Two hours and forty minutes later, I was showered and dressed and walking into Luca’s lake house after dropping Sera off at her car, her cries of release still echoing in my ears. Knowing that I was the only man who’d ever known her so intimately…it did something to me. Something I couldn’t quite name.
I hadn’t wanted to leave her, and I’d almost asked her to stay at the hotel and wait for me. But I didn’t know how long I was going to be, and she had to work tomorrow. Besides, it would be good to give her a little time to heal so I could fuck her the way I wanted to.
I tried to get a read on her when I dropped her off, but she kept whatever she was feeling closed off tight, and it bothered me. Naturally, she still wasn’t quite comfortable with our arrangement. That was to be expected. I was the first man she’d ever been with, and our situation was far removed from what girls dreamed their first time would be like. There was no courting. No flowers. No gifts. No getting to know each other.
When I’d offered the deal to her, I thought doing it this way would be the fastest way to get her out of my system. But instead, it had only ingrained her deeper into my psyche. The more I touched her, the more I wanted to touch her. The more I heard her voice, the more it soothed me. The more I was inside of her, the more I craved to be deep within her. Her pussy. Her mouth. It didn’t matter. As long as we were physically connected.
Without her next to me, I felt cold and alone and could only think of being with her again. And that’s what made this thing between us dangerous.
I ran my fingers through my hair, fighting myself. I craved this woman more than anyone I’d ever met before. Maybe even Alessandra. But I also knew that me coming into her life wasn’t a good thing for her. Just like my wife, she was trying to get out of this life. And all I would do was drag her deeper into it.
‘Hello, Enzo!’ Lisa, Luca’s housekeeper, greeted me as I passed by the kitchen. She was the only one allowed in the house besides Veda, Tristan, and I. Unlike a lot of mob bosses and underbosses, Luca kept his staff to a minimum. He didn’t trust too many people having free rein inside of his home.
‘How are you, beautiful?’ I asked her.
But, as usual, my flirtatious words had no effect on her. She just rolled her eyes and said, ‘Luca and Tristan are already in Luca’s office. Would you like some coffee or tea?’
‘No, thank you. I’m good.’
‘Alright, I’ll be in here starting dinner if you change your mind.’
‘Thank you.’ I gave her a nod and headed down the hall, where I could hear my two best friends talking. I walked in to find Luca behind his large desk looking over some papers and Tristan sitting on the couch in the sitting area in front of it. They both looked up when I walked in.
‘Enzo, thank you for coming,’ Luca said.
I took off my sunglasses and tucked them inside of my suit coat. ‘Of course. What’s going on?’
His face gave nothing away. ‘Tristan found our lost mafia princess.’
My heart stopped completely, and then began to pound with slow, hard beats, making me lightheaded. ‘Ciro’s daughter?’
‘Yes,’ Tristan said. ‘She’s here in Austin and working at a club downtown we protect. I believe it’s the one Jade and the other escorts have made their unofficial place of work.’
‘It’s very private,’ Luca added, ‘and I respect that, which is why it took Tristan a minute to find out she was an employee. You’ve been there, haven’t you?’ Luca asked me.
They both knew that I preferred to keep my dates professional, and that Jade had been my steady date for years, until now. ‘Yes. I met Jade there the first time I was introduced to her. They like to keep things public the first time, for safety reasons.’ I didn’t bother to tell them of how I’d frequented the club since meeting Sera.
‘The girl, Serafina, is working tomorrow night,’ Luca told me. ‘Tristan will be waiting for her when she gets off and he’ll take her to my father’s until he can contact her father and send someone to get her. His new whore can take care of the girl until she’s back where she belongs.’
His eyes never left my face the entire time he told me this. I wanted to scream and rage that she didn’t belong with him. She belonged with me. But I said nothing. Instead, I just sat there, my eyes on the table in front of me as I nodded along as though I was listening, while the entire time my mind raced as I tried to think of a way to get somewhere alone so I could warn Sera and tell her to run and hole up somewhere until I could get to her.
‘Enzo, I’ll need you to cover Tris’s duties tomorrow night while he’s taking care of this situation.’
Wishing like hell I’d left my sunglasses on, I schooled my features as best I could. ‘Why don’t you send me after the girl instead?’
Luca stared straight at me, and I knew he saw the truth in my eyes. He shook his head. ‘A situation has come up with one of our shipments, and I need you to handle it. You’re better with people than Tris is, anyway.’
I didn’t worry that Tristan would take offense at Luca’s comment. We’d all known each other a long time, and what he’d said was true. Tristan interacted emotionally with very few people. Everyone else might as well be androids wandering the world disguised as humans. And that was what made him one of the deadliest people I knew.
‘Luca, may I speak to you alone?’
‘I don’t think that’s necessary.’
He knew. It was probably written all over my face. And the fact that he wasn’t willing to talk about it told me all I needed to know. There would be no leeway where Sera was concerned. He was sending her back to her father.
Except…
Why was he telling me all of this today? When I would have plenty of time to warn her?
He saw the exact moment I understood. I turned the conversation back to the shipment issue. ‘What do you need me to do?’
As Luca explained what was going on, I realized there was no way in hell I’d be able to get to Sera tonight. Even if I did manage to find out where she was staying. My only chance was to call and hope she had her damn phone on her.
That, or come clean with the two people I trusted with my life and force Luca to make a different decision.
I took a breath. Then another.
Fuck it.
Rising from my seat, I interrupted Luca. ‘I’m sorry,’ I told him. ‘But we can’t turn Serafina back over to her father.’
Luca sat back in his leather chair. ‘Why not?’ he asked quietly.
‘Because I already found her. And I’m not giving her up.’
‘Fuck, Enz.’ Tristan stared up at me like I’d lost my ever-loving mind.
But Luca’s expression gave nothing away. ‘Enzo, you can’t keep her.’
‘Why not? She’s not a child. She’s twenty-five. Old enough to make her own decisions.’
‘And did she decide she wanted to be with you?’
‘Did Veda?’ I shot back at him. ‘When you first brought her here?’ He’d stolen Veda right out of her home—well, her sister’s home—because he thought she was his brother’s fiancé and he wanted to kill her in front of him out of revenge. Scrubbing my hand over my mouth, I reined in my temper. ‘I haven’t kidnapped her, if that’s what you’re thinking. If I had, she wouldn’t still be working in that club.’
‘Then how do you know her?’ Luca asked.
‘She’s a friend of Jade’s,’ I answered. I didn’t bother telling him that she showed up at my door trying to whore herself out in a desperate attempt to lose her virginity. ‘I didn’t know who she was at first. Not until you brought it to our attention. But by then it was too late.’
‘Enzo, we have to let her father know where she is.’
‘Why?’ I demanded. ‘She doesn’t want to go back there.’
‘Because if we don’t, and he finds out she’s here in my city, it could cause a lot of problems we really don’t need right now. Please sit down,’ he added when I began to pace.
I returned to my seat in the chair across from Tristan. ‘What if we make him a deal?’
‘Are you going to marry this girl?’ he asked.
‘No.’ My answer was swift and came before I’d even thought it through. But as soon as the word was out of my mouth, I knew it was the correct answer. I would never put another woman through what Alessandra went through because she was married to me. A mistress, you could hide away. I could visit her as often as I could, and I could keep her far away from this part of myself. A wife was expected to be a part of the ‘family,’ and as such, there would be no escape for her from this life.
‘Then there is no deal we could make that he would accept, and you know it. I take it you’ve already fucked her.’
It wasn’t really a question, but I answered it anyway. ‘Yes.’
‘Was she a virgin?’
‘Yes.’
Luca exchanged looks with Tristan, and then he put his elbows on his desk and rubbed his forehead.
‘I’m not going to hurt her.’
‘That’s not what I’m worried about.’
‘Then what are you worried about, Luca?’ My tone was bordering on disrespect, and I tried to get it under control. ‘Look,’ I told him. ‘I didn’t mean for this to happen. She showed up at my door when Jade couldn’t make it for the wedding reception. I didn’t know who she was until you showed us the photos of her.’ And by then, she was already in my blood.
‘It’s not too late,’ he insisted.
‘Yes, it is,’ I told him. ‘I’m not sending her back to her father.’ Before he could argue with me further, a thought occurred to me. ‘Have you already notified him that she’s here in Austin?’
‘No. I wanted to make sure we had her before I told him.’
‘Then there’s no reason to do so.’
‘There is one,’ Luca said. ‘Luigi. My father knows she’s here.’
Son of a bitch.
