Mafia

Protected

I was in Luca's apartment, in his study, on the phone with my mother. This was about three hours after my face-to-face meeting with impending death, and I'd stopped freaking about that face-to-face with impending death about one hour ago. 

Right after Luca yanked me into his arms when it was all over, he pulled me to one of three running SUV's waiting in the middle of the street, stuffed me into the backseat and climbed in behind me. He kept his arm around my shaking body the entire time, and I could feel his raging fury in every tense line of his body, and he wasn't making any attempts to hide it as he barked out clipped orders to his men on the entire drive to his apartment complex. 

I kept quiet through all this, but the second he walked me into his apartment and the front door shut behind us, I completely lost it. My feet couldn't hold me up anymore as the insanity of what I'd just been through, the sheer terror I'd felt in that situation crashing over me like a crushing wave, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't help the tears or the sobs accompanying them. Luca didn't let me fall, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me through the apartment to his bedroom as my arms went around his shoulders, I shoved my face into his neck and cried. 

I didn't let go of him as he settled us in bed, me mostly in his lap, and he murmured quiet soothing words to me as his hands moved up and down my back in a calming measure. It took a while, but I stopped sobbing even though my tears kept running down my face. He didn't tell me to stop crying or that I needed to be strong, he just held me tight to his big powerful body and gave me the time I needed to calm down while held safe in his strong embrace. 

I ran out of tears about two hours ago, and the sudden crying-jag had worn me out, so it wasn't really a surprise that I passed out from the physical and emotional toll of it all. When I woke up, I was stretched out on the bed beside a quietly murmuring-into-his-phone Luca, one of my arms thrown over his stomach, my head on his chest. I could feel his fingers sifting through my hair, and as I tilted my head back to glance up at him it was to see his eyes were already aimed down at me. They were both soft and worried as they roamed my face, and I realized in that moment that even though he had important things to do - like figure out who tried to kill us - he didn't want to leave me alone and was multitasking by taking care of me at the same time trying to figure out who tried to kill us. Of course, as this knowledge settled deep inside me and warmed my heart, I also lost it again and I vaguely heard him end his call with whoever he was talking to before he pulled me up his chest, shoved my face into his neck with the hand he'd used to sift through my hair and wrapped his strong familiar arms around me in an embrace that made me feel all kinds of safe and protected. 

That crying-jag lasted for a while too, but after it was over I felt weirdly cleansed. As if all I'd needed to get over the fact that I almost died by way of bullets, was to cry my heart out while being held in the arms of the man I loved and feeling his unquestionable need to hold me safe all around me. 

Now I was feeling a whole lot better, and as soon as Luca had informed me that the drive-by had made it onto the news and someone had gotten video of Luca tackling me to the ground right before all hell broke loose, a video that was being aired across all networks, I knew that the time for me to feel sorry for myself had come to an end. 

Hence me in Luca's study, talking to my mother, reassuring her that I was perfectly fine aside from somewhat freaked out, a little sore because of the impact I'd taken when Luca took me to the ground, and desperately in need of a shower. 

"Amor, why can't you just come home?" My mother's soft worried voice made my stomach clench, and I glanced towards the slightly cracked door to the study. Luca had called Gabriel and a couple more of his guys as soon as I assured him I was going to be okay, and now they were all out there in the livingroom slash kitchen-area, going over what happened and I suspected Luca was getting a brief from his guys.