All Chapters of Claim by the Don: Chapter 291 - Chapter 300

Adriano’s POVMy girl was angry and rightfully so.I got her worried and I already felt bad for it. Plus, I told her I wasn’t going to get hurt but there was no way I could have foreseen the bullet ricocheting and grazing past my arm.When I got a call from Nik this morning telling me he had intel that the Russians might be moving the girls from one of their warehouses today, I left the house without hesitation.Although I was looking forward to spending the weekend with, Melanie, this was too important that it couldn’t be ignored.When Nik told me Alex Pushkin was the bratva head threatening to impede on my territory, I couldn't say I was surprised but I was fucking annoyed.I thought I’d already heard the last of him years ago but it seemed he was still the same cocky son of a bitch I knew. He didn’t know when he was way over his head thus, he kept pushing his limits and now I knew he was the reason why one of my trusted men betrayed me.He was going to get what was coming for him

Melanie’s POVAfter Adriano had his dinner, I gave him some painkillers that he took grudgingly but I put my foot down and insisted so there was no way for him to win that argument with me.“Thank you, Melanie,” he said.I was drying off the dish he used while he was keeping me company in the kitchen.“For what?””Taking care of me,” he replied.“I didn’t do much. I just stitched you up,” I responded.“You did more than that. You were my safe space. I went out today knowing I had you to come home to and I’ve never had that,” he said.I frowned in confusion. “You’ve never had a safe space?”"I've never had someone to come home to. Someone is waiting up and worried about me. I've never had that and you gave me that. You shined your light in my dark world and gave it color."God, he was being so sweet right now that I was about to cry. “What about your family? I know you really care about them, aren’t they your safe space?”“They’re bound by blood to always be on my side but you aren’t,”

Adriano’s POVI have never loved being injured more than this moment.Melanie has been treating me like an incapacitated child and I had no complaints.Thanks to the ibuprofen she made me take after breakfast, the pain in my arm wasn’t unbearable and thank God I gave in to her.The pain was quite intense at night and the only comfort I had was having Melanie sleeping in my arms since I was doing a shit job of that.However, she woke up at various intervals throughout the night to check on me and I did a good job pretending to be asleep at those times. I knew that because she didn’t dispute what I said when I told her I slept great.“Thankfully you didn’t pop any of the stitches in your sleep,” Melanie said. She was in the middle of changing the bandages on my arm.“I’m a good patient,” I told her.“Whatever,” she scoffed and finished bandaging my arm.“Thanks for taking care of me, Melanie,” I said.“You don’t need to thank me but you’re welcome all the same,” she replied.I leaned i

Melanie’s POV“Ugh… you guys are so cute it’s disgusting,” Aria said, once again interrupting our moment.“Shut up, Ari!” Adriano barked at her.“Whatever, I’m going to be with, Alice in the kitchen so wrap this up because we’re all having dinner together and I don’t want you making googly eyes at each other at the dinner table,” she said.“You still haven’t said it, Melanie,” Adriano said when we were finally alone. “I need to hear you say it.”“You need to hear me call you, baby?” He nodded. “Yes, I do because you’re mine and I’m yours. Every part of me belongs to you. So I’m your baby and it feels fucking good to hear you admit it.”I would have laughed if he wasn't being incredibly sweet. A grown-ass man was happy I called him, baby. Now that was a first.“Still, you shouldn’t have yelled at your sister that way,” I told him."She can handle it besides how do you expect me to let out

Melanie’s POVAdriano led me into the restaurant and we were led towards a private booth. The servers were very polite and a little too eager to server but it was to be expected.The man booked the whole restaurant to take his girlfriend on a date. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he was influential.The food was amazing!I had a hard time deciding between two dishes but I ended up going for the chicken cacciatore while, Adriano ordered the second dish I was considering for himself.I tried not to swoon at how attentive he was to me because I know for a fact that he ordered that dish because of me but I didn’t want to draw attention to it.And as I suspected, when our food arrived and we began eating, he asked me if I wanted to try a bite of his food and somehow, half of his parmesan ended up on my plate.Thank God he ordered enough servings.The conversation also flowed freely all