Chapter 38 Chiara
Chiara
Iwake with my face pressed against a slab of warm muscle. Angelo’s arms wrap around me so tight I can’t move, and with our legs entwined, it’s hard to tell where I end and he begins.
After months of enforced physical distance between us, my brain struggles to make sense of what I’m experiencing.
He’s hard, a thick, hot length caught between our bodies. Pulsing lightly against my abdomen. The space between my legs feels tender, but I can’t help wishing for a repeat of last night.
Or was it this morning? It’s hard to tell because Angelo has blackout blinds and I can’t see a clock.
My head aches, and my neck and cheek are sore, but surprisingly, I’m not hungover. At least not hungover to the extent I would have expected given how much wine I drank.
I need to use the bathroom, but when I try to extricate myself from Angelo’s grip, he grumbles and refuses to let me go.
“No.” Dear Lord, he sounds like a fractious toddler.
“I have to go pee.”
He sighs and relaxes his iron grip on me before rolling onto his back, still half asleep.
Just as I’m about to slide out of bed, the door bursts open. Kane storms in and slams to a halt. He looks first at me and then at Angelo. I yank the sheet up to cover my exposed breasts, which is stupid because Kane’s seen everything, and I refuse to feel ashamed for fucking my husband.
“Well,” he says with a faint smirk while crossing his arms. “This is unexpected.”
“Did you need something?” Angelo snaps. “If not, kindly fuck off.”
Kane’s expression dims. “As much as I hate to interrupt such a momentous occasion…” He seems almost pleased that I’m in bed with Angelo, clearly sex-rumpled, which is strange. “…I can’t get hold of Matteo.”
Angelo snaps into business mode. “Have you tried Fina?”
“Yes, but her phone is switched off.”
“Car tracker?”
“It’s in the underground garage, where we’d expect it to be.”
I listen without comment, but an undercurrent of anxiety simmers in my blood. Fina never turns her phone off. She once said she didn’t dare in case some awful news story broke and she wasn’t quick enough to get ahead of the news cycle.
“Call the hotel and check whether they arrived last night.”
“Already have, and they did.” There’s a muffled cough behind Kane, and he steps aside. Luka stares into the bedroom, eyes wide at the sight of me in his brother’s bed.
He’s wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. My gaze slides down his cut torso and lingers on his abs. Damn. Despite getting thoroughly dicked down last night slash this morning, I’m horny again.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I shake my head to knock away my lustful thoughts. Now is not the time. Fina might be in trouble.
It’s enough to clear the sex fog.
“Cupcake,” Luka chuckles. “Have you been a bad girl?”
“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” Angelo scowls. He throws the covers back, uncaring that he’s naked, and stalks to his dresser for some pants.
“My girl’s completed her harem without checking with me first.” Luka tuts. “How rude.”
“Harem?” Now Angelo seems confused as well as unamused.
“Sorry, reverse harem.”
My cheeks heat as Kane snorts. “Semantics. But we can discuss the new sleeping arrangements later. Fina and Matteo going incommunicado is concerning.”
“What?” Luka loses his jaunty smile real quick when he hears the news. “Did something happen last night?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” Kane mutters, his lips flattening into a straight line. “I’ll check the hotel’s security footage.”
Angelo nods. “I’ll be down shortly.”
Luka glances at me and opens his mouth to say something, but Angelo storms over and shoves him and Kane out of the bedroom. The door slams in their faces.
I look at him, deeply irritated by his attitude.
“Seriously?”
“They don’t need to see my wife naked.”
“For fuck’s sake. That ship sailed and sank weeks ago.” I can tell there’s going to be a significant adjustment period while Angelo acclimates to the new sharing arrangement. Assuming he ever does.
I hope for his sake he does, or whatever this is between us is dead in the water.
Kane’s hunched over a laptop when I walk into the kitchen, my damp hair tied back in a braid. While I don’t feel especially hungover, my stomach is in knots over Fina and Matteo.
It’s possible we’re all over-reacting. They could still be asleep. After all, it was a stressful evening yesterday, and Fina hasn’t heard the joyous news about Santini yet.
“Coffee?” Angelo watches me. There’s a distance between us that wasn’t there when I woke up. Is he annoyed about Kane and Luka interrupting us, or worried about Fina?
Even though I shouldn’t care, it bothers me.
“Yes, please.” His lips curve up at my guarded reply, but as I watch, he makes me a perfect cappuccino, dusted with cocoa, just the way I like it. “It’ll be okay,” he says as he hands me my steaming mug of heaven. “Nothing’s going to happen to Fina.”
I believe him. He flew to a different continent to save my ass, despite how toxic we were back then, so I know damned well he’d do anything to protect his precious sister.
The words “she’s pregnant” are on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t spit them out. Fina doesn’t want anyone to know yet. So I nod and shuffle back across the kitchen to where Luka sits with a faint smirk on his face.
I intended to sit next to him, but he snags an arm around my waist and pulls me onto his lap.
“Did you have a fun night, peaches?” he whispers in my ear. We both know he’s not referring to the dinner party at his father’s house.
My cheeks redden even more when Kane glances over and grins. He’s guessed what we’re talking about.
I have no clue why I’m acting all embarrassed. It’s not like me.
“I slept well, thanks for asking,” I say primly, channeling my inner lady. Luka snorts.
“I bet you did. Unlike me, who got stuck with a snoring dog.”
“My fur baby doesn’t snore!”
Coco sits at my feet, waiting for snacks. She’s grown very fond of crispy bacon, mostly because Luka insists on feeding her from his plate.
“Yeah, she does. Like her mommy.”
I huff in annoyance. I do not snore!
“I got something,” Kane says. We all look up. He doesn’t sound happy.
“I can’t believe my father tried to hurt you,” Luka mutters as Angelo peers over Kane’s shoulder. The two of them must have filled him in while I showered.
“I offered to poison him.” Luka’s eyebrows shoot up.
“With what?!”
“Viagra.” He snorts. “Crush a load of pills into his favorite liquor and boom, he’s dead from a heart attack.”
“Wow, I better not piss you off, cupcake. I might suffer a fatal accident.”
Angelo swears loudly as Kane slams his laptop shut.
“Get a team together. We’ll leave in five minutes.” Kane strides out of the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Nothing good from the sounds of it.
“Fina and Matteo checked in last night, but the cameras picked up two men entering the suite just after one a.m. Someone disabled the security alarm, but they weren’t aware of the separate camera feed Kane had installed last year, which isn’t connected to the main system.
” He grinds his teeth. “Thank fuck he did, or we’d have no clue what happened. ”
My heart leaps into my throat as I stare at both of them. “Are Fina and Matteo safe?”
“We don’t know, which is why we’re heading over now. I’ve asked the hotel manager to check the suite.” Angelo looks at his phone and swipes to accept a call.
Luka and I don’t say a word as Angelo listens, his face tense.
“I’ll be there ASAP.” He ends the call and pockets his phone.
“Matteo’s been shot and is being taken to Mercy Memorial now. He might not survive.” I bite back a sob at the thought of Fina losing the man she loves. Luka’s arm tightens around my waist as we both imagine the pain she must be feeling right now.
I couldn’t bear it if I lost him or Kane. Or Angelo.
“There’s no sign of Fina, but the cameras picked up the same two men pushing a laundry cart into the service elevator, so that must be how they got her out of the hotel without being seen.”
He crosses the kitchen in a few strides and cups my cheeks with his hands.
“We will find her, and when we discover who’s behind this, I’ll make them wish they’d never been born.” He drops a kiss on my mouth, not caring that Luka still holds me on his lap. “Stay here with Luka and I’ll let you know the minute we find something, okay?”
For once in my life, I don’t argue. Angelo needs to focus on finding Fina, which means he doesn’t need me to distract him.
“Be safe,” I tell him, my eyes glassy with unshed tears. I hate feeling so powerless, but there’s nothing I can do to help.
“Always,” he promises.