Page 10 of Love & Power

I watched as she pulled out a key and fit it into the second lock high on the door. “Gemma,” I called out to her in English. “Don’t ever fucking try something like this again. I am a Raffa, after all. We don’t normally give second chances, and we damn well don’t give a fucking third.”

“Understood, Mistress,” Gemma answered, refusing to look at me. “I’ll be right back with your luggage.”

The moment she opened the door, Ryker stepped in, grabbed her throat, and slammed her to the wall. “Why the fuck did I hear the door unlock?”

“Let her go, Ry,” I ordered, shoving out of the chair and walking over to him. “Gemma and I needed to have a heart-to-heart without interruptions. It’s nothing you need to worry about, just setting expectations with one of my new bodyguards.”

Ryker looked from me back to Gemma and slowly released his hold on the girl. “Next time, you will come to me as head of the Caprioni Family security if there are any issues, not her.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Gemma assured. “Lady Astin has made that quite clear, and I had all my issues addressed. I’ll make sure Beatrice is aware to come to you and save everyone the trouble of this conversation happening again.”

Gemma slipped out of the room before Ryker could have anything else to say on the matter. He then turned to me with an expectant look. “Care to fill me in?”

“Not particularly, since I’m not really sure what happened in that conversation. What I can tell you is that there is way more to this whole situation than any of us ever guessed,” I shared, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head on his shoulder. “Right now, all I want is to get some sleep and start fresh tomorrow. I fucking hate feeling like I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

A knock on the door had me pouting as I pulled away from Ryker, but if it were my luggage, it would mean I was one step closer to sleeping. Opening the door, I found Beatrice with two of my large suitcases and Gemma with the three smaller ones.

Quickly, I stepped out of their way. “You can leave them just inside. I’ll deal with them from there.”

“Are you sure, Lady Astin? I’m happy to help you unpack,” Beatrice offered.

“Really, it’s all right. I don’t want to settle in just to find out we’re leaving for another location in a few days,” I explained.

Beatrice smiled and bobbed her head in understanding. “Have a good night then, Lady Astin. Oh, I almost forgot…” she paused in her exit to offer me what looked like a bracelet, “… should you need me or Gemma, here is the button connected to our devices. Once activated, it will give us your exact location should we not be with you.”

“Hold on,” Ryker cut in. “Why would she need this, and why wouldn’t you be with her?”

The woman cocked her head in confusion. “Does Lady Astin not have a bodyguard who will be joining us?”

“She does,” he answered.

“Then would it be safe to assume there might be an occasion that she chooses to have him with her instead of us?” Beatrice reasoned. “Furthermore, Nepreea has been rife with people snatching women and selling them, regardless of their ties to any of the five families. It is my wish to be proactive and cover all possible situations, which this tracking device will help in many scenarios.”

I took the bracelet and smiled at her. “I’m impressed, Beatrice… you’ve made a well-thought-out argument. Let’s chat about this a little later after I’ve had some sleep and have a chance to get my bearings.”

“Of course, Lady Astin. I’ll leave you to get your rest.” With a quick curtsy, the woman exited, shutting the door behind her.

Ryker took the bracelet from me, looking it over as if trying to find something wrong with it. “Hound should look at it before you wear it. For all we know, it could be sending your location and who the hell knows what to the Leoni or Accardi Families as we speak.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I commented as I laid the smaller suitcases on the bed, opening them up. “Please know that I don’t plan on trusting anyone or anything at face value. Just because my grandfather trusts them doesn’t mean I should. These are his people, not mine, even if I’m to inherit all of this. Look at how things have gone back home… the blood I’ve had to spill just to prove my place as their leader. The Raffa are known for being ruthless, bloodthirsty, and a little crazy. What if I’m too tame and civilized for this fight?”

Ryker snorted as he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me. “Tin-Tin, never would I ever use the word tame to describe you. What you need to do is stop looking at this like you don’t belong in this world. I can’t think of a person more suited for the job. Your father knew you’d be the heir to both families. Do you really think he’d let his precious daughter come out of hiding if he didn’t think you could handle whatever these bastards would throw at you?”

Twisting in his hold, I looked into the gaze of the man who knew my father almost as well as I did. “No, even if there were still more for me to learn working alongside him, he’d never risk revealing me if I couldn’t hold my own. On the plane, I knew this had to happen, and I was more than ready to do whatever it took to destroy those who stole my family from me. Then why do I suddenly feel so uneasy?”

He cupped my face, letting his thumbs stoke my cheeks. “Because you’re human.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Come on, be serious.”

“Trust me, I’m being deadly serious,” Ryker argued, scowling at me. “Astin, one of the things I love about you is that you’re fearless, always believing you’ll have a plan to work things out in your favor. I think it’s fair to say that’s true, and you’ve managed to turn every single attack against us back at them. However, there is a cost to each of those plans, including Luca being sent to jail. What you’re learning now that you never had the chance to, growing up so isolated, is how to deal with backlash. No matter how calculated or planned your strike is, there always have been and will be repercussions. You just never cared who got hit with them as long as it wasn’t you.”

“God, that makes me sound like a hideous person,” I mumbled.

Ryker closed the distance between us, kissing me softly. “No, Tin-Tin, it makes you sound like a person who had to do everything alone. All that needs to change is how we look at our plans and decide if it’s worth the price. This battle won’t be over quickly, or even in our generation. Sure, we’ll take down the current Accardi and Leoni Families, but these people have long histories. All it will take is for someone down the family tree to start an uprising, and we’re having this fight all over again. What you need to decide is if you’re in this fight for the long haul or if you’re going to level the playing field and hand it off. Both choices will have their own challenges, but if we choose as a family, then it’s not all left on your shoulders.”

Overwhelmed with feelings, I grabbed his face and kissed the hell out of him, nipping his lip so he opened to me. We tumbled onto the bed, but I flipped him so he was on his back, giving me control over the situation. Kissing down his neck, I shoved up his T-shirt so I could continue my way down his sculpted body. As I teased his nipple, my hands were undoing his belt and pants.

“Astin, wa—” Ryker started to say but was cut off by the groan that burst from him as I took his cock in my hand.