“Bella?” Ricco said and her gaze snapped back up to him. Everyone had left, how the hell had that happened? She was spacing, but not that much. Bella frowned and looked around, Ricco was smirking and he said, “Daydreaming?”
“No,” she snapped and stood. “Wondering what weapons you have and if they are to my liking.”
“Right,” Ricco chuckled. “The others left so we could call Marco and your father. We need to make sure they know what is going on, and also, I am going to call Creed and Fork, the Presidents of the Ops Warriors in San Diego, they should know exactly what we are up against with these assholes. Anything that will give us a leg up, we will do.”
Bella nodded and said, “I will call my father now.”
Ricco sat back and waited while she pulled out her cell phone and dialed. Her father must have been waiting because he answered right away. “Bella? What is the news?”
She sighed and then she said, “They are coming. Ricco had word where they were staying, it seems the whole club is here to make sure Ricco and I are taken out of the equation.”
Her father was silent for a beat and then he said, “Marco had assured me where you are at is perfectly safe. However, do I need to get some of the men ready in case? There are five there now, they could come up behind the assholes when they make their move.”
Bella looked at Ricco who was shaking his head, he could hear what her father was saying. “No, we can’t take the chance on getting people shot in the crossfire, there is enough firepower here, we will be fine.”
There was silence. She was asking the head of their family, their Don, to stand down while his daughter was in danger. She knew there was nothing worse for her dad, he felt helpless. That wasn’t something he usually felt, and the more she struck out on her own, the more he had to realize that she was ready to take over. They really needed to talk about it soon. He deserved to retire.
“You are sure?” he said.
She replied, “Positive, I promise we have it all under control.”
They talked for a few more moments and she hung up the phone. Ricco was staring at her intently and said, “You are going to take the reigns over sooner rather than later, aren’t you?”
She nodded slowly. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Ricco shook his head, pulled out his phone, and called his boss. Okay then, she thought and wanted to flip him off and walk out of the room. Asshole. She turned but Ricco grabbed her wrist and held her still. She glared at him and he shook his head.
“Marco,” Ricco said smoothly and then proceeded to give him a rundown of the situation. Bella stood still and fumed as she listened to him. This was not going to work, she thought, she was going to be the head of the Tomasi family, and Ricco, he was in the Acciai family. Sure they could make an alliance, but she wasn’t sure if it would work.
She felt him grip her wrist tighter and her eyes swept to him as he stared at her. “Yes, we have that under control, I would like to ask for a favor,” he said firmly and Bella tilted her head. “Bella and I have developed a relationship, and since she is going to be the next head of the Tomasi family. I would like her father’s approval to create an alliance with Bella in Las Vegas, our two casinos would work together with security as well as some other business deals, which I will propose to Bella. I think together we would be a force to be reckoned with.”
Bella’s eyes widened. He was going through protocol, the old way, for her. Because he knew her father would accept nothing less, asking for an alliance was akin to asking for her hand. There would be no going back if her father accepted. It was too soon, Bella thought and pulled her arm but Ricco refused to let her go.
“Yes, I am aware of what I am asking. I will be calling my father after this to let him and my mother know. They will send a formal gift to him on the Di’Midea family’s behalf.”
Oh my God, he was going to go all out, his father was the Consigliere to the Acciai family, he had power and control of his own. Then sending a gift, would only make the request even more solid. There would be meetings between the families, all of them. They would approve or disapprove of their joining. If approved they would put out a formal announcement to the other families out there. Nothing would stop them if it was approved, they would be the most powerful in the west.
“Thank you, sir, I appreciate your support on this. Yes, I will make sure I have my mother call your wife, they can make the plans from there,” Ricco said. He finished his call and looked at her.
“Why?” Bella asked and Ricco pulled her between his legs and settled her there while he thought about how to answer her question. Arranged marriages were completely archaic and he would never allow himself to be involved in one; however, making his intentions known to Bella’s father would be acknowledging he wanted her hand.
“Because you are mine, I knew it yesterday, so did you,” Ricco said slowly but firmly. He was not asking, he was telling. She felt a little bristle come up her back.
“Well…” she started and Ricco smiled and shook his head.
“Now, we are not going there, I already told you yesterday you were mine, you just didn’t get what I was referring to. You felt it, I know you did. There is something there, for both of us.”
“It is too soon,” Bella said and folded her arms across her chest and looked around the room.
Ricco sighed and pulled her closer, ignoring her arms. “That is not the problem.”
Bella frowned and nodded her head. “It is too.”
“No,” Ricco said quietly. “The problem is you have built a wall around you and your family so high, that no one can get in. You think you need to be one way to make your father happy, to make the family happy. But you don’t get, they rely on you, all of them. I look at what your father had built and, baby, I can honestly say that you are the one who is not looking. Your father, he turned the family over to you a long time ago. He gave you his empire but you still ask for his acceptance and permission. You just need to reach out and take what he has already given, that is all he is asking for. You are in Vegas, but according to everyone, you run all of his casinos, all of his holdings, and if someone betrays the family, you are the one that deals with it, not your father. All of his men already know you are the one in charge. Now, as for the wall, I am not climbing that damn thing because I don’t have to, I am breaking that motherfucker down, and we are going to create something new. I don’t want your power, I have my own destiny to follow in the Acciai family, and trust me, we join the two through us, there is nothing that will stop us. I don’t want to take over, we work as a team. You as the head of the Tomasi family, I will take over for my father soon enough. Mr. Acciai has no heirs to speak of, I already know he is grooming me. He has made it well known recently that I would be taking over. He has his daughter back, and he is focused in California.”
Bella thought about what he said, she disagreed with the fact she was already in charge of the family. Her father still was, mostly because all of his men were still in place. If there had been a change, she would have brought her own men in. She loved her father’s friends, but they were too old school for her. She wanted to bring the family into the twenty-first century and that was what she was going to do.
“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly and Ricco shook his head again.
“You do; you just don’t want to admit it. That’s fine, I am confident enough for the both of us for now. First we deal with this shit, the Black Hearts are going to be a thing of the past, a plague we are going to wipe out. When that is over, we will deal with the rest, but right now right here, I am telling you, from here on out, get used to being in my bed, in my life, and most of all, being my woman. When we walk out of here, everything has fucking changed, because I want it to be known you are mine. Get the fuck over it. You can second guess us until the end of time and it will not change a damn thing.”
Bella frowned again. “You can’t just tell me what to do.”
Ricco nodded. “I can and I will wh
en it comes to us, anything else, who gives a shit, but us. Deal with it.”
“We had sex once,” she whispered.
“It was more than enough to tell me what I needed to know, what I have known since we met. We have a connection, and it will not change,” Ricco said and Bella bit her lip, seeming to struggle with what he was saying. He knew she would come to the right conclusion, and he wasn’t waiting. He reached and held her to him and pressed the number for his father. It only rang once and he answered.
“Pop, I need a favor,” he said and Bella rolled her eyes and listened as he explained about Bella. Great, no pressure there.
Chapter Eleven
The rest of the afternoon was the guys bringing in weapons, checking which room each of them would be set up in, and also Bella and Ricco dealing with issues at their casinos on the phone. It was hectic, the police were still asking questions, nothing their men couldn’t handle, but still, they wanted someone to blame for the press.
Bella’s manager was also dealing with a large influx of people coming into the casino. The news of the shooting had brought in all of the looky loos, it was almost as if they were now put on the tourist maps, the casino where there was a real shoot out with Bella Tomasi. Once that hit, everything from the past had been dragged back out: her mother’s death, her father’s questionable affiliation with several known mob families. And since Ricco and she disappeared, there was speculation about that.
Ricco had announced rather publicly that he had taken Bella away to recuperate from the traumatic events. Of course it was to keep the Black Hearts away from the casinos and also tell them where they were. It had worked, but it also had brought them a lot of attention. The press was calling them the Prince and Princess of the Strip—it was all very romantic.
After being on the phone for hours trying to make sure everything was being taken care of at not only Rome, but also the other casinos her father owned, had made her tired. When her father called to inform her of the gift he received from Ricco’s parents, she had been shocked at how quick they had all moved. Added to her distraction with everything else, when he said he was going to approve of the partnership, she had agreed. She hadn’t even put up a fight which made her father very happy, and apparently it had made everyone happy. Ricco had found her an hour after she hung up the phone with him and kissed her senseless.
Carmi had stuck right by her side the whole day, making sure Bella knew she was feeling better. Well that was until Raph had just walked into the office, picked Carmi up, and taken her back to her bedroom to rest before dinner. She heard their arguing all the way down in the office, but Carmi hadn’t reappeared.
When she went to her room to change into different clothes, she found her room had been moved. Apparently she wasn’t in the loop with where she was sleeping. She walked down the hallway, she really just wanted a shower and to relax for a little while before dinner. Everything today had just been a whirlwind. They knew they were coming. All of the guys, they had planned it down to the last detail. Hell, Bella was wondering which of them had once been in the military with the plans they had drawn out.
Then Bruno and Polo had taken the four wheelers and made sure they planted their little surprises around that Bella discovered had been a few homemade shrapnel bombs, which she had actually been impressed by when they set them off, whoever was close would be pummeled with nails and glass.
She had turned and was going to find Ricco when she heard a noise? Bella tilted her head and then turned and ran for the stairs. It was the alarm in the office. There were loud noises as the men swore and moved quickly down the hallway.
“They sent out a few men to check out the parameter,” Polo said, pointing at the screen.
Ricco stepped closer, put an arm around her waist, and pulled her with him as he walked to the monitors. They were silent as they watched the five men move slowly through the desert. They had come the way Ricco had already assumed. They were still more than two miles away, a long way to walk, but they were moving quickly. They watched silently as they got closer, the cameras were hidden so they didn’t see them. Ricco leaned closer and said to Polo, “Do it.”
Polo waited until they got closer, and then she saw Polo move to push a button and the sand exploded in front of them. They saw the men go down, rolling on the ground but not dead. They all silently watched as they struggled, pulled each other back, and then ran back the way they came.
“They will be coming soon,” Bruno said and they all nodded.
Suddenly there was a scuffling noise behind them at the door and Bella looked over her shoulder with a frown. Carmi was standing there, fully dressed, in her boots, jeans, and a tank top that said, ‘Bring it Muther Fuckers’ across the boobs. But it was the two guns in her hands that drew Bella’s attention.
“Are they here?” she snapped and Bella fought the urge to laugh. Carmi looked violent, she was back, she thought.
Raph snapped really loudly, “Where the fuck did you get those at?”
Carmi frowned and stared at him with a blank expression and said, “In my room, duh, when you were all moving guns into the house I snagged a few of my favorites.”
“You are not allowed to have guns loaded until it is time, I told you that,” Raph snarled and Carmi chuckled and shook her head.
“Yeah okay, so anyway, are they here?”
“No,” Bella said slowly. “They only sent out sentries and they are gone now.”
Carmi let her arms fall and she looked disappointed. “Well shit, now I have to take these fucking jeans off again.”
They had finally settled both Raph and Carmi down by separating them. Bella and Ricco were finally in the master bedroom once they had all decided on three hour shifts to watch the monitors so everyone would actually get some sleep. They all knew that tomorrow they were coming. The call from the hotel they were staying at came soon after the men had gotten on their bikes and left.
The entire club had checked out, and they were followed until they got to a small hotel about five miles down the road, it was a hole in the wall. But they were finally making their move, and all of them were ready.
“Come on, Bella,” Ricco said and pulled her into the bathroom and began undressing her. “Shower and then bed. We need to be ready for tomorrow.”
She nodded and helped, but she was exhausted. The whole day had been a roller coaster and she just wanted to drop into bed and sleep. Ricco pulled his shirt over his head and then turned on the shower. He pushed her in and she sighed when the hot water hit her body.
Bella moaned and let it flow over her, she looked over her shoulder and saw Ricco undressing, thank God, she needed this.
“Tomorrow…” she started and Ricco’s head snapped up and he growled.
“We will be fine,” he said firmly.
“I know, but we still should talk,” Bella said as Ricco stepped into the shower and closed the door. Taking in her naked form, he felt his cock rise. Shit, he was trying to be nice here.
“We will be fine,” he repeated and stared at her intently.
“I need you to know,” Bella said slowly and Ricco looked at her. “I trust you, everything you planned, I trust it will work. I know you will take care of me, I know you will take care of our people. Tonight though, I need you.”
“Come on, baby, get clean and then to bed,” he said gruffly.
Bella chuckled and then said, “Really? Are you serious right now? I am standing here naked, really thinking we need to have sex because I need to feel you again, tomorrow is really going to suck, and you say I need to rest? We really need to work on those communication skills, honey.”
“Well, it has been a long day,” Ricco said slowly.
“Well, if it was too long for you, maybe I will need to just take care of myself then since you don’t want to.” Bella smiled then reached her hand down and skimmed her breasts, and as she licked her lips slowly she moved her hands lower. Ricco was watching her closely, when she reached the apex of her hea
t he snapped.
“Mine,” and there went his patience and his rationality. The waters rushed over them as he pushed her back, he was on her before she’d even finished opening her mouth to respond. He needed to feel their connection again. He couldn’t lose her, it wasn’t acceptable to even go there. He knew they were meant to be together and this was the beginning not the end. This was the only place where they would show worry, together, alone. In front of their people, they would be rocks.
“I don’t want you to be hurt ever!” Then he closed his mouth over hers, forcefully thrusting his tongue into her mouth to stroke her own. It was a punishing, possessive, hungry kiss. That same blast of fire that always came with kissing her rushed through him just as it rushed through her. In a matter of minutes her temperature had risen to a whole new high. One hand snaked around his neck, pulling him into her for more. The low growl emitted from him only encouraged her, setting a need to push him out of the confinements of his control and unleash the uncontrolled man underneath. The little nip she gave to his bottom lip seemed to be just what it took.
Ricco wound his fingers in her hair, tugging her head backwards and taking complete control. The simple show of dominance sent a quake straight to her clit. Her channel clenched, desperate for what she desired most, Ricco. His free hand moved from her waist up her ribcage, sending little chills up her spine in a perfect contrast to the heat from the water. His movements were deliberately slow, enhancing the anticipation as he made his way around her ribs and navigated north. She leaned back, and let the water flow over her head. All of it was making her limbs feel heavy.
He palmed her breast and then, with his thumb and finger, pinched her nipple swiftly. She jerked and moaned so he did it again. The wonderful sting he eased with soft caresses, throwing her off guard. Tweek, rub, tweek, back and forth he tortured her, heightening her senses.
“I was just trying to be nice, and what do I get?” Ricco kissed her again before she could reply. “Whether you believe it or not, I admire you, I respect you, and I care about you.” He held back the 'L' word deliberately, it was too soon, but still it was what he was feeling, it would not change, he knew this. He sensed the shock she was feeling quickly give way to skepticism.
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