“See, you didn’t break her,” Aria said as she appeared at the top of the stairs.
I hadn’t and I wouldn’t.
Aria joined us downstairs. I’d never seen her happier than in this moment as she watched me with Marcella. I wrapped my free arm around her, pulling her against my side, and she gave me that gorgeous slow smile. “See, your darkness didn’t rub off on me and it hasn’t rubbed off on her, Luca. Marcella will see you as I see you, as someone who holds her when she needs him to, someone who loves her and protects her.”
“You make me human, Aria,” I said quietly.
Her brows drew together. “Don’t say that. You are human.”
I smiled darkly. “If anyone ever dares to hurt you or Marcella, they won’t see my human side.”
Aria nodded. “Nobody will ever get the chance to hurt us, Luca.”
She was right. I’d move Heaven and earth to guarantee her safety. Being at war with the Outfit would make this harder. I had the Outfit and the Bratva to watch, not to mention local MCs who kept giving my Underbosses trouble in the Southeast. But my biggest concern was becoming the Camorra in Las Vegas.
I had to make sure the Outfit didn’t start working with the Camorra, or things would get messy. Yet as long as Benedetto Falcone kept killing his Underbosses, Dante would regard him as too volatile, and without continuity in his ranks, Benedetto lacked the necessary focus to set his sights beyond his borders. But who could say how long that would last? Remo Falcone had disappeared but I knew he was out there, and one day he’d make himself known in the West. He wouldn’t give me trouble again, not until he’d killed his father and become Capo, but then all bets would be off. He’d sized me up. He was still young and had nothing to lose, but he forgot I had something worth fighting for. Perhaps his father would take him off my hands and dispose of his son before that.chapter 27ARIALuca was tense when he returned late one night six months after Marcella’s birth. I watched as he undressed, his movements jerky, eyes worried.
“Luca?” I asked quietly, but he shook his head and lay down beside me completely naked. His need reflected clearly in his eyes. I climbed on top of him, my lips finding his as his hands roamed my back then dipped between my legs.
I quivered on top of him, but I wanted to feel him in me. I scooted down and lowered myself on his erection. My hands against his chest, I began moving my hips as I looked into his eyes. I knew Luca had a lot to deal with at the moment, but he tried to keep the problems away from Marcella and me. This often felt like the only way I could give him comfort.
Later, when I lay in his arms, he returned to being tense. “Luca, please tell me what’s bothering you.”
“My aunt Flavia contacted me.”
I frowned. I didn’t remember that name. “Flavia?”
“She was my father’s youngest sister, but she ran off with a Camorrista when I was a small boy.”
My eyebrows rose. He’d never mentioned her, but given her betrayal I wasn’t surprised.
“She lives in Las Vegas, and recently her husband was executed by Falcone because he betrayed the Camorra.”
“And now she wants to come back to New York?”
Luca shook his head. “No. Benedetto Falcone is using her to contact me and convince me to work with him.”
I raised my head. “Work with the Camorra. Didn’t you say Falcone was completely unpredictable and sadistic?”
“He’s probably the only one who makes my father look like a halfway decent human being,” Luca muttered. “And I won’t work with the Camorra. Not as long as it’s under Benedetto Falcone’s rule. But I don’t want him to work with the Outfit.”
“Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“I doubt Dante will see Falcone as a trustworthy ally.”
“So you will refuse him? What will happen to your aunt?”
Luca grimaced, and I could tell he hadn’t told me everything. “She and her daughters will probably be punished.”
I searched his face. “The Camorra doesn’t spare women in any way.”
“They don’t,” Luca said. “Falcone will probably have the girls raped. It’s an effective punishment against women.”
I stiffened, couldn’t help it.
Luca stroked my cheek. “I’m stating facts, love. There is a reason why it’s been a strategy in warfare in the past.”
“How old are the girls, your cousins?”
“Nineteen.” Pause. “And fifteen.”
I jerked out of his grip and slipped out from under the covers and sat on the edge of the bed, my heart pounding in my chest. Fifteen. That’s how old I had been when my father had agreed to my engagement with Luca. I had been a girl, and Luca’s cousin was a child too. I swallowed. Someone’s child. The idea that something like that could happen to Marcella, it turned my stomach to ice.