Chapter 10
10
RAFFAELE
T he past two days would have been absolutely perfect if I hadn’t had the dark cloud of the Chet situation hanging over us.
Hopefully, Vivienne hadn’t picked up on the tension. Although, I knew I’d almost given it away the other night when Chet had called and basically attempted to buy Vivienne from me. He’d offered things that turned my stomach, and I filed them away to use against him later. I’d told him to go fuck himself and that he didn’t deserve Vivienne before hanging up on him.
After three days of holding back from Vivienne, then that call making me tense with rage, my control had nearly snapped. So, when my angel asked me to fuck her, I didn’t waste a second getting inside her.
And damn…she’d been more amazing than I ever could have imagined. I knew I’d probably been too rough, especially for her first time, but I’d been obsessed with the idea of her feeling me stretching her long after I was no longer inside her.
I’d wanted to beat my chest like a fucking Neanderthal the next day when she winced getting out of bed. However, when I commented that I might have been too rough, she blushed hard and told me it had been perfect and she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
If I hadn’t already been in love with her, I’d have fallen headfirst at that moment. Vivienne was fucking perfect for me.
I was even more determined to keep her. It probably made me a complete bastard, but when I realized I’d taken her without protection, the thought that a baby would tie her to me permanently lodged in my brain. As did the hot-as-fuck image of her slender belly round and swollen with my baby.
When she didn’t bring the possibility of getting pregnant up, I knew I should have brought it to her attention. Being a virgin, there was a higher chance that she wasn’t on birth control. Instead, I spent the last two days filling her with my come and willing it to take root.
Vivienne sighed in her sleep and snuggled deeper into my embrace. Her soft, naked body had my dick stirring, but I mentally yelled at it to back the hell off. She was exhausted from our marathon fucking and needed a good rest. Eat, fuck, nap, repeat had pretty much been our routine for the past two days.
I tried not to dwell on the fact that this couldn’t last forever. Although, I’d had a healthy dose of reality the morning after we first slept together. I’d run a bath for Vivienne, then stepped out and finally called the boss.
Nic hadn’t been very pleased that I’d waited so long to tell him what was happening, but he’d also understood. He’d told me to take a couple more days with Vivienne while he began moving our plans into place.
It was moments like that when I knew people outside the Family would never understand how deep our loyalties ran. Not everyone was blood, but when you joined the Family, you were family and almost nothing came before that.
It reminded me of how my cousin Matteo had described the ties that bound the brotherhood of a motorcycle club. There was one major difference, though, that Matteo viewed negatively when he really should have seen how it could be an asset.
Once you were in the Family, the only way you left was in a box. Now, whether that meant you simply died or you were nudged along as a punishment…the result was the same.
And when Matteo patched with the Hounds of Hellfire, an alliance was forged. King and Blaze—his VP—were well aware of that, but we all chose to let Matteo live in ignorance if that was what he chose. However, we’d always be there to back him up if he ever needed us.
My thoughts were turning heavy, and I wasn’t ready for that yet, so I tightened my arms around Vivienne and shoved my nose into her silky hair.
Unfortunately, life rarely went according to plan.
When my phone vibrated, I twisted my head to peer over at the screen, trying not to move too much so I wouldn’t disturb my angel. But it was the number for the guard shack at the front gate.
It seemed my reprieve was over, and reality was determined to intrude. Gently, I untangled myself from Vivienne and grabbed my phone as I carefully exited the bed. I took it into the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake her when I answered.
“ Cosa vuoi? ” I snapped, asking what they wanted rather than greeting them.
“You have a visitor,” Alec muttered.
“They’ll have to come back.”
“I’ve been telling him that for half an hour, during which he has been constantly cursing me out. I don’t think he’s going to leave. But more importantly, I doubt we want him whining to the press about how you’ve kidnapped his fiancée and won’t let him see her.”
Chanler. I should have known.
“Have Domenico and Dante escort him to my office and make sure he stays there. And for fuck’s sake, tell them to shut him up so he doesn’t wake Vivienne.”
“Will do.”
I stabbed my finger against the end button and tossed my phone onto the counter with a disgusted grunt. It pissed me off that I had to let that motherfucker step foot in Vivienne’s home. This should be her sanctuary. I’d always been very careful about who I met with in this house so that it always remained a safe space. But it was unlikely that Chet would be reasonable enough to move the location of our meeting to my office in one of the warehouses at the back of the property.
After grabbing a quick shower, I chose my clothing carefully. I donned one of my most expensive Armani suits, a Patek Philippe watch, and a pair of shiny black leather Ferragamo dress shoes. Then I retrieved my Beretta from the safe in my closet and tucked it into the back of my pants. I exuded wealth and power at a level Chet would envy and secretly hate because he knew he’d never have it.
By the time I reached my office, I’d left him waiting for at least twenty minutes, letting him know that he was not the one in charge.
“ Salve , Chanler,” I greeted him formally as I strode into the room.
He whirled around from where he stood in front of one of the giant windows overlooking the east lawn and the path leading down to the stables.
“Where is my fiancée?” he shouted.
I pierced him with a steely stare as I rounded my desk and took a seat. “Keep your voice down,” I ordered. “Vivienne is no longer your fiancée, nor is she your concern.”
Chet marched over to stand in front of my desk. It was an attempt to take a power pose, standing over me to make me feel like he was in charge. However, tactics like that only worked on the weak. We both knew I held the power, and my sitting while he stood wouldn’t change that. Besides, I was at least a half foot taller than him, and with my desk between us, he couldn’t “tower” over me like he clearly wanted to.
“You have no right to keep her from me,” he snapped, taking a few steps back when he realized he couldn’t intimidate me.
“I don’t know what gave you the impression that I was preventing Vivienne from seeing you, Chanler. The choice has always been hers.”
“I want to hear it from her,” he growled.
“We can’t always have what we want, Chanler. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that? Or were you so spoiled that you expect the world to bow at your feet and let you stomp on them to make you feel better about your own insecurities?”
Chet’s eyes narrowed, and his lips pressed together as he took several deep breaths through his nose. Then he spoke through clenched teeth. “What do you want for her?”
My inscrutable exterior cracked for a moment, and my mouth shifted to form an amused smirk. “What exactly do you think you could give me , Chanler?” My eyes darted around the room, then I checked the time on my watch.
When I looked up, I caught Domenico and Dante fighting smiles. They were obviously enjoying the show, but my warning look wiped away their mirth. Chet would be embarrassed if he saw them smiling or if either of them accidentally laughed, which would put him further on the offense. That would only escalate the situation—something I was hoping to avoid. Though it was unlikely I’d succeed.
My gaze returned to Chet, my face once again impassive.
“I can get you first dibs on the newest designer drugs hitting the street.”
“Drugs don’t interest me.” We had our hands in a lot of illegal shit, but the only involvement the Family had with drugs was working to get them off the streets.
“There are a lot of doors I can open for you in politics. I can?—”
“I pay people to do my politicking, Chanler. I have no desire to do it myself.”
Chet plopped onto one of the chairs in front of me and jiggled a leg up and down anxiously as he contemplated what to offer me next.
Finally, he tossed out another suggestion. “If all you’re looking for is a hole to fuck, I can make sure you have all the asses you want.”
My cool, dispassionate exterior was not a mask. It was genuinely my personality with people other than those I was closest to. However, today…today, I had to fight to keep the rage out of my eyes, to hide the disgust that wanted to twist my expression and stop my voice from shaking with fury.
“I don’t need to pay for pussy, Chanler,” I replied in a perfectly even tone. “Or ass.”
“Then what do you want Vivienne for?” he muttered, confused. “You can’t possibly want someone as plain and fat as her.”
He sounded as if he genuinely believed what he was saying, and it took a monumental effort to keep my hands from clenching.
“What I want with Vivienne is my business.”
“Fucking bullshit!” Chet shouted, jumping to his feet again. “She’s mine!”
I raised an eyebrow but didn’t otherwise react. Which just seemed to infuriate him further.
“You want to do this the hard way, DeLuca?” he yelled. “I will fucking ruin you!”
I sat in silence, letting him spout threat after threat, hoping he’d wind down soon so I could toss him out on his ass and go back to my angel.
Then he took it a step too far.
“I’ll get her from you eventually, you bastard! And when I do, I’ll fucking break her. I’ll?—”
I moved before he knew what was happening, and his threats were soon silenced by the barrel of my gun in his mouth.
“What did you say?” I asked as I pulled the slide and racked the pistol.
Terrified, he tried to take a step back but found himself rammed up against a wall of muscle. The second I was out of my chair, Domenico and Dante had moved to stand behind him. Each one took hold of an arm, keeping him in place so he couldn’t dislodge the gun.
“I think it’s time I talked, and you listened. Then you can get the fuck out of my house and never come back. Nod if you understand.”
He looked down at the gun, going cross-eyed. I shoved it so the barrel bumped the back of his throat, though I was careful not to make him gag. This was my favorite piece, but I wasn’t going to clean vomit out of it. If I had to throw the weapon away, it was just one more thing he would owe me for.
“Nod if you understand,” I repeated, my tone turning deadly.
He jerked his head a tiny bit and whimpered when the pistol shifted.
“I don’t get off on killing. It doesn’t make me feel powerful. It’s simply business. But I have to admit, it would give me great pleasure to kill you. To slowly torture you until I’m satisfied that you’d paid for all of your sins. I’d put bullets in just the right spots to inflict the most pain but not make you bleed out quickly. Then I’d remove each of your fingers and toes and make you watch while I fed them to the dogs. Next would be your tiny dick, followed by your nipples. Of course, I’d save your tongue for last. I wouldn’t want anything to prevent you from screaming in agony.”
I held out my free hand, and Domenico handed me his wickedly sharp, big-ass blade.
“I just might borrow Domenico’s knife here and draw blood in several more places, ones that will eventually drain you. But very slowly, of course. Oh, and don’t worry about missing anything by passing out. We have plenty of fun little cocktails to keep you alert. Some of them will even enhance the whole experience….well, for me at least. I don’t think you would agree.”
Chet was doing his best to hide his fear, but the stark terror in his eyes was perfectly clear.
“Unfortunately, my boss doesn’t want to clean up the mess that would inevitably follow your disappearance. Which means today, you are going to walk out of here with…almost”—I sliced off a section of Chet’s earlobe, and Dante slapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his pathetic cry—“all of your body intact. But make no mistake, if you won’t stay away from Vivienne, you’ll be declaring war with the DeLucas.” I tapped the knife on his head condescendingly. “And while I think you’re seriously lacking in logic and common sense…and humanity in general…you’re smart enough to know that challenging us would be a very, very stupid thing to do.”
I gave him a few moments to digest what I’d said, then I pulled the gun out of his mouth and returned to sit behind my desk.
“I’m not scared of the fucking Mafia,” he spat.
“The terror in your eyes says otherwise,” I drawled. Glancing at Dante and Domenico, I ordered, “Get him out of here.”
Domenico grabbed Chet by his neck and dragged him out into the hall.