Chapter 13
Luca
“I have something to show you.” Dante stood over the bed, his voice pitched just loud enough to rouse Nora and me.
He was already fully dressed in dark jeans and a white button-down shirt. Something needled at the back of my mind, and it took me a moment to process the disquieting feeling: vulnerability.
I was naked, in bed with my wife.
Dante had seen my body many times, but it felt different after the intense, fucked up things we’d shared last night. He was as coolly composed as ever, and I scrambled to catch up as I blinked the last lingering fog of sleep from my eyes.
Nora stirred, and I kissed her forehead while maintaining eye contact with Dante. Even though I’d shared her with him, she was still mine. The harsh slash of his mouth told me that he knew it too.
Good. Nora might’ve begged for peace between us, but she would never be his. No matter how many times he made her come or how loudly he made her scream his name.
Something sharp pierced my gut: jealousy tinged with shame.
I’d enjoyed every deviant moment of what we’d done together, even while the bastard was touching my wife.
But in the cold light of day, regret began to creep over me.
“Nora, why don’t you go check on Giana,” Dante said. It wasn’t really a question. “Luca and I need to have a discussion.”
Her brow pinched, and her lush lips pursed in a frown. “You can say whatever it is in front of me.”
He took her hand in his and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. I suppressed the nearly overwhelming urge to rip him away from her.
“I promise I’ll explain everything later, darling. I expect that this will be a tense meeting, and I don’t want to put you at risk, no matter how remote that possibility might be.”
Her small hand wrapped around his, tethering him to her. “If it’s dangerous, I don’t want you going. Either of you.”
“How dangerous it is will be up to Luca.”
“Just tell me what the fuck you’re planning,” I growled, irritated at his enigmatic demeanor.
He eyed me coldly. “Come with me, and you’ll find out. I want to control all the variables in this situation for as long as possible. I don’t intend to die today.”
“No one is dying,” Nora said firmly. “We discussed this already.”
Dante nodded, eyes shuttering to conceal all flickers of emotion. “I’ll come back to you. I promise.”
“Okay,” she agreed, placated. “I’ll go talk to Giana. Come and get me when you’re finished with your meeting. I want to know what’s going on.”
“Of course.” Dante was quick to give her what she wanted.
Whatever she desired.
My cheeks heated, and I shoved away the fresh memories of what I’d given her last night when she’d revealed her deepest, darkest desire. What I’d sacrificed for her.
And I would do it all again. Anything for Nora.
Even allowing her to fuck my worst enemy.
He’d come to us offering himself up for torment, but somehow, I was the one who’d been tested yet again. And by Nora’s will this time, not his.
An ugly emotion that felt too much like resentment tightened my chest. I took a quick breath to clear it away.
I could never resent my wife. Not after everything she’d been through.
She’d suffered horrific abuse because I’d failed to protect her so many times.
I would do whatever I could to begin to atone for that.
If absolution was even possible after the magnitude of my failures.
I pressed a swift kiss to her lips before getting out of bed, ignoring the chill that frosted my skin in the absence of her gentle heat. In a matter of minutes, I was composed enough to accompany Dante to his mysterious meeting.
He lingered a few moments longer with Nora, promising her that she was safe in his home, even if he wasn’t by her side.
Their home.
I ground my teeth. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong with him.
I kept my anger locked inside my chest, trapping spiteful words that might upset her.
We would have to talk more later about this messed up situation with Dante.
I didn’t know what to think about her plea to be with both of us, but I didn’t dare to contemplate it too long.
I’d drive myself mad if I allowed my budding fears to overtake my rational thoughts.
Later. We would talk everything out as soon as I was able to return to her.
So, I followed Dante down to his study, on edge and pissed off.
Then the door swung open, and my rage flared into an inferno.
Gabriele and Lorenzo waited in the center of the room, their expressions of loathing identical when their dark eyes fixed on Dante. Two other men I vaguely recognized kept them under guard, guns drawn to keep them in line.
I rounded on Dante. “Fucking liar. You promised Nora that your vendetta was over; she said that I would be free. But you’re still keeping my friends as your hostages to control me. Let them go, you sadistic bastard.”
His mouth twisted with distaste. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.
I just need to make sure that they’re not going to go feral and tear this place apart as soon as they’re free.
Nora needs us to be united if we’re going to end the threats against her.
That means we need every man we can get.
I won’t have our people at each other’s throats. ”
I eyed him warily, every engrained instinct screaming at me that he was a master manipulator.
He sighed and waved for his guards to stand down.
“Wait!” I bellowed at my friends just before they sprang into action.
They froze, muscles flexing with unspent violence after weeks of helpless captivity.
“Wait,” I repeated, more calmly this time. “Let me think.”
Disbelief punched me. Was Dante truly setting us all free?
Nora seemed to believe his promises, but I was far more skeptical.
“What is there to think about?” Dante asked tersely. “Nora ensured your freedom, and here it is. Your friends are no longer my captives. I hold no sway over you. You could kill me right now if you wanted to. At least, you could try.”
My fists clenched at my sides with the barely leashed need to attack him. I craved to punish the motherfucker who’d caused me so much pain, the monster who’d used my innocent wife to torment me.
But he was right: we needed every man we could muster to root out Giuseppe and then take on the Bratva. For Nora’s sake, I could spare Dante. For now.
I addressed Gabriele and Lorenzo. “Are you hurt?”
“No lasting damage,” Gabriele bit out.
I glowered at Dante. “You told me that they wouldn’t be tortured if I cooperated. I never gave you cause to hurt them.”
He shrugged. “And I kept my word. I roughed them up a little bit on the first day to make sure you understood the stakes. After that, they’ve been well cared for.”
Lorenzo snorted derisively. “You locked us in a cell for…fuck knows how long. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you for that.”
“You can’t,” I cut over him before he could lose his temper. “It would put Nora at risk. I need him alive so that his men will work with me to protect her.”
Gabriele’s heavy brows drew together, and his pursed lips all but disappeared beneath his unruly black beard, which had grown thicker in captivity. “He kidnapped your wife, and now you’re willing to work with him? We all risked our lives to rescue her from him. Lorenzo was fucking shot.”
Guilt nipped at me, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to ally with my enemy to save the woman I loved.
“We can discuss killing him after Nora is secure. Sit down. I’ll explain everything.”
My friends stared at me with twin expressions of disbelief tinged with betrayal, but they obeyed. I would find a way to make this right with them. Somehow.
“So, what was the meeting about?” Nora asked as I led her back into the privacy of the bedroom.
She’d talked with Giana while I was downstairs, and she seemed lighter now that she knew her sister truly was safe.
Dante was still meeting with his own people to strategize how to find Giuseppe. That left me to be the one to explain the situation to Nora.
“Dante released Gabriele and Lorenzo,” I admitted as she sat on the edge of the bed beside me. “He doesn’t have any hold over me anymore.”
She nodded. “He always keeps his promises. I knew he’d prove himself to you and set you all free. He wants to make things right with you.”
“That’s not possible,” I said stiffly.
She grasped both of my hands in hers, offering me a gentle squeeze to cool my mounting anger.
“He came to you last night and was willing to let you take out your revenge on him in the worst way,” she said quietly. “I won’t ask you to forgive him—only you can make that choice—but I’m begging you to spare him from your retribution.”
I tugged my hands free from her gentle grip, the ugly feeling of resentment tightening my chest once again.
“And I did spare him, didn’t I? I honored your wishes, and somehow, I ended up being the one who was tormented again. He touched you, Nora. And you welcomed it. You asked me to share you with him after everything he’s done to me. To you.”
Her eyes began to shine. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. And it wasn’t meant to be a betrayal. I love you, but I can’t bear to cause Dante any more pain.”
I flexed my fists to stave off some of my rage. “There’s a difference between not causing him pain and begging him to fuck you.”
A tear spilled down her cheek. “Do you hate me now?” she whispered tremulously. “I know I asked a lot of you, but you could’ve refused. I thought you enjoyed it too. If I’d thought you were unwilling, I wouldn’t have continued. I’ll never violate you like that. I… I’m sorry, Luca.”
Something cracked inside my chest, and my arms were around her before I could think, soothing her.
“I don’t hate you,” I swore. “I could never hate you. But I’m afraid…
” I took a breath and forced the truth out into the open.
“I’m afraid that you’ll come to love him, too, and I don’t know if I’m capable of sharing your heart.
Not with anyone, but especially not with him. ”
She buried her face in my chest, and her tears wet my shirt. “I do care about Dante, but I love you, Luca. Nothing will change that.”
Selfish bastard. Dante’s accusation rang through my mind.
He’d claimed that I didn’t deserve Nora because I always put my own desires first. I was trying to be worthy of her, but my possessiveness and jealousy were impossible to deny.
I knew I owed it to her to give her what she needed.
I’d kidnapped her and forced her to marry me.
I’d taken her virginity on our wedding night to sate my own desires.
And I’d only wanted her happiness because that would make my life more pleasant.
That was all before I’d fallen in love with her, but I’d treated her inexcusably.
I’d been so focused on securing my birthright that I’d used her as a pawn without any concern for her feelings, her autonomy.
Was I much better than Dante when it came to our sins against her?
By some miracle, this strong, compassionate woman had found it in her heart to forgive both of us. To care for both of us.
Her promise of love would have to be enough to sustain me. If she had feelings for Dante, I’d have to find a way to live with it.
And a traitorous, quiet voice snaked through my mind, telling me that I’d secretly enjoyed every deviant moment of the fucked-up sex we’d shared last night.
I might hate watching Dante touch my wife, but her reactions to his crueler forms of seduction got me hot.
She’d surrendered so beautifully, so completely.
She was stunning in her agonized, ecstatic submission.
I didn’t know if I could bear to share her heart, but I could try sharing her body, if that was what she wanted.
She’d been so broken after the Russians had brutalized her.
Despite my resentment, I couldn’t deny that Dante had known how to put her back together again.
If she needed him on some level, I wouldn’t allow my selfishness to cause her one more ounce of suffering.
I still loathed Dante, but for Nora, I would try to suppress my most murderous impulses.