CHAPTER TEN
BELLA
Falcon left his wallet in his jacket. The second one I stole—by accident. By the time I realized, I was back home and he had returned to his boat. I sent through a few messages, but he didn’t answer. I remembered he said he had work to do, and I knew he’d be busy but I figured he might need the wallet, so I walked back down the hill after checking my own father was still asleep—snoring after last night’s bender, thankfully.
The sun had risen high by the time I reached the jetty, and my body hurt kind of all over just as I had confessed to Falcon earlier. Still, I walked slowly along the jetty, marking out the smaller yacht that still looked big to me that we had taken out the week before. A man with sandy blond hair worked in it. I gave him a wave as he passed and he murmured a quiet good morning that I returned.
The closer I got to Falcon's boat, the more misgivings I had. He’d said he would message me when he was done, and I hadn’t heard back yet. I was on the cusp of turning around and heading back home when a feminine voice hailed me from the level above the water line. I looked up—right up a very short dress that appeared to cover a bikini that wasn’t really doing its job.
“Hi,” the blond girl called out, waving enthusiastically. “Are you Falcon’s girlfriend?”
“Uh–” Was I? We hadn’t really talked about it. “I just came to return some of his things.” I held up the jacket and the concealed wallet. “I figured he might need them today. Is he about?”
“Oh, he’s here somewhere.” She gestured to the boat that, at a glance in the daylight, looked as big as a house moored at the end of the long jetty.
“Okay…”
“Come on.” She clattered down a set of stairs in heels. I winced, thinking of the other young man and his well loved boat. “I’ll show you around.”
“Uh—” I had the vocal strength of a sea cucumber today. “Sure, just for a sec.”
Long enough to find his room, deliver his things, and walk out again.
“This way!” The girl in the sparkly dress that looked like it was better suited to last night’s cocktail party led me down a set of stairs to a living area that looked like it hosted last night’s cocktail party, and more.
You know who he is. You know what he does.
But seeing the evidence of baggies of drugs laid out around me was a bit more than I expected to handle straight up this morning. Apparently, I had more than one cherry popped in the last twenty-four hours. The girl didn’t seem to notice, though as she led me through to the other side of the room. “You take too long.” She pouted.
I mean, maybe that worked on guys? Not that I’d have a clue. I looked around. “I can just leave this here, and?—”
“Oh, the cleaners will be in soon. Don’t leave anything that might be lost.” She giggled.
I frowned. “That’s one hell of a stereotype.”
Her giggles stopped. “What a way to announce you’re a bitch.”
O-kay. “Which way is the Falcon's room, please?”
“I’m sure you can find it.” She flounced off through another side door that slammed and locked—audibly—with a sharp click.
I was left standing alone in the trashed living area.
Turning in circles, I found a corridor at the other end of the room that led back the way I came just underneath it instead. Doors lined either side of the short corridor—I was sure that had another name on a boat—but none were open. I reached the second one and knocked before my nerve failed me.
“Falcon?”
Nothing. That one was locked. I tried the next, then one on the other side. It opened. I pushed it gently, poking my head inside. “Falcon?—”
His head came up from where he stood unbuttoning his shirt on the other side of the bed. If he hadn’t been wearing the same shirt and pants as the night we spent together, I might not have recognized him. Or the clothing.
Red that wasn’t paint splattered his shirt, reaching up to stain his cheek. His hair was wild and bruising covered his jaw. Along with what might have been dirt. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and those were covered in blood too.
Because we all knew he wasn’t cosplaying.
I took a step back, but his eyes locked on me.
“Bella?” His voice rasped like gravel.
“I—”
I managed another half a step, trying to close the door that stubbornly refused to budge before it was pulled open abruptly from the inside. His hand closed around my wrist as he yanked me into his room and slammed the door shut, locking me in with him.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I stared up at him for so long that my mouth figured out I hadn’t answered him, but all my mind registered was the horror before me.
You do know what I do?
He’d been right to check in with me. Knowing and seeing were different things. The way he wore someone else’s blood so casually terrified me, but worse than that I was…
Curious.
And that scared me even more.
What was wrong with me that I wanted to know about his life of his? I shouldn't. No normal person wanted this. And yet as he caged me in against the door with his body, his bloodied shirt hanging half open as he leaned over me, my heart raced for all the wrong reasons.
“Answer me, Bella,” he softened his voice sweetly for me, and I wanted to cry.
“Don’t do that,” I whispered. “Don’t apologize for who you are when this is who you are.”
“You’re terrified of me.” His voice flattened out. “I can see it in your face.”
I ignored that statement. We could work on reality later. “I came to return this.” I proffered the lost jacket. “It has your wallet inside. I thought you might need it today.”
He studied me and made no move to take the jacket, the only thing that made a barrier between us. His arms flexed over my head and I realized just how much muscle the man arched over me possessed.
“Who let you in?” he said finally.
“A girl. I don’t know her name. Sparkly dress. Skimpy bikini. She had a bit of a temper tantrum when I called her out about being rude about the help.”
He smirked. “Olivia. She can be like that. And she won’t be here much longer.” He raised an eyebrow significantly.
My gaze trailed down to his chest and the mess there. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh . She pissed off my father. So did her boyfriend.”
“Does she know?”
This is a really weird conversation. We are talking about him killing someone. Someone I just met. I think we are. Wait. Why am I okay with this?
Falcon watched me. “She’s about to. Security should have stopped you before you got this far.” A scream erupted at the other end of the boat. He sighed. “If I ask you to stay here, and not leave the room, will you do that? Can I trust you to stay here?”
I swallowed hard. “What happens if I leave?”
“You see things I don’t want you to see.” His gaze met mine and held. Unforgiving. Unyielding. “I don’t want my father to ask questions I can't answer later. Not about you.” He dropped a hand toward my face then pulled back and sighed. “I’m filthy. Let me get this done and I’ll be back in a minute. Alright?” He watched me closely.
“Do I look like I’m about to run?”
“No.” He turned us around and planted me on his oversized bed. “That’s what worries me.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, but he was already out the door that—naturally—closed for him.
My heart ached at the absence of him, but maybe that was why I stayed. Because he’d been so sweet and I saw that side of him. Because I knew who he was and what he did from that first night, though seeing it was slightly different. I couldn’t kid myself any longer. But the way he treated me spoke more about who Falcon Gianio was inside than anything he did here. No, I didn't understand his world, but I could learn it.
What I did know was that this man took his time with me, the same man who never rushed me or made me feel small or lesser than him. Who ached inside like I did. Who I had fallen head over heels for when I had no right to the night he held me in his arms and promised he’d never leave me alone.
I perched on the edge of the bed, then when he didn’t come back after a while, I curled in the middle of the oversized mattress that smelled like him, and closed my eyes.
I had no idea how long I slept, only that I was exhausted beyond my limits and hadn’t stopped to think about that until I finally got the chance to just sleep.
On a mafia boat in Love Beach. Not the safest place, maybe, but Falcon promised I'd be alright, and that was enough for me.
Yes, ours was a strange relationship. But he seemed to understand things about me that I barely knew about myself.
The mattress sank under his weight as he slid in beside me, wrapping me up in his arms. “You didn’t leave.”
I yawned. “You told me not to.”
He frowned as he looked at me. “I don’t understand why you aren’t screaming or running.”
I smiled and touched his cheek. “You look better without all the blood.”
“You remember that, huh?”
“You were ages. I fell asleep.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I think there’s lots of things you need to tell me about if I stay with you, but I don’t know what to ask.”
He huffed his agreement. “That’s a rabbit hole no one wants to fall down.” He paused. “Your father came looking for you.”
“Dad?” I jerked upright. “Oh, my God. I left him alone. Again. I’m a terrible daughter. Was he okay?”
Falcon did laugh this time. “No. He’s far from okay, actually, but he and my father had a talk and I think we came up with a few solutions to your…problems. One is that they both understand grief, even if they deal with it in different ways. My father, who isn’t a fan of telling anyone anything at all, suggested counseling.”
I stared. “We have tried all this.”
Falcon smirked. “It’s a bit different when the Don of the mafia tells you to do something. I believe we also acquired your family business.” He held up a hand when I opened my mouth with a plethora of objections at the ready. “In part. It’s been gifted to me, for now. The rest is yours.”
My lips twitched as I bit back my thoughts for now. “Do I want to hear the rest?”
“Brat,” he muttered, kissing my temple. “There were debts. The house, not the one here. You own that outright, I believe. But the one where your father lives year round, and your school fees. The business buyout allowed for enough cash flow to cover those debts, and get the bank off your father’s back. It’s why he came here in the first place.” Falcon groaned as he stretched, and I knew that wasn't all of it.
“Go on, tell me the rest,” I sighed. “I should have known more about it all.”
His knuckles grazed my jawline as he pulled me back to rest against him. “You should have been able to rely on your father to look after you, not the other way around, Bella,” he said quietly. “What I've spent the last few hours negotiating should make that easier on you both. I hope. My father is a hard man when there is something he wants on the table.”
I closed my eyes. “What did he want?”
“You.”
“Huh?”
“That’s what your father came here to offer the night we met. Obliquely,” Falcon added. “He offered the business for sale and parked you right in my path, hoping I’d see you and want you. Packaged you up all nice and pretty, like bait.” He grimaced. “I remember thinking the same damn thing that night. I should have made the connection.”
“I—” I stared at him. “I’m so sorry. That’s so far from okay. I am—” A sickness roiled in my stomach. “Falcon, I am so sorry. I’ll leave. That’s— he manipulated you. Hell, that means I did too. I won’t— we can’t?—”
“Whoa, girl.” He caught me as I scrambled off the bed, swinging us around until we knotted together in Falcon-Bella pretzel. “Don’t you run off on me. I just spent hours explaining to my father that you’re my Untouchable. Don’t–”
“That I’m a what ?” A choked sort of giggle exploded from me as he broke through my panicked haze. “Sorry, but that sounds like a terrible type of gangster movie.”
He smiled ruefully. “It was one, and it was cool. I’ll show you sometime. I trust you. It—that scared me at first, I’ll admit. But you’re different. If you want me to let you go, walk away, I'll do it. But I don’t want to.” His expression cleared when I shook my head as he rearranged me on his lap, swinging my legs over his until I straddled him, staring him in the face. His body tensed beneath mine as he cupped my nape, his fingers massaging the muscle there. “Being Untouchable means I told my father I want you—no one else. I can’t claim anyone else, Bella. I get one chance at this, and I’m claiming you. I won’t let anyone hurt or touch you, especially not him.” His lip curled as he dragged me closer.
Suddenly I was all too aware of my dress hiked around my thighs, the press of him as he gripped one of my hips and squeezed.
A soft, strangled sound made it out of my throat. “I don’t understand.”
He laughed, leaning in to press his forehead to mine. “I don’t half understand why I'm doing this, either. But you’re mine, Bella. In all the ways that count in my world. What probably should have been a fling just turned into something a whole lot more.”
I frowned. “Is this the equivalent of proposing to me?” A huff left me. “We just met.”
He studied me for a moment. “If you like.”
My mouth fell open. “I— you can’t do that. Falcon. I don't have to Google you to know you’re wealthy as hell, especially if you just bought half of my father’s business.”
“I can, actually, but if you don’t want me, my offer remains. It always will. My protection stands in this world, even if we aren’t together. And I did buy it. Your father’s business. All of it. I just reallocated shares so you got the majority instead of my father.”
“Oh.” my head processed that for a while and couldn’t find a flaw in his logic, though I’d check everything over later. “Uh, thanks… This is overwhelming and I need time to understand it. Plus, a lawyer. My own.”
“Agreed. We can do that back home.”
“Home?” I stared into his dark eyes, lost yet again.
“I’m taking you back to Rippton with me. Not a word on that,” he warned. “I have a crazy roommate with an even crazier fuck buddy he pines about. How much more imperfect can the world be?”
I shrugged. “Sounds perfect to me. Just find a lawyer we can both talk to—together—so I can understand everything you’ve just done, the contracts, and what the future looks like.”
“What?” Falcon stared at me.
I leaned in, brushing my lips to the corner of his mouth. “That’s usually my line,” I whispered.
He swallowed. “You’re coming back to Rippton with me?”
“Is that the only part you heard, Mister Mafia Prince?”
“After everything else I figured you’d fight that part.”
“I want to be wherever you are,” I said simply. “Especially if my father is safe and has made a weird little friend.”
Falcon laughed hard and loud. “Oh fuck, Bella. I have never heard anyone describe the Don as a ‘weird little friend’ before. He’s going to fucking love you.”
“Does it matter?” I searched his eyes. “It can be terrifying, I’m sure.”
He leaned down and brushed his lips across mine. “Can I?”
I nodded, letting my eyes fall shut as he kissed me long and slow. His hands slid into my hair, massaging gently as I sighed. At some point, we ended up stretched out on top of his bed covers, making out like teens. I had no idea how long that lasted but my lips tingled when he removed my dress—again—and sank deep inside me, giving me time to get used to the feel of him, going slow for my aching, sore body.
And when I cried out his name he drove his hips harder, faster until the world blurred and only he remained.
The mafia prince I fell for one spring break.