Chapter 24
Matteo
“He took out the goddamn doorman and guard!” I bark as Dominick does a hundred down the back streets of South Harbor Point, trying to get to my condo as fast as possible. “When I get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him. And so help me, if he fucking touches Dani …”
The moment the alarm sounded on my phone, I knew Dani was in trouble. The alarm is only to be sounded if something happens to one of my guys and they need immediate help.
As soon as I saw it was George, the guard watching over Dani, I texted my men in our group chat to let them know they needed to get to her as soon as possible.
“We’ll get her back,” Dominick says, focusing on the road as he weaves in and out of traffic.
It’s six o’clock, so traffic is a bitch, but we know the roads like the back of our hand.
My phone pings with a text, and I put it on speaker and click play so Dominick can hear it as well.
Ian: Whoever it was, he took her out the back elevator and shot Finn. He’s in a silver four-door Mercedes sedan, heading south on US 1. Kaleb is taking Finn to the doc, and Scotty and I are following the Mercedes in separate cars in case we need to enclose him in.
“Fuck!” I punch Dominick’s dashboard. “I can’t fucking believe this. I should’ve been there.”
“It has to be Enrique,” Dominick says calmly as I pin Ian’s location and put it on his screen so he knows which way to go.
“It doesn’t matter who the fuck it is. I told Lorenzo she was safe with me.”
My phone rings, and I answer it since it’s Eddy. I called him a few minutes ago, asking him to pull the cameras.
“It’s Enrique,” he confirms. “He’s been watching for days. My guess is to learn your routine. Apparently, Daniella has ordered food from the same place the past four days, and when she ordered it tonight, he took out the delivery guy and used it as his in. I’m not sure where he’s heading.”
“Ian and Scotty are on his tail,” I tell him. “Thanks.”
I hang up just as Dominick turns the corner, taking a shortcut that puts us only a quarter mile away from Ian’s location.
Within a minute, he catches up, and a few seconds later, we pull up alongside the silver Mercedes.
With Ian coming up on his rear, Dominick cuts sharp, forcing Enrique to come to a stop.
His car smashes into the side of Dominick’s, but with Ian blocking him in from behind and only a guardrail to his right, he has nowhere to go.
Dominick rushes out, and I fly over the center console so I can get out on his side since mine is occupied by Enrique’s front end.
I thought about how it would go down when we finally found this asshole.
I planned to torture him, make him pay for everything he had done to Dani.
But as he gets out of the car, dragging her out with him, with a gun to her head and a devilish smirk splayed across his face, the only thought that crosses my mind as I raise my gun and shoot him between the eyes is that I can’t live without her.
A single bullet silently goes through his head, and he drops to the ground.
Dani is safe.
He can never hurt her again.
Dani glances at him for a second—I’m sure she’s stunned at how fast I killed him—and then she looks at me, and her entire body sags in relief.
“Matteo,” she breathes and then runs toward me.
She’s barefoot, dressed in a tank top and cotton shorts, and I imagine she was waiting for her food to arrive when he got to her.
I slide my gun into the back of my pants just as she jumps into my arms, wrapping hers around my neck and her legs around my waist.
And then her mouth crashes against mine.
Nipping, licking, sucking.
Her mouth molds perfectly against mine.
Our tongues stroke one another like they were made for each other.
I should stay and wait for cleanup to come. Dominick needs a new fucking car.
But the moment another one of my guys shows up, I look at my brother, and he nods, silently letting me know that I’m good to leave with Dani. Eddy will wipe the cameras, and they’ll make sure there were no witnesses.
“Scotty,” I call out. “Can I borrow your car?”
He nods and throws me his keys. “Dominick and I can get a ride with Ian.”
“Thanks.”
Neither Daniella nor I say a word during the short drive home. And once we’re back in the condo, we let our bodies do the talking.
Laying her out on the bed, I remove her clothes until she’s completely bare for me. Her hair is up in a messy ponytail, her face free of makeup, and when she smiles up at me, she’s never looked more gorgeous.
I start with her lips, licking along the seam, and then I deepen the kiss, needing more of her. Growing up, I never did drugs. I saw the way addiction affected people. They would stop at nothing to chase the high that drugs gave them.
But now, I get it because as I kiss Dani, the high it gives me is addictive, and I know with every fiber of my being, I am addicted to this woman and would do anything to keep her for the rest of my life.
“Matteo,” she murmurs into my mouth, “I want this, but …”
I stop when she says the last word. As much as I want her, need her, desire her, her feelings come first.
“But …” I prompt.
“I don’t want what happened last time to happen again,” she admits softly. “I want you, I want to be with you, but I don’t know if I can handle you leaving again.”
Fuck, this woman …
She deserves so much more than I’m capable of giving her, but that isn’t going to stop me from trying to give her everything.
“I should regret being with you,” I admit, rolling onto my side and pulling her with me.
“But I can’t.” I press my lips to hers for a brief kiss.
“I knew I had fallen for you long before we had sex. And then I went to the club with your brother for my birthday, and when he mentioned finding women to hook up with, I didn’t even entertain the thought, not wanting anyone but you. ”
She blinks up at me, and I run my knuckles down her soft cheek.
Jesus, she’s breathtaking.
“This past week, I’ve tried to stay away, but every night when I get home, I spend hours watching you sleep, not wanting to admit what I already know …”
“What do you know?” she whispers.
“That, despite trying like hell not to, I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Her eyes widen, and I should probably be scared shitless that I just admitted to being in love with her. I’ve never said those words to anyone. But, if anything, finally being able to admit it out loud is liberating.
“You love me?” she breathes. “Are you only saying that because Enrique almost killed me?”
“No.” I brush a few strands of hair behind her ear and palm the side of her face.
“When the alarm alerted me that you were in danger, I was sitting in the car with my brother, talking to him about you. I was already planning to come home and tell you.” I sigh.
“There isn’t much I’m afraid of, Sweetness, but loving you terrifies the shit out of me. ”
“What? Why?” She shakes her head. “Loving someone should be beautiful, not scary.”
“Because of that right there.” I run the tip of my finger down her forehead, over her nose, and stop at her plump lips. “You see the beauty and good in everything, and you should. It’s why your father kept you away. But I’ve seen the consequences of loving someone.”
My sister losing her boyfriend and being forced to have an abortion.
My mother being beat down emotionally and physically by Andrey.
Dominick’s son almost being taken twice.
Even Dani’s parents’ deaths are the consequences of Enrique’s love for his parents turning deadly.
“What happened today could easily happen again,” I tell her. “Only with a different outcome. He could’ve killed you the moment he got into the condo, and I would’ve lost you.”
My heart clenches beneath my rib cage at the thought of Dani leaving this world before me, and I pull her into my arms, needing to nuzzle my face into her neck and inhale her sweet scent.
“You should run,” I whisper. “Run fast and far away from here.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she says, pulling back and looking me in the eyes.
“I’d rather risk the consequences and spend whatever time I have loving you than being without you.
” She slides her leg across my torso and straddles my stomach.
“You can’t protect me from everything,” she says, framing my face with her hands. “All you can do is love me.”
She grabs the hem of my shirt, and I help her pull it free. Then, she inches down my body, kissing my skin along the way, until she’s parallel with my crotch. She unbuttons and unzips my pants and pulls them, along with my boxer-briefs, down, exposing my hard shaft.
I lean on my elbows, my blue eyes meeting her green.
“I love you, Matteo,” she says, “and I’m not going anywhere.”
She wraps her fingers around the base of my cock, and then she takes me all the way down her throat. She sucks and slurps and chokes on my cock until her eyes water and I’m close to blowing my load.
But this isn’t how I want to come. I want to be inside Dani, kissing her, touching her, feeling her pussy wrapped around my dick, milking the cum out of me.
So, when she stops to catch her breath, I pull her up and guide her over my cock. We both groan as she takes me inside her, inch by inch, until I fill her completely.
“I never knew it could be like this,” she murmurs against my mouth. “This connection. The desire. I can’t get enough.”
“It’s you,” I tell her, gripping her waist so I can fuck her from the bottom. “Your sweetness is addictive.”
She rests her hands on my shoulders and looks at me with so much emotion. It’s as if she can see into my soul.
“No.” She shakes her head. “It’s not me … it’s us.”
Us.
Dani and me.