CATERINANow I understand why Tatiana was dead set on getting dressed up tonight. We’re both wearing cocktail dresses and sky-high heels when we enter the upscale restaurant Gianni owns.I have to remind myself to not look like too much of a rube as I try to take everything in, the sleek, dark interior, the shining bar spanning one wall, and the open kitchen further back. The crew works like a well-oiled machine, moving quickly but smoothly through the process of creating food that smells good enough to make my stomach clench with hunger.“Right this way,” the perky hostess beckons with a smile. “It’s been a long time since we last saw you, Mr. Rossetti. But we know you’re a busy man.”“And let’s be honest,” he replies with a charming grin. “Nobody wants to work with the owner looking over their shoulder.”She blushes and giggles, which makes me want to scream. Where did that come from? That sudden, blinding rush of rage? I never thought of myself as a jealous person, but maybe I was
Pulling his fingers from my sopping pussy, he brings them to his lips, sucking the juices off of them. It’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen, and I wish the lighting was better so I could see his eyes fully.“Sweet as honey,” he murmurs and releases me for a moment. He undoes his belt and then lowers his zipper, the sound loud in the empty room. Lifting me once more, he pins me to the wall, his frame holding me in place. I hitch my legs around his waist, bringing him closer. Anticipation bubbles in my belly. He’s so big and thick.“I wish I had it in me to take you slow, but I can’t.” I feel the fat head of his cock at my entrance, and a moment later, he’s filling me. He stretches me to the point of pain, and I breathe through my nose, swallowing back a whimper as he thrusts forward.With every thrust, he sinks a little deeper inside of me and while I struggle to take him, the pleasure that swirls in my core as he forces himself inside me is worth the pain.“I don’t think I’ll eve
GIANNIIwish I could say the satisfaction of claiming my woman has calmed me down, but that’s not exactly true. I know she’s mine; no one’s taking her from me.Certainly not some sleazy piece of shit like Donovan Moroni. His last name is the only reason he’s still breathing. That and the witnesses present at the restaurant.Still, I’ve been insulted. That kid was supposed to be here to meet my daughter, not to feel up another girl while sitting at the same table as Tatiana. Jack had better do a lot of thinking on how to make this up to me. If not, I’ll set the terms myself.Terms he will not like much.Our table is empty now, and our servers stand around looking guilty and confused.“Sorry to have broken things up,” I murmur, but it’s Tatiana I’m concerned with now. Scanning the dining room, I find her sitting alone at the bar, nursing a glass of wine. Something about the way she holds herself gives off aDo Not Approachsignal, but I’m her father. That sort of shit doesn’t work on me.
“It was Luciano who hit her with the car,” Roger says, rather than leave the announcement to me.“Are you fucking serious?” Her scream echoes through the dining room. We already had an audience. What’s more attention on us? “Why didn’t she tell me?”“One thing at a time. We don’t know if he took her.” Or what he hopes to get out of this. I can’t imagine it wasn’t him. Especially if he confronted the girls earlier today. If one of them had told me about that, and I’d known he was in the area, I could’ve been on alert. I could’ve stopped this from happening.“I have the signal from her phone.” Roger shows me the screen, where a blinking blue dot tells me she’s moving.“Dad, please, find her. Please get her back!” Tatiana is weeping as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and walk her out of the dining room with Roger on our heels. A snap of my fingers and the pair of guards waiting under the awning in front of the restaurant jump to attention. Damn it, it never occurred to me to have any
He doesn’t listen to either of us, letting go of one of my wrists to reach for something at his side. All I catch from the corner of my eye is the glint of steel before he touches the cold switchblade to my throat. I can’t breathe. I can’t do anything but lie here, helpless, afraid of what will happen next.“I’d rather see her dead than let you put your hands on her again,” he snarls at Gianni.It all happens so fast. The boom of the gun as it goes off. The spray of warm blood across my face. The sudden release of my wrist. He drops the blade before falling onto his side. For a moment, I can’t comprehend what has happened.A scream rips from my throat.There’s so much blood. His blood.Gianni’s hands roam my body, touching my face, arms, and legs. All I can see is his face filling my vision. His hands cup my cheeks, and they’re warm, so warm.“Are you okay? Did he hurt you at all?”He’s here. I’m safe.There’s so much blood. Luciano is dead, but I’m safe. My screams fade to gasps as I t
GIANNIThe shattering of glass fills the air but doesn’t do anything to quiet the storm in my head. “Then what the fuck are they using for money if none of Tatiana’s cards have been accessed?”“Caterina must be paying for it herself,” Roger muses.He’s still standing exactly where he stood when he told me there’s been no trace of Tatiana’s activity twenty hours after they ran away. His balls are massive. He’s the only one of my guys who’s been able to stay in the room with me for more than half a minute since last night. All my men are running scared, scrambling around like chickens without their fucking heads, and none of it matters.We’re no fucking closer to finding them than we were last night.“That’s on me,” I growl, kicking aside one of the chairs in front of my desk. “I should have been tracking Caterina’s finances, too.”When will I learn? I should’ve been doing lots of things.“The good news is they can’t stay away forever.”I bark out a bitter laugh. “Do you want to bet? We
The thing is, I’ve already considered it. That’s how crazy this has made me. I actually considered reaching out to that prick detective to ask him for help to find his kid. He doesn’t need to know about us, only that the girls are missing. He’d have fifty cars out there looking for her within minutes, if not more. I already know how far he’s willing to go when something matters to him. But I also know what a pain in the ass he is, and I’m not about to have him barking up my tree with questions.That’s an absolute end-of-the-road, “all other possibilities have been exhausted” sort of step. We aren’t there yet. After calling all the hospitals in the area to ask if they brought in any girls matching their description, there’s not much we can do but wait for one of them to show their face.And when they do? This isn’t going to work out well for either of them.Especially my little bird. Roger could be right. She might still have been in shock and reacting rather than thinking. That doesn’
CATERINAShe’ll kill me for calling him, but I don’t know what else to do. I’ve been knocking at the bedroom door in our suite for the past hour, and she won’t let me in. I could either call hotel security and have them unlock it, or call Gianni and hope he can get through to her.“Tatiana?” I murmur while knocking for the millionth time. “Sweetie, at least make a sound and let me know you’re okay. I’m really scared and worried.”Last night, she was hysterical over Luciano kidnapping me. Tonight, I’m talking to a locked door and hoping like hell she’s alive on the other side. I’ve never seen her like this before. She’s capable of anything, as painful as it is to think about.“Just leave me alone.” It’s so soft I can hardly hear it, but her muffled voice at least tells me she’s alive in there.Think, damn it. What set her off?She couldn’t have had more than two or three drinks at the bar, so she’s not wasted. I’ve seen her double-fist margaritas all night long. “Why won’t you let me in
When I try to send a text in response, it goes undelivered. The number comes up as ID Blocked. No surprise.“I'm wondering if we should have brought more men,” he grunts, swerving around a slow-moving minivan. A glimpse at the passenger side mirror reveals the car behind us, matching our speed, following Roger's every move.“Between the five of us, if we can't handle it, then we have bigger problems.”“What if this is all a way of drawing us out? Whoever is behind this would know I'd come on the run.”“Do you want to take that chance?” He glances away from the road to stare at me for a moment. “We can always call for more backup.”“By the time they get there, what point would it make?” We're already halfway there as it is. “I don't want to wait for them.”Besides, this doesn't feel like an attack is imminent. It feels more like the attack has already taken place, I'm afraid. I don’t want to think about what we might discover when we arrive. Don't let it be Caterina. Don't let it be Ta
GIANNI“You can tell summer's winding down.”I look up from the spreadsheet Roger insisted we compile—always organized, which I suppose I should be grateful for even if a Friday evening spent poring over spreadsheets isn’t my idea of a good time. “What do you mean?”“It's already starting to get dark, and it's barely past seven o'clock.”Sure enough, a look out the window confirms this. “I wonder how long the girls will be out.”“You know how it gets sometimes. Crack open a bottle of wine or two, and time melts.”“I don't think they'll be doing that tonight.” When he lifts an eyebrow, I break the news I've been waiting all week to share. “This stays between us, but Caterina is pregnant.”Now both brows lift. “Oh. I... congratulations?”I can't help but grin. “Yes, congratulations are in order.”“And she's happy about it?”“You know. Things are still complicated.” I'm trying to be kind toward Charles for her sake, but I can't pretend his bias against me isn't a real pain in the ass at
Something snaps inside my head. No, no, this isn’t happening. Not to me. Not to my baby.Every self-defense lesson Dad ever taught me comes rushing back. I can’t breathe in if I want to stay conscious, so I hold my breath while stomping a foot against his instep with all my might. He grunts in pain but doesn’t release me. In my frenzy, I reach out, sinking my nails into any flesh I can touch, then I drive an elbow into his ribs.“You bitch,” he growls before slamming me headfirst into the trunk of my car. Everything goes dark and foggy. My body slumps when I lose control of it, and I can’t help but breathe in.My baby. My baby…I don’t lose consciousness, though. Not completely. It’s more like being sedated; my brain still works. I hear everything, but I can’t make my body move. I’m floating in a dream-like state, but this is all very real. A living nightmare.“Get moving,” one of the men snarls, shoving me into the car. I can’t open my eyes. My head is pounding.Tatiana’s body slumps
CATERINA“Hey, what are you looking at?”My heart just about jumps out of my chest as I quickly close my browser before turning in my chair to find Stephanie standing at the entrance of my cubicle. The way she lifts an eyebrow while folding her arms reminds me too much of my best friend—it hurts, since we haven’t spoken all week.I touch a hand to my chest, laughing. “You're like a ghost, I swear. How are you so quiet?”“Maybe you were too busy looking at naughty things to notice me coming up behind you.”“Naughty things?” The idea makes me giggle, because she couldn't be further from the truth. It was dirty things that got me pregnant in the first place. Now, I am reading advice columns and googling baby names when I should be working.“Nobody closes their browser that fast if they aren’t looking at something they shouldn't be.”“Sorry to disappoint you, but I was reading junk on Reddit.” At least it's a believable lie. “I don't want to get caught screwing around.”“Who cares?” she s
The look of heartbreak on Caterina’s face makes me want to order a hit on Amalia at this very moment. “That you’d want me to get an abortion if you found out because you didn’t want any more children. That the last thing you wanted was to be tied down again.” The anguish in her voice slices me down to the bone.I’ll kill her. It’s as simple as that.How long have I told myself I must spare her pathetic life because she’s Tatiana’s mother? She’s never been a mother to her, anyway. I could have done Tatiana and the world a favor by getting rid of her, but I didn’t. Now it doesn’t seem to matter if she’s alive or dead.“For one thing,” I speak carefully so I don’t spook her, “Amalia does not have the first clue on how I would feel about anything. She doesn’t know me. You should know by now that she wants me to be miserable, which means making everyone around me miserable by association. Plus, she’s herself, so I’m sure it must make her jealous, knowing you’re going to have my child—a chi
GIANNI“Patience,” Roger advises, his eyes constantly moving as he scans the area around us while we stand beneath the covered stoop in front of his cottage. “Just because I haven't found anything yet doesn't mean I won't.”“It isn't you I'm frustrated with,” I grunt, trying not to appear suspicious. There are no fewer than five guards within my line of sight, and I can't help but wonder if it's one of them.The traitor.“It's barely been two days since I installed the software,” he reminds me. “Give it some time.”“I get it, but until then, I have to pretend I trust everyone equally, and that’s frustrating as hell when you know one of your men is sharing information he shouldn’t be.”“There is another solution. It’s faster, if that’s what you’re looking for. You could just fire everybody and start over.”He recoils under the sharp glare I shoot at him. I know he wasn’t serious, but I’m not in a joking mood. “I can't afford to lose my entire team at a time like this. Not with a new de
“Not really.” Tatiana looks me up and down. “Are you feeling okay? You look a little green.”Once we move closer to the register, the feeling gets worse. Only once the girl behind the counter reaches for Tatiana’s clothes do I realize it’s Tatiana’s perfume that sets me off. The stronger the smell, the sweatier and more nauseated I get.“I’ll meet you outside.” Nothing in the world matters more than getting out of this store. The glass doors are my sole goal, and I walk toward them as calmly as possible, even as my insides start churning. Stupid me, thinking if I never got sick like this before now, I’d be one of the lucky ones who never had to go through it.I burst through the double doors to the outside, sucking deep breaths into my lungs. The sunshine is so bright, glaring off the concrete, but there’s an awning over the wide front window, and I take shelter beneath it. A few minutes pass, and the nausea seems to pass with every breath I take. Shit. Suddenly it occurs to me that I
CATERINA“How come you're not trying on any clothes?”Damn it. I was hoping I’d get away with it.We’ve been shopping for the past half hour, and only now has she thought to ask why I haven’t picked out anything. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't pay attention. She's having a good time trying on skirts and dresses and jeans. Now she’s frowning at me from the three-way mirror outside her dressing room stall. “Why aren’t you shopping, too?”I’m sure the response: I don't know how much longer I'll fit into anything. It would be a waste of money to buy anything in my size when I don’t have the first idea of how pregnancy will affect my body... wouldn’t go over well.“I feel bloated,” I groan, rubbing my stomach. “It's just not a good day.”“I'm sorry. Would you prefer we go back home?”I like that she thinks of it as home for both of us. “No, I’m fine. I just know I would hate myself in everything I tried on.”“You always look great, if that helps.”“Thanks. And you look hot in that dress
“There he is, going around with all these suspicions without solid proof. I'm finally starting to understand how he must feel.” That, and how Caterina seems determined to look after me—the way she does with him.“Speaking of which, have you reviewed the list of names I compiled?”If my head doesn't fucking explode, it will be a miracle. I walked into this room feeling good, energized, confident. All it takes is a catch-up session to remember how overwhelming the past few weeks have been. Caterina or no Caterina, I've got enough on my plate to make any man want to throw in the towel.I made her a promise. I’m going to find out who killed her mother. I only hope she isn’t in a hurry, since at least a dozen possible culprits could’ve had reason to send a message to Charles.“I scanned the names,” I confirm. “And I'd like to set up meetings. Only this is touchy, so we can't make too much noise, or word might spread that I'm digging.”“You realize one of those names was Salvatore Costello.