Chapter 21
Twenty-One
LUKA
T he coffee was poured. There were croissants piled high on a tray along with bacon and egg-white omelets delivered by Bella. Ciro spoke to Amara by phone. It didn’t sound like he was happy about it, but she stood her ground, insisting an in-person meeting wasn’t necessary. She had lost part of the fence at the rear of the property. He was worried about the security sensors. I didn’t see why he had to bother her with small details. He should just do his fucking job and keep her safe.
Amara peeled off the end of her croissant and nibbled on it.
“Who goes first?” she asked.
I refilled our coffee cups to the top. “I’m sure you want to know about Enzo.”
She nodded. “I do. You owe me the entire story. You can’t leave anything out.”
“Okay. Okay. I know how it works.”
She blushed. “Sorry. I’m feeling uneasy about what this could be about. I don’t like it.”
“Which part? That you don’t have all the information?”
She pressed her pretty lips together. “Of course, that part. Enzo is someone I trusted until now. It feels like he’s been keeping something from me. How can I trust him after that?”
“You can still trust him,” I stated.
Her eyes widened. “You seem confident when you say that.”
“I am. Our meeting was personal. It wasn’t business.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. He works for me. He is my assistant. The person closest to me at work. How could it be personal? Nothing about this makes sense.”
“No, it didn’t make sense to me either at first. I needed time to accept it. To process what he and Katya told me.”
“Your sister? I can’t imagine what she would have to do with this.”
I nodded. “Our meeting was about them. It’s not what you think. I doubt you’d be able to predict what I’m about to say.” I couldn’t believe I was going to tell her about Enzo and Katya, but it was going to take Amara’s backing to make this work for everyone involved. Without her, Enzo wouldn’t survive.
I hesitated. If this backfired, I was putting my sister and Enzo in more danger.
“Luka, aren’t you going to tell me?” She searched my eyes for an answer.
I was going to place my sister’s life in her hands.
“I trust you.” Our gazes locked. “Nothing proves that more than what I’m about to say.” If I couldn’t trust Amara now, who could I trust? I didn’t have time to assess exactly where her head was. I had to believe that she would protect my sister the same way I would.
She blinked, the greens in her eyes softening with concern. “You can tell me.”
“Katya and Enzo need our help. I have to get my little sister out of New Orleans. She wants to go to France and take over the vineyards. Run the champagne caves. But I’m not sure that’s the safest place for them.” I couldn’t let her be a part of Bratva trainings, but there were a lot of pieces that had to be carefully planned and orchestrated first.
“I must have missed the part where you told me why.” She stared at me.
I rubbed the back of my head. I knew there was going to be fallout over this. “She and Enzo are together. They have been for a while.”
The woman I loved tilted her head. “Together? But she’s a part of the Petrov family. And she’s pregnant. How can they be together?”
I cleared my throat. “I know. I was as surprised as you are. She doesn’t love her husband. She never has. If he finds out…if any of them find out that the baby is Enzo’s and not Andrey’s Enzo isn’t going to be there for that kid’s first birthday. We both know that. The Petrovs will have him removed.”
Amara sat back on her heels, tossing the remainder of her croissant on the plate. “This is crazy.”
I nodded. “It is.”
“What the hell were they thinking?” she blurted.
I shrugged. “To be honest, I didn’t ask for the specifics, because still my little sister.”
“Right. But holy shit, this is a nightmare.”
“I’m going to help them.” I gauged her for compassion or solidarity. Anything to let me know what she was thinking. “I don’t see how I can do that without you being implicated because of Enzo’s position in your organization.”
“The Petrovs won’t let Enzo leave here alive,” she whispered.
“Which is exactly why we need to help them.”
“Do you have any idea how many contracts I have with the Petrovs? This is going to be an all-out war if I betray their son.” She pinched her lips together. I knew she was already thinking about the long-term play. “Alliances are different since you left,” she explained. “They are more complicated and nuanced. I’ve tried to play by a different set of rules than our fathers created, but that doesn’t mean the old laws aren’t still around. They are ingrained in this city. Not even I can erase them. Add to that she is Russian and he is Italian. You know that is not accepted in the city.”
“We don’t have to change the laws to help Katya and Enzo.” Her implications were heavy and personal. We had suffered from the same biases against our families.
Amara huffed. “Easy for you to say. You were born into this. You were meant to be the Pakhan. I’ve had to work and claw my way into my position. Am I supposed to damage my reputation and my word by humiliating the Petrovs? That’s a big ask, Luka.”
“My sister deserves to be happy. My niece or nephew deserves to grow up outside of the Novikov or mafia organizations. Someone should get the chance to escape.” I gritted my teeth. Didn’t she see it? We could give them what we never had.
“It doesn’t work like that.” She shoved off the bed and strolled to the window. Her kimono robe was open. I admired the gentle curves of her silhouette, highlighted in the sun.
There was a landscape crew somewhere on the grounds. I heard the yard equipment working on storm cleanup. A chainsaw buzzed at a high frequency.
“Amara.” I walked toward her. My hands landed on her shoulders. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll get them out of the country. You need to know what’s going on. I’ll keep you out of it.” I rotated her body so that we were facing each other. My chest seized when I realized her eyes were misted with tears. “What’s wrong?”
She lowered her gaze. “No one helped us.”
I tipped her chin. “No. They sure as hell didn’t.” I brushed over her lips gently at first and then quickly the kiss turned rough and hungry. My hand moved under her robe. The collar fell to her shoulder. It was easy to get off track. To let her body distract me.
She sighed, breaking away for a breath. “I’m not going to let you do this alone.”
“Let me?” I chuckled. “It was a courtesy to let you in on my plans. Plus, no reason to make Enzo’s life more miserable by having you suspect he was a traitor.”
“There’s your ego again.” She pushed against my chest, making a move for the bed.
“It’s not ego, babe. It’s the truth.”
She spun. “The truth is you need me to give you my blessing.”
My brow furrowed. “Not so,” I lied. Having her against the plan would make it infinitely more difficult.
“One of us controls the shipping in and out of the city. The loans. The debt.”
“I still have influence in New Orleans,” I argued. “My name carries more weight. Tradition is still respected. Generations of Novikovs have held the power in this town.”
She sat casually on the bed, reclining as if she were Cleopatra into a pile of feather pillows. Was it possible she was as conniving? A rival to the legendary queen.
“Do you want my help, or do you want to one-up me at every turn?” she asked.
I walked to her side of the bed. One knee climbed on top, followed by the other. Her eyes widened as I leaned toward her, sliding the tray of food farther away. God, she was so damn hot. I wondered how I’d lasted this long without taking her back to bed.
“I want both,” I taunted.
She dragged her teeth across her bottom lip. “This is a gamble.”
I nodded. For a second I thought she was talking about us, not my sister’s rescue.
Hadn’t we always been a roll of the dice? We had all the potential in the world, but it was never realized because of what our fathers had done to us. They were gone. We were left to pick up the pieces of what was once an incredible love story. I didn’t know if it could be glued back together. Last night, I started to believe we were building something new. A different story. One where our only downfall would be each other.
“Are you in?” I asked.
“Are you?”
I laughed. “Is this how it’s going to go?” I pressed my forehead to hers. I could feel the beat of her heart accelerate. Her arms slid to my neck.
“I can’t give up what I fought for,” she whispered. “Even if it crosses paths with your ego.”
I grinned. “My ego is fully intact.” What she didn’t realize was that powerful confident Amara was even sexier than the girl I had known. I could only imagine what she had gone through to rise to the top. I had some idea of the deals she had made.
Together we would make a formidable team.
I nipped at her lush edible lips. Her eyes fired like smoldering emeralds.
“Aren’t you glad I told you to take the day off?” I teased.
She growled in response. “I—” Her expression turned vixen-like. “Why are you still talking?”
I laughed. “As opposed to?”
“I’d rather you keep your promise from earlier.”
“You’re going to have to remind me which promise that was. I’ve been promising a lot since I walked through that door.” My lips hovered along her collarbone. I saw the goosebumps break out across her flesh. I grinned.
She groaned. “Bastard.”
I laughed. “Can’t even say it, can you?”
She arched into me. The robe fell from her body. Her lips grazed across mine. “Luka…”
I felt the ache in my cock. The growing need to bury myself inside her. She tasted like strawberries and sweet French pastries.
“Hmm?” She rubbed her tits against my chest. Vixen was exactly what she was.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.
I growled, taking her mouth under mine. “Bossy,” I murmured.
Her lips parted with a quiet sigh as I threaded my fingers through hers. The entire day was ahead of us and I had every intention of keeping my promise to fuck her all over this room.