No one will stop us or keep us apart.
Flushing all her suppressors and blockers down the toilet wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to her being taken; it was an incentive to get back home faster. It was a solid reminder of how much I misjudged her strength.
Layne is my obsession. Her welfare and happiness has solidified decisions I’d already come to. Perhaps there was a mystical part of me that knew my forever woman was on her way. Nonna always said so. She said my love would arrive at the most opportune time, and Layne had. She was my focus and a focal point.
I wasn’t going to play games, like Vitale did. I would lead the Cosa Nostra here in a more traditional manner, with a heavy fist made of steel and glass. It was the time of the De Lucas again, and I would fight for our reign to be as honorable as I could. Of course, people would test us, and Layne would be targeted by allies and enemies alike, but she is my greatest weapon.
“Valentine,” she calls, pulling me out of my internalizing. Her voice is softly hypnotic as always. Everything about her affects me so fucking deeply.
Twisting around, I don’t expect her to be so close behind me. The dim lighting casts shadows over every dip and curve on her body, and my hands are up around her breasts before she blinks. I twist her nipples and squeeze the flesh of her sensational tits as I walk her backward until her knees hit my bed. She falls, laughing, and I fall with her, lost in her caramel-flavored kisses and those hauntingly beautiful eyes of hers.
“What?” I murmur, kissing her eyelids to give myself a chance to catch my thoughts.
I watch her smile, her face so relaxed, even as I grind myself over her. “Bring me a snack home?”
I sit up in shock, pinning her under me. But she’s already squealing and giggling like I’m tickling her. “I’m going on a bloody and violent killing spree, and you’re asking me for snacks?” I ask incredulously.
She shrugs innocently before her voice drops low, making me lean closer to hear her. “You’re the one who told me snacks matter.” Her eyes are on my cock when she speaks.
The little fucking tease. “Ti sculaccerò il culo quando torno a casa per quello.”
She smiles demurely. “In English?”
“I will spank your ass for that when I get home.”
She rolls her eyes. “Fuck, Valentine, all these promises. You’re driving me nuts, baby.” I feel her arms struggle, like she’s trying to reach my hardening dick.
“Valentine!” Matteo yells. His voice is far away, meaning he and my brother are waiting at the elevator.
I climb off her, but the minx does the unthinkable—she stands on the bed and dips a finger into her pussy before curling her wet finger to coax me back. My feet move without consciousthought, and I growl as she dabs her juices right on the cupid’s bow of my lip.
“Bye.” She winks, then bounces on my bed a couple of times before falling and snuggling under the blankets. Only her eyes peer out, and they’re full of tease, happiness, and shimmering faith.
I lick the edge of the still-drying dot she gifted me with. The taste of her cunt, mixed with my come and my brothers’, is better than any drug I’ve tried.
When I snap my fingers, Bella jumps onto the bed to lie in front of Layne while Edward sits in his position, between the door and her.
There is nothing encouraging or uplifting to say that I haven’t already used my body to fuck into her. I leave the door open and swipe my guns and suit jacket off the kitchen counter to meet Matteo and Dante at the elevator.
We don’t speak. We don’t need to, because we’ve run down how we’re going to do this so many times. I do, however, lick my lip again.
“Timer starts now,” I say the instant the doors open to the garage. My bark acts like a starter's gun.
Without watching, I know Matteo is racing toward the truck, where everything he needs is already inside. He peels out of the garage before Dante or I have even shut the doors on the Escalade.
We join him on our own journey very soon after he starts heading in the opposite direction. While I drive, Dante checks the feeds on all the cameras we have installed in Vitale’s estate, and as expected, aside from the guards patrolling, and his night nurse, the rest of the house is locked down. Since Vitale got sick, not counting his frequent overnights to the hospital, we have witnessed the same routine, night after night.
The number of guards he has wandering around his estate and inside his house has increased tenfold. At least in his declining health, Vitale hasn’t forgotten he is currently at the weakest point in his illustrious career. Since his health and age is common knowledge, there has been constant testing of our defenses along our borders. In some ways, that has proven to him the Gambrillo are still the strongest, since we maintain the facade to collectively come together as family to rid each threat. Closer to home, he has focused so much of his energy on appointing his successor, he forgot the basics of our world—the strong don’t wait for things to be handed to them, they take.
And, tonight, we are taking. Not him yet, because Pack De Luca want and need the pomp and ceremony associated with his death, but other less important people in our world, including Rosa and Diego, get none of the public spectacle that Vitale will.
I drive fast through the night, constantly wanting to lick my fucking lip, as we head out in the opposite direction of Vitale’s estate.
Satisfied everything is happening as it should at Vitale’s, Dante flips his devices over to pick up what Layne is doing. She hasn’t moved an inch, and I hope she’s already asleep, safe in the knowledge of what we’re doing, but also because Dante briefed her that Ahmed and his team are inside our building, and outside, waiting in the shadows.
Exactly like clockwork, Matteo texts and lets us know he’s arrived at his first destination and is waiting until we arrive at ours. Then, at my signal, he sets off the explosives, planted already at random electrical transformers, and plunges the night into a blackout. My brother and I climb out soundlessly and scale the fence of Vitale’s mistress’s home. Usually, women don’t get caught up in leadership disputes, but Vitale’s mistress has a guest, one who has been keeping her bed warm while Vitale can’t—Vincent, his second in command. So, we’ve effectively got atwo-for-one offer that is way too tempting to pass up, especially since they live so close to my cousin and his bitch of a wife.
Over the past year, we’ve been watching them, and there has been a steady decline in their security protocols, which is as stupid as the two of them hooking up. Vitale would burn them alive if he knew. For that very reason, Dante and I will take the time to let our grandfather know they’ve been fucking behind his back for years before we slit his throat. In my mind, revenge should always fuck with your head and hurt as much as humanly possible.
