I can hear footsteps coming up the stairs, but I ignore them and slam into the door again, the wood splintering just enough for me to push it open.
“Is Charlie okay?” Rocco asks when he sees me. His eyes quickly avert when he realizes I’m naked.
“No one is to come up here until I say,” I tell him, not moving from theopen door.
Rocco nods his understanding and slowly walks back down the stairs, but I see him hesitate a couple steps down.
When I move into Charlie’s room, she’s curled up on the floor, naked and sobbing. I bend down and pick her up, carry her into the bathroom and sit her on the vanity while I run the bath. Once it’s full, I lower gently into the bath with her on my lap. She winces, pain flashing across her face when the warm water touches her body, my teeth marks and dried wax cover her.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, pulling her gently back to me so she’s leaning against my chest. I kiss the back of her neck gently until she stops crying. Was I too hard with her?
“Face me, please, Principessa,” I urge. She hesitates, so I pick her up and turn her around so she’s straddling my lap. I stroke her cheek gently, wiping away her last tear. I can see she wants to ask me something. “What do you want to know?”
She stares down at the bubbles. “What made you like this?”
“Caterina,” I say, my voice heavy with guilt.
“What did she do to you?”
I have to give her something, it’s the least I can do. “My father died when I was thirteen,” I say, rubbing her waist slowly. She finally looks up at me. “He was her underboss, like Stefano is for me. When someone in the mafia dies, especially a high ranker, the Don pays their respect to the family. So when I opened the door that night and saw Caterina standing there, I lashed out and destroyed our entire house. Like you, it was just me and my dad—my mum died giving birth to me. So I was extra angry because I thought I was an orphan. But your mother liked that side of me and used it against me. She trained me to be her loyal underboss.”
She listens, her eyes softening with every word I speak. “I’ve done some terrible things over the years for her, and I will do it again if itmeans protecting this family. But I don’t want you to see that side of me. You deserve better.”
“What did you do tonight?” she asks.
I look away, the guilt extra thick tonight. “You don’t want to know.”
She grabs me by the chin, forcing me to look at her. “Don’t fucking shut me out, Luciano.”
I take a deep breath. “We interrogated the men from the yards when they didn’t give us any information. We visited one of their families, kidnapped his wife and brought her back to the bunker.” I shake my head. “We don’t normally torture women, but tonight I wasn’t thinking straight. My mind just kept going back to seeing you on the floor being strangled by that man.”
“What did you do?”
“We brought his wife into the room, he started yelling at us, telling us that his boss will find Caterina’s daughter and he’ll send us a video of his men raping her.” She freezes on my lap, listening to my words. “Mattia lost his shit, punching him over and over again. His wife wouldn’t stop screaming so I backhanded her to get her to shut up. It took both Carlo and Stefano to get Mattia off him and calmed down. I sent him out of the room after that.”
She rests her hand on my chest. “Then what happened?”
“We stripped his wife naked and chained her up in front of him. Every time he didn’t answer our questions, we took a pound of her flesh, but he never gave in. There was nothing left of her, and he still didn’t give away his boss’s name.”
“Where is he now?”
“Chained in the room with his dead wife’s body parts scattered around him.” I stare into her eyes, but she doesn’t show any signs of running or disgust.
“Was it justified, what you did?” she asks instead.
“I would do it again if it meant keeping you safe.” I bring her forehead to mine. Her nipples touch my chest, my dick now hard against her pussy. Charlie leans in to kiss me softly, her teeth tugging my lips.
“Principessa,” I moan into her mouth. She takes my cock in her hand, lining it up with herself and slides down onto me. I kiss every inch of her bare skin as she rides me. I let her take control, leaning back to hold her waist and let her use me.
When she’s spent, we climb into her bed where I hold her until sleep takes her. I lay there awake for hours, hoping she is strong enough to survive this world.
21
Charlie
Inever thought I’d be drawn so deeply into the dangerous underworld’s dark embrace, but here I am. As each day passes and the closer I get to Luciano and the brothers, I’m torn. I feel like I have an angel and demon sitting on my shoulders. My old self is the angel telling me to leave, that my dad didn’t want me to be a part of this life—he shielded me from it for a reason. But the demon, the new me, is saying to embrace the new life and the luxuries it brings. To keep fucking Luciano and rule the Cosa Nostra with him at my side. The rush and adrenaline have started to become my new pulse, almost drowning out who I was before.
Yesterday should have had me running for the hills, but hearing Luciano talk about how he tortured someone to protect me—well, that’s a fucked-up type of love language, but if I’m being honest, it made me weak at the knees.
