Athena
It was funny how a desert with a mere strip for a road, grew to become the Sin City. The sub was high up in the sky, glistening over the lighted-up city. It was too damn rowdy for me. People constantly came and went and it soon became a blur as I watched through the car window.
Behind me, in the backseat sat Luciano. Yeah, it was weird. He always made me sit in the back with him. Heck when the driver had come to pick us up at the airport, I had opened the back door only to get a glare and an order to sit in the front.
He was avoiding me.
I chuckled in realization, leaning my head against the window. My eyes caught my reflection in the side mirror and I allowed myself to grin. Never thought I’d see the day, the great Luciano would avoid women.
The car turned around a corner to a large resort where Mr. Caldwell had asked us to meet. The minute it swerved, my eyes narrowed and I sat upright, watching the side mirror intently. Someone was following us.
No, let me rephrase that.
Some group of people were following us. Two cars, black Audis, had left the airport at the same time that we had. At first, it had seemed like a mere coincidence, but when they turned the corner with us, driving at a perfectly safe distance, I knew we were being followed.
I glanced at the rearview mirror, searching Luciano’s cold face. He looked the same. Stoic but relaxed. He didn’t know we were being followed yet. Directing my gaze back at the rearview mirror, I wondered who these pursuers could be.
The police force? Friend or foe? They couldn’t be his bodyguards, those wouldn’t have been so damn obvious. Luciano may be a jackass and all but he had very well-trained people. Heck, I was ninety percent certain that the driver beside me was one of his men, but one could never tell. The man had barely glanced at his passengers ever since we got in.
So the two Audis couldn’t be members of his gang. Who were they then? The FBI couldn’t be that dumb. It had to be rivals.
Definitely rivals.
The driver came to a halt in the resort’s car park and we stepped out. The walk to the reception was quiet and brisk though I could feel the burning glare of Luciano on my skin.
“Inform Caldwell we’re here,” he ordered when we reached the reception and took a seat in one of their expensive lobby sofas. I almost rolled my eyes at him, but that would probably make me seem rather foolish to everyone around so instead I cleared my throat and walked to the counter.
“Hello, Mr. Moretti would like to see Mr. Caldwell, room forty-eight. Please inform him that we have arrived?” I explained to the receptionist, a bright young woman who nodded gleefully.
“Sure thang!” She said in a thick southern accent.
Damn, you don’t get to see that every day. And in Vegas of all places. She connected us with Caldwell and told us we could go right ahead.
“Where’s the Mr. Moretti?” She asked. I had turned halfway to gesture at him when I heard her gasp. “Good gracious golly!”
Irritation flared in my nerves. Really? That was what she was going with? I understood that he must seem the perfect mix of an alpha male. With his large domineering figure and his incredibly gorgeous face, he literally must have blown her mind.
And it irritated the shit out of me.
“Come along Miss Gonzalez,” Luciano ordered, and giving the girl a tight smile, I walked beside him. “You’re looking a bit green around the edges.”
My head turned to look at him, eyes furrowed in anger. “You wish!”
Luciano chuckled. “Ah, Miss Gonzalez, there’s no need to look so murderous. I’m sure there’s plenty of me to go around.”
I scoffed and kept a straight face. He had no right to flirt with me, no right at all. The idiot had all rebuffed me in his home. All through the walk, his eyes burned intensely at me, and every time I glanced at him in question, his dark eyes flitted away.
We finally reached room forty-eight and after two raps on his door, Caldwell opened it. A short man in his mid-fifties with reddish brown hair and the thinnest eyelids I had ever seen.
“Moretti! You’re here,” he exclaimed so fucking happily, you’d think someone had just dropped a candy in his lap.
“It would seem I am,” Luciano said darkly. “Safe and sound too.”
Safe and sound? My brows shot up in realization. He had known all along! He had known we were being followed and if he did then his driver must have known as well. I glanced at Caldwell.
Had the old dude sent men after Luciano? If he didn’t want to sign the damn contract, he could just say so. What was the point of sending men after him…
Unless…
Unless Caldwell was bait. Someone else was probably after Luciano. A rival?
“Will you come in Miss Gonzalez or will you remain outside?” Luciano demanded, he had stepped into the room and hovered by the door, brow raised in question.
“Actually,” Caldwell spoke up behind him before I could reply. “I would prefer she stays out. Just us businessmen, If you know what I mean.”
Luciano gave the man a leveled gaze before nodding briefly. “As you wish Caldwell. Stay in the corridor Miss Gonzalez, do not wander too far.”
“Yes sir,” I replied.
I counted to sixty after the door closed before moving away from the door and walking back the way we had come. If my hunch was right, men were going to come this way. And if their goal was to attack Luciano, well… What do I do?
Luciano was my target, of course, I didn’t wish him luck or shit like that. But did I really want third parties interfering in my personal feud with him? Their interference could be very bad. Like if they managed to succeed in killing him. Not only had I lost the source of the information Frederick wanted so badly, but I had also lost my chance at taking revenge.
I would have to stop them.
I waited in a hidden corner by the stairwell, waiting patiently for them. I had noticed it while we walked. It was done in such a way that it was barely noticeable, but it was there.
Rapid footsteps reached my ears and I hid further, breathing as evenly as possible. Three men in black rushed past me, up the stairs, and just before I could step out to beat the shit out of them, they skipped the floor Luciano was on and went on to the next.
I had no idea if I ought to cry or laugh at their stupidity. They had been fed the wrong fucking info. Caldwell?
Ah, if I viewed the whole situation from another angle, Caldwell may have known he was bait. He… He was working with Luciano then. He had given those men the wrong information while being able to meet Luciano in secret. That theory seemed more plausible than the last.
Tiptoeing out of the corner I had hidden, I made to climb up the stairs, when my eyes caught a man standing at the top of the stairs.
“I told you not to go too far Miss Gonzalez,” Luciano said darkly, folding his arms.
I chuckled nervously and spread my palms. “Sorry?” Noticing he was alone, I frowned. “You’re done with Mr. Caldwell?”
“Apparently-”
Rapid footsteps cut him off, they came from the floor above us. Luciano moved so fast, I could barely catch up. He climbed down the stairs, grabbed my hands, and pulled me into the very corner I had hidden earlier.
“Shhh,” he whispered.
We both held our breaths as the men ran past us.
“He must have escaped!” One of them yelled.
“Damn, that Caldwell!”
“The boss isn’t going to be happy about this betrayal!” Another spoke.
When I was sure they were gone, I heaved a sigh of relief. My eyes widened when I realized I was pressed up against the wall, sandwiched between the bricks and Luciano. The space was too small for his hulking figure and so he was mashed up against me, every hard muscle and contour pressed up snugly against me.
He moved slightly and a gasp slipped from my parted lips when his right leg slid between my thighs, right between the part of me that rapidly turned into Niagara Falls. I looked up at him and nearly melted when I saw the way his face scrunched up. He looked like he was being tortured and fuck, I loved it so damn much.
Slipping a hand over his shoulders, I relished the feel of the band of muscles in them contracting and relaxing and leaned on my tiptoes.
My lips brushed Luciano’s thin ones. Once, twice until he let out a tortured growl and captured my mouth with his.