????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 14
Copy and have your life shortened ????
CAROLINE SHIVERED against the cool air hitting the water droplets that
dripped off the ends of her hair and rolled down her shoulders and back, but
adjusting her towel wasn’t an option. Pride clenched her hand around it
stubbornly while a dull ache throbbed in her chest at the memories Luca
dredged up.
His hair swept over his forehead, knocked out of its neat coif in her
foolish attempt at freedom. Aside from that and the red stain on the collar of
his shirt where blood traced a graceful line down his neck, he looked as puttogether as ever.
He touched the cut on his neck and examined the blood on
his fingers. “My family has been nothing but generous to you.”
Caroline growled. “So you think I’m in your debt? You think you own
me or something?” She hated these games. He kept saying he wouldn’t hurt
her, wouldn’t kill her,
but they both knew that he was supposed to. And he
wouldn’t tell her what he wanted from her other than that, so she didn’t
trust him farther than she could throw him. Which couldn’t be far since he
was significantly taller and broader and stronger than she was.
“Of course not.” Luca frowned at that and stepped backward out of thebathroom. “Put on a robe. Let’s talk like civilized people.” He turned his
back to her and disappeared into the room.
Caroline felt eerily calm. She’d come to terms with her death, so if hekilled her now—which didn’t seem likely—at least she’d see her familyagain. And he’d seemed offended when she suggested he ra-pe her, so she
doubted he’d do that either. She pulled on a bathrobe and tied it tightlyaround her waist. The razorblade gleamed from the floor beside the toilet,and Caroline was tempted. But she’d pushed her luck enough today, and he would be ready this time. She wouldn’t be able to cut him again. She left
the blade on the ground and walked out of the bathroom to sit on the bed
across from Luca.
His face didn’t change from its usual impa-ssive neutrality, but his voice
sounded almost kind, “Good girl.” Something hot, she would call it anger,
zinged throu-ghher body at the praise. “Now, explain to me how I ruined
your life.”
“You mean besides drugging and kidnapping me?” She didn’t know
where the sas-scame from, but she regretted it as soon as it came out.
The corner of his mouth twitched like it wanted to smile.
“Yes, besides
that. Why do you hate my family?”
There was a short version and a long version. The reporter in herwanted to tell it concisely, and the part of her that thought Luca shouldsuffer wanted to tell the very long, emotional version. “My mother was acommercial real estate agent and the main breadwinner in my family. Mydad did odd jobs and tried to write freelance.” He’d inspired her to be awriter,
to tell people’s stories and use the power of the pen to make adifference. He’d always supported her dream of journalism. He edited herarticles for the school newspaper in jr. high. He believed she could do
anything. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “My mom pa-ssed awaywhen I was in fifth grade.” She glanced up at Luca, who had the nerve tolook genuinely sympathetic.
“It was very sudden. A blood clot that went toher brain.” Caroline hadn’t understood those words when she was in fifth
grade, but she’d been repeating them since. “My dad couldn’t support uswithout a real job, but he didn’t have the qualifications to get hiredanywhere.”
“He worked for us.” Luca rubbed drying blood between his fingerswithout looking away from Caroline.
Caroline fixated on his hands so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed by hiseverything. Even rubbing at dried blood, his fingers were somehow gracefuland the veins on top of his hands leading up to his forearms were equalparts threatening and vulnerable. “He died in one of your sketchywarehouses under sketchy circu-mstances,” she accused.
Luca sat up straight. “You blame us for his death?”
“Yes.” The Morettis were to blame. One night he hadn’t come homefrom work and the next day she got a call at school saying her dad died in afreak accident.
“You know that’s ridiculous, right?” Luca said. He folded his hands
together over his lap.
Caroline gripped the edge of the bed and leaned forward. “He was in
your warehouse doing god-knows-what kind of illegal shit for your family.”
Tension in Luca’s jaw.
“Your father did good work for us. We had no
reason to want him dead. We paid for your education because Morettis
always pay their debts.” His voice was too gentle. Velvet soft and honey
sweet. She might have believed him if she weren’t so angry.
Caroline refused to be placated. “Bullshit,” she spat. “You paid my
tuition to pay me off.”
His pretty mouth curled into a smile as far from malicious as could be,
but it still made the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end. “We don’t
pay people off, Caroline,” he laughed, a warm low hum that resonated
throu-ghher bones with a frequency similar to panic.
“The low-budget B
movies you told me you write have it wrong. If someone is a liability, we
silence them in a more permanent way.”
“Like me?” The absence of fear in Caroline’s chest made her anxious.
She shouldn’t be so gutsy, she just tried to kill him.
The red smear on his neck became more apparent as he tilted his head.
“Yes. Like you.”
“And what if someone,
a loyal worker, knew something they
shouldn’t?” She knew she played a dangerous game, but vengeance
motivated her more than fear. “You would ‘silence them in a more
permanent way’ and make it look like an accident.”
Luca tutted softly. “I want you to think about this rationally from myperspective.” He paused and resettled on the bed with his feet wide apart on
the floor and his arms resting on his thighs. “Your father was a goodworker, a loyal man. Those are ha-rd to come by. As far as I know, he wasnot a liability in any way. And being the Don’s son, I think I know a lot.”
He paused again to make sure Caroline understood. She glowered at him.
“Your father’s death was tragic, but not our fault.”
“Take some fu-cking responsibility,” Caroline yelled, then took a breathto calm herself. “You might not have personally pulled the trigger, butsomeone did. And I think we can a-ssume it was ordered by your family.”
Luca shook his head. “That makes no sense.” He lost a little of hisunbothered facade and looked equal parts baffled and offended.
“Sometimes an accident is just an accident. We had no reason to want him
dead.”
Caroline couldn’t accept that. She’d spent too long believing it was a set
up or a betrayal. She couldn’t see it any other way. “Liar,” she hissed
throu-ghher teeth.
His emotions vanished into a perfect mask of calm once more. “I told
you I wouldn’t lie to you, Caroline. I have no reason to.”
He sat up and his
hands rested on his knees. She could see a red st-ripe across the knuckles she
slashed, but he seemed unaware of it. “You are a prisoner. No one is looking
for you.” His voice had the velvet quality again, such an antithesis to the
words he said it gave her emotional whiplash. His eyes looked soft when he
tilted his head and all but purred, “Why would I lie to you, Caroline?”
She opened her mouth to say something absolutely biting.
The perfect,intellectual comeback that would send him reeling. It was right there on the
tip of her tongue. “Because you want to sleep with me?”
Caroline had never felt so betrayed by her own mouth. She wasabsolutely horrified. She expected him to laugh and call her coy orsomething, but he lifted his chin to regard her with a dark ambivalence.
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
Caroline forgot how to breathe. She told herself she was afraid. It wasterror, panic, that made her fixate on his mouth, the soft pink of his li-ps, the
sharp angle of his jaw, the curve of his neck into his shoulders, and thedangerous seduction of his manspread posture. She swallowed the lack of
saliva in her mouth and
clenched her hands around her robe.
“But I don’t force myself on women, and I don’t lie about things likethis.” Honey in his voice, but the wild kind with a sharp bite. “Especiallynot when I’ve promised to tell the truth.” He seemed to notice the bloodacross his knuckles and rubbed at them with his other hand. “But if youreally want to find out what happened to your dad, I’ll help you.”
He sounded genuine, but he always sounded genuine, so she couldn’ttrust him. But when had he sounded genuine and actually lied to her? Hesaid he wouldn’t kill her, and he hadn’t. But still… She took a breath. “Howdo I know I can trust you?”
A smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. “I suppose you don’t.”
TBC