Chapter 11
Massimo
I release Sophia’s arms and carry my dark-haired angel to the large bed, laying her there before going into the bathroom to wash up and bring a warm cloth back. “Spread your legs for me, kitten.”
She blushes gently in the low light but I won’t be denied. “Let me clean you.”
My little kitten swallows daintily and spreads her legs, but the stamina and emotional energy needed to stand on that cross has drained Sophia.
I clean her with the warm cloth and use the soft cloth to dry her before removing her heels and the rest of my clothes to climb into bed and cover the two of us.
I wrap her in my arms, drawing her to me, her dark silky hair falling gently over my chest. I stroke her hair, amazed at her stamina, willingness to try new things, and her responsiveness.
She is so perfect it makes my chest tighten with unfamiliar emotions.
Sophia falls asleep and I hold my wife close, the one that I’m supposed to give up after just one short year of marriage, knowing that I don’t have one intention at all of doing anything of the sort.
She’s perfect, I love her, and she’s mine.
“There’s no getting away now, kitten,” I whisper, kissing her forehead as she gently sleeps against my heart, exactly where I want her to be every single night of my life.
But my chest tightens, knowing the storm that is impending, slowly growing, even as we tied the knot and whispered I do.
And that worry keeps me from sleeping while I protect her in my arms.
The territories are thinning, pieces taken from this family and that, but not our own.
And everyone wants a piece of what the Rosellis have.
The Amortes and Gallinis have been working to sneak in and syphon off little pieces at a time until they could marry their young.
Well, that plan is backfiring, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t bringing a war among the families with it, and I refuse to allow Sophia to be used as a pawn.
They know keeping her family safe means keeping her from her family, insisting that she stay within the walls of the estate until we know more and can put this fight to rest.
She may want to go see her family, but I’m not letting her go, not yet.
It’s far too dangerous until Barcelo and the head of the Amorte family are contained.
I’ll keep my soldiers in place to protect her family, but until then she’s not leaving the protection of my side.
If I were thinking straight and not with my dick, I wouldn’t have brought her to Carnal Sins either, but knowing she wanted to give me a gift, herself in that way, I had to find a way.
Now we’ll wait in the armor-plated walls of the private suite at least until she’s rested, before making the journey home to the house on the sea.
When she wakes, hopefully the feeling of being a prisoner in her own home will have diminished, at least slightly.
At least until I can make sure she is safe and take her on my jet, or the new yacht I plan to purchase, or long walks on the shore and anywhere else she wants to go.
I’ll throw myself into the war between them all to save her family, against the better judgement of my family, only to save Sophia from crying a tear.
No matter that the world does not want to see a Roselli and Cassone together, it’s far too late for that, because I have her and I’m sure as fuck not giving her back.
I get dressed, fixing my tie before sliding back into my suit jacket, contemplating the difficulty it will be navigating the police, especially after their earlier questioning.
It’s clear they’re being paid to pursue this thing, and I’m determined to find out by who.
The person pulling the strings, that’s who I want.
And I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not going to like it when I find the person at the top.
Whoever is behind it doesn’t just want vengeance, they want to take her life.
The police have question after question about her involvement along with my own in the disappearances of the Amorte brothers.
I can live with that, but they were pretty blatant about it, too self-assured if you fucking ask me.
Like they were being backed by someone. Maybe a person way up the chain has been compromised.
It wouldn’t be the first time a crime family got something to hold over someone’s head to make them play along.
How many times have we done it ourselves?
I intend to find out exactly who is pulling the strings and why.
Especially for the Amortes. Since when do they have the power that something like this would require.
The Rosellis have far more influence, even the Gallinis.
The Amortes are small, they’ve always been small, the plan was always for them to merge with a larger and more powerful family.
It’s just not happening by marrying the only daughter to me.
My kitten turns, still resting peacefully.
I want to see her at peace every day. In order for that to occur, she needs to make sure her sister and father are okay.
Then she will be physically and emotionally satisfied.
As her husband and protector, I take that job very seriously and while it’s a new fucking feeling, it’s one that I’m all in on.
First thing tomorrow, I’ll arrange for her to call her sister, have some time on the phone with her. And when this thing is over, we’re going to do it right, have a huge wedding with all of the family flown in from Italy. One day, my father and the others, they’re going to love her too. But
more importantly right now, I need to make sure that she stays alive and out of jail for them to learn to love. That’s my number one fucking priority.
I settle onto the bed, letting her rest a little while longer before calling Jimmy to have the car brought around. She stirs and her eyes flutter gently. “Did you like your present?” she asks softly.
My dick hardens immediately. Why this woman has a stranglehold on all of my senses I do not know, only that she does.
I gather her clothes and begin assisting her into them, only so I can peel layer after layer of the sexy pink lingerie from her skin once at home.
“You know I did. And you? How do you feel?”
Her eyes tell me everything, she needs no words to convey her thoughts with me but I want her to feel comfortable talking with me about the intimate things.
“It was amazing. As always, but different somehow.” Her eyes shine with gentleness.
“Never in a thousand years did I think for a second I would let someone do that to me, or tie me up, or bind me, or any of this at all. And with a Roselli, never. But I don’t think we’re the same people anymore, at least not enemies. I trust you, Massimo.”
I gather her close once she’s dressed, looking down at my little kitten who is coming into her own.
Young and innocent in so many ways of the world yet trained and hardened in some of the necessary ways too.
A mixture of sweet innocence and ruthless tenacity.
All traits I love in my dark-haired beauty, and I plan to tell her that soon.
When the moment is right, not in a sex club or when she feels she’s in a prison of necessity.
When the time and place are right, then I’ll tell her.
Fuck, I’ll scream it from the rooftops, so everyone knows exactly who she belongs to because she fucking belongs to me and I’m keeping her for my entire life.
The minute we’re out of the club and safely into the back of the sleek black limo Jimmy brought around, the tension on the sides of my temples that started to grow at the thought of having her outside of the estate begins to subside.
It was reckless to bring her here. Only knowing that my soldiers have all the families under surveillance, and that we now have inside men watching the bastards made the little trip out of our estate with Sophia a possibility.
But still, it was something I don’t plan to do again. Not for a while.
Jimmy is driving, and when he’s around, no one is getting to us unless it’s through his cold dead body.
He’d take a bullet for me or any of my brothers and even my dad, and every fucking one of us feel the same about him.
He’s more than a part of the family, maybe not blood but one of us just the same, a Roselli where it counts the most, in the heart.
He pulls out into the closest lane and heads to the middle, putting his foot on the gas to get us through the light before the yellow turns red. “Straight home, boss?”
I give him a nod. “Let’s stick to the main roads.”
“Okay. Enrico and Mario, they’ll stay on our tail, and Lennie and the others are up ahead and behind. No need to worry. We’re good, boss.”
I glance to my right and notice the short beard on the face of another of our drivers.
Jimmy has put in extra security for which I’m grateful.
We’re well protected. “Thanks, Jimmy.” I appreciate him thinking of the extra detail, but then it’s what I expect him to do.
Me and my brothers can always count on him to do whatever it takes, no matter the situation.
Even when we’ve given him different instructions, just like at the boat, rounding back because of some sixth sense, intuition or whatever the fuck he calls it. He’s got our backs, no matter what.
And the newest of my inside men in the Amorte and Gallini crime families had better be doing exactly what I need them to be doing too, which is get me more fucking information than I’ve got today.
I need concrete fucking proof, not pieced together conversations that can come back to mean a number of things and bite me and my family in the ass if we were to act prematurely over any of them.
We didn’t just send anyone in, either. I sent a couple of my best men in, safeguarded in the old country until flown in a couple of weeks ago.
When Amorte and Gallini needed men, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and of course their backgrounds all checked out.
Flights from Italy confirmed, even the family they worked for confirming their loyalty and dedication, because they fucking work for us too.
Now, hopefully all that coordination and bother gets us the information we need because the Amortes have something on someone, there’s not a doubt in my mind because he sure as fuck doesn’t have the influence.
Once we find out what it is, and who he’s blackmailing, we’ll use it to get them off our back and make new friends at the PD.
Then we’ll find out who’s pushing detectives Brice and Loch’s buttons or if the detectives have a personal grudge of their own that I’ve not yet uncovered.
Either way, I’m fed up with these games. Information, that’s what I need.
The fucking detectives are the last people I expect to see as the limo climbs the road above the shore, leading to my estate.
The guardsmen have them waiting in their cars, and they watch us as we make our way past them, through the small ornate gate and into the estate above the sea.
I pull my cell out of my pants pocket and connect with Leandro.
“Brice and Loch are at the estate. We just got home from Carnal Sins. Stop whatever you’re doing and get here now.
Have Emil meet us here in half an hour.”
He doesn’t answer, just disconnects but there’s no doubt that he’s doing exactly what I asked without hesitation.
But until then, I guess we’re going to spend the next half an hour in a sparring match with the two detectives who are quickly making their way onto my shit list. A place no man should ever want to be.
Sophia grasps my hand and leans in, whispering to me as though Jimmy shouldn’t hear what she’s going to say. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’ve been trained to deal with men like them all my life. Watch and learn.”