6. Luciano
Luciano
Her adrenaline is still pumping from shooting my gun as she willingly comes with me. Alessandro and our men follow.
It was irresponsible of me to let her do that, but fuck, it felt good. And having her in my arms, her soft body pressed against my dick, was the cherry on top.
Joshua Matthews may think he’s heard the last of me, but he has no idea that as soon as I’m alone and can make a phone call, I’m going to reach out to Cassian Black to dig up every bit of dirt on him that’s out there so I can destroy him.
I can’t keep from asking myself why, though. The guy is no one to me. He’s done me no wrong. Hell, it wasn’t him that vandalized my car; it was Fallon. So why do I feel this need to go after him? To hurt him like he did Fallon? She’s as much of a stranger to me as Joshua Matthews is.
Except when she looks up at me with those emerald-green eyes, I want to burn the whole fucking world down for her. Starting with every person who made her as angry and hurt as she so obviously is.
The elevator doors open on the ground level, and the five of us walk out toward the two Escalades we drove here. Angelo says nothing when he opens the back door for Fallon. As if she finally realizes what’s happening, she stops, pulling against my hold on her.
“Wait.” Her perfectly shaped eyebrows pinch, and she shakes her head. “I’ll give you my number, and we can work out a payment plan for your car. Or you can give it to the cops and turn me in.”
A bout of laughter rolls out of my chest as I look at Alessandro, who is also amused by her statement.
“Princess, we don’t deal with police in our family. And I don’t give a shit about my car. What I do care about is yours. You said it’s broken down somewhere. Take us to it.”
Her mouth opens and closes several times, her eyes studying my face like I’m an alien.
“I heard you screaming at Joshua about your car being on the side of a road. Take me to it.” I pin her with a stern look because it’s getting late and she should be in bed already.
Besides, I want to see what kind of vehicle her ex was letting her drive.
I have a feeling it’s a piece of shit, and that’s just going to drive my urge to ruin him.
I see something in her gaze, and I know she’s about to lie to me, which is going to piss me off.
“I already called a tow truck. It’s probably been picked up by now.”
Glaring at her, I take a step closer. Without a word, I grab her by the hips and lift her into the back seat.
As soon as she realizes what I’m doing, Fallon yelps and tries to fight me, pushing against my chest. The only thing it does is make my dick hard.
Everything about her seems to make me react.
Never in my life have I kidnapped a woman, but here I am, forcing her into a car without having a single fucking clue what I’m going to do with her.
When I lean in to buckle her seatbelt while she still resists, I pause, my face in front of hers. “Unless you want me to put you over my knee right here in this back seat, I suggest you stop. I’m not the type of man you want to challenge, princess.”
Honestly, she’s already gotten away with so much more than I’d ever allow anyone else.
Hell, even Lacey doesn’t push me too far.
And she knows I’d never hurt a hair on her head.
Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t punish her if it came down to it.
Now she has a husband to keep her from misbehaving, though.
Fallon doesn’t. And maybe that’s exactly what she needs.
Her gasp is loud, and she narrows her gaze at me, her pretty eyes sparkling with fire.
I’ve been pushing her all night. I know it, but fuck, she makes me feel.
She cocks her hand back, but I raise my eyebrows and reach out, grabbing her wrist before she can slap me for what I just said.
Blood rushes to my cock, and I smirk at her while she glares back at me.
My fingers tighten even more as I hold onto her arm and lean closer.
“You can slap me if you want, princess. If that makes you feel better, I’ll gladly be on the receiving end. Just know that I’ll only let you be a brat for so long before I really do spank your ass like a naughty little girl.”
She stares at me for a moment in shock, and finally I release her, her arm lowering to her side.
“Good girl.” I wink before getting in the back seat next to her and pulling the door closed. Angelo gets into the driver’s seat, Alessandro in the passenger seat, while our other guard takes the second SUV to follow.
“Did you seriously—”
“Threaten to spank your ass if you don’t behave? Twice? Yeah, princess. That’s how it works with me. You act naughty, I punish you, and sometimes that might mean me turning your ass bright red with my palm.”
Even in the dark, the streetlamps give me enough light to see her cheeks turn rosy as she glowers at me in silence.
“Where’s your car?” I ask.
She doesn’t say anything for a long moment while Angelo drives away from Joshua’s apartment building.
Police cars with sirens blaring drive toward it; I’m sure someone called because of the gunshots.
I just hope Joshua remembers our little agreement because if he says a single word to the cops, he’ll be signing his own death certificate.
Not that it would matter if he did. We have the law on our side.
“We can drive around all night if we need to.” I pull my phone from my pocket and check for any urgent notifications that need my attention. “But I’d rather get your car handled so you can go to bed.”
As if I said the magic word, her shoulders slump. Suddenly, I realize that, even though I’ve only just met Fallon, she’s exhausted. And it might not be physical. I have a feeling it is more emotional and mental than anything else. How long has she been pretending to be strong?
She finally answers me, her voice quiet as she gives me the street name.
“Good girl. Thank you.”
“I don’t need your help,” she says.
Leaning over, I put my mouth near her ear. “What you need is a Daddy to take care of you and make you feel safe, and also punish you when you act like a brat. But that’s a conversation for another day.”
She twists her head to look at me, but it puts us nose to nose with each other as I gaze into her eyes. Even in the dim light, I can see how blown her pupils are. She likes what I said. A lot.
Angelo drives in the direction of her car while Alessandro looks at emails on his phone. I’d prefer to be alone with Fallon right now so I can ask her all the questions swirling around in my mind, but that will have to wait until later.
It doesn’t take long before we pull up behind a crappy sedan parked on the side of the road. Even with only our headlights illuminating the car, I can tell it’s not safe. I’m not even sure it has airbags.
“This is your car?” I ask.
Fallon turns to glare at me. “Yes, and I don’t appreciate your judgmental tone. Not everyone can afford fancy things.”
The air is tense around the four of us. Thankfully, Angelo and Alessandro open their doors and step outside, closing us into the space for a brief moment alone.
Reaching out, I capture her chin, holding it tightly. “No one is judging you, princess. The only person I’m judging is that asshole you were dating. If you were my girl, I’d never let you drive around in a car that’s shittier than mine. You deserve better than that piece of shit.”
Something vulnerable passes across her features as she blinks several times, but she quickly masks it, lifting her chin in defiance.
“Yeah, well, I’m done with men altogether.
I was done before I met him. I knew better than to trust him.
He fucking fooled me, which will never happen again.
” She shakes her head, her hands balling into fists in her lap.
“Look, I don’t know why we’re here, or what you want with me, but I’m not going to play any more games with you.
Tell me what you want from me, and then let me go. ”
My shoulders tighten as irritation prickles throughout my body.
What I want from her is to trust me and recognize that I’m actually trying to help her, but I already know that isn’t going to happen.
She’s been burned badly by who knows how many men; the last thing she’ll do is accept that I’m not the same as the rest of them.
“I only want to make sure you’re safe,” I finally admit.
Because it’s the truth. I don’t know Fallon. Hell, I don’t even know her last name, but I do know that she is far more innocent than she lets on, and everything within me wants to protect her. To save her from this fucked-up world that has obviously hurt her terribly.
“I’m fine. I don’t need your help.” She crosses her arms over her chest and stares out the windshield as Alessandro, Angelo, and our other guard walk around her car, talking, clearly as unimpressed by it as I am.
“Who are you guys? Joshua nearly pissed his pants when your friend introduced you,” she asks tightly.
Amusement fills me because it never gets old when people know us by our names and we see the fear in their eyes.
“Tell you what,” I say as I hold out my phone to her, “give me your keys. I’m going to go see if we can figure out what’s wrong with your car. While I do that, you can search our names and come up with your own idea of who we are.”
She stares at the device in my hand for a long moment before she unzips her small purse and pulls out a set of keys, then hands them to me at the same time as she swipes my phone.
“Maybe I’ll just call the cops to report my kidnapping instead,” she sasses, her cute little nose stuck high in the air.
My face splits into a grin as I open the back door to let myself out. “Go ahead, baby girl. Let them know our names when you call so they know who to look for.”
When her mouth falls open, I slam the door closed and chuckle to myself.
“Tow truck is on the way to pick it up and take it to our mechanic,” Angelo informs me when I approach.
Nodding, I accept the unlit cigar Alessandro holds out for me, a cocky smile on his face.