“I want you.” She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again.
“I can’t stay here and let what happened yesterday happen again. I can’t.” My stomach tensed.
“What if something bad happens to you?” Pain darkened her eyes and she tucked her hair behind her ear.
I rubbed my temples and thought of how I could choose my next words carefully. Something bad could most assuredly happen to me, and there was the other reason why I thought Claudius was the better person to stay with her.
She sat up and quickly pulled the sheet to her chest, shoulders tensed and mouth rigid. “That’s why…”
No way could she have sensed my fears.
I sat up too. “Why what?”
“You think something bad could happen to you, so that’s why you want Claudius to take care of me.” There was a rise in her tone as she spoke and she gave me an incredulous stare.
Fuck, seems like she was right there inside my head. “Amelia, you don’t know Victor like I do. If he comes here with God knows who to take you, Claudius is the only person I know who can stop that from happening.”
“It’s like you’re just giving up.” Now her stare became distant – empty – and her chin trembled.
“I’m not. I just can’t allow anything bad to happen to you. Not like Henry.”
The minute I said Henry’s name, she stopped mid-breath of her next words. Henry had been my best friend. Him and Maurice, we were it. Claudius was always there for me, and he was a brother in every sense. But those guys were like family too. Victor took Henry, his wife, their kids; Jack and my sweet goddaughter, Susanna, and killed them. He’d created a sick game no one would ever win and fucked with our emotions.
Fucked with my emotions. I’d thought I’d saved those kids, but I’d watched them draw their last breath as the poison Victor had fed them robbed them of life.
I would never forget it as long as I lived. I only dealt with it because I thought I’d exacted vengeance when I was of the mistaken belief that I’d killed Victor.
But the fucker came right back from the dead. That was five years ago. As to where that bastard had been all this time, I didn’t know. He’d just emerged when this war began. That again signaled the kind of power Tag had.
I didn’t want to admit this, but it was above me. And I was tainted because I was thinking with my heart.
“Luc.” She winced.
“No, don’t argue with me, Amelia. I’m leaving, and you’re staying here, where capable people can take care of you.”
I didn’t want to spoil what we had last night and all that we’d shared.
“I’m not helpless. I’m not this helpless person you make me out to be.”
I slid off the bed and reached for my pants and boxers. “Amelia, these aren’t the guys you’re used to in LA These people aren’t like Jefferson or Holloway. You aren’t helpless, but this is above you.”
That was it all I had left to say. She frowned at me in a huff, but she would have to be upset with me because this was the best way.
Better for us both.
Chapter 5
Amelia
I wanted to be furious. I wanted to feel angry at Luc for his decision, but in my heart, I knew he was doing what he thought was best for me.
He was making some sort of sacrifice that he felt would benefit me in some way. It didn’t help, though, that the man I loved had basically left me in what he deemed to be capable hands and thrown himself out to the lions to hunt the people who were hunting us.
He’d left about two hours ago. I went to check on Dad first and found he was still asleep. Then I went downstairs to get the shock of my life when I saw who was waiting for me. It felt like I’d just walked onto the set of something like The Terminator.
Claudius and four guys who looked just as hard and vicious as him practically guarded the premises.
Two at the front entrance, two at the back, and I was told the other entrances were sealed off. The guys all had crosses tattooed on their cheeks or their necks. Claudius had a cross on his cheek. It seemed to mean something now that I saw them all together. More than just a cool tattoo.
I knew they were all here to protect me, but damn, it reminded me of before. Just like I had been reminded last night. Strange men in the house. Tough guys, but these guys looked tougher. Like ex- military with the huge muscles and badass attitude.
The butler, whose name I couldn’t remember, was questioned before entry, and the tallest guy was now questioning Millicent.
She looked petrified, and her dainty features looked smaller against the guy.
They were standing at the front door entrance.
“How long will you be on the premises?” The guy asked her. His tone was rough. It added to the hardness in his composure.
“I planned to be here all day.” Millicent answered. “Mr. Rossi has a special diet. After yesterday, I have to make sure he gets the proper nutrition.”
“Give me your bag and spread your arms out,” the guy ordered.
That was where I needed to step in.
“Hey, give her a break.” I walked up to them and squared my shoulders off with him.
I must have looked comical because I was just a little taller than Millicent.
The guy laughed and regarded me with observant eyes. “Mrs. Boss, this is how things have to be.”
“She doesn’t need to spread her arms and be treated like some criminal. I know her.”
“Right, word has it that you knew the other two guys from yesterday too. Word also has it that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.” He smirked, and the dimple in his left cheek softened his harshness and focused the attention on his sculpted looks.
“That was different, Mr…?”
“The names Dante, and no, Mrs. Boss, it wasn’t different.” The trace of amusement left his eyes. “If you want her in the house, she needs to do as I say. Now.”
Oh my God, what the hell? This was my house. Well…
It was Dad’s house.
“It’s okay. I have nothing to hide,” Millicent offered. She held out her bag and gave it to Dante.
He searched through it and motioned his head for her to spread her arms. She did, and I had to endure the embarrassment of him doing a scan of her and the whole search procedure of patting down the length of her to see if she was carrying a gun.
Millicent, of all the people. She was like Aunt May from Spiderman. And like a woman of that caliber who was in her late sixties, she looked embarrassed too.
“All clear, Mrs. Boss.” He looked at me again.
“Why are you calling me that?” I challenged.
He laughed. “Aren’t you?”
I linked my arm with Millicent’s and ushered her away. We stopped in the kitchen, and I would have started talking to her, but Claudius came out of the pantry carrying a dead squirrel. I shrieked when I saw it.
“What the fuck are you doing in here with that?” I winced.
“Language, Miss Amelia,” Millicent scolded. “Your mother would be appalled to hear you sound like some fish wife.”
“Yes, I’d bet she fucking well would. This dead fucker might too,” Claudius cooed, smiling and waving the squirrel’s tail at Millicent.
She frowned and walked away from us.
“That is disgusting.” I folded my arms under my breasts.
“It’s protein. I don’t know what the fuck kind of diet Raphe is on, but there’s no meat in the house.”
I shook my head at him. “You killed a squirrel?” I couldn’t believe it. Nausea pulled at my stomach and I had to focus on not heaving.
“Man has to eat.” He winked at me and placed the squirrel on the counter.
My skin tightened and burned, and it was difficult to swallow.
Suddenly it was all too much and I had the compulsion to flee, to be somewhere else. Somewhere that wasn’t here.
“I’m going for a walk.”
“Yeah, right, you’re not.”
“I need air and space. I need to clear my head.” I couldn’t focus or concentrate in here. It really was too much and I was on the verge of tears. I hated crying and I would rather do it in private if tears were going to take me. It was this whole sense of helplessness. Being powerless in this situation and having to do as I was told.
“You need to stay inside the house and open a window if you need fresh air. Like fuck are you going wondering around for a damn walk.”
“I just want to go outside,” I argued.
“Amelia.” He held a finger up at me and walked closer. His hair swished about his shoulders as he leaned in and got real close in my personal space.
He looked so much like Luc. I wished he didn’t because I wanted Luc to be here right now, and he wasn’t.
“What?”
“Stop acting like a fucking brat and get with the program. We’re here guarding the house, and the reason why we are here is because we’re the best at what we do. Right now, my brother is on the streets looking for these motherfuckers who want you dead, and I don’t have his back. I always have his back. So no, you will not go for a walk or whatever the fuck it is you want to do. Capisce?”
First, I felt numb from the way he spoke to me. Then I felt awful about what he’d said. I was acting like a brat. It was because I was completely off my game and out of my element here.
“I got it.” My shoulders slumped and I swallowed hard past the lump that had formed in my throat.
He backed away and held up a hand to his cheek where he’d had the cross tattooed.
“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t keep the quiver out of my voice. I failed at staving off the tremble in my shoulders too.
He stopped by the counter and looked at me. “What for?”
“This. I should be out there looking for them myself.” I would go if they let me.
“That’s not the way this works.” His voice sounded strained. “I know Miss Badass Cop Amelia Rossi could go out there on a hunt too, but this is out of your league. You’re a cop. They do things differently. Also, just because you’re a cop doesn’t mean you suddenly got what it takes to bring down fucking psychos.”
He was right. I knew that, but it didn’t make me feel any better. “It’s just hard to stand by and wait while the man I love is out there and something could happen to him.”
Against my will, a tear ran down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away and tried to shake off that heaviness that washed over my whole body. My heart shrinked away, backing into that cave of despair as worry tugged at my soul.
Luc… what is something happened to him? What would I do?
“Don’t you dare cry. I don’t know what the hell to do with a crying woman, and you don’t look like the crying-type princess. I was assured there would be no tears.”
I smirked and tried to hold the tears back, but they came.
“Fuck.” He winced and reached for me, pulling me in for a hug. “I have squirrel hands.”
“I actually don’t care.” I rested my head on his chest and allowed the tears to fall. The thing was, I wasn’t the crying type of woman, and this wasn’t me. He pulled back and took my hand, then led me out to the corridor. “Where are we going?”
“For a walk.” He glanced down at me and smiled.
We walked outside, and he released my hand once we got on the path that led to the moors. I used to play out there as a child.
I wanted to walk around the gardens again and enjoy the flowers.
We got close to the entrance, but just as I was about to continue, he pulled me back.
“Here’s good princess. Never can tell who might be lurking.” His eyes darted about looking around with suspicion.
I gazed up at him. “Okay, thank you for this.”
“It’s fine. So… you love my brother?”
“Yes.”
He looked uncomfortable and shifted his weight from one leg to the next.
“Well, it worked out well, then, and Raphe made a good choice.”
“Choice? Was there someone else?” I hadn’t thought of that.
He laughed. “Yeah, there kind of was. Me.”
I searched his eyes, and the fascination of his eye color drew me in. One blue, the other brown. “You?”
He rocked back on his heels, and the back of his jacket whipped out in the wind as the breeze rustled between us.
“Yeah, me. You wouldn’t have liked me, and you don’t seem to like squirrels.” He shook his head and smiled again.
I laughed. I couldn’t believe I laughed. “It’s gross, Claudius.”
“Needs must. Anyway, I can see it. You and Lucian, you suit each other. I don’t know about the whole cop thing though, but that’s for you to work out.”
That was another thing that was shelved to the back of my mind. There was a lot I had to face, and God, I needed to call Sinclaire and tell him about Jefferson and Holloway. I needed to tell him, even if he already knew. I’d spoken to Gigi briefly this morning. Brief because she was with Maurice and they’d sounded like the last time. like I’d interrupted something steamy. As long as they were safe, I was happy.
“I can’t go back to that life.”
“So, you want this?” He quirked a brow.
“This isn’t me either.”
“Hmmm, it’s not Luc either. That’s why I’m here and he’s out there. That’s why Raphael choose him and not me. He’s a real hardass, ruthless in every sense of the word, and he’d make a good leader of a business like this, but he’s different. He always was. We have to—” His voice trailed off as he looked ahead of me.
I turned to see what he was looking at, and my eyes bulged when I saw who it was that stood outside the fence to the premises.
Victor.
Victor Pertrinkov.
I could see the devilish smile on his face from here. We were about twenty meters apart, but I could see it, and it made my skin crawl and chills race down my spine.
“Amelia, get inside.” Claudius took hold of me.
Luc
“Did you get him?” I asked, gripping the phone as I pressed it to my ear.
That fucking Victor was outside the house. Jesus Christ. It was a joke. I was out here looking for him, and he was there. Right there with Amelia.
“No, we didn’t get him,” Claudius answered. “I sent Dante after him, and he came back empty. It was too late by the time we got back inside, and I didn’t want to leave Amelia, just in case.”
“You did right.” I sighed. “We need to find out where they’re staying.”
“Intel got eyes on him that led out to the main road. We lost him after that.”
“Could have gone anywhere. That route diverts to anywhere.” Shit. This was complete shit.
I’d searched the old district with Saul and Giorgio, one of the Galioni guys. We’d come up with nothing.
I was sitting in a bar downtown now, regrouping. It was nearly midday. The bars were just opening, and this was one I used to come to all the time.
“I’ll keep looking and let you know if we come up with anything.”
“Thanks.”
“And don’t worry. We’ll stay here as a unit. I don’t know if today was a scare tactic, or if he was trying to lure us out.”
“It’s part of the game.” He was there to remind us that we couldn’t catch him. Asshole.
“Great, well, you know him more than I do.”
“I’ll talk to you later, Claudius.”
“Speak later.” He hung up.
I didn’t have a chance to catch my breath before someone ran soft fingers over the back of my neck.
“Well, look who it is. My boy’s returned.”
I turned to see Maria. I guess I could have called her my on-again, off-again ex-girlfriend who’d been with me for the last couple of years.
I straightened on the stool and twisted, so I was facing her.
“Hey, how’ve you been?” My pulse quickened. It felt weird being
in her presence.
“Really?” She raised her brows and gazed at me through her bright blue eyes. She had a slight tan, and it made her white blond hair look more striking. She was beautiful and the kind of woman I’d basically used because I knew she would always be available to me.
“Yes, really.”
“Good, I suppose. You haven’t called me in a while. I heard you found someone new.”
God, I wasn’t in the mood for this, but I kind of felt the time would creep up on me.
“Maria, look…”
She held up both hands and shook her head. “It’s okay. We weren’t exactly anything, even if I thought we were.”
Maybe it was the fact that I’d had to tame my wildness for Amelia, but as I looked at the woman before me who I’d treated like nothing, I truly, truly felt like a complete bastard. A son of a bitch, literally, who’d acted like an asshole to her.
“I’m sorry. You deserve better.”
She laughed. “That’s a good one, but look at me. I’m the girl men use. You know first-hand, right? I bounce from one job to another, not really knowing what I’m doing with myself. It’s cool though. One day, I’ll know.”
“Maria, you don’t have to live like that.”
“Well, it comes in handy sometimes. Come here.” She smiled and crooked her finger. I leaned closer hoping like hell she wasn’t going to kiss me because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings any more than I had.
She slipped her arms around my neck and nuzzled her face against mine.
“Maria, I am with someone else, and—”
“Relax, lover boy. I’m helping you. Put your arm around me.”
I did as she said wondering what she was going to do.
She cupped my face and brushed her nose against mine.
“There’s a man sitting across the bar on the left. He came into Gullimi’s last night. Your name was dropped a few times. He’s watching us now,” she whispered.
Fuck. “What does he look like?”
“Thin, longish hair, and a mole on his chin.” Her eyes flicked up past mine then back to focus on me.
Mafia Love (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 3) Page 4