“Air.” Luca’s voice was steely as he brought my attention back to him. “So far no one knows. Not even your father and the Outfit. Soon we will have to tell them that your sister escaped while under my protection.”
That would have made him look bad. He was Chief. He wanted to appear invincible. I hated these power struggles. Why couldn’t men just let it go? ” I tightened my lips.
Matthew growled. “I will still find her, even if I have to search every club in New York. She wants to provoke me. If I find her fucking another guy, she’ll regret it.”
Anger surged through me. “You’ll never find her. She’s too far away. And Gianna won’t come back. Never.”
“Too far away,” Matteo said, looking at Luca. “So you know where she is.”
I stiffened. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t tell you.”
Sandro let out a grunt.
Luca’s expression darkened even more. Matteo moved much closer to us. He cast his brother a pleading look. “We have to find her. Not only because I want her, but because it would reflect badly on the Family.” Matteo appraised me. His expression startled me. I had begun to like him. Perhaps I had too easily forgotten what kind of man he was, what kind of men both he and Luca were. “We have to get the information from her.”
I swallowed. I was about to tell him again that I wasn’t going to say anything when I realized where he was going with his arguments.
“If you can’t do it, Luca, let me handle it,” Matteo said in a pleading whisper. “I don’t think I’ll have to hurt her too much. She’s not used to taking pain.”
I wriggled out of Luca’s grasp. My eyes flew from Matteo to Luca.
“You can’t be serious,” I whispered abruptly. I could tell that Romero and Sandro were watching me with interest.
“Quiet,” Luca growled, and I held my breath. He turned his gaze back to his brother. “I’m your boss, Matteo. I will take care of my wife. You will not lay a finger on her.”
Matteo shrugged his shoulders. “Then take care of her, Chief,” he said defiantly. Was he openly challenging Luke as Chief? Was he losing his mind? Was he so obsessed with Gianna that he was jeopardizing even his relationship with Luca?
But what had I done? I had risked even my relationship with Luca for Gianna. Yet, I had to believe it was different.
I had done it out of brotherly love. Matteo wanted Gianna out of possessiveness.
Luca pulled me away from his brother and directed me toward the steps leading to the second floor. “Luca,” I began, but he tightened his grip in warning and I fell silent. Everyone was watching us. What needed to be said was something that was only between Luca and me.
I followed him into the bedroom, then tried again.
“Luca…”
He slammed the bedroom door behind us and pulled me hard against him. The air escaped my lungs from the impact against his muscular torso.
If I had not been married to Luca for months now, I would have cowered under his scowl, but I loved him and he loved me. I had to trust that.
“Where is Gianna?” he growled.
I shuddered at the angry streak in his voice.
“I’m not going to tell you. No matter what you do.”
He kissed my throat, pushing me against the closed door. “Don’t say that.” When he raised his head, his expression had changed. He had raised his barriers, excluded me . He stared at me, then pinned my wrists above my head, his grip was on the verge of being painful. I grimaced. A joyless smile twisted his mouth. His eyes were guarded as if he were considering me again, as if he were trying to assess me . Calculating.
Fear crept into the pit of his stomach. Fear of what he would do . But even worse: fear of losing him. There, I had lost the trust of a man who had never allowed himself to trust anyone as much as he trusted me.
Luca nodded, “That look in your eyes. I’ve seen it a thousand times in other people’s eyes, but with you it’s been a while.” His thumb pressed against my wrist and I could feel my wrist hammering against it, but I couldn’t help it . “I’m a young Chief, Aria. Younger than most of the old Chiefs. Most of them want me to leave.
They are waiting for a sign of weakness.” He tilted his head. I tried to glimpse past the mask he had worn, but for once I couldn’t. “Don’t be that weakness.” I tried to free myself from his grip, but he did not move. He was much stronger than I was. Finally I squinted my eyes . I was not one of his soldiers, and definitely not a weakness. “I am not a weakness. Let me go and stop being cruel.” “I am not cruel to you,” he growled. “You’ve never seen my cruel side, Aria. You’ve never seen anything like it. If you think this is the extent of my cruelty, then you don’t know me at all.” He shook his head. “You are a weakness I cannot afford. It would be easy to change you. I know it wouldn’t take much to make you reveal your secrets. Not because you don’t want to keep them, but because I’m too good at breaking people. I could break you so easily.” In the months of our marriage he had tried to keep me out of the loop, but I wasn’t stupid. “I know,” I whispered. You wouldn’t even have had to raise a hand to me to do that. “You don’t know, that’s the fucking problem. I’ve burned , beaten and cut. I’ve strangled and drowned people. I’ve done all the horrible things you only have nightmares about, Aria. Gianna’s destination is less than a minute away if I try.” By God, I knew it. I had glimpsed flashes of what she was capable of when she had dealt with others. I had seen the blood, I had seen the darkness and the excited glimmer in his eyes. I knew exactly what kind of man he was. But God help me, I loved him in spite of everything. I loved him more than anything else in the world. I forced my body to relax in his grip, even though it was the hardest thing I had ever done. Luca felt it too, and his eyebrows came together. “Then do what you have to do, Luca,” I whispered, and I was able to say it without hesitation because I knew that no matter how angry he was, no matter how dark the times were, he would never hurt me. I trusted him completely. He smiled joylessly and moved closer, his thumb pressed once against my wrist. “This betrays your true feelings, Aria. I know you are afraid.” My body fears you, but not my heart. “I am,” I admitted. “But not of pain and not of you.” That was a lie, the prospect of pain scared me greatly, and we both knew it, but I continued, “The thing that scares me most is that you will never trust me again, that I have ruined the best thing in my life, that I have hurt the person I love most.” Luca’s expression could have brought down worlds with its intensity. He let go of me as if he had been burned and spun around, then sneaked into the bathroom. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I followed him. He was clutching the sink, staring at his reflection. His gray eyes shone with anger. When he saw me in the mirror, he suddenly lifted his hands and ripped the sink off the wall. “Damn you, Aria.
Damn your fucking love. Damn everything.” He let go of the sink and it fell to the floor, broken. I took a step in his direction because with him I simply could not stay away. “You’re turning me into a fucking idiot,” he growled. And then he was on top of me, tall and imposing. He grabbed my hips and lifted me off the ground, then hoisted me against the tiled wall. His body pressed against me and his mouth crashed into mine. I tasted blood; I wasn’t sure if it was mine or his, and I didn’t care.
His tongue claimed my mouth mercilessly, and I kissed back. His fingers tightened painfully on my thighs as he held me up. He lifted my skirt and ripped off my panties. I felt him unbuckle his belt and unfasten his pants, and then he thrust into me with a hard thrust. My gasp was swallowed by his mouth. He didn’t wait for my body to adjust as usual; instead he began pounding into me hard and fast, his hands gripping my ass, his mouth relentless. And I surrendered to him completely. I clung to his neck, ecstasy mixed with pain as Luke took me harder than ever. He gasped, his eyes angry, as he neared his limit. He stopped kissing me and only stared into my eyes with the most intense gaze I had ever seen. He still loved me. I had not lost him. And then he stiffened, his cock expanded inside me, and he growled , his head falling forward. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and let myself cry as I clung to him and listened to his labored breathing and irregular heartbeat. His musky scent filled my nose. Luke exhaled abruptly, his muscles softening under my hands before he gently lifted me and slowly pulled out. I couldn’t help but shiver. I was in pain. Luca laid me down and our eyes met. Slowly his gaze moved to his cock, which was smeared with a little pink. I could not describe the expression on his face at that moment. Remorse. Pain. Anger. He fell to his knees and pressed his face against my stomach. “Damn it, Aria,” he croaked, “I swore I would never hurt you.” “It’s nothing,” I said. He shook his head and for a while we stayed like that: his face resting against mine, my hands in his hair. “I am your husband and your Chief,” he finally said, before pressing a kiss to the soft flesh of my stomach and his gray eyes met mine. “Don’t ever betray me again.” It was half an order, half a plea. His love for me could only take so much; now I understood him. He was a predator, a monster. He was mine. “I won’t do it,” I promised, and hoped I could keep that promise.