"The damage was done the moment our eyes collided."
~Xavier De Luca
***
One life-altering night ignites a soul-scorching passion between a gangster and a good girl...One that could burn everyone they know and love to ashes.
Loyalties and legacies...
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Luigi's soldiers had a field day belting my ribs, my thighs, my back, and anywhere else that wouldn't show on the wedding day. I got a couple of good licks in myself, but four against one weren't exactly great odds.
Luigi's guards left to go clean themselves up while I coughed up flecks of blood on a polar bearskin rug.
"Fuck me!" Christian exclaimed as soon as he spotted me on the floor. His neck turned crimson to highlight the monster vein that pulsed like he was about to snap. "This just keeps getting worse."
"With no fucking end in sight," I wheezed, misting blood all over the bear's roaring head.
I glanced up to see the wheels in my brother's head spinning. Without a word, I knew was thinking about Lucia and the safety of their unborn daughter.
Being Mia's bosom buddy put a fuck-ton of pressure on a pregnant woman who already had a gunslinging husband and his crumbling empire to worry about.
What if Mia had one of her fits and decided that she didn't want Lucia's friendship anymore? Where did that leave Christian's family? Would his daughter be tortured on the same endless loop?
The phone in my pocket buzzed, no doubt Mia calling just to be sure I would pick up, like a good trained dog.
I checked the number out of habit but didn't see my imposed fiancé on the caller ID.
Instead, it read 'Unknown.' My new number, like my old one, was unlisted. Only my family and the Bianchi's knew it.
"Go," I groaned as Christian helped me up.
Behind us, new guards filtered into the room to guard the doors.
"I warned you!" Rob McShane's vicious tone clawed my eyes wide open. "And since you've apparently got a bloody death wish, De Luca, consider me your personal fucking GENIE!"
'What. The. Fuck?' Christian mouthed at me.
"You have NO idea what's coming for you!" Rob's voice broke with fear, exploding my pulse. "If you touch one hair on my Gracie's head-!"
"What the literal FUCK are you talking about?" I hollered so loud that Rob actually stopped threatening me long enough to listen. "You said you were going to take her and disappear! Maybe forever! What happened? What did you do?"
"What the fuck did I do?" Rob shouted over me. "Where do you even get off, boyo? I know you've got her! Believe me, we're comingfor you!"
The line went dead before I could ask who the fuck 'we' was or how the fuck he'd gotten my new phone number so quickly. I heaved the cell at the wall to hear the glass screen shatter inside its protective case.
If Grace wasn't with Rob, then Luigi must have sent someone else after her! And if Rob was so sure I had Grace, that meant she was somewhere on Luigi's sprawling Santa Barbara property!
