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LUCA
I’ve attended that fundraiser five years in a row. Each time, I’ve bid on the final auction of the night, and when I send in my donation, it’s always three times what I bid. A little good to balance out the bad.
But this time…I let a pretty face distract me, nearly allowing me to be outbid.
I convinced myself that it didn’t matter because I wasn’t ever going to see her again, but twenty minutes later, there she is. Walking out of the hotel at the worst possible moment.
A group of Titan Moretti’s men had cornered the senator who was smart enough to send a text to me while I assume they were “chatting.” But by the time I showed up, McAdams was already dead, and before I could question them about why a man that I frequently used to get things I wanted had a bullet in his head, out walked Olivia.
While another politician can always be bought, I’ve put myself into a position that I can’t easily back out of. I saved a woman I had no business saving. She is nothing to me. Merely a pretty face. Yet, twice now, I’ve looked into her bright blue eyes and been unable to ignore the twinge in my chest. But it’s one I can never admit exists out loud and need to force out of my system.
Her innocence up on that stage, the way she shrunk in on herself, and the surprise on her face that anyone would place a bid that high for her… All of that combined with the fear-filled scream that ripped from her lungs when she saw the senator, I knew I couldn’t let her die. She didn’t deserve that fate. At least, not today.
Then, there’s the feigned strength in her words, the snark she seems to babble with. I don’t know why I find it endearing, but fuck, it is.
All that combined makes Olivia Danes a problem. A big fucking problem.
I’ve killed enough times in my thirty-nine years that I can’t remember the body count, and the number of people I’ve seen die by another’s hand would be absurd to most. And it’s not like innocents haven’t been taken out along the way. Yet, this time, there was no allowing this woman to be harmed. When Moretti’s guy ordered Olivia to be killed, I couldn’t let it happen.
We’d fired back against them, saving her life, but now there would be retaliation.
All because of a fucking woman I know nothing about.
What the fuck was I thinking?
She’s a liability.
Regardless of my reasons for initially saving her, I need to remember that. Worse, I know I should kill her, because letting her go after what she witnessed isn’t possible. She could dismantle everything my family has built over the past seven decades, blaming me for that bloodbath in the alleyway. And still, I ignore logic.
A text pops up at the top of my screen.
Titan: It seems we have a problem. You killed my men.
Me: You killed my senator. Without my permission.
Titan: He said he wasn’t yours. Maybe I did you a favor. Still, you owe me for my men, and the woman you let live is another problem.
Titan Moretti and I have never been friends, but we’ve always had a mutual understanding about how we run our businesses. He focuses on drugs and other illicit shit I prefer not to know about, and I keep my hands a little cleaner with other ventures like stock fraud and guns.
Neither of us is a saint. I just prefer for others to believe I am, unlike Moretti. He seems to prefer working in the shadows, very rarely showing his face.
Whenever our business dealings have crossed paths in the past, we’ve always been able to work something out, but now? I glance over at Olivia and how she’s pressed tightly against the door, still attempting to pull on that fucking handle as if it’s magically unlocked in the last few minutes.
Her body is covered by jeans and a sweatshirt now, but I have no problem recalling the black dress she’d been wearing on stage, the image etched like a vivid painting in my mind.
The way the sequined fabric hugged her hips, accentuating her feminine allure, sent a primal urge coursing through me. I couldn’t help but imagine burying my face between those perfectly sculpted breasts and feeling their softness against my skin. Her legs, toned and shapely, begged to be entwined with mine.
And the contrast of her jet-black hair cascaded down her back like a raven’s wing, standing out starkly against her fair skin. But it wasn’t just her physical beauty that captivated me. Those piercing blue eyes, as bright as a cloudless day, hold a depth and purity within them that intrigues me beyond words.
She glances up, catching my stare, and for a moment, I see a flicker of defiance in her gaze. It both frustrates and entices me, igniting a fire in my chest that I’m not accustomed to feeling. The clash of emotions intensifies, drawing me deeper into the web she’s inadvertently and unknowingly spun around me.
No. This time, I don’t think Moretti and I are going to see eye-to-eye.
Me: I’m handling her.
Titan: Unless I see a picture of her being thrown into the Columbia River, I don’t think your version of handling it works for me.
Yeah, I didn’t think it would.
