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But right now, I could lie beside her and pretend like everything was going to work out in my favor.
My fucking favor.
I inwardly laughed. My life was falling apart around my ears, and I doubted I could even protect the one person that meant everything to me.
I could have Leda’s body, own her fucking soul, and still not be the person she needed the most.
The person that could keep her safe.
Chapter 24
Lucas
A Week Later
“It’s bad, Don. Adrian’s starting to garner some major support. I’ve even heard Don Gallo being thrown around a couple of times. Support is coming up short right now too. Got word too that some of the more loyal properties are being scoped out. And not by Adrian.”
I sighed. It wasn’t that I was surprised by the news, honestly. Adrian started his campaign long before he made his move in the open, but now he was starting to gain some ground. With each person he pulled to his side, it opened a weakness in mine. The shit with our more loyal properties being scoped out?
Other Dons circling the waters.
It was exactly what Leda had predicted. “Call me at this time tomorrow,” I told him. “Keep your ass out of trouble. I don’t need to lose you as well. If you can scrounge up anything: safe house, guns, support… let me know.”
Emil chuckled. “No need to worry about me, Don. I’ll call in tomorrow.”
I ended the call. Instead of throwing my phone on the desk, I tucked it into my pocket instead. I had learned my lesson about leaving my phone lying around in plain view.
Pushing out of the chair, I stared at the dying sunset just beyond the open doors of the study. An entire week ofwaiting, the incessant waiting, and this was all we knew. Adrian is making moves, nobody moving to defy him, and our rivals ready to pick us apart at a moment’s notice. It was starting to turn ugly. I was starting to become a Don without a Mafia.
I clenched my hands at my sides. As much as I hated to admit it, Leda was right about Adrian’s movements. She had all but told me that he was going to turn everyone against me and build his own path up my fucking Mafia, and that the others would come for me as soon as they detected blood in the water.
Soon enough, I’d be left with nothing.
Powerless. Disposable.
“Fuck,” I breathed, turning away from the spectacular sky. I didn’t have nothing. I had this house, this land. I had a bank account that was mine and mine alone, not the Mafia’s. I had people like Emil, who would never turn traitor to their dying breath, even if it was only a small number of men behind me.
And I had Leda. She seemed to know what was going to happen, and I had a feeling that she might be able to help me get out of this shit.
She was more than just warming my bed. She was warming every fucking part of me, right down to my very soul. She was becoming more of a partner than a woman I had stolen, literally stolen from what was to be her life, and somehow had found a way to care for me.
Me.
A bitter laugh escaped me. She had no idea who was in her bed. She saw me as Lucas Valentino, Don of the Cavazzo Mafia, a bastard in every sense of the word.
I wasn’t so sure I wanted her to see all of it, to see all of me.
But what other choices did I have?
Without another thought, I moved out of the study and up the stairs, where I knew that Leda waited for me to bring her down to dinner.
Something had changed between us that day she had stolen my phone, and now I couldn’t get enough of her. Every evening, instead of camping out in my study, trying to pull my shit together, I spent in Leda’s arms. There I could block out what my life truly was and only focus on her, but I knew I was living a lie. Every time I talked to Emil, I knew I was on borrowed time, time that was going to end up with me fighting not only for my life but also for hers.
Frankly I was scared shitless about how I was going to do that. I didn’t find that strength below the surface any longer, the same one that had gotten me through much of my adult life.
It wasn’t there. I was lost in a way that I wasn’t sure I could ever find my way back.
And Ineededto return to the man—the Don—that I was.
