Chapter 22
LUCA
I can’t get more than a few feet from Sophia before she starts to whine, so I stick close to her, ordering Diego to bring some burgers and fries for us. I can’t leave her long enough to make her eat. She’s scared, and with good reason.
I was followed tonight, and she was attacked. It wasn’t a Jeep that pulled out of here, but I know they’re connected. But who? Who knows enough to know that Sophia is important to me?
Only Diego, and I know he wouldn’t rat. Especially not to anyone who was loyal to Nico. So again, the only two people I trust are Diego and Arturo. Alfonso is too stupid to pull anything like this off, so that leaves Johnny.
Sophia stays in my lap, latched onto me, and my chest aches when she whimpers as I shift her.
“Not going anywhere, pixie. Just adjusting.”
She snuggles deeper, and I just hold her, humming sweet nothings against her ear.
By the time she dozes off, Diego has pulled up. I lie her gently next to me on the couch. She doesn’t stir.
“I had to call Joey Stacks, offer him ten large to watch the shipment,” Diego says as he walks in.
I groan and grit my teeth. “Great, I love owing that loan shark money.
Diego shrugs. “At least he doesn’t rat as long as he gets paid. More than I can say for some of your men.”
I give Diego a glare but he doesn’t react. He knows I’m over a barrel here.
“I can’t trust my own men anymore,” I mutter, and Diego nods.
“I’ve been telling you that more and more of them are loyal to Nico.”
“Being loyal to Nico is being loyal to me.”
“Not with the way things are going.” Diego pauses, hesitating.
“Spit it out.”
“Nico is making you look like a bitch,” he says plainly, and I blink at his bluntness but he has a point.
“And what am I supposed to do about it? I’ve tried showing him consequences…”
“After years of getting whatever he wants? It’s too little, too late, Caputo.”
“Are you trying to say my brother is a lost cause?”
“If the shoe fits.”
I stand up, puffing out my chest, but Diego doesn’t back down, just looking up at me since I’m slightly taller than him. And the thing is he’s right. Nico has gotten away with murder for far too long.
And it’s not like my father is going to discipline him at this age.
“I need to find out who’s loyal to me other than you and Arturo.”
Diego sticks out his fingers as he names people. “Joey Stacks is loyal to money, so you can win him over. Alfonso and Johnny are firmly in Nico’s camp. Then you’ve got the floaters…”
“Can’t trust any of them,” I mumble. My men have dwindled these last five years, given my takeover of my father’s empire. Most of the help we get is from men loyal to Oscar Cortado, since we’re allies. But I can’t ever fully trust men loyal to an entire different family.
The only two men I can trust are Diego and Arturo. How has it come to this?
“I can call some of my old guys,” Diego offers.
I nod. “Do it. Anyone you trust, I trust.”
“There’s maybe four I could scare up.”
“Send two of them to the shipment to relieve Joey. Send the rest here. We need better security here.”
Diego glances at the busted open bedroom door.
“Someone came here to take her?” His voice raises in volume, incredulous.
I nod. “I don’t know who. She said they were masked. Driving a muscle car.”
Diego whistles. “Sounds like some of Nico’s guys.”
I frown. “But Nico doesn’t know I use this place as a safehouse.”
“Alfonso does. So I bet Nico knows.”
I curse under my breath. “So you think it’s Nico? You think he’s making a play for the empire?”
“I don’t know if he wants the empire, but he’s certainly trying to throw you off your guard. And it’s working, isn’t it?”
I roll my shoulders since they feel stiff.
“I guess it is. I don’t want her hurt.”
Diego glances at Sophia, who is snoring softly, curled up on the couch.
“Caputo?” he says, and I turn to look at him. “What is she to you?”
“I don’t know,” I say, as honestly as I can. “Now, let’s fix this door.”
We work for an hour, replacing the door with one from the shop outside. It fits perfectly, and it has a deadbolt on the outside, too. By the time we’re finished we’re both sweating, but it works and the room is safe again.
I scoop Sophia up bridal style and she doesn’t even wake to put her arms around me, so I cuddle her against my chest, carrying her into the room and placing her on the bed gently.
Diego watches me as I try to extricate myself.
“Luca, don’t go,” she whispers, clutching onto my arm, and I look down at her.
“I’ll be right back,” I say quietly, but she won’t let go, her blue eyes wide as she looks up at me.
Diego gives me a small smirk and I want to hit him for it, but then he closes the door, locking the deadbolt, and Sophia relaxes slightly.
“You said you wouldn’t go.”
“I won’t, pixie,” I soothe her, rubbing a hand over her hair. She leans into the touch, putting her arms around my waist.
“I feel so scared, all the time.”
Her voice is slightly higher than a whisper; I can barely hear her.
“I told you I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“I believe you. But someone else is after me, and they’re going to use me for god knows what,” she babbles, nuzzling against my stomach.
I draw in a sharp breath, her hands on me making my blood heat.
“Don’t touch me like that, pixie.”
“Why not?” she asks, almost desperate. “I just want you close.”
“I’m here. I’m close. But if you keep—”
She slides a hand under the waistband of my slacks and my breath comes out in a rush, interrupting my words.
“Make love to me,” she whimpers. “Make love to me and make me forget I’m afraid.”
“Sophia…”
But she’s determined. She’s got that glint in her eye and next thing I know she’s straddling my lap, kissing along my throat.
“Just…let me ride you,” she mumbles, unbuttoning my slacks. It’s like she’s in heat or something, her slim fingers making quick work of my zipper. She frees my erection and I hiss.
“Take what you want, pixie,” I tell her finally, unable to hold back as her small fingers wrap around the base of my cock.
She pumps her fist slowly, up and over the head and I can’t breathe suddenly, my chest heaving. All I want to do is flip her over, give it to her rough like she likes.
But that’s not what she needs right now. She needs something to be in her control, and if that has to be my dick, so be it. I’m not complaining.
She huffs out a frustrated breath, standing up and wiggling out of her sweats. She doesn’t bother with the t-shirt and her nipples pebble through it. I cup them, dragging my thumbs across the peaks.
Sophia gasps, taking hold of my cock again to guide me into her. She slowly seats herself, inch by inch, and it feels so good I have to bite down on my lip not to moan so loudly Diego hears it.
“Luca,” she whispers.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I coo, unable to be cruel to her when she’s like this, desperate for me, desperate to be close in any way she can. I’m aching to flip her over and fuck her like an animal, but I won’t.
She needs this.
And I want to give it to her. God help me, I want to give her everything.
I take hold of her hips, not guiding her up and down my cock but just holding her in place. When she starts to roll her hips I choke out a moan of her name.
She’s so tight and slick as she bounces on my dick, and I can’t breathe. I need more, need her to bounce harder, but she keeps going as slow as possible. It’s torture.
“Sophia,” I manage, my voice strained, and the little minx grins at me. She’s enjoying this.
I don’t realize I’ve said it out loud until she throws her head back and laughs.
“You never let me take control. It’s nice.”
I don’t tell her that she only has the illusion of control, that if I wanted to I’d put her on her back and take what I needed.
“Can’t say I mind giving you the reins, pixie,” I grunt, biting my lip again to keep from blowing inside her as she grinds down against my pubic bone.
“Feels so good,” she gasps, starting to bounce harder, and I let out a low groan that I’m sure Diego will tease me about later.
He knows by this point Sophia isn’t just a model that I’m keeping her to interrogate. He has to. And I’m sure he’ll ask me about it, but right now I’m just grateful he’s not the pushy type.
He won’t question my actions unless he really thinks I’m heading down a dangerous path. And I’m keeping it together.
Aren’t I?
Sophia digs her manicured nails into my shoulders as she rides me and the sting makes my balls draw up.
“Close,” I warn her through gritted teeth.
“Close already?” she teases. “Big bad mobster gonna blow in me?”
“Stop talking like that,” I mutter and strike to kiss her throat, biting down at the base of it and leaving a mark.
She moans out my name then pouts.
“Thought I was supposed to be in control.”
“You are, pixie,” I tell her with a smirk. “You’re doing so good.”
She pauses, stopping entirely and just sinking down on me, and I groan loudly.
“Not ready for you to come yet,” she murmurs, and heat races through my body.
“Don’t think you can stop it, pixie, not if you keep—”
She pulls off me, crawling on the bed toward me on her knees.
“Want you to blow in my mouth,” she pleads, and I could come right there, all over her face, just thinking about the words she just said to me.
“Who am I to deny you, belissima?”
Sophia takes my cock in her hand again and slowly takes the head into her mouth, sucking gently. Pleasure shoots through me and I gasp out her name, trying not to allow my hips to buck. I don’t want to gag her. She’s supposed to have the illusion of control.
She takes me deeper, gagging slightly as I hit the back of her throat. My hips buck slightly because I can no longer help myself, and she gags again, looking at me with streaming, blue eyes.
But she doesn’t stop, bobbing her head, letting herself choke and gag because she knows it pleasures me.
“Fuck, so close, pixie, just a little more,” I plead, unable to control myself any longer.
She hums around me, hollowing her cheeks, and I blow in the back of her throat, choking her again. She coughs but swallows all of it down, looking up at me with watery eyes.
I cup her face in my hands, pull her physically up my body to kiss her, tasting myself on her tongue.
“Do you feel better, baby?” I ask her quietly as she nuzzles into my neck.
“A little,” she admits, frowning slightly. I chuckle. She’s cute; I can’t deny that.
And I can’t deny how I feel about her anymore. I don’t know what love is, not really. I don’t even know if my parents were in love. I think my father was, but my mother? I’m not so sure.
I think she was less in love and more swept away by the lifestyle, impregnated, forced to stay because otherwise she’d lose me and Nico. So I don’t have the best role models when it comes to romantic love.
But I think—no, I know—that I’m in love with Sophia.
It doesn’t make any sense. I barely know her, other than what I was able to scare up when she first left, which was just her police work.
I know she’s a hard worker, wanted to go up in the ranks.
Her career just kind of fell off a few years ago, though, and it does hold up her story about losing her partner.
But I still don’t believe her. You can apparently love someone you don’t trust, and that’s throwing me for a loop.
“Do you trust me now?” she asks with her mouth parted.
“No,” I whisper, but her face doesn’t fall. She’s not surprised. “Do you trust me, pixie?”
“Never,” she answers.
And well, that’s the long and short of it, isn’t it? No matter how I feel about her or how she feels about me, we don’t trust each other.
And nothing can come from a relationship with no trust.