Chapter 27
SOPHIA
I rush to the window when I hear Diego’s car start, watching him back the car out of the driveway. There was a commotion in the other room, and now this. What happened?
As I watch, Luca runs out to the driveway, putting his hands on the hood of Diego’s car.
Shouting starts, but I can’t make any of it outt, peeking through the window. After a few moments, the front door slams and my deadbolt clicks open.
Diego stands there, not looking at me.
“You hungry?”
“Always,” I say quietly, and in the background, the sound of Luca’s car driving away makes me raise an eyebrow. “Did Mommy and Daddy get into a fight?”
Diego barks out a laugh. “Something like that. I’ve got some Greek salad left over from last night, I brought it over.”
“An Italian cooking Greek food. Interesting.”
“It’s not exactly cooking, it’s all cold.”
He dips me a bowl from a large container and I hum happily when I eat a bite, the feta cheese and olives popping on my tastebuds.
“Everything you make is good. I can’t believe some woman hasn’t snapped you up yet.”
“Yeah well, your lips to god’s ears.”
“How’s Luca doing?”
“He’s…” He pauses, putting down his fork and leaning over the counter, sounding exasperated. “He’s confused.”
“What do you mean, confused?’
“He accused me of trying to kill him.”
I gape at Diego. “You? What is he thinking?”
Diego shrugs. “Fuck if I know. Nico got in his ear, that’s all I know. He’s just throwing shit at the wall, trying to save his own ass.”
“You really think Nico ordered the hit?”
“I know he did. I just can’t prove it.” Diego sets his lips in a thin line.
“Because the men loyal to Nico protect him?”
He snorts. “As much as they can, being as stupid as they are. I wonder if Nico outsourced the hit. Called someone in the Bratva, maybe even the Cortados.”
“But Oscar is loyal to the Rossis.”
“He was,” Diego points out. “But with enough money, one of Oscar’s men could have switched ranks.”
“Does Nico have access to that much money?”
“Not normally. But if he won big at a poker game, he’d just use the money for that. Or promise to pay. The Rossis have deep pockets, or at least they appear to. Even Nico.”
“The guy who came here…came after me. He was a professional,” I muse. “He escaped as soon as Luca showed up. He wasn’t stupid enough to stand off with him.”
“Doesn’t sound like any of Nico’s guys, that’s for sure.”
“So he outsourced it,” I say, thinking. “He’d go to the Bratva over Cortado, wouldn’t he?”
“He sometimes collects from Natasha. She likes him, makes him pierogies, but I don’t even think she’d go against Luca.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know,” I offer. “Maybe the order went to some of her men, not her directly.”
“They don’t do anything without Mama Natasha’s orders.”
“That’s a good point.”
Diego looks at me from the corner of his eye. “You’re too good at this, you know.”
I blink. “Good at what?”
“Figuring things out. Detective work.”
The word detective makes my blood run cold. Does Diego know more than he lets on? Even with all the progress I’ve made with Luca, if the truth comes out, I’m in trouble.
“I was only a beat cop.”
“Pity. You would have made a fine detective.”
I clear my throat and dig into my Greek salad, needing something to occupy my mouth so I don’t dig myself in deeper.
Diego and I are sitting on the couch, watching a period film, when Luca comes in the door. I’m curled up next to Diego, not too close, dozing in and out.
“Feel better now?” Diego asks in a rough voice and Luca frowns down at the two of us. There’s something in his eyes I can’t quite recognize.
“Are you trying to move in on Sophia?”
Diego stares at him, and so do I. What the hell is he talking about?
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Diego asks, echoing my thoughts.
“Sitting here. Watching romantic movies. Curled up together on the couch.” He kicks Diego’s legs off the ottoman and Diego stands, gritting his teeth.
“I love you like a brother, Luca, but you’re trying my patience.”
“Is that why you wanted me killed?” Luca demands to know. “So that you could have her?”
“You’ve lost your fucking mind,” Diego says incredulously. “Right after accusing me of trying to kill you, you accuse me of trying to steal your girl?’
“I’m nobody’s girl,” I say, but it falls on deaf ears.
The way they’re circling each other like sharks is bad news.
“Diego and I were just watching a movie, Luca, you’re being ridiculous.” I place a hand on his arm and he glances at me, fury still evident on his face.
“Or was it you? Did you get word out to some of your cop friends?” he accuses me and I close my mouth with a snap, taking a step backward.
“Just because your brother is a fuckup is no excuse to take it out on me,” I say, and Luca blinks at me.
“Fuck. Fuck, I guess you’re right.”
“Of course she’s right. Maybe you need a good night’s sleep,” Diego points out, his shoulders still stiff.
“Maybe I do,” Luca mutters, and before I can say anything, he walks toward the bedroom, disappearing inside. He doesn’t close the door.
Does he want me to go in after him?
I look over at Diego and he shrugs, throwing his hands up in the air.
I take in a deep breath and push the door of the bedroom open, finding Luca lying on his back in the bed, looking at the door.
“Sophia. Pixie. Come here.”
He gestures toward himself with his arms and I’m powerless to resist, going to him, shutting the door with my foot. Diego doesn’t deadbolt it. I suppose he trusts me to some extent. Or maybe he just trusts Luca not to let me escape.
Either way, it feels a little like a victory.
“What’s going on with you?” I climb into bed. He draws me close against his side, my head on his shoulder.
“I don’t know,” he says, nuzzling against my neck. “All I know is everything feels insane except for being with you. Why is that?”
“I wish I knew,” I mumble, my skin heating up as he trails his lips along my throat.
“You’re the only thing that makes sense, and you’re a fucking cop.”
I don’t answer, sensing the statement is rhetorical, and he flips over, caging me in with his arms.
I gasp. “Be careful. Your stitches…”
“I’ll be careful,” he promises, the words muffled against my skin as he moves down my body, stripping me of my shorts and pressing his face against my panties, nosing aside the crotch to breathe me in.
As always, he eats me out like I’m a four-course meal, savoring every lick. When he latches his lips around my clit I cry out, slapping a hand over my mouth to muffle it.
Luca laughs against my inner thigh. “I think Diego has put together what’s going on in here, pixie. You don’t have to be quiet.”
I moan against my hand nonetheless.
“Can’t believe I thought you might be fucking him. You wouldn’t dare, would you?”
I don’t know what to say and I can’t speak anyway when he sucks on my clit some more. My thighs start to tremble as I get closer and closer to my orgasm.
“You’re mine,” he mumbles right after I start to spasm, shoving two fingers inside of me. I cry out again as he jerks my hand from my mouth, the sound echoing in the large room.
“You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean,” I say after I come down, after he’s lying in bed next to me with his mouth covered with my juices.
“What? That you’re mine?” He tilts his head quizzically. “Why shouldn’t I say it? It’s true, isn’t it?”
I open my mouth to protest, but he’s right, isn’t he? I’m his. Irrevocably. Whatever that says about me, it’s true.
“I would never sleep with your best friend.”
“Damn right you wouldn’t,” he says confidently, but he puts an arm around me, drawing me closer, all the same.
“So what are you going to do about Nico?”
He sighs. “There’s nothing to do. It has to be one of his men, one that got the wrong idea. He would never order for me to be killed.”
I go silent, because I’m not so sure. In fact, I’m pretty positive that Nico ordered the hit, maybe through a third-party like Diego suggested.
But I don’t know how to make him understand.
So instead, I bite my lip, look at him from underneath my eyelashes, play him in the only way I know how.
“You’ll stay here tonight? I can’t…I can’t sleep here without you.”
It’s true, not just a pretty lie. Ever since that masked man tried to take me, I’ve been unable to sleep in this bed without Luca.
“I could use the rest,” he admits, drawing me even closer. I press my face against his chest, allowing myself to relax.
He’s snoring before I know it, and I just lie there for a long moment, thinking.
Nico is going to topple the Rossi empire, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t very well tell him that the whole reason I was being put undercover was because there was dissent in the ranks.
My own lies have come back to bite me in the ass. I can’t help thinking of Rosa, praying that she’s safe and happy with Agnes. I wish I could call and check on her again.
I glance at Luca’s phone on the side table. He’d probably never know, as deeply as he’s sleeping, but I can’t risk it. Not now, when Luca is off the rails like this.
He’s always been controlling, but the last few days, he’s been erratic and confused. Nico has him all twisted up inside. And all I can do is watch, cursed with knowledge I can’t give to Luca.
I guess this is my karma for leaving in the first place.