Bound By Love

by Reilly, Cora

  I approached him slowly, worried about his strange behavior. His shoulders were heaving with his breaths as if he’d run several miles. I stopped beside him and followed his gaze down to the black screen of his iPad.

  “An associate from the press contacted me with photos that were supposed to make headline,” he said in a cold voice.

  That voice wasn’t one he usually used for me.

  “Photos?”

  Luca touched his iPad and it flickered to life.

  I sucked in a deep breath.

  The screen showed a photo taken through the windows of the restaurant I’d chosen for my meeting with Val. But Val wasn’t in it.

  It showed me with Dante’s hands on my shoulders. He was close behind me, his face tilted toward me, mouth close to my ear as if he was whispering secrets into it when all he’d done was warn me not to run.

  The next photo was of Dante and me leaving the restaurant together, hand in hand. My face was lowered, so Luca didn’t see how tense I’d been in that moment.

  Luca clicked the next photo.

  A photo of me in a car with Dante, and it looked as if he had his hand between my legs—and not because he’d reached for the purse.

  Bile traveled up my throat.

  These looked bad.

  Really bad. They would have looked bad to someone who had average trust in people, but Luca was distrustful, suspicious and cautious. For him these photos could only lead to one conclusion. But he couldn’t possibly believe I had an affair with Dante? God, he should know better. He knew me.

  “Luca,” I whispered, reaching out to touch his shoulder, but I froze when he raised his eyes to mine. I had never seen that look in his eyes. They were wild with anger.

  I wanted to run as far away as I could.

  My eyes flickered to the empty bottle of whisky at his feet. Luca had drunk most of it. Some of the amber liquid had spilled and stained the beige carpet, but there were also darker stains. Slowly my gaze moved on to his hands, which were clutching a knife. One of his palms was curled around the blade so tightly that blood was dripping down his hand and onto the carpet.

  I knew I needed to run, but that would have been admittance to a crime I hadn’t committed. I hadn’t cheated on Luca, would never do it. And the words Luca had said to me on our wedding night flashed through my mind. Did your father never teach you to hide your fear from monsters? They give chase if you run.

  “You’re bleeding. You’ve hurt yourself,” I said in a soothing voice, trying to get through to him. I needed to get past the demons the alcohol and the compromising photos had summoned.

  His face twisted with so much rage, I recoiled from it. He released the blade and more blood dripped down his hand as he straightened from the sofa.

  I took a step back, couldn’t stop myself.

  The arm with the knife hung limply at his side.

  I forced myself to meet his gaze again. Luca was in there somewhere. Behind the anger and the hurt, my Luca was in there.

  “Luca, please listen to me. It’s not how it looks.”

  “So you didn’t let Cavallaro have what’s mine?” he roared. And he was upon me, his bleeding hand clamped down on my forearm. He was still holding the knife.

  “I would never do that! You will always be the only man I want to be with. I went to Chicago to meet with Val and talk to Fabi. But Dante followed Val and wanted to talk to me. That’s all, I swear.”

  “And what’s your swear worth? You’ve betrayed me before.”

  “I never lied to you. I never cheated. I helped my sisters and didn’t always tell you everything, but I never lied to you.” He was the one who’d cheated, and it wasn’t like he’d never kept a secret from me—like Matteo asking for Gianna’s hand.

  His eyes seemed to bore through me. There wasn’t only anger in them, and the other emotion worried me more, because it was agony.

  “Luca, can you please put down the knife? It’s making me nervous.”

  His eyes trailed down to the blood-covered blade as if he had forgotten all about it and he released it, not even hesitating despite what he thought I’d done. The steel clanged to the floor, splattering it even more with blood. Then his eyes moved back up. He pulled me sharply against him and kissed me fiercely, brutally. There was only anger and despair in his kiss.

  I knew what he wanted, what he needed. And I would have gladly given it to him if the test hadn’t changed everything. Luca didn’t want to hurt me, but the last time he’d been this angry when we’d had sex, he’d been rougher than I could risk so early in this pregnancy. I had to protect our child and Luca. He would never forgive himself if he hurt our baby.

  His hands roamed over my body hungrily, and a small part of me felt exhilarated at the sensation, but I ripped away from him. “No!” He tried to pull me against him again. “Luca, stop! I don’t want this!”

  His lips were an inch from mine and he was breathing harshly, his eyes like molten steel. “You deny me?”

  I bit back a snappy comment. I’d denied him before when I hadn’t felt well or wasn’t in the mood, and he had always honored my wish. I knew he was drunk and hurt and on the verge of losing control. That he hadn’t yet showed how much he loved me. He had killed his first man at eleven, had killed and tortured countless more, had called himself a merciless monster on many occasions. And I knew what he was. With others.

  “Funny that you say you haven’t been with Dante, and yet you can’t bear my touch.”

  God, he thought my refusal was admittance to me cheating?

  “Don’t do anything you will regret tomorrow,” I said quietly, begging him with my eyes.

  His lips curled in a cruel smile. So wrong. “What makes you think I would regret anything?”

  I knew he would because I knew him better than anyone else, better than he knew himself.

  “Our love is too important.”

  “Love,” he spat the word. “That I ever loved you was my biggest mistake. I won’t make it again.”

  Loved? I could feel my heart shatter as I looked into his menacing face.

  “Luca, please.” I reached for him but he shook me off. There was only cold anger in his eyes.

  “Because you are my wife, you’ll live. Don’t expect more. We are done.”

  I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. I stared at him, my throat clogging, my heart drumming in my chest. For a moment, he hesitated but then he turned and stalked off, leaving me standing there alone.

  I sank down on the sofa, where Luca had sat before. The leather was still warm. I touched my stomach and I cried. Cried because I might have destroyed our love. That Luca had let himself love me in the first place had been a miracle. What if I’d lost him forever?

  I was still sitting in the same spot when Matteo entered the room cautiously a couple of hours later. He pushed the button that opened the curtains and light flooded the room. I blinked twice, but my lids felt like they were made from lead. Slowly I lowered my palm from my stomach.

  “He didn’t kill you,” Matteo said. His voice didn’t reveal his emotions. His facial features were similar to Luca’s, but Matteo was poster-boy pretty where Luca was all hard lines and raw attractiveness. But he looked enough like Luca to set my heart aflame with heartbreak.

  He walked toward me, his eyes taking in my bloody clothes and the blood on the couch and the ground.

  “Do you need a doctor?”

  “It’s not my blood,” I whispered in a raw voice.

  Matteo didn’t say anything for a while, only regarded me. “Making him bleed. You are quite good at it for a woman.”

  I raised my gaze to meet his straight on. My eyes burnt with unshed tears, but I couldn’t cry anymore. I’d cried for hours. I stood, legs shaky. I grabbed Matteo’s arm. He let me, only regarded me emotionlessly.

  “Matteo, I didn’t do anything. I swear on my life. I swear on my…” I trailed off. I’d almost said “child.” “Please, help me. Help me make Luca see the truth.”
<
br />   “The photos.”

  “The photos show me with Dante in a restaurant and a car. We talked. He considered using me against the Famiglia as leverage. That’s all.”

  “Then why did he let you go, Aria. Why?”

  I stared up at Matteo. I couldn’t tell him about the child when I hadn’t even told Luca. “Because he has an ounce of decency in his body.”

  A dark smile curled his lips. “Is that so?”

  “Call Dante, call Valentina. They will tell you what I told you.”

  “As if their word means anything. They are the enemy. You remember that, don’t you?”

  “Then look for the person who took the photos. They probably shot more photos that prove my innocence. Isn’t it strange that Luca gets only the photos that make it look like I cheated? Perhaps someone wants to weaken Luca by destroying our marriage. Perhaps it’s the Outfit’s doing, or someone within the Famiglia.”

  I could tell that Matteo was really considering it. “And you really think Luca needs you to be strong? You think they could weaken the Famiglia if they destroyed your marriage to my brother?”

  I wanted to say yes, but I wasn’t sure about anything anymore. I was so broken up and confused.

  “I would gladly die for Luca,” I said instead. “I love him more than anything else.”

  Except for the child growing in me. Our child.

  “Then perhaps you should take that knife and put your life down.”

  I was stunned. “Do you think he’s better off without me? Luca loves me.”

  Or loved? My heart clenched with a pain so acute I almost crumpled.

  “He would return to being what he was before you. He’d be worse than that. He would be the monster he needs to be to reign over New York. Whatever small part of him was capable of love, maybe you killed it.”

  I nodded mechanically, my insides churning violently as I fought for composure. I turned away from Matteo’s anger, unable to bear it because I knew he was right to be angry. Luca wasn’t a normal man. He was Capo. He was raised to be Capo and for me he’d risked so much, and now he thought I’d cheated on him. If I ever managed to gain his trust back, I’d never do anything without him ever again, not for Gianna, not for Lily, not for Fabi, not for anything in this world.

  “You know I’ve watched our father shove a needle under Luca’s fingernails, have seen him cut Luca with a knife, have seen him beat Luca so hard he lost consciousness, but through all that, I never saw Luca show the agony he had on his face when he saw you with Dante.”

  I cupped my mouth with my palm, and sobbed. I couldn’t bear the thought of having hurt Luca like that. “I didn’t cheat,” I choked out. “If you don’t believe me, torture me. You said it yourself once: if you use your knife on me, I won’t be able to keep a secret.”

  Matteo walked around to face me and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I believe as long as Luca thinks you cheated.”

  I touched his forearm. “Please, Matteo, help me prove my innocence. Please, not just for me.”

  “Even if you didn’t cheat on him, you went behind his back. You visited enemy territory and risked not only your life, but also Luca’s. He would have put down his life in front of Dante to save you; had you thought about that when you strutted around Chicago?”

  “I only wanted to see Fabi. It’s Christmas time,” I said voicelessly.

  “Yeah, well, now we’ll all have a fucking marvelous Christmas, thanks to you.”

  The corners of my vision turned black. I felt faint. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the pregnancy, because I hadn’t eaten anything in close to a day or because my heart was breaking. I swayed and my legs folded in on themselves.

  “Fuck,” Matteo growled and grabbed my arms, stopping my fall. He helped me down on the sofa before he squatted in front of me. He grasped my chin and tilted my face up so I met his hard, relentless eyes. “You swear you didn’t cheat on Luca?”

  “I swear it, Matteo. I would never cheat on Luca. I love him. There’s no other man and there won’t ever be.”

  He sighed and released my chin. “I’ll try to get my hands on the photographer who took the photos, and then I’ll have a long talk with him. It won’t be easy. I can’t go to Chicago, and there are very few men I can send there in my stead, but there may be another way.... But even if I get my hands on the guy and he proves your innocence, I can’t promise that Luca will come around. The only reason he believed you cheated in the first place is because you went behind his back.” He shook his head again. “Fuck.” He straightened. “Are you sure you don’t want to see the Doc? You look a mess.”

  “I’m sure,” I said quickly. I didn’t want the Doc to find out I was pregnant. He would tell Luca. He wasn’t bound by medical confidentiality like other doctors.

  “I will release Gianna now,” Matteo said with a sigh.

  “Release her?” I whispered.

  “Locked her in the car.”

  As he walked out he raised his mobile to his head. “Romero? Yeah, I need you to come over.”

  I stared down at the carpet with the bloodstains. Luca’s blood.

  “Aria!” Gianna’s scream made me jump and then she stormed my way, hair wild and nightgown half-torn as if she’d struggled, and flung herself at me, hugging me so tightly I couldn’t breathe. She shook against me, and something wet hit my throat.

  I touched the back of her head. “Shh. I’m okay.”

  “No, you’re not,” Gianna whispered as she pulled back, her eyes raking over me before they moved on to the mess on the carpet. “Did he hurt you?”

  I shook my head even as my heart clenched tightly.

  “I thought he’d kill you. I wanted to warn you but Matteo, the asshole, didn’t let me.”

  It felt like part of me had died, but Luca would never kill me.

  “Matteo tried to save your pretty ass,” Matteo said to Gianna. “While something stops Luca from snapping Aria’s neck, it won’t stop him with you, trust me.”

  “I’m not talking to you,” Gianna said sharply, and this time it wasn’t a game.

  I touched her leg. “He wanted to protect you. Don’t be mad at him, please. It’s bad enough that I destroyed my own marriage; I don’t want to be responsible for another one.”

  “Luca will come around,” she said, but her words lacked conviction.

  The sound of the front door opening and closing filled me with hope but when Lily and Romero walked in, not Luca, I deflated. Lily also came over to me and hugged me tightly, her arms trembling. Her eyes were red from crying. Guilt crashed over me.

  “We were so worried about you,” she said. I raised my eyes to Romero, who stood beside Matteo and listened to him, but Romero’s eyes were on me. Pity showed in his, not anger as I’d expected, and for some reason that made things worse.

  chapter 18

  MATTEO

  I tried calling Luca on his second mobile again but he didn’t pick up. Where the fuck was he?

  My eyes slanted over to Aria, Gianna and Lily.

  When I’d entered the mansion fifteen minutes ago and seen the bloody handprints on the door and bloodstains on the marble floor, I was sure I’d find Aria dead, and ultimately also Luca, because killing her would have been his end, but she was miraculously unharmed.

  Fuck, Luca, where are you?

  He was out for blood, no doubt. What if he was on his way to Chicago? What if he was trying to kill Dante on his own?

  Fuck!

  I took out my second mobile and called Orazio then hung up, waiting for him to call me back in case he couldn’t talk freely at the moment. It took five minutes before he called me back, and I was in my car by that time and heading for New York. I needed to find Luca before he got himself killed, or caught by the police while killing others.

  “Matteo, what can I do for you?” Orazio said.

  I’d never been more relieved that Orazio was our spy in the Outfit. He had been working with us for two years now and had never let us
down. “In case Luca shows up in Chicago, make sure you knock him out before he gets near Dante.”

  “What?” Orazio muttered. “What do you mean?”

  “Never mind.”

  Orazio was silent. He wasn’t a very communicative man anyway.

  “I need you to find someone for me. It’s a photographer. I sent you an email with the details. Get him as fast as possible and ask him who paid him to take the photos of Dante and Aria.”

  “Wait, what? What photos?”

  “Read my fucking email. And when you’re done asking him, you will take him to New York.”

  Silence. “You want me to come to New York?”

  “Not for long. You will return to Chicago once you’ve handed over the photographer.”

  “Will do,” Orazio said, but I could hear a hint of hesitation in his tone.

  “You’ve been working for us for two years,” I reminded him. If Dante found out, even Orazio’s status as Valentina’s brother wouldn’t grant him a quick death.

  Orazio got the unvoiced threat and hung up. He would bring me that photographer, and then I’d have a very long, intense conversation with the fucker.

  It was evening when Demetrio called me over my headset. He was Luca’s and my cousin, Gottardo’s bastard son. “What is it?”

  I still hadn’t found any trace of Luca, and I couldn’t involve anyone in the search except for Romero. If word got out what had happened, things would get uncomfortable in the Famiglia. “Someone slaughtered every member of the Jersey MC.”

  My foot on the gas eased up. “Where?”

  “Their clubhouse. I’m there. Orfeo and I were supposed to meet their president to give them a warning, but someone got to them before us.”

  Fuck. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

  I floored the gas and bent low over my Kawasaki, weaving through traffic at blinding speed.

  The moment I saw Orfeo’s and Demetrio’s faces, I knew it was bad. They had been Made Men for five years now and had seen a lot of shit. They were good soldiers, efficient and loyal. I walked into the clubhouse and my nose clogged up from the stench. Blood. Sweat. Piss. Shit.