If I wasn’t careful, she’d retrieve whatever data she was looking for. If she was working for someone, they’d have the intel they needed to do whatever it was they were trying to do.
Now was not the time for me to be engaging in shit like this. I’d finally successfully set up our casino here in Italy. A few family members were still causing problems about it. But I planned to silence them before returning to the US.
I didn’t need anything to happen that could cause a setback in my plans. That’s precisely why I should’ve shut this entire thing down with Juliet months ago. Instead, here I was trying to track her location while getting hard over the fact that she’d hacked my cameras.
I needed to end this, but first, I needed to find her. I wanted to know where she lived, what she looked like, and who she spent time with. I wanted to meet the woman who was fearless behind a keyboard and damn near as good at hacking as I was.
Hell, today’s excursion proved she just might be on my level. Women as skilled asJulietWithCurvesdidn’t just appear out of nowhere. Though I didn’t want to believe it, I was fairly certain someone had hired her to steal data from me.
I had a feeling it was someone who wanted to shut down my casino in Italy. If I wasn’t careful, my fascination with Juliet was going to become a problem neither of us could escape. Because no matter how much I craved her, if she proved more threat than temptation, I would have her eliminated.
I wouldn’t allow anyone to derail my plans for this casino. Not my family in Italy. And not the woman I wanted more than I’d ever wanted anyone. Sighing, I closed my eyes, hating these conflicting emotions coursing through me.
Hating this situation she’d placed me in, while still wanting to meet the woman behind the mask. The question was, did she really want me? Or was someone using her to get to me? When we finally met,and we would definitely meet, would it be at a restaurant or in my dungeon? I guess I’d soon find out. Another sigh escaped me.
“Who are you, Juliet with curves. And what do you really want from me?”
CHAPTER TWO
ROME
––––––––
I stood from my desk, wincing as I walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. Lifting my arms over my head, I stretched, leaning to the left, working out the kinks in my muscles. Though the wound on my side had healed, it was still sore.
Getting stabbed would do that to you. The wound would’ve been deeper if Terzo DeLuca hadn’t shoved me out of the way. My mind drifted back to that day in Tower D when the Irish mafia had come for Stefano and Enzo DeLuca’s girlfriends.
The DeLucas had hired me to find out when and where the Irish mafia would attack. Just as the intel came in and I went to provide it to Sienna and Eve, the attack happened. Someone in the DeLuca family had betrayed the ladies.
The betrayer and his people hired employees at Tower D to capture the women, promising them a share of the bounty. As Sienna and Eve fled the scene with their guard, Terzo and I stayed behind to keep the bounty seekers from going after them.
And it was a lot of them motherfuckers. Everything that happened during that time was pretty much a blur to me. It had happened so fast. All I knew was that I had to kill everyone who tried to get past Terzo and me.
And at least twenty or more tried. We fought until we could barely stand. Mere moments before we both would’ve droppedfrom blood loss, the cavalry arrived. Bodies were strewn everywhere.
The offices had been destroyed. I’d awoken in the hospital with Don DeLuca standing over me, thanking me for saving his fiancée and his sister-in-law. He’d asked me what I wanted as payment.
I declined the offer. I hadn’t done it to receive an award or even an acknowledgment. I’d done it because the DeLucas were our allies. When our allies went to war, we went to war. When our allies were in trouble, we showed up.
Loyalty and trust were important to me. Plus, had I not helped, Terzo’s crazy ass would’ve gone up against all those men alone. He wouldn’t have backed down. He wouldn’t have run.
I considered Terzo a friend. I would always have his back. But fuck, my side was still recovering. So was my left leg from having a large bookshelf fall onto it. I don’t even know how I’d gotten it off so quickly. Adrenaline, maybe.
But because of it, I had a slight limp that was slowly getting better. When I tried to, I could walk regularly. It ached a bit when I put my full weight onto it. However, if I had to do it all again, I would.
And I knew if the roles were reversed, the DeLucas would do the same for me. Hell, even Sienna and Eve would show up if needed. They were just as ruthless as the men they loved.
Even my brothers’ fiancées were savage. I chuckled as I remembered the plot Monique Rose and her friends had concocted to take down Orazio. They’d actually planned on kidnapping the don of the Cattaneo family.
For some reason, all the men I knew ended up with women who were bat shit crazy. Was I destined for the same fate? My mind strayed to Juliet. I shut that thought down quickly as I stared out the window, focusing on the scenery before me.
Sunlight danced across the waves in the distance while expensive yachts drifted through the clear blue water below. The view should’ve been relaxing. Peaceful. Instead, my thoughts were chaotic, still straying to her.
JulietWithCurves wasn’t the first hacker to try breaking into my systems. People had been trying to steal data from me for years. Rivals. Competitors. Enemies. Ambitious hacker wannabes hoping to prove they were the best.
But Juliet had been different from the start. She was the only one who’d left a calling card, wanting me to know she was there. That was what threw me off and piqued my curiosity. She’d announced her presence instead of secretly hacking me.
Most people hid in the shadows while trying to steal from me. Juliet had practically introduced herself with a smile. The first message had appeared out of nowhere, buried in an encrypted file, asking me how I took my coffee.
