“Ihave to tell my father she’s here, Enzo. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “You can’t do that.”
“I have to.”
“Why?” I shouted before I could stop myself.
Luca sat calmly behind his desk, non-reactive to my outburst. Only his eyes followed me as I paced back and forth like a caged animal. “You knew the deal when you went to go get her. And I’m sorry. If you would’ve told me about her before Tristan found her, I could’ve—”
“What?” I broke in rudely. “Could’ve what, Luca?”
“I could’ve given you more time.”
“So, this is my fault.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what the hell are you saying? I should’ve left her in fucking Mexico?”
“ENZO.”
I stopped my pacing abruptly, took a breath, and turned to face my friend. The expression on his face told me he was done taking my shit. I bowed my head. “I apologize. I shouldn’t take my shit out on you.”
Rising from his desk, Luca came to stand in front of me. “I know you feel some sort of obligation for this girl…”
I laughed. Obligation. What I felt for Sera was far from any sort of obligation. It was a fucking obsession.
Luca’s blue eyes narrowed in on me. “What’s really going on with you, Enz? Talk to me.”
But I couldn’t. Because how was I supposed to explain to him the things I was feeling when I didn’t even fucking know? How her eyes and voice haunted every one of my thoughts and my body craved her more than food or water. How I’d spent the last few days learning every single fucking inch of her. Jesus, I could still taste her on my tongue and yet my mouth watered for more. The needy sounds she made were a constant orchestra in my ears. Even now, I was half hard. I walked around in a constant state of arousal until I could have her again.
And more than that, I was learning who Sera was. Her wants. Her needs. Her dreams. The things that had happened to her in that house in Mexico weighed on her now, dimming some of her light, but it was still there beneath the surface. I would catch glimpses of it every once in a while, and it would lighten my own dark soul the way nothing else could.
I craved that light, even as I tried to block it. She was a distraction. A dangerous distraction. But one I couldn’t bring myself to give up. I wasn’t ready to let her go. And yet, I knew that I would have to.
Just not yet.
Luca studied me. “There is one other possible solution,” he said, “that would allow you to keep her.”
My eyes met his through my sunglasses, and I knew what he was going to say before he said it. I shook my head. “No.”
But he voiced it anyway. “You could marry her. We could make her father an offer of an alliance.”
“No.”
“Enzo…”
“No, Luca. That option is not on the table.”
But he wouldn’t back down. “Take off your sunglasses.” It was a direct order. One I couldn’t disobey, even though I’d left them on specifically because I knew Luca would see too much.
He waited patiently, and, knowing he would rip them from my face if I didn’t do as he said, I raised my hand and yanked them off of my face, keeping my eyes averted.
“Look at me, my friend.”
He wasn’t playing fair. Left with no other choice, I did as he directed.
His blue eyes clashed with mine. It only took a few moments for him to comprehend what he saw. “You care for her.”
“I care about fucking her.”
“No,” he said. “It’s more than that. Much more.”
“She’s been through a lot. Because of me. Because I offered her protection and then I didn’t provide her that protection. I think she’s earned a respite before she’s shipped back to her crazy father. That’s all.”
“Don’t lie to me, Enzo.”
I clenched my teeth together until they hurt.
“I know you haven’t known her very long, but as I know from my own experience, that doesn’t always matter.” He sighed, and laid a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Would it be the worse thing in the world to have a wife again?”
“Yes.” It would. I refused to subject Sera to the same thing I’d put Alessandra through. “Our life is too dangerous. Especially right now, with you going after Luigi’s position in the family. We don’t know who our friends are or who our enemies are.”
“If you married her, we could coerce her father to be on my side. He would be family. He’d have no choice. And whether we like his methods or not, he’s rising in power up in Dallas. He would be a good ally to have.” He paused. “If you don’t, and we send her back without her virginity intact, what do you think he will do to us when I go after my father? What do you think he will do to her?”
“That’s exactly why you can’t send her back.”
He stared at me, and I could see the way he struggled to understand my thinking. “You’d rather start a war than marry the girl?”
“I don’t see you running off to marry Veda.”
“Veda is not in the same position as Sera. She’s not a mafia princess. And, for your information, I would marry her tomorrow if she would fucking have me. Don’t think I haven’t tried to talk her into it.”
That surprised me. “You proposed? And she refused?”
“She did,” he said, momentarily allowing me to sidetrack the conversation. He crossed his arms over his chest, pulling his black Armani jacket tight across his shoulders. “She has her reasons, and I can’t fault her for them. She’s not from our world, and although I know she loves me, making it official on paper…well, she just needs a little more time to adjust.”
“Sera wants to escape this world. Just like Alessandra.”
His eyes snapped back to mine, and understanding dawned. “Sera is not Alessandra. If anything, she’s better suited to live this life than either your first wife or Veda. She’s grown up in it. She knows what the deal is.”
“That’s all true. And because of all that, she hates this life even more, Luca. She’s here in Austin because she ran from her father. Ran the first chance she had. She was little more than a prisoner and had to stop here to try to earn some money so she can start over somewhere else.”
“And yet you sucked her right back into it.”
“Temporarily,” I insisted, even as the truth clawed its way up my spine. “And I didn’t know who she was when we met.”
“What did you offer her?” he asked.
There was no sense in not telling him. He would find out eventually one way or the other. “Money. Enough to allow her to start a brand-new life. A new name. New identification. And anything else she would need.”
One eyebrow went up. “All of that for a girl you just want to fuck a few times?”
I tried to play it off. “Us Italians are a passionate bunch who go after what we want. Whatever it takes. Right?”
His eyes narrowed at the reference to him kidnapping Veda. “This is true,” he finally said.
Running his hand through his hair, he paced away from me as I waited patiently for him to tell me what he was going to do. I didn’t have to wait long.
“I’m sorry, Enzo, but with the circumstances being what they are, if you’re not willing to marry the girl, I don’t know how else to get around letting my father know she’s here. And she will eventually go back to her father.”
I stared down at the floor, my mind racing. But he was right. There was nothing else we could offer to Ciro Cordaro that would be worth anything to him. Except…
“Wait.”
Luca gave me his attention. “What?”
“You said Ciro has been causing problems in his town, yes?”
“That’s my understanding from what my connections have told me.”
“And you want to get him on your side, to keep our relationship strong.”
He cocked his head. “What are you thinking?”
I held my hand out in front of me, asking for patience. “We could use his daughter for leverage. Hold her here as our prisoner. Use her to get him to do as we wish.”
But Luca immediately shook his head. “That won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“Because to Ciro, his daughter is nothing but a piece of virgin property for him to sell to the highest bidder. He won’t give anything for her. And if we threaten her safety, he’ll assume her value has gone down. But he still might start something to save face. To prove how tough and strong he is. And I can’t afford to be involved in a war right now. Not with everything else going on with my father and after how carefully we’ve made every move to get to where we are now.”
Goddammit. He was right. I knew he was right.
“I’m sorry, Enzo, but we have no other choice than to let Luigi know she’s here. But perhaps I can talk him into waiting a few days before he lets Ciro know.”
My blood raged through my veins, even though I knew he was right. We had no other choice. At least, not one I was willing to do. “What will you tell him?”
“I don’t know.” He gave me a small smile. “I’ll think of something.” He paused. “I’ll tell him I want to keep her here to question her about her father.”
I gave him a nod, then walked over to the table in the corner and poured myself a full glass of whiskey, downing it in one swallow.
“You can still change your mind,” he said quietly. Before I could respond, he held up his hand. “Just think about it. You have a little time.”
