Luca’s POV To say I was furious right now was going to be an understatement. I was so damn angry, it felt like the emotion inside of me kept building each passing seconds.My brother was missing.The only brother who I have, who have been kept safe for over a decade in the states, and had only returned last night. It hasn’t even been up to twenty four hours and he’s already kidnapped by God knows who.The fact that James has been worried about this particular thing before Armani has arrived, made me so much angrier, because definitely, all these could have been easily been avoided if I hadn’t allowed him to come back here. The fact that he was kidnapped, definitely means that someone had ratted out that he was now back in Italy, because no one knew about his arrival except James and my guards.There was so much that needed to be done, but they were all going to have to wait because I need to find Armani as fast as possible. What could have made him and Sofia leave the house w
Luca’s POV As expected, there were no footage of the kidnapping scene in the cameras, and so that left us to scanning the plate number and following it, in hopes of catching up with the kidnappers. It wasn’t long that we got the car if the plate number, and began to follow it. I knew it was going to ne way too easy if we end up finding Armani this way, all because we looked for the plate number.As expected, the plate number led us to a dead end. It wasn’t like a dead end completely, it was an end that made it sink in that all what was currently happening was way more serious than I expected.The supposed car which we had traced down to this very spot, was in complete shambles. The car was completely ruined with bullets and there was blood everywhere. I didn’t need to be told that a fight had occurred here, and from how warm the dead bodies in the car was, it was very obvious that it hadn’t been long since the men were killed.“Fuck… just fuck.” James cursed from the other sid
Luca’s POV I didn’t return home that night, didn’t sleep a wink either. Instead, I had been trying everything possible in other to find my brother, and James was beside me throughout. The thought of going back home to Sofia just wasn’t sitting right with me yet, and that was because I wasn’t sure of how I was going to reach to her yet. I was yet to fully digest the fact that she had thought I was going to hit her.How could she even think that? I asked myself quietly as different images flashed through my mind, all containing moments of Sofia looking stunning as hell, while some contained moments of her sobbing and flinching away from me. There was just something not sitting right about that whole thing, but I wasn’t going to think about that for now.Which was one of the reasons why I had decided to not go home that night. It was the first time I wasn’t going to arrive home that night since I got married to Sofia, it was the first time in a really long time that I was this bu
Luca’s POV A new day has come and the location of the phone call had ended yo being a dead end, like the clove on the phone had said it was going to be, which was why I wasn’t all that disappointed. But I was really angry, angrier than I had been the night before.The voices of the voice on the phone, had been narrowed down to three, which all looked too young to be in the mafia. I had a hunch that the person who I had spoken to last night might be one of them, which meat only one thing; I hadn’t spoken to the boss last night like I had suspected, but had spoken to a kid that had probably been paid fo do that, or had been blackmailed into doing that. My guess was right because when I had called the number again, the voice had been completely different from how it had sounded last night.When I had called the unknown voice out on his bullshit and that I had been able to figure out who had been on the call last night and that it wasn’t one of them, the voice had only laughed and a
Luca’s POV Armani was alive now and that was all that matters. After capturing the man behind all of this, who wan also shot in the arm and leg, he got taken hostage, because he still gave a lot of answering to do to me.I cradled Armani in my arms and made sure he was breathing, before he got carefully lifted and placed in his car. To say I wasn’t blaming myself for all what had happened, would be an understatement. But then James’ words keep resounding in my head, that I wasn’t to blame myself for any of these.After clearing out the now messy as hell scene, we headed straight for one of my condos here in italy, there was just no way I’d be taking him home this way, and taking him to an actual hospital was out of the question. From the look of his wound and how badly he had been bleeding before James had stopped the bleeding by tying a cloth to stop the flow of blood, it seems like he was going to be needing more than a few stitches, and so he was going to have to get tended to
Luca’s POV I found Sofia in her painting room.After observing her for a while, I’ve come to notice that she took that room as a place where she found solace, it was why I had headed there straight.She wasn’t painting, as expected. Instead, she was huddled on the far end of the room, on the ground, against the wall, with her legs pulled against her chest. She wasn’t asleep though, even though it was already half past eleven. Her eyes snapped up as soon as I had pushed the door open, and she was on her feet in an instant, as soon as she had noticed my presence.She was dressed in a shirt, a white big shirt which I noticed was mine, and it was like a dress on her small body, as expected. Her hair was let down and they framed her face and sides, making her look so damn ethereal. Her eyes were what pulled me in, they were wide and sad and glassy, like she had been crying or had been about to start crying right now, and I felt my heart clench painfully in my chest.I moved away from
Luca’s POV “I’m so sorry though, if I hadn’t agreed to showing him around, none of this would have happened.” She supplied after a few moments and I shook my head at her as I stroked her hair.“It’s not your fault, bunny. You had no idea it was going to happen. I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was blaming you, so stop feeling bad, okay?” I murmured to her and she slowly nodded her head, even though I was sure she was definitely going to still keep feeling bad about it.“I hope nothing happens to him.” She whispered after a few moments, and that was when I remembered that I still haven’t informed her that Armani have already been found.“He’s fine, bunny. We found him some hours ago.” Tears sprang to her eyes instantly and she was in my arms once again, sobbing tears of relief, that were still tugging at my chest. I hated seeing her cry, no matter the kind of tears.“Is he okay?” She finally asked when she pulled away. “Is he here now?” I shook my head and breathed out a s
Sofia’s pov For the first morning in three days, I woke up without feeling like I was going to burst into frustrated tears. I could still feel Luca’s firm arms around me as he held me against him. Even in his sleep, he was always holding onto me like he’d never let me go. I glanced up at his face and took in the stress lines that were now marking the top of his, it was very obvious that he was very much stressed and needed to get as much rest as possible, but I was sure he was going to be out of bed in an instant if I needed him.Damn my stupid body for reacting to him the way I had did that day when I had thought he had been about to hit me. What had I even been thinking? I mean, it wasn’t like Luca had ever made me feel like he was ever got to ever lay a finger on me. The only time he has ever laid a finger on me was whenever he was spanking my ass, which also doesn’t frequently, unfortunately.Well at least he had said we were going to talk about it some other time, I reall
Sofia’s pov The kids had been bursting with excitement, which only meant one thing. It meant more headaches for Luca and I.“Baby, we talked about this, didn’t we? You can’t check the presents until it’s Christmas.” I murmured to Aria while holding her against my chest. She was clearly unhappy about this tiny rule because her frown deepened at once.“But it’s so far awayyyyy! No one is gonna know if I take a peek.”I chuckled as I let her slid down. “Daddy is gonna know.” I reminded her and that seemed to make her have a change of heart.“Oh.” She hesitated a little. “I guess I can wait a bit more.”“More like one more day, honey cause it’s tomorrow!” I gushed out and a grin split out on her face.“Really?!” She demanded and after getting another confirmation, she went off to find her brother, leaving me to myself. I sighed as I watched her leave with a fond smile on my face while massaging my forehead. I called out to her to be careful before I got back to what I was doing before.
FOUR YEARS LATER Sofia’s pov “Be careful, honey!” I called out at once, but I doubt she heard me as she hurriedly raced forward till she was standing before James, a glass of milk carefully clutched in her hand.“Here it is, Uncle James!” She called out enthusiastically and a familiar feeling of fondness swelled in my heart as I watched as an exaggerated look of awe got plastered on James’ face as he accepted the glass of milk.“Thank you, Aria! You’re so hardworking.” He complimented as he took a few gulps of the milk because a tiny sip wasn’t gonna be accepted by Aria who’s clearly still waiting for more compliments.“It tastes so nice and fresh, wow.” James gushed and I listened as Aria’s pleased giggles filled up the room. She began to bounce on her toes when she began to speak. “If you noticed, uncle James, the glass wasn’t totally filled up this time because mommy said that’s how it’s supposed to be to avoid it spilling from the top, and I listened to mommy because she’s alwa
Luca’s POV The bouquet of flowers I had gotten on the way home was a mixture of lilies and tulips, and I paired it with a bunch of balloons and a wrapped gift on the side. It’s a little past six and I couldn’t wait to be home already. I couldn’t wait to get home to my wife and our babies.Work has been quite stressful for the past month, the mafia aspect, to be specific. After news of my wife giving birth circulated around, I already knew that the amount of enemies I have was automatically gonna triple, and in order to keep my family safe, I was gonna have to be more at alert. The mafia clan had thrown a party in celebration after the birth of our babies, and I had purposely attended it alone, keeping my wife and kids far away from a gathering like that because it was filled with dangerous people from top to bottom.“Your enemies are gonna start attacking you even more now that you have a successor. People who have hoped to replace you if you ended up dying without an h
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER “I look ugly and bloated.” I blurted out while eying my reflection in the floor length mirror in the walk-in closet. Luca, who had been running a comb through his hair, paused for a moment before throwing me a glance, and then a smile bloomed on his face.“Of course you don’t! How can you even think that when you look like a goddess right now.” He murmured, discarding his comb and heading in my direction. I pouted at my reflection, not at all impressed by what I was looking at.“Now you’re just lying cause I’m sure goddesses don’t look this bad. My face is swollen and I literally feel like I’m gonna die.” Luca who had now eased up behind me let out a chuckle into my hair as his hand slid around my waist to carefully cradle my large stomach from the sides.“You still look very gorgeous to me. I don’t think your face is ugly, neither do I think you’re no longer sexy, because you still are. Did last night not explain that enough?” He chuckled at the end of
Luca’s pov It was clear as day that this particular topic has been troubling Sofia for a while now. I could tell from how she was wringing her fingers. I lifted her fingers and brushed my lips across it, and then I let out a long sigh.“If I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t actually thought about it. I just assumed you don’t want them and I was cool with that.” Her eyes widened comically as she whispered. “But… I want children.”I hummed. “I see that now.” “You don’t want children?” Sofia asked after a few moments and I slowly shook my head.“I don’t think I do, cause I don’t actually like the thought of bringing a child into a lifestyle as dangerous as my current one, and leaving the mafia is completely out of the question cause the past would end up catching up with me no matter what.”“Oh.” She whispered while chewing at the inside of her mouth.“Yes, love. But, that aside, I love babies. They’re always so cute and clueless of all the evils in the world.” Sofia laughed at th
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER*** The sounds of soft laughter filtered through the screen of the television I was currently staring at and a small smile tugged at the side of my lips as I averted my gaze and took a glance at the wall clock situated at the top of the wall here in the room. It was past eight in the evening, which indicated that Luca was almost home, and an excited feeling coursed down my spine. It doesn’t matter that Luca has almost returned home to me every damn day, that giddy feeling still engulfs me every day.Which is the best thing ever, said my therapist when we stumbled on that topic. It’s been over two years and till date, I’m still yet to stop seeing my therapist. She, a Middle aged woman, has made me feel so much love and comfort than my mother has done for me throughout the past two decades that I’ve been alive. The sounds of cute giggles emitting from the television screen grabbed my attention and once again, I focused on it. This time, my bre
Sofia’s pov The weeks flew by faster than i could keep up with.Healing was slower than I anticipated, and I hated almost every second of it, if I was being honest, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t willingly take another bullet for Luca if I could, because I will. Luca had gotten extremely displeased when I offhandedly said those same words to him, and he made me promise to never, ever do that again.I stayed in the hospital for months, because Luca wanted me to be completely healed before getting discharged. The flowers that got sent to me by every well wishers had gotten thrown out more than three times because at a point, they all began to rot.A little gathering was thrown in celebration of my release from the hospital. Everybody was there waiting in the house as entered the house, from Kayla and her husband, Travis, to Armani and his girlfriend, Nala, to James and his fiancée, Blair, to Angelo. It was relieving to finally be home and be surrounded by so much love right now ma
Sofia’s pov ‘Was this how it feels to float?’I asked myself over and over again, the more time I spent in that same unending loophole. It felt like I was stuck in a fluffy space, but instead of sinking, I remained afloat.Muffled voice could be heard coming from multiple sides at once but I couldn’t make any word out, neither could I tell each voice apart from the other.I limbs literally felt nonexistent because I couldn’t wait use of them no matter how much I tried. It’s almost weird how it’s pitch dark in this fluffy space, preventing me from making anything out.Or perhaps, I was the one who had my eyes closed throughout, I realized when I discovered that I could feel my eyelids twitch a little. I tried to get my eyes open after that, but ended up giving up after trying over and over again to no avail. I drifted straight into an unconscious state after that.When I came to once again, I felt warm fingers around mine. The fingers felt familiar in a way, and with everyth
Sofia’s pov The scream that left my mouth this time was completely silent as I watched as the kneeling man who was apparently working with Ryan, fell to the ground face first after being shot by Ryan. That sent a more terrified feeling down my spine, because not only was Ryan crazy, he was clearly also heartless as hell. Seeing how he could effortless kill off his own partner made it more obvious that it wouldn’t be hard for him to kill me if he wants to, and that he wasn’t just bluffing by threatening to shoot me.“Fuck, man, you really are a freak. Your own partner?” Angelo mused with an unimpressed look on his face. Luca snorted and leveled Ryan with a look. “That’s not something a Ricci would do, you know?”“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a fucking one, okay? And now that I’ve killed my partner myself, you clearly don’t have anything to threaten me with, I have nothing to lose in this situation unlike the rest of you.” Ryan responded haughtily, sneering as he tugged on my hair.