????????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 3 and 4
Copy and have your life shortened ????
(DRUGGED, SAVE IN HIS HANDS)
LUCA????
CAROLINE WASN’T STUPID, and Luca enjoyed that. He placed a potato chipon his tongue and sat down in his comfy desk chair to watch the video feedon his computer screen. He allowed the salt and vinegar flavor to dissolvein his mouth before crunching the chip. On his screen, Caroline dartedthrou-ghher apartment, throwing things into suitcases and boxes and
frantically dialing numbers on her phone.
Luca ate another few chips. He’d installed the camera when his fatherasked him to keep an eye on her after she started trying to expose thefamily. He watched her spin around in a circle, waving her flailing arms in
the air. Luca held a chip between two fingers. She wasn’t stupid. She knewexactly who he was and why he’d visited her at the coffee shop. She knewthere was a target on her head, and like any logical person, she knew shehad to get as far away from town as fast as humanly possible if she valuedher life.
She tripped over a trash bag she set on the floor and Luca laughedsoftly, setting the chip in his mouth. Caroline wasn’t stupid, but neither wasLuca. She didn’t realize how easy she was making this for him, how everyphone call she made, every arrangement to leave the city covered his tracksperfectly. No one would know she was missing. Not until it was too late.
She dragged the trash bag to the door and continued her phoneconversation, taking a moment to sit down and run a hand throu-ghher hairas she worked out details for something with whoever was on the other endof the line. Luca sighed. She was so scared. He’d seen how she trembled,the fear behind her eyes when she looked at him. But she didn’t shut down,and she didn’t break down. She didn’t run away. She sat there and lied to his face. He respected the balls that took, he really did. She was resourcefuland quick on her feet. He admired the hell out of that. She really looked him
in the eye and told him she wrote thriller movies.
“You’re a little liar, gattina,” he murmured to the screen with a flirtysort of intimacy that only his computer screen was privy to.
“And that won’tdo.”
Fond memories of his grandmother’s broken English and lyrical Italianover steaming plates of homemade pasta warmed him from the inside. Shewould laugh over them as children, never calling them by name, only
gattina, and cucciolo. They were her energetic little scimmie. Luca studiedItalian in school. He wasn’t fluent, but he knew enough to flirt, order food,and find the bathroom. Nonna would have liked Caroline if she ever got tomeet her. Of course, Caroline would be terrified of Nonna Moretti and theway the entire interaction played out in Luca’s head was hilarious. And alittle too domestic for the person he was supposed to ‘take care of.’
But the way Caroline curled into herself on the sofa when she watched amovie and sat in puddles of sunlight on the floor with her laptop andstretched her mouth in wide yawns was so kitten-like, Luca had taken tocalling her gattina. It suited her. Arguably more than her aliases.. Carolinedidn’t look like a Emily.
On screen, she stood up and hung up the phone, immediately dialinganother number. She disappeared from frame for a moment before returningwith a heavy suitcase and another bag of trash. She sat on the floor to tosssome other things in the suitcase, legs sprawled out at odd angles.Absolutely endearing. Precious.Luca rolled up the top of his bag of chips. “You make this so hard; youknow that?” he scolded the screen.
He was supposed to kill her. And hecouldn’t do it. He knew himself, and he knew the moment he realized he
wouldn’t be able to kill her. She had been watching a scary movie with abowl of popcorn in her lap. She jumped two feet in the air when themurderer popped out of nowhere and spilled the popcorn all over everything. It would have been funny to anyone watching, but to Luca, whohad been keeping an eye on her for a while, it was endearing, and it madeher human. She stopped being a target and became a person.
In theory, it would be easy to kill her. Too easy. But somewhere de-ep inhis bones, he knew he couldn’t do it, no matter the orders from his father.He wouldn’t even make it to the dramatic cinematic moment where he almost stabbed her in the back and then dropped the knife and it clattered tothe ground in slow motion. No, Luca wouldn’t even be able to raise theknife against her.
He shifted in his seat. She’d been afraid of him at the cafe, but she’dalso been attracted. He tended to have that effect on people. He smoothedhis hair and replaced the baseball cap on his head. He could play off that. Itwouldn’t be the first time he’d used seduction as a tactic, even if it would bethe most genuine. Luca had never been as broad and physically imposing as
Giovanni, or even the twins. But he knew how to carry himself and how touse his pretty face to get what he wanted.She sat on the suitcase to zip it closed and hung up the phone. Shelooked around her living room and hoisted up her suitcase. She was readyto go. Luca closed his laptop and picked up his keys. If he didn’t kill her,someone else would, and he would never forgive himself for that. He wasgoing after her. Father might not like it, but she wouldn’t write anotherarticle about the family and that’s what he wanted, right?
Luca pulled his hood up over the top of his baseball cap. Excitementsettled in his stomach with the thrill of a challenge. She would be on herguard, she wasn’t stupid. But neither was he.
CAROLINE ????
CAROLINE KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN. She bounced on her toes in line tobuy a bus ticket. Her white-knuckled grip on her suitcase made her hands
ache. Every movement in the busy metro station had her looking over hershoulder, afraid of a hitman or a thug or worse, Luca Moretti.She didn’t know what she expected, honestly. If you poke a stick at ahornet’s nest, you’re bound to get stung. And she’d poked her share at theMorettis. She turned in her finished article that morning and it wasn’t reallythe one she wanted to go out on, but she wasn’t going to keep anything shefound out about them hidden. She had hoped that she would take themdown over the course of her career as an investigative journalist. But thatwas just too much to hope for, wasn’t it?
She finally stepped up to the counter to buy her ticket. She fumbledwith the cash and dropped the change on the ground. She bent quickly topick it up and disregarded the two dimes that sli-pped out of her reach. Shedidn’t want to leave herself vulnerable for longer than absolutely necessary.She mumbled a thank you to the ticket salesman and dragged her suitcase tothe bus stop.
Caroline never considered herself a paranoid person, but suddenlyhaving the mafia out for her head made everyone look suspicious. Thebusinessman with an expensive looking briefcase? An a-ssa-ssin with deadly
skill who would shoot her dead before she could call for help. The homelessman holding a sign and leaning against the wall? Totally paid off by theMorettis to watch her and find out which bus she took. The single motherdragging her toddler-age son away from the vending machines? Secretly ahit man who uses the kid as a way to avoid suspicion.
And everywhere, or maybe only behind her eyelids, Luca Moretti’s softsmile. And that was the worst part of this whole situation. The soft curve ofhis mouth, the sharp slant of his eyebrows, the warmth of his hand, thedark, honey-soaked tone of his voice. It would be easier to hate him if heweren’t so pretty. Not that she didn’t hate him. She did. Damn him and the
rest of his family to hell. She hated him. It would just be easier if he didn’tlook like the renaissance paintings of angels.
A shady figure in a doorway caught her attention. Could he be the manthe Morettis sent to kill her? He couldn’t do it here in front of everyone,right? She would be fine as long as she stayed in very crowded, publicplaces. Right? The bus would be here in a few minutes. He couldn’t get onthe bus without a ticket, right? She’d be safe then, right? Unless the mafia is
exempt to bus tickets and every bus driver in New York is in their pocketand they know which bus she’s getting on and have someone alreadywaiting on the bus to break her neck. Nerves bounced around in her
stomach like firecrackers. She shifted from foot to foot, wondering if sheshould drop her suitcase if she had to run. She’d be much faster without itand her life was worth more than her laptop and her cosmetics, right?
Right?
Someone bumped into her and she felt a sharp pain in her thigh. Hemumbled an apology as she regained her footing and moved to stand behindher in line at the bus stop. She rubbed her leg, never taking her eyes off theshady man standing in the shop doorway across the street. Whoeverbumped her must have had a sharp bag or something. It hurt, but Carolinewasn’t one to make a scene. And she didn’t figure she should make a sceneand draw attention to herself right now. In fact, drawing attention to herselfwas the last thing she wanted to do in the present moment.
She blinked to focus her vision, but everything was fuzzy around theedges and she didn’t feel like she could get a full breath. She looked around,trying to find something to focus on. Obviously, the stress of being in a lifethreatening situation was getting to her. She leaned on the side of the busstop shelter and put a hand to her head. She felt like a mosquito had flown
throu-ghher ear into her brain and was buzzing around slurping up all herthoughts.
A hand on her shoulder startled her, but she remembered not to make anoise and draw attention to herself. “Are you all right, babe?” The sweetconcern in the de-ep voice stopped her heart. She turned shakily to look at the hand on her shoulder. It was connected to a black hoodie which wasconnected to a backpack and a baseball cap. Beneath the baseball caphovered a blurry face. She blinked rapidly, afraid of what she would see,
but needing to see it, anyway. When his face suddenly came into focus, sheopened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out.
Luca’s pretty face was full of concern, his arms coming up to steady heron her feet as her muscles decided to give out. He came in and out of focus,but the intensity in his dark eyes was unmistakable, the slant of his jaw wasunmistakable. Her body betrayed her, and she collapsed into the arms of hersworn enemy. She could feel sentience sli-pping out of her grasp, and she
cursed the fact she didn’t consider that she’d been drugged when she feltthe pain in her leg. Her fingertips scratched the edge of consciousness, but
her eyelids and her bones felt too heavy and her mind moved sluggishlyfrom one thought of fear to another.
Luca’s warm hand rubbed her back tenderly while he whispered acomforting, “Shh,” into her hair. Whatever he drugged her with worked fastand had the potency to change her perception because in that brief moment,she felt safe in his arms.
TBc