Luca Vitiello (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles 0.5)

Fuck. That smile. Gripping her hips tighter, I started to move to the music. It had been a while since I’d enjoyed time in a club, but for Aria, this was the first time. Another first she shared with me. I dipped my head to her ear. “You look fucking hot, Aria. Every man in the club wants you, and I want to kill them all.”

“I’m only yours,” she said without hesitation. I kissed her, wanting to taste her and show everyone that she was mine.

“I’m so fucking hard,” I groaned. “Fuck. I have a call set up with one of our distributors in five minutes.” He made sure that we had enough acid, ecstasy and all of the other shit we sold to the crowds in our clubs.

Aria touched my chest. “It’s okay. Come back when you have time. I’m going to grab a drink.”

“Go to the VIP area.” It would make Romero’s job much easier.

“I want to pretend I’m an ordinary girl tonight.”

Did she really think that would work? Aria was the center of attention wherever she went. “Nobody who looks at you will think you’re ordinary.” I glanced at my watch. Fuck. I needed to get back into the office. “Cesare and Romero will keep an eye on you.”

Aria paled when she looked toward the VIP area.

I followed her gaze. “Fuck it,” I muttered when I saw Grace doing a lap dance for a guy. “She’s not here because of me.”

Aria gave me a sad smile. “Yes, she is.”

Grace looked up briefly, catching my eyes. Aria was probably right. I had to put a fucking stop to Grace’s obsession. “I can’t throw her out. She comes here all the time to party. I haven’t seen her since that night. I usually stay in the back.”

Aria didn’t say anything and I cupped her cheek, forcing her to meet my gaze.. “There’s only you, Aria.” I risked another glance at my watch. Damn it. “I really need to go now. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With a last glance at my wife, I quickly stalked back to my office, followed by Matteo.

The second I stepped into the room, I lifted my cell to my ear before I continued to the back office where I had more quiet. Matteo stayed in the front, checking the rest of our numbers.Matteo pushed into the room with a dead serious face. “Someone put roofies in Aria’s drink.”

I jerked upright, hanging up without a word. The fucking drugs could wait.

“He didn’t do anything. Romero and Cesare were there,” Matteo added hastily, but I barely listened as I stormed past him into the front office. Aria clung to Cesare, her face ashen, legs barely supporting her. Fury burnt through me when I glanced from my drugged wife to Rick, one of our drug dealers. The fucker would soon wish he had never been born.

“What happened?” I got out past the burning fury throbbing in my throat, in my veins, in every fucking inch of my body. I crossed the room and took Aria from Cesare, who released her at once. I lifted her into my arms and her head dropped against my chest, dazed eyes peering up at me. Fuck it. That’s why I didn’t want Aria in places like this. With so many people around, protecting her was close to impossible, and I needed to protect her no matter the cost. A brief burst of anger toward her for disobeying flickered in my body, but it slipped away as I peered down at my helpless wife.

Gianna kept bitching in her high-pitched voice, but my focus tunneled in on Aria. Her blue eyes clung to my face, her fingers crinkling my shirt.

Romero explained some shit about roofies to Gianna as I put Aria down on the sofa. She looked small and vulnerable. I turned toward Rick and stalked to him. I wanted to smash his skull against the wall, leave a goddamn dent in the plaster from the force of it. But a quick end like that? No, that wasn’t going to happen.

“You put roofies in my wife’s drink, Rick?” I asked, my voice vibrating with my barely contained anger. Without Aria and Gianna in the room, I would already have started slicing him into bite-sized pieces.

Rick’s beady eyes shot open, mouth gaping. “Wife? I didn’t know she was yours. I didn’t. I swear!”

I shoved Romero aside to get into Rick’s ugly face, then gripped the knife still sticking out of his thigh and turned it sharply. Rick roared in agony, eyes rolling back, but Romero kept the fucker on his feet.

“What did you plan to do to her once you had her outside?” Fuckers like Rick used roofies for a chance to get their dick wet, and they sold roofies to assholes who wanted to do the same because no women would ever give them the time of day.