Ethan lit a cigarette he had no intention of finishing, letting the smoke curl lazily into the cold morning air. Across the quad, Emily was doing her best to ignore the cluster of gossiping students orbiting her path like moths to a flame.
He'd expected the whispers — he always did — but the speed was impressive. Twenty-four hours and she was already "Monaco's girl" in half the campus's imagination.
Not good.
He flicked the cigarette to the ground before it burned his fingers. Attention was a currency he knew how to spend, but right now, it was a debt he couldn't afford. The deal last night had been sloppy, and sloppy meant dangerous. The last thing he needed was Emily's name tangled in conversations that already had his.
She should've been just a lost girl with a rosary, he thought, shoving his hands in his pockets. Instead, she's walking around with a target she doesn't even see.
He pushed off the lamppost and started toward the business building, but halfway there, one of his men intercepted him — a lean, sharp-faced guy named Luca.
"We've got a problem," Luca murmured without preamble.
Ethan didn't slow his stride. "If it's about last night, handle it."
"It's connected. Word is someone saw you in the garden with her. They're asking questions — not college kids. The wrong kind of people."
Ethan's jaw tightened. "Then make sure they stop asking."
They reached the building's side entrance. Before stepping inside, Ethan glanced back toward where Emily had been moments ago. She was gone.
Good.
Still, his mind wouldn't shake the image of her standing there in the sunlight, wide-eyed and unaware, as whispers rippled around her. He'd planned to keep her at arm's length — long enough to figure out why she got under his skin. But the campus rumor mill was already pushing her deeper into his world.
And once someone was in his world, they didn't get to leave.
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