????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 24
Copy and have your life shortened ????
THE SOUND of Caroline’s gentle, even breathing filled the soft darkness ofLuca’s bedroom. Her hair fell over her face where she slept on her side,hugging the pillow. The steady rise and fall of her chest was cathartic toLuca. She was his. He brushed her hair away from her cheek with gentlefingertips. She slept soundly, but he still tried not to wake her. She looked
so peaceful when she slept, so beautiful.
A sour feeling settled heavy in his gut. He should never have done this.
He shouldn’t have given in to her at the cabin. He shouldn’t be fu-cking herevery night and watching her sleep and falling in love. This wouldn’t endwell. It couldn’t. In no world, in no scenario, did this have a happy ending.
Luca couldn’t have a moment like Giovanni.
No triumphant fanfare awaitedhis announcement that he defied his father’s orders, only death.
Caroline looked so fragile like this, curled in on herself with the pillowsquished under her head and between her arms. It wouldn’t be difficult forany of them to kill her. They didn’t see how precious she was. They hadn’tbeen ordered to kill the women they cared most about.
They didn’tunderstand how much Luca needed her to balance himself. But it was hisown fault. It wouldn’t have been this bad, he wouldn’t have called it love, ifhe hadn’t slept with her. If he hadn’t seen the intoxicating way her eyesrolled back and her mouth fell open when he touched her. If he hadn’t heardthe sweet, sweet, beautiful sounds she made. If he hadn’t tasted her tearsand felt her fingernails digging into his arms, his back. But he had.
He pressed his face into her hair. And breathed in the light fruity scentof her shampoo. He let it ground him for a moment. But the worm of regretin his gut wriggled restlessly and refused him peace. Nothing good wouldcome out of this. She was a drug to him. Breathtakingly addicting andpotent. She took him higher than anything, but he knew the fall back downwould be harsh and painful. His family would kill her. On sight, withoutquestion.
He pushed himself away from her gravitational pull and swung his legsover the side of the bed. The floor felt uncomfortably cool on his bare feet,
but it pulled him back to reality. He stood and walked to the kitchen to pourhimself a glas-sof bourbon. He needed to keep his promise to her and figureout what happened to her dad. And now that he knew how defensive hisown father was about it, he needed to sate his own curiosity.
He plopped onto the sofa and pulled his laptop from the coffee table tohis lap. The security feeds were already open, and he picked up where he left off. The burn of bourbon down his throat wasn’t the punishment heneeded for Caroline, but it was a start,
and it took the teeth off the worm ofregret that still slithered around his gut.
No audio on the security footage, but the wide view of the poolwouldn’t have interesting audio, anyway. He watched the sky fade fromblue, to purple, to grey, to black. The most boring sunset he’d ever seen. Hewasn’t even sure what he was looking for, and that made it difficult. Werethe lights that came on in the house and reflected gold and shimmery in thepool a clue? Was that him in the sunroom by the pool window drinkingsomething with a straw? Was that Antonio who walked past the otherdownstairs window carrying a book or a package or a stack of movies? Wasthat Tessa who wandered past the upstairs window and shut off the light?
Was that his mother in her bedroom window on the second floor, letting herhair down?
Luca leaned closer to the screen because the indistinct silhouettesreflected in the pool water suddenly seemed important. Another silhouettejoined his mother in the golden glow of her upstairs window. Luca knewwhat his father looked like in shadows. The way he carried himself wasunmistakable with his broad shoulders squared and his chin held high so hecould look down his nose at anyone and everyone regardless of their height.
Luca’s father was a tall man, at least a head taller than his wife.
The man in the silhouette had a smooth, round head, sloped shoulders,and he was maybe a half a head taller than Luca’s mother.
He was decidedlynot Don Moretti. And the gait of his steps looked a lot like Caroline’s father’s. The reflection of the silhouettes in the window melded into asingle amorphous blob, and Luca blinked at the laptop.
He couldn’t be seeing what he thought he was seeing, but it made toomuch sense to not be true. Mrs. Gianna Moretti, wife of the most powerfulmafia Don in New York, mother of six powerful children, was having anaffair with Mr. Peter Wells,
the janitor and Caroline’s father. Obviously,Don Moretti found out and killed the janitor. That would explain why hewas so defensive and secretive. The one thing he might hide from hischildren is the fact that their mother had an affair.
Luca drummed his fingers on his laptop. He couldn’t just come out andask his father about it. He didn’t want to answer the inevitable questionsabout how he knew. He also couldn’t ask his mother about it. Not now,especially with the wedding called off. She would be in a snit for weeksabout all the work she did for nothing. He couldn’t confirm and be ahundred present certain, but the reflections in the softly rippling pool waterwere evidence enough for Luca to believe.
He heard soft footsteps behind him and felt slender arms wrapthemselves around his shoulders from behind the couch. “You left me.” Hecould hear the pout in Caroline’s voice. “I was so cold.”
He closed his laptop and covered her hands on his chest with one of his.
His gut twisted. He should tell her to sleep in the guest room. He shouldtake this opportunity to kill the regret in his stomach before it got anybigger or grew more teeth.
“I walked out here all by myself.” Her voice was so close to his ear hecould feel the puff of air from her words. It sent a buzz throu-ghhimstronger than the bourbon forgotten on the side table.
“What is that supposed to mean?” This close to her, his thoughtsbecame a little cloudy, everything else muted around her.
She hummed and squee-zed her arms around him. “I can still walk,” shecomplained suggestively.
“And you’d like me to change that?” Cool, slimy regret fought with hotarousal in his stomach.
“Mhmm.”
And what was he supposed to do? Refuse her? Tell her that no, thiswouldn’t end well so he wouldn’t fu-ck her into oblivion? His family wouldkill her on sight, so he couldn’t make her come so ha-rd she forgot her ownname?
Yeah, he’d been fu-cking her every night for over a week, but now suddenly he was worried about his own feelings? She meant too much tohim and that was dangerous so he needed to distance himself before he losther so he didn’t lose himself? No. Stopping now wouldn’t change anything,wouldn’t make him a more responsible human being, wouldn’t keep himout of trouble. She was a drug, and he was addicted.
He stood up and steered her back to his bedroom. He was a good addict,and he couldn’t refuse a hit.
TBC