Salvatore: a Dark Mafia Romance (14 page)

“
I
t’s
the middle of the night,” Isabella said, standing in the doorway.

I looked over her shoulder and saw Lucia standing on the bottom step of the stairway. “I won’t be long,” I said, my eyes trained on Lucia. “I’m just here to collect what’s mine.” I then turned to Isabella. “Move.”

“No.”

“Move.”

“I’ll call the police.”

“I own the police.”

“It’s okay, Izzy. Let him in.”

Lucia stepped down from the stairs and folded her arms across her chest. She wore a short pink nightshirt that reached to just beneath her ass, and her hair looked like it did when she woke up: a beautiful mess.

“You don’t have to listen to him,” Isabella said, although she stepped aside.

Lucia’s eyes were locked on mine.

“Get your things,” I said to her.

“How’s Natalie?”

“Natalie? That’s why you left?” I’d gotten home to find my cell phone in the toilet. Had Natalie sent another text that Lucia had read? My phone was password protected, but the messages flashed and stayed on the screen for long enough that she wouldn’t have needed the password.

Lucia stuck her chin out. She was jealous. She was fucking jealous.

I watched her, and the longer I did, the more nervous she became, shifting on her feet, biting her lip.

“Let’s go home. We’ll talk about it there.”

“This is my home, Salvatore. I’m staying here.”

I stepped toward her, dropping my gaze to her bare feet with their pretty pink toenails, before I took her arms and unfolded them. I attempted a smile. I’d been pissed when I’d gotten home to find out she’d run. Marco had tried to get hold of me, but all he’d been able to do was leave messages and assume I got them. But since my phone was in the toilet, I’d only found out about Lucia leaving when I got home around eleven at night.

But now, understanding why she’d run, I wasn’t angry. I was surprised.

“You’re coming with me,” I said in a quiet whisper. I didn’t care if her sister could hear or not. I also couldn’t have cared any less what she thought of me. I’d talked to Roman about the DNA tests, and I was putting two and two together. “Your home is not here, not anymore. It’s with me.”

Lucia’s eyes widened, and for a moment, I saw she wanted to believe, wanted to do as I said, but then Isabella cleared her throat.

“Luce, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

I glanced at her, feeling only disdain as things slowly fell into place, piece by piece. I turned my attention back to Lucia.

“I’ll say it one more time. Get your things, and get in the car, or I will carry you out over my shoulder. But one way or another, you will be sleeping in my bed tonight.”

I watched Lucia swallow and saw how her breasts tightened beneath the pink nightshirt.

She was turned on.

“What’s it going to be?”

“Luce—”

I held a finger up to Isabella, not taking my eyes off Lucia. “This is between us.”

Lucia stiffened, looking over my shoulder at her sister, then back at me, defiance in her gaze.

“You can’t make me go.”

I grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

She squealed, surprised I guessed, when I gripped her hips and heaved her over my shoulder, slapping her ass hard when she kicked her legs and pounded my back with her fists.

“I’m calling the police!” Isabella ran into the kitchen.

I ignored her and moved us out the door, sheets of rain soaking us both.

“Let me down!”

“I gave you a choice,” I said, opening the passenger-side door and dropping her into the seat. She immediately tried to spring out, but I pressed her back with the flat of my hand against her chest. “You chose wrong.” I clicked her seat belt and shut her door, locking it until I got into the driver’s seat. I hit the gas, propelling us forward.

“You can’t just…take me like that!”

“Put your seat belt back on.” She’d unbuckled it. What did she think she’d do, jump out of a car going sixty miles per hour?

I made sure the door was locked just in case.

“I swear, Lucia, if I have to pull over to discipline you—”

“Slow down!” she screamed as I took a turn.

“Fasten your fucking seat belt.”

“I hate you.”

She fastened it as I merged onto the highway. “You say that a lot. Mostly when you’re turned on.”

“I’m not turned on!”

I glanced from her face to her nipples and back. “No, obviously not,” I said, returning my attention to the road.

She covered herself with her arms. “You have no right, Salvatore.”

“I have every right. You signed a contract.”

“I was sixteen, and I had no choice!”

“And what’s your choice now? Huh? Break it? Risk your family’s safety?”

“You wouldn’t hurt them.”

I glanced at her again, some part of me glad she knew that. But I wasn’t the only danger. “I may not, but others would.”

“Are you going to threaten me with that for the rest of my life?”

I just shook my head and concentrated on the road. I had more important things on my mind at the moment. Like figuring out what the hell had happened that afternoon.

By the time we pulled inside the gates and up the drive, the silence between us hung like thick, impenetrable fog. Rain still poured down. Since the garage structure was separate from the main house, I parked as close to the front door as possible and climbed out. Lucia had already opened her door and sat measuring the distance between the car and the house.

“Your feet are bare. I’ll carry you.” I leaned in to lift her, getting soaked for the third time that night.

“I’m fine. Don’t touch me.”

“Stop fighting me. The stones will cut your feet.” With one arm beneath her knees and the other at her back, I lifted her out.

“I said don’t touch me!”

Just as I leaned to close the car door, she hoisted herself out of my arms and fell to her hands and knees with a grunt.

“Lucia!”

“Stay away from me!” She scrambled to her feet and made for the front lawn.

“Godamnit!” I chased her, although there wasn’t anywhere for her to go. If it wasn’t pouring down rain, I’d have left her to it. Although knowing her, she’d tear herself up, trying to climb over the gates.

She ran fast, but the slippery ground beneath her bare feet hindered her progress. She fell twice more before I finally caught up to her. When I wrapped an arm around her waist to haul her up, she kicked out, knocking my legs out from under me so that I fell on top of her.

“Leave me alone! Why can’t you just
leave me alone
?”

She fought like a feral cat, scratching and kicking until I lay my full weight on her, caught both of her wrists, and trapped her beneath me.

“Stop! Stop fighting me!”

“I hate you. I hate you, and I will never stop.”

I looked down at her, tears and rain soaking her face.

“You will stop.”

“Why did you come for me? What do you want from me?”

“What do I want?” I looked at her face flushed with exertion, her mouth open to suck in gulps of air, her dark hair fanned out around her head, stuck to her face, soaked and dirty. “What do I want?” She jerked her body. I touched my forehead to hers, her eyes burning amber now. “This,” I said, and kissed her.

She tried to say something, but whatever it was, I swallowed it up. Her soft wet lips yielded beneath mine. Even as she attempted to fight, her body gave itself over, her mouth surrendering. She made a small sound as I deepened the kiss, tasting her, pressing her harder into the earth, my cock like steel against her soft belly.

“I want this,” I said, claiming her mouth again while I reached with one hand to take my cock out of my pants. Her nightie had already ridden up to midbelly. “This.” I kissed her again, this time softer, on her lips, then her chin, her cheek. I wanted to see her face, her eyes. Slipping my fingers beneath her panties, I drew them aside. She bit her lips, watching me. “I want you.” I thrust into her, and she arched her back, closing her eyes momentarily. “You.” I drove in again, her tight pussy wet like a glove around my cock. “I want you, Lucia,” I said finally, taking her wrists in my hands and pinning them out to her sides, watching her face as I fucked her, just a few more short, hard thrusts before she clenched around me, coming, making that sound she made, crushing my cock until I stilled, squeezing her wrists harder, coming, heart racing, not breathing until I’d emptied.

The rain slowed, finally, as if it matched our moods. I kissed her and slowly slid out, kneeling to zip my jeans before lifting her up. She let me this time. Let me carry her into the house and up to the second floor and through my bedroom to the master bath, where I ran the shower and placed her inside. I followed, still fully clothed, stripping first her and then myself beneath the warm flow of water.

“I want
you
, Lucia,” I said yet again, pressing her back against the wall, kissing her. “As wrong as it is, I want you.”

* * *

L
ucia lay in my bed
, the cuts on her knees and palms bandaged, warm beneath the covers. Safe in my arms.

“Natalie is my sister-in-law. Sergio’s wife.” She had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. “She has a son who was at daycare while she worked her usual hours. When she got there to pick him up, he was gone. The daycare provider had fucked up, releasing Jacob to someone who claimed to be his uncle.”

She turned her head to look at me, then shifted to lie on her back. I kept my arm over her belly, my hand closed possessively around her hip.

“She was frantic, as you can imagine.”

“Did they find him?”

I nodded. “It was Dominic, I’m certain. He’d dropped him off at her parent’s house but only after a couple of hours.”

“Is Jacob okay?”

“He’s fine now. He’s only a year and a half, so he couldn’t tell us much. Dropped off with an armful of toys and an ice-cream cone that had melted all over him. He apparently ran into his grandmother’s arms and sobbed, calling for his mom.”

“Why would Dominic do that?”

“To show he could.” That’s what pissed me off the most. This was the one thing that could terrorize Natalie.

“I can’t imagine what Natalie must have felt.”

I nodded. I’d never seen her like I did today, not even when she’d learned Sergio had been killed.

“I’m the only person she trusts, Lucia. I couldn’t abandon her or my nephew.”

“You should have told me.”

“I know.”

“I assumed… I thought she was your... That you were having an affair.” She lowered her lashes, her face growing pink with embarrassment.

“I told you I wouldn’t do that. The contract—”

“It doesn’t say anything about that.”

“I’m not interested in anyone or anything else at the moment, Lucia.” The words
at the moment
made me pause. I wondered if she noticed them. “Don’t worry. I will still release you from the contract when the time comes.”

She grew quieter. “I’m tired.”

I pulled her tight against my chest and rested my chin on top of her head. “Go to sleep.”

* * *

L
ucia still slept deeply
when I woke early the next morning. Kissing her softly on her forehead, I climbed out of bed and tucked her back in, then left a note, and drove to Dominic’s house. He lived about forty-five minutes away. When I got there, I saw my father’s sedan in the circular driveway. I wondered what he was doing here. If he was meeting with Dominic about the Luke DeMarco situation.

Stop being so fucking paranoid.

If it wasn’t for Lucia, would I give a fuck if Dominic became the next boss? Would I care? Or would I take the opportunity and walk away? Although walking away wasn’t really an option. Nothing in this life came that easy.

I shook it off. I needed to focus. Parking my car behind my father’s, I walked to the front door, my anger from yesterday coming back white-hot as I approached. Lucia had tempered it. She’d cooled the anger, turned it into something else. She’d awakened a different side of me, one I’d tried to keep buried for a very long time. I’d always thought that part of me weak, but it was actually the opposite.