Chapter 20
PRIEST
When I get back to the safe house, it’s late. I don’t have any more answers tonight than I did last night. And when I walk into the living room, it’s déjà vu. Saint and Luna are all chummy and cozy, watching another crime drama, only this time, they’re awake.
“That’s not how that gun sounds when it fires,” Saint is telling her with an air of authority. “It really fucking annoys me when they don’t even bother to do a little research.”
“What would it actually sound like?” Luna asks.
It occurs to me that they’re sitting closer together on the couch than they were last night, and for a second, I see red.
Before my brother can answer her, I storm into the room, pick up the remote, and turn off the narrator’s droning reporter voice.
“Time for bed, wife,” I tell Luna, ice dripping from my words.
Saint looks at me like I’ve grown a second head. But he can go fuck himself. His reputation with women precedes him. He could charm a nun out of her habit in ten seconds flat. I don’t like the comfortable air between the two of them any more than I like the empty bottle of wine on the coffee table.
“Time for bed?” Saint repeats. “What is she, five?”
He’s lucky he’s my own flesh and blood, my consigliere, because no one else could speak to me that way without getting a bullet in his skull.
I stalk to the couch, running on caffeine and adrenaline and some kind of possessive caveman energy that scares even me. “No, but she’s my woman, and when I tell her it’s time to go to bed, she’s going to go the fuck to bed.”
“Jesus.” Saint runs his fingers through his hair, glaring at me. “Calm the fuck down.”
He’s not getting out of this easily. I’ve been running myself into the ground out there, and I entrusted him with my wife, a woman he’s looking entirely too familiar with right now.
“You talk to me with disrespect again, and I’ll fuck you up,” I warn him.
Saint stands instantly, a gleam in his eye. “You want to go? Let’s fucking go.”
“Wait!” Luna jumps up, standing between us.
“What is wrong with you two Neanderthals?” She pins me with a glare.
“First of all, your brother is right. I’m not a child, and you don’t get to tell me when it’s time for me to go to bed.
” Then she turns to Saint with the same look in her eye.
“And you, fighting with your brother? That’s the last thing either of you needs right now. ”
She’s not wrong. I can’t afford to go to battle with my own flesh and blood on top of what’s going on beyond the safe house.
I feel some of my anger deflate. But not all of it.
“Maybe I made a mistake leaving Luna here with you,” I tell Saint. “I should have asked Lucky or Scorpion instead.”
“Lucky?” Luna repeats, her nose wrinkling. “Mr. Trigger-Happy? No thanks. Or was that Scorpion?”
I don’t even know what she’s talking about. All of my brothers could be described that way, and I don’t see a problem with it.
“You think I’m trying to fuck your wife?” Saint demands, incredulous.
And more of my anger leaves me. He’s not a good liar. He genuinely seems insulted that I’d suspect him of trying to get Luna into his bed. In my defense, I don’t understand how anyone with a pulse wouldn’t want to get Luna into his bed.
“Luna is mine,” I say. “I don’t want any man sharing a fucking couch cushion with her, and that includes you.”
“I’m not a possession,” she protests. “I’m a person. I don’t belong to anyone.”
“Wrong,” I tell her. “The day we exchanged vows in the cathedral, everything changed. Until death do us part, remember?”
“Or until divorce,” she mutters under her breath.
But I hear her.
“Look at me, Luna,” I say.
I wait until her big brown eyes are on me, and then I speak the next words directly to her soul. “You are mine, Luna Andriani. For fucking ever.”
She’s so furious with me that I can almost see sparks radiating from her.
Fuck, she’s gorgeous when she’s riled. I want her fire.
I want to get burned, to lose myself in her.
This marriage was the last thing I wanted.
I was sacrificing myself for the greater good, forging an alliance, getting us into a stronger position.
But now, alliances and obligations are far from my mind when I look at her.
When I look at her, all I see is my whole damn world.
Her chin tips up in defiance, her dark eyes flashing. “You can’t keep me in this mobster dungeon forever. And when I get out of here, I’m going home, where I belong.”
I snake an arm around her waist and haul her into me. She’s soft in all the right places, and she smells so fucking good, like apples and me.
“Spoiler alert, amore mio ,” I growl. “That’s not the way this world works. The only way you’ll be rid of me is if you kill me, and I highly doubt you have the stomach for it.”
She pushes away from me, and I let her go. Not because I want to, but because I’m not about to force her. I know Luna wants me. She’s just still pissed about being trapped in the safe house, even if it’s the best place for her to be right now.
“Maybe I’ll smother you in your sleep,” she snaps. “Don’t tempt me, gangster.”
Then she turns and leaves the room. I watch the sway of her ass, mesmerized. I can’t wait to spank it, bite it, fuck it again. She was all I could think about while I was away. I was counting down the hours until I could come back to her. I’m so obsessed with my wife that it’s almost a sin.
“What the hell was that?” Saint demands when she’s gone.
I assume she’s going to our room, but it’s possible she’s storming off to the gym or pool. The thought of her in a bikini is enough to make my dick twitch.
I glare at my brother. “You haven’t been to the pool with her, have you?”
“No. She said she didn’t bring a suit when she flew back to see Tomasso, so she’ll have to wait until the rest of her shit gets here.”
“Good. If you go into the pool with her, I’ll drown you.”
I don’t want Saint coming within ten feet of my wife when she’s wearing a bikini. Those lush, ripe tits and that ass are mine alone. All her mouthwatering curves—and the rest of her too.
Saint’s eyes narrow on me. “I’ll take my chances.”
I shouldn’t have said anything. Now he’ll be even more determined to swim with her just because he knows I don’t want him to.
“Don’t test me,” I warn him.
“Maybe if we can’t find her a suit, we’ll just have to go skinny-dipping.”
I see red again. “Rocco would help me to get rid of your body. He’s loyal like that.”
My brother just grins. “You’re falling in love with her.”
His words take all the anger out of me. All the air out of my lungs. For a second, I can’t even think.
“I don’t do love,” I snap, stalking away from him to pace the room.
What’s he thinking? Saint knows as well as I do that softness doesn’t exist in our world.
Our father didn’t love us. He used us to build his empire.
We were pawns in the game he played to grow his power.
Our mother sure as fuck didn’t love us. She left us when we were kids, when we needed her most. Abandoned us to our heartless father’s idea of what men should be.
And when we didn’t agree with him, he beat it into us until we changed our minds.
Thinking about the past has me on edge. I need to get out some energy. Blow off some steam. Maybe I’ll head to the gym and pound the punching bag for an hour. Pretend it’s my brother’s face.
“Then how do you explain all this?” Saint asks, following me.
I turn back to glare at him. “All what?”
“The possessiveness where she’s concerned. You’ve been with women before, but I don’t recall you threatening to clip me over any of them.”
I blow out a breath. “And? None of them were my wife either.”
“And that makes it different, how?”
“Because we’re tied together for life now. Because she’s bound to me forever.”
“And because you have feelings for her.”
“I barely even know her. It’s been a little over a week.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Saint shakes his head, inspecting me like I’m a fucking insect pinned to a board. “You’ve been different with her. I’ve never seen you this way.”
I’m not in the mood to be examined. Or to think about why Luna affects me like she does. It’s not love. I barely know her. It’s that she’s mine. Protecting what’s mine is in my blood.
“Just drop it,” I bite out.
Saint gives me a careless shrug that notches up my urge to punch him in the mouth. “Suit yourself.”
“Go the fuck to bed,” I tell him. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I’ll need you on the outside with me.”
Actually, I don’t need that, but I’ve just decided that leaving him here with my wife for another day isn’t going to happen.
He’s instantly all business. “What’s up?”
“We’re meeting with Squeaky and Amedeo to talk about what happens with Club Venere and some of Tomasso’s other holdings.”
That much is true, but I don’t technically need Saint there for it. Couldn’t hurt to have my consigliere accompany me to this, though. I still don’t trust Amedeo the Animal, and having my sharp-eyed brother at my back will send a message.
“Fine. The club should be ours.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “You’re the don now, and the club belonged to Luna’s father. The Animal can fuck right off if he thinks he’s going to get his grubby hands on it.”
I nod. “We’re on the same page. Get some rest. I’ll see you at seven.”
But he doesn’t go yet. “Who’s staying with Luna?” He wants to know.
“What are you, her keeper now?”
He raises a brow, the cheeky fucker. “Technically, yes.”
“Well, consider yourself fired,” I growl. “She’s a grown woman. She’ll be fine here on her own for a few hours.”
“You sure about that?”
“Of course. She’ll be locked in here with no way out. There’s nothing she can do but read her poetry books and binge-watch crime shows.”
I sound far more confident than I am. Because if I know Luna, she’s going to be dismantling the furniture into shivs by the time I get back.
Saint looks like he believes what I just said as much as I do. “If you say so.”