he is!" I heard a shout right behind me. I turned around and looked. Luca didn't. All he did was get inside one of the compartments before pulling me along.

I almost would've fallen face-first if he hadn't wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me inside. Which landed me on top of him. Gripping his shoulders, my eyes widened at the close proximity. His hand, however, stayed where it was.

Almost immediately, I felt my face heating up.

"Get him before he runs away!" I heard another shout before I scrambled away from Luca, sitting down on the other side of the small compartment.

I didn't even realize we had started going up until I looked back at the guys who had just been shouting. They were all wearing black and had incredibly mean faces. I definitely saw guns in their hands too.

I looked back at Luca. "They'll catch up to us."

"Us?" He asked with a small smirk. "No, they won't. They're one of the finest dumbasses out there."

I frowned at that. "How can you be so calm about this?"

He ran a hand through his curls. His soft brown curls. "I'm up in a ferris wheel with my one and only best friend. What could be better than that?"

I felt a small pang in my chest, one I couldn't ignore. I looked away from him, down where those guys had been standing. We were almost at the top now and I was sure that they would catch us once we came down again.

But when I looked down once more, they weren't there. Instead, they were running off to some other side. Luca had been right.

They were dumb.

"You know, now that we are here up in a ferris wheel, I've been dying to ask you something." He spoke up, eyeing me. "How good was Manhattan?"

Once again, I froze. This time, not because he was looking at me, but because of the question. The one question that I'd do anything to not answer.

I looked away from him as my stomach clenched and unclenched itself. Thinking about my days back in Manhattan made me wish to throw up whatever that I had eaten before. But throwing up from the top of a ferris wheel wasn't exactly a good idea.

Nothing was good about Manhattan. Not even a single thing.

Luca kept staring at me, waiting. I felt my palms getting clammy with sweat. I knew what he wanted to hear, but he didn't know the truth. Nobody knew the truth.

"It wasn't good." I stated, finally looking at him. "It was the opposite of good."

His eyes widened a little. I saw his surprise. And maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I didn't get to say anything else when our cabin came back on the ground.

I was the first to get out, Luca behind me. I looked around trying to spot those big guys in black, but they were nowhere in sight.

"Come on." He stated before walking off towards the opposite way to where the guys had gone off to. I followed him silently, taking out my phone.

There were five missed calls from Alice. My finger hovered above her name, not sure if I should've called her back. When I looked up, I realized that we were behind the parking lot now. Nobody was out here. For once, I felt like breathing again.

Luca stopped and looked around. I leaned back against the concrete wall.

"Doesn't this seem so easy?" I asked him with a small frown. "They couldn't just leave so easily."

The smirk came back on his face. I saw him stuff his hand inside his black leather jacket before taking out a gun. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to prevent the surprised gasp from escaping my lips.

He reloaded the gun with a click before coming towards me. "What are you doing?" I asked in surprise, pressing myself further back against the wall.

He looked at me, raising his brows. "They didn't leave, Rose." He said. "We came here so they could follow us."

My expression slowly morphed into a horrified one.

Almost instantly, I heard footsteps, and a guy appeared from the side we just came from, glaring at Luca. "There you are, Lucius."

"Here I am." Luca turned towards him with the same smirk. The guy was all in black; black shirt, black jeans. And was big enough to easily kill us both. "Ryder isn't here, you know."

"Fuck Ryder." The guy spoke up angrily. "It's you who I need to kill with my own hands."

Luca laughed at that, running a hand through his hair. "You wish, Wes. Sadly, you can't do that."

I did not see any reason why he couldn't.

"Not yet." The guy named Wes said. "But someday."

It would've ended right there if his eyes hadn't trailed off towards me. His eyes seemed to darken. "What is she doing here?"

Luca looked at me, then back at him. Surprisingly, I felt him stepping towards the guy. "None of your business."

The guy, however, seemed to radiate pure anger when he looked at me. As if I had done something equally as bad to him.

I didn't even know who he was.

"I know who you are. I knew your father." He hissed at me, his dark, angry eyes almost boring holes into my face. Then to my surprise, he let out a heartless laugh. "I heard what happened to him. And I have never been so glad."

I blinked, looking at him in horror.

He stepped back before disappearing from where he had come from. I saw Luca staring at me but at the same time, I saw nothing.

He knew my father.

Luca stepped closer towards me. "What was he talking about?"

None of your business.

"I don't know what he was talking about." I lied. Lying came easy in such situations, at least to me.

He came even closer, making me look up at him. "I've known Wes for a while now. I know he doesn't spew unnecessary shit."

I wanted to look away from his eyes. But for some reason, I couldn't make myself do that, even when he leaned further closer until there were just inches left between our faces.

And a part inside me yearned to just touch him somehow.

"I let you in my business." He said. "Now it's your turn, Rose."

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Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿