A fiery ball of anger burned through her and attempt to get in her father’s face, but was halted by one of the SEALS. “You’re the one who doesn’t appreciate me, Father.” She stuck her hands on her hips. “I’m a surgeon. And a damn good one at that. People appreciate everything I do because I save lives. I undo the damage that you and your petty mob of assholes wreak on everyone else. I will never, ever work for you. Do you understand me? Do what you have to do, Riley. I don’t care. I don’t have a father anymore.”
She turned and went to walk out of the room but was stopped when Robot took hold of her arm. “Let me go,” she demanded.
“Wait.” He canted his head toward Riley and her father. “You need to stay.”
“It’s over, Giovanni. Your days of ruling the streets of New York are done.”
Her father, laughed. “I have no idea what you took before you came here, but you’re delusional. Even if you somehow get me arrested I’ll be back on the streets before you can say hello. So do your best solider boy.”
Maria held her breath to see what Riley would do. She had no reason not to believe father was saying anything but the truth. Over the years when trouble should’ve landed at her father’s doorstep, it miraculously disappeared and he continued to smell as sweet as a rose. She knew he had police, judges, and other high-ranking officials in his pocket. She guessed he was thinking one of them would get him out of this trouble. Maria knew he shouldn’t underestimate Riley and his former team.
Riley’s free hand reached up to touch his chest. “Tex, I think we’re ready.”
A second later the door burst open and shouts of “FBI” echoed around the room. In a blur of movement, Robot had her father on the ground, knee in his back and Riley had her wrapped up in his arms. Her body relaxed immediately into his hold.
Safe.
The word pounded in her mind. She was safe.
Chapter Fourteen
Riley watched as Maria was questioned by yet another FBI agent. Other agents were moving around her father’s office, extracting files from drawers and packing it in boxes for them to take away.
The urge to shoot Giovanni Moretti had been strong. The guy deserved it for not only kidnapping his only daughter, but for all the deaths he’d been instrumental in causing.
The guys had known they couldn’t go balls in and get Maria out. They weren’t a group of off the grid mercenaries. They were military. So with the information Italy had provided, not only to him but to Tex as well, the decision had been made to bring the Feds into the operation.
The FBI were more than happy to be involved in an operation to bring down one of the biggest mobsters in the U.S. They’d be chasing him for years. The information Italy had provided was only the tip of the iceberg. With what the Feds had on Giovanni as well, it had been enough for a raid to be set up, not to mention a rescue operation as well. All they needed was for Giovanni to implicate himself and he’d done that. It was up to the Feds now.
Over time he would pay a couple of visits to Giovanni to make sure he kept his distance from Maria. No way did he want to put her through anymore of what she’d been through the few weeks. He’d spoken to Tex about the tracking devices he’d given, to not only Melody and his girls, but also the women and kids on Wolf’s team. He would get one for him and Maria. He would do everything in his power to keep her safe.
His Doc.
His love.
The agent who’d been questioning Maria moved away and her shoulders slumped in tiredness. In two quick steps he was by her side.
He pressed a soft kiss to the side of her head as he traced a trail down her arm until he reached her fingers. “Hey, Doc.”
A small smile stretched his lips as she swayed into his side. “Get me out of here, Riley. Please.”
The request didn’t need to be asked twice he scooped her up in arms and strode toward the door.
“Um we will need Ms. Moretti for a little while longer.”
Riley turned toward the voice that had spoken. “What? You’re going to ask her the same questions the last three agents have all asked her? She’s tired. She’s been through enough. You’re not going to keep her any longer. I’m taking her home.”
The agent looked like he was about to protest, but then spied the look in Riley’s eyes and backed away. “Right. Well if we need anything we’ll be in touch.”
“You do that.”
Riley continued on his way until they were outside in the night air. He let Maria slide down his body as he released her from his hold, keeping his arms wrapped loosely around her waist.
They stood there for countless moments, both lost in their own thoughts.
A shudder wracked through her and Riley worked out the days event had finally caught up with her and all her emotions were being released by an onslaught of cleansing tears.
His heart ached at all she’d experienced. And it wasn’t just recently, it was a whole lifetime of living with someone who should love and protect her, but wanted her as a pawn in the sick game he called life.
“It’s over now, Doc. You’re safe, sweetheart. I swear. He won’t hurt you again.”
“I want to believe that, but you heard him. He’s got so many people on his payroll that he will be out before we know it. The moment he is, he’ll come after me. I’ll never be free.”
“Stop,” he said and took a step back so he could look into her eyes. The pain and fright dulling them had his anger at her father welling inside of him again. He tamped it down. Getting angry with Giovanni wouldn’t solve the issue in front of him. He needed to be calm. If he was calm then hopefully, some of it would radiate toward her and calm Maria as well. “Listen to me. The FBI will make sure he’s taken care of. And do you want me to be brutally honest?”
“Yes.”
“I’m pretty sure once word gets out on the streets that Giovanni has been caught, all the families who have a beef with him will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on his territory. He’ll be lucky if he survives long enough to go to trial.”
While he didn’t know it for sure, Riley could imagine that with Giovanni captured by the FBI, no other family in the New York area would want him walking the streets again.
“I hope that’s true. I don’t ever want to see my father again.”
Maria closed the small gap he’d created by stepping away from her and rested her head against his chest once more.
Contentment washed over him. He’d never given a lot of thought of having someone who he could call totally his own, until now. Today when he’d found out she’d been kidnapped he had felt like his heart had been ripped out. Now he understood all that Storm and Tex went on about when they spoke about the women they love. How they would give up their lives for them. How when their women hurt, the hurt was multiplied ten times within them. How the thought of not waking up next to the most important people in their lives crippled them.
Riley understood it all now, because that was how he felt about Maria. He hooked a finger under her chin and raised it until her gaze connected with his.
“I don’t ever want to feel what I felt when I found out that you’d been taken today, Doc. The pain inside of me was worse than any bullet wound I’ve ever had. The thought of anything happening to you brought me to my knees.” He smoothed the hair back from her face. “I know it’s too soon, and these feelings growing within me are ones I never imagined experiencing in my life. I’m falling in love with you, Maria Moretti. And it feels wonderful.”
A breath hiccupped out of her. Her eyes sparkled with the tears she’d shed. “Oh, Riley.”
His heart plummeted. Here it came, the I had a good time last night but I’m not looking for anything serious speech. What had he been thinking laying his guts out on the table for her to walk all over?
As though she could read his mind her hand cupped his cheek. “No. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. When I was taken all I could think about was you. How you would be feeling. I knew deep down you’d come and
save me, even though I thought it was hopeless. Thoughts of you kept me going the whole time I was in that wretched house. I may have told my father I would do what he wanted, but I wasn’t going to. Any chance I had I was going to thwart whatever he wanted me to do. You gave me that strength, Riley. You. I’m falling in love with you, too.”
Tension raced out of his body like a bullet train racing down the train tracks. He lowered his head and captured her lips with his. Everything he felt for her he poured into the kiss. His fright at her being taken. His pride at how she stood up to her father. And last of all, the burgeoning love he had for her.
When they finally broke apart, their uneven breaths echoed around them.
“Take me home, Riley.”
“Always.”
Epilogue
Laughter rang out around Maria as she sat perched on Riley’s lap. His arm rested possessively around her waist. For the first time in her life, Maria belonged to someone. Someone who loved her and cherished her.
Riley had been right, a week after the raid on her father’s property, he had been found slumped in the corner of his prison cell. Only it wasn’t a rival mob family that had taken him out. It had been his cellmate. A man whose only daughter had been killed by the drugs Giovanni had peddled around New York. It was funny how karma had a way of catching up with you.
“Hey, what’s up, Doc?” Maria rolled her eyes at the comment made by Joker, a guy on the SEAL team that had been part of her rescue. With the lame jokes he kept making at the get together to celebrate the birth of Grayson’s daughter, Maria had worked out how he got his nickname.
“You need a to be munching on a carrot when you say that to me.” She threw back at him. The deep rumble of Riley’s laugh reverberated against her back, sending shivers of awareness arcing through her. “
Was it too early to go home?
“Yes.” The brush of Riley’s lips against her ear only intensified her desire for the man she’d grown to love more and more over the past month since the night he’d rescued her from her father’s place.
“Yes what?” she asked, but knew exactly what he was referring to. His uncanny ability to know exactly what was going through her mind no longer surprised her.
“It’s to soon to go home.” She squirmed on his lap and smiled when he growled in her ear. “You keep that up and I’ll withhold it from you.”
Maria leaned back against his chest and trailed her fingers up and down his thigh, smiling when his breath hissed out of him. “Promises. Promises.”
Riley bit her ear gently. “Just you wait.”
“Ooohhh I’m scared.”
“It’s a good thing I love you.”
“Back at ya, Ash. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone else.”
Both of Riley’s arms closed around her and he kissed the side of her neck. She’d officially moved into his place the night of her abduction. She hadn’t wanted to be away from him and he hadn’t wanted to be away from her. Her job was going well. The best thing coming home to someone who would hold her when she needed to be held or be her sounding board when she needed to vent her frustrations away.
Yes, her life was pretty damn good and the man behind her was responsible for it. Maria glanced around the yard at the people congregated in the small space. She’d spent some time with Lily, Grayson’s wife, and found she really liked her. Lily’s best friend Rita was a bundle of energy, admiring the bevy of handsome men around her, but snuggling into her husband’s arms while he kept a watchful eye on their daughter.
Out of the corner of her eye she spied someone standing to the side of the gathering, talking animatedly on his phone.
“What’s up with, Italy?” she asked Riley.
A moment of silence passed and she knew her man was watching him. “Don’t know.”
Maria looked back at Italy and hoped whatever he was going through wasn’t because he’d reconnected with his past to help her.
“He’ll be fine,” Riley said. “Trust the man who loves you.
“I do and I love you, too.” Maria cuddled into her lover’s embrace and prayed for Italy’s troubles to be over.
About the Author
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On her very first school report her teacher said ‘Nicole likes to tell her own stories’. Many years later she eventually sat down and wrote her first book.
Nicole writes sexy contemporary romances, seducing you one kiss at a time as you turn the pages. She enjoys taking two characters and creating unique situations for them.
Learn more about Nicole Flockton at http://www.nicoleflockton.com.
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PROTECTING LILY
“Where the hell is my list!”
Lily Green loved lists. Lists made sense. Lists kept her life organized. Lists were pretty. Without her daily to-do list, her day would be an unmitigated disaster. For so many years her lists helped her navigate the rocky social ladder in high school. Helped her during those hard early years of building her business.
Her lists were her crutch. She acknowledged it. She owned it. She wasn’t about to change. Without her lists she wouldn’t be the CEO of her own company. She wouldn’t have money in the bank. More money than she thought she’d ever have. So she’d keep making her lists for the rest of her life. No one would tell her otherwise.
Lily had even made a list for her perfect man. Every now and then she pulled it out, which was unnecessary as she knew exactly what she’d written on it. Not the clichéd tall dark and handsome, although that would be nice. She didn’t want him to be butt ugly, so easy on the eye would be good. Being only five feet two, she didn’t want a guy towering over her either. Five feet eight would be the maximum height for her Mr Right.
The most important item on her perfect man list would be: nice eyes. Compassionate eyes. Eyes that looked at her with love and desire. To her, eyes were the windows to a person’s soul. For too long people’s eyes had tricked her. Thinking what she saw in them meant the person cared for her. She knew better now. If a man she met didn’t have nice eyes she’d tell him to take a hike. She wanted a kind man. A beta type man. A man who didn’t think the world owed him everything. No way would she want an alpha male who wore his arrogance like a winter coat. Her perfect man would be a nice gentle soul who had no issues with her being a list making multi-millionairess.
Lily sighed, one day she’d find the man who matched the items on her list. Until then she would make her daily lists and every day she would cross each item off.
Only she couldn’t find today’s list. She’d searched everywhere. She knew she’d made it last night before she’d left the office. It should be sitting in the middle of her desk ready for her to start crossing things off.
“Rita?” She called out to her assistant, anxiety building inside of her as she continued her frantic search.
The door opened and her assistant breezed through the door. “Good morning, Lil. What’s up?”
Some days Lily wished she had Rita’s carefree attitude. “It’s not a good morning. I can’t find my list. Have you seen it?”
“Uh no, should I have?”
Lily practically growled when she looked up at Rita. “You were here before me. You came and put—” she paused and picked up a manila folder. “—the photos from yesterday’s catalog shoot on my desk. Right in the middle where my list should’ve been. Only when I picked the folder up my list wasn’t underneath. So have you seen it?”
Rita started laughing.
Lily shot her another deadly look. “Remember I can fire you, Rita. Any time I want.”
This only made Rita laugh harder. “Lil, there’s no way you’d fire me. I’m the only person who puts up with your idiosyncrasies. Your threats don’t scare me.”
“They should.”
“
Honey, I’ve known you too long for anything you say to scare me. Besides we’re a team. Have been for a long time. You’re stuck with me until our last dying days.”
Lily sat down and blew out a long, anxiety cleansing breath. Rita spoke the truth. They’d become friends when they’d both been put into a group home when they’d turned fourteen. Even though they’d gone and done their own thing, the friendship forged during that tough time remained true and strong. When she’d needed an assistant, once her business had taken off, Rita had been the natural choice. Now Rita was married to a nice guy and every day Lily feared Rita walking through the door to announce her pregnancy.
A hand landed on hers, pulling Lily from her thoughts. “You’re thinking too hard again, Lil. Yes the day will come, but not for a while and when it does, you’ll just convert a spare office into a nursery and hire a nanny so I can keep working with you and have my baby close by.”
Lily laughed. She would do exactly that. She’d never been able to hide anything from Rita. Her friend always seemed to know exactly what went through Lily’s mind. It made her a great assistant and sometimes an annoying best friend. “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Depends if you took my list or not.”
Rita shook her head and squatted down to look under the desk. “I didn’t take your list.”
The words were mumbled but Lily heard them anyway. “Well where did it go?”
Rita came out from under the desk and stood. “It’s not there, so it didn’t fly off and land on the ground when you picked up the folder. Why don’t you just write a new one?”
If only it were that easy. She had a routine. A routine she stuck to each and every day. For her day to go the way she wanted, her list had to be written the night before. She placed it right in the middle of her desk ready and waiting for her when she arrived for work the next day. Even the cleaning staff knew not to touch her list.
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