I couldn’t get Sera’s face out of my head as I made my way downstairs before dinner to see if Luca had made any progress with his father. The hurt that dimmed the light in her eyes. The anger. The betrayal.
This was not how this was supposed to go. Dammit.
I wanted to run back up the stairs and drag her out of the shower and back into the bed. I wanted to hide from the rest of this fucked up world that was trying to tear us apart.
I wanted to stop time.
But no matter how much I wanted all of that, it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t hide and hope everything was just going to go away. Because sooner or later, the things that were trying to separate us would find us, and I needed to be prepared.
When I hit the bottom of the stairs, I pulled my sunglasses out of the inner pocket of my jacket and straightened my tie. It was black, as was my shirt and slacks. My usual attire when I was on duty.
When I arrived in Luca’s office, he and Tristan were already there waiting for me, chatting quietly in the small sitting area in front of his desk. I nodded hello to them both and took my place beside Tristan.
Luca wasted no time in getting straight to the point. “I spoke with my father, and I was able to convince him to give us until the end of the week before he’ll notify Ciro that we have his daughter. I told him I needed the time to get what information I could from her about her father and what he’s doing up in Dallas, which I plan to do.” He gave me a pointed look, and I held back the immediate denial that was on the tip of my tongue. He was right. She was a source of information and we needed to use her as such. When he saw I wasn’t going to object, he continued what he was saying. “We have until Friday.”
“That’s only four days,” I growled.
“I know,” he told me. “And I’m sorry, my friend. That was the best I could do.”
Tristan’s quiet voice broke the tense silence that fell between us. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved with her in the first place, Enzo.” There was no judgement in his tone. The words were spoken only as fact, and nothing else.
I met his calm gaze, and, after an initial flash of anger that swiftly faded, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re right,” I admitted. I turned back to Luca. “I should have brought her to you the instant I knew who she was. I shouldn’t have hidden her from you. And I ask for your forgiveness for not trusting you. I was thinking with my cock instead of my head.”
“Women have that effect on you sometimes.” A small smile turned up one corner of Luca’s mouth. Before Veda’s appearance in his life, he would not have been so gracious about all of this. But I would never go so far as to say she’d made him soft. If anything, having her gave him more to protect. More to live for. And much less merciful to those who would threaten what he now had.
Restless, I rose from the couch and paced over to the window, my mind spinning as I searched for some way to change the course of my own actions. My heart began to race, and my lungs felt tight. I closed my eyes, fighting off the panic. “There’s no way of getting her out of this, is there?” I asked after a moment.
“There is one,” Luca said, and I tensed as I anticipated his words. “If you would just make an offer for her—”
“My answer is still no,” I bit out.
“If you want to keep her, it’s the only sensible solution,” Tristan agreed.
“Who the fuck says I want to keep her?”
“Why else would you be acting this way?” he countered.
“And what way is that?”
“Like an overly possessive stronzo.”
I wanted to deny it, but again, Tris was right. Still… “Marriage is a lifelong commitment. Not something I would ask of someone I’ve known all of a few weeks.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “So divorce her when you tire of her. Or set her up in a nice condo downtown and live separate lives like most of the men in the family.”
“I can’t imagine myself ever growing tired of Sera.” I hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but it was too late to take them back.
“Then marry her, Enzo,” Luca insisted. “And I’m not going to sit here and lie to you about why I’m pushing you to do so. I want you to be happy, yes, but it would also provide us with the perfect opportunity to have an in with Ciro. If he goes off the deep end and decides to move into our territory, or we have the need to join forces with him in any way, it would give us a hell of a lot more bargaining power than we have now if his daughter is a member of our family. A way to avoid the inevitable violence that’s in our future with him otherwise, if things keep going the way they do.”
“What if he doesn’t give a fuck about his daughter?”
Luca frowned. “He’s a father. Perhaps not a good one, but a father nevertheless.”
I came back over to the couch and sat down. “He’s a father who’s using his daughter as a bargaining chip to rise in power.”
“As most mafia men do. So why shouldn’t we take advantage of that? You’ve already taken the one thing from her that gave her any value.”
“And he’s not going to be happy about that.”
“Marry her and it won’t matter. She’ll be protected.”
I broke eye contact with Luca, feeling his and Tristan’s heavy stare as I removed my sunglasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Keeping my eyes on the floor, I told them both, “I can’t marry her. I won’t do that to her. She deserves more.”
“What do you mean by more?” Luca asked quietly.
Sliding my sunglasses back onto my face, I told him, “You know what I mean.”
“Enzo, what happened with Alessandra—”
“Is exactly what will happen with Sera if I marry her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, Luca. I do.”
The room went silent until Luca said, “Then there’s nothing for it. Once our four days are up, she goes back to her father.” I felt his eyes on my face. “Are you going to be able to live with that, my friend?”
No. But I was going to have to. “Yes.” The lie left a bitter taste in my mouth. A sourness I was getting more and more familiar with.
“Alright, then,” Luca said after a moment. “I’ll arrange the meeting with her father in four days’ time. I suggest you get your head back in the game before then.”
I gave him a nod. “Do you need me for anything else?”
“No,” he said quietly. “I’ll see you at dinner in an hour. Tomorrow morning you can bring Sera down here and we’ll begin questioning her.”
I felt strangely numb as I stood up from the couch and walked to the door with unhurried steps. The numbness continued once I was in the hall outside his office and didn’t wear off until I was in the gym. I barely remembered getting there, but now I stood bare-knuckled in front of the punching bag wearing only gym shorts. Blood ran down my fisted hands in rivulets and dripped onto the mat I stood on with bare feet. Sweat stung my eyes and trickled down my spine.
Hauling back my right arm, I concentrated every ounce of rage that boiled in my blood into the punch I threw, hitting the bag so hard and fast it barely bounced. A left hook followed. Then the right again. Until I was punching the bag over and over as hard and fast as I could. When my knuckles were nothing but bloody, mangled meat, I started throwing knees and kicks.
My foot slipped in the blood, throwing me off balance. I fell forward, wrapping my arms around the punching bag to keep me upright. I hung on, my arms and legs shaking with fatigue as I struggled to regain my footing. When I did, I pushed the bag away from me with a violent shove, plowing my fist into it when it came back at me. Spittle flew from my mouth with every burning exhale.
Although physically I was at my limit, inside I was still screaming. And there was no one for me to blame but myself.
I never made it to dinner.
And no one came looking for me.
I showered in the small locker room at the gym, my bloody knuckles burning like a son of a bitch in the soapy water. But I suffered the pain as was my due for being such a stronzo. An asshole. Because that’s what I was. I should’ve just let her leave that night she came to my door. I should’ve told Jade to warn her after Luca showed me her photo and told me who she was. By this time, she would be long gone.
And she would be free.
I didn’t see Sera again until early the next morning when I caught her trying to sneak off the property before the sun came up.
