????????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 5
(I’M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU?
LUCA
“IT’S OKAY, BABY, JUST BREATHE,” Luca pulled Caroline to a bench to sither down, affectionate concern playing perfectly across his face. “There.”He leaned her against him with an arm around her shoulders.
“It’s okay,we’ll catch the next bus, all right?” Her breaths came in quick, short gaspsand fear flashed behind her fluttering eyelids. She made a pitiful noise
somewhere between a sigh and a nauseous gro-an. He ran his fingersthrou-ghher hair and cupped her face between his hands.
“I know, I know,babe,” he crooned. “Just rest for a minute. It’ll be okay.” He knew what shelooked like. He could recognize her a mile away in blocky pixels. But he’dnever seen her this close. Even at the cafe, he hadn’t had time to really lookat her. He had thought her eyes were brown or hazel and she never got close
enough to the camera he’d hidden in her apartment to tell otherwise, but hewas wrong. They were green. A ring of gold around her pinprick pupil, then
green that stretched farther than the rolling hills of Ireland with theglittering, faceted quality of a gemstone, but darker in color. Warmer, moregrounded, more earthy. The eyes were supposed to be the windows to thesoul. He was tempted to look for her soul, but the weight of the task at handhung over his head. Take care of her.
He pulled her face against his chest, able to feel her harsh puffs ofbreath even throu-ghhis hoodie. She was a fighter, he would give her that,but she couldn’t fight the drugs forever. He continued to whisper sweet
encouragement, rubbing her back while she clung to awareness.The few concerned bystanders who saw them seemed to accept Luca’svery convincing caring boyfriend act and boarded the bus. At last, Caroline
collapsed into him, unconscious. Luca sli-pped one hand under her knees, the other around her shoulders to carry her to his car, parked strategicallyjust down the street. He sat her in the pa-ssenger seat, buckled her in, andthrew her suitcase in the trunk.
It was a long ride to the safe house upstate, but it would be worth it.They would be safe there, and he would have time to figure out what to do.The highway blurred together, pale springtime greens bled into browns,bled into the blue of the sky in his peripherals. Luca let his mind wander.What did this actually achieve? He’d kidnapped her—which was better than
killing her, but what now? Wait until his father found out and sent someoneelse to kill her? sedu-ceher and convince her to stop writing nasty articlesabout his family? But then what?
He glanced over at her, zonked out and leaning against the window inthe pa-ssenger seat. He couldn’t actually have a relationship with her. Atleast not one his father knew about. And something like that would be exceedingly difficult to hide from the all-knowing Don Moretti. Hewrapped his hands tighter around the steering wheel. He was pushing hisluck as it was, kidnapping her instead of killing her.
Another glance at Caroline in the pa-ssenger seat. Her mouth had fallenopen and the way her head lolled against the window made his heart clenchup. His orders were to “take care of her.” Well, he planned on it. He plannedto take good care of her for as long as he needed to figure everything out.
Whatever she wanted, whatever she needed. Luca would find a way.After four hours of driving, he pulled off the highway and drove oversome bumpy country roads. Caroline stirred, sniffing ha-rd and scrunchingher face up. She was still slow from the drugs and would be for a while.Luca turned down a long-forested drive and parked the car in front of acabin. He hadn’t been here since he was in high school, but it looked thesame as it always had. A rou-ghexterior, log cabin-esque with a little porchhanging off the front with peeling whitewash revealing sun-bleached wood.It looked innocent enough; secluded, nothing around for miles in anydirection. They used to come here for camping trips when they wereyounger. He had fond memories here.
He opened the pa-ssenger door and a-ssessed Caroline’s condition. Shecouldn’t walk, but she could squirm enough that carrying her bridal stylewould be impossible. He leaned over and unfastened her seatbelt. “Youcan’t walk, so I’m going to carry you inside,” he informed her.
She frownedand tried to say something, but it got lost on the way out of her mouth. He scooped her up over his shoulder, careful to hold her behind her knees andsteady her at her waist. He wasn’t trying to cop a feel, he just wanted to gether into the cabin safely. She didn’t seem to see it that way. She kicked as
much as the drugs would let her and pounded weakly on his back. He wasright, and she tried to wriggle out of his grip.
“I don’t plan on dropping you,but if you keep squirming around like that, I might.” He tightened his grip
on her knees as he unlocked the door to the cabin.
She squirmed less, butstill enough to show her displea-sure.
Luca took her up the stairs to the bedroom that had always been hissisters’ when they came here as kids. There were still two twin beds, eventhough the room was just Tessa’s after they lost her twin. They always leftspace for her. At Sunday dinners and in family portraits. A silent, unspokenrule of remembrance.
He deposited Caroline on one of the beds. Without a moment ofhesitation, she kneed him in the groin. The blow was somewhat weakenedby the drugs still working throu-ghher system, but he wasn’t expecting it,and it hurt like a butt cheek on a stick.
Caroline took advantage of his momentary distraction to roll away andtry to stand up. Her legs collapsed underneath her, and she sprawled out likeBambi. Luca blinked the pain away and plucked her up before she couldcrawl out the door on her hands and knees. He tossed her back onto the bedand leaned over her, standing between her legs, avoiding knee-to-crotch
range.
“That wasn’t very nice, Caroline.”
Her little fist balled up and punched him in the face. His li-p caughtagainst his teeth and he tasted blood. He caught her hands.
“I’m not goingto hurt you,” he promised. She fought in his grip, but drugged, she wasn’t amatch for him. She wouldn’t be, anyway. He was a ruthless thug. The sonof a Mafia Don. He’d given beatings to much worse than a 5’4”investigative journalist with a weird vendetta against his family.
“I’m notgoing to hurt you,” he repeated in an attempt to He could tell she didn’t believe him. He supposed he couldn’t bher.
He drugged her, kidnapped her, scared her shitless that morning. Shestared at him with a de-ep-seated loathing so profound and so ancient he
might have been looking at Lucifer right after he was cast out of heaven.
Except that Caroline physically resembled the devil about as much as adaisy resembled a semi-truck. Once again, he was struck by the depth of her
eyes. They were a whole forest. Golden brown at the center that fractured into greens spanning the spectrum from moss to gras-sto oak leaf. He could
get lost if he weren’t careful.Her head crashed into his and again, he wasn’t ready.
“Dammit,Caroline.”
He sat back and pushed her wrists down to the bed. “You’re notin danger.”
He understood why she would find that funny, but it still stung whenshe laughed breathlessly, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain in herhead.
“Just kill me,” she said, her tone sure, even if the words were shakyand difficult to form.
Luca sighed. “I’m not going to kill you.”
She really thought he was amonster.
“Not today,” he added, because he honestly didn’t know what hewould do with her if he didn’t kill her, and he was hesitant to get her toocomfortable. She should be a little bit afraid of him. He was a hardenedcriminal, after all.She thrashed wildly, but he held her still and let her exhaust herself,avoiding her blows.
“I hate you. I fu-cking hate you!” she screamed.
He knew it already, but he still didn’t want to hear it. Especially sinceshe didn’t really know him, only his reputation based on the rest of hisfamily.
“All right. I’m still not going to hurt you.” His nonchalance wasautomatic.
“I’m sorry I had to drug you.” He didn’t sound sorry, and hewasn’t really when he considered how much she was fighting while she wasdrugged.
He wouldn’t have been able to get her here without hurting her ifshe weren’t. “Sleep it off. I’ll be back when it’s time for dinner.” He
released her hands and stepped away.
As expected, she leapt after him, but her legs still couldn’t support herbody weight. He scooped her up and dumped her back on the bed. Shebared her teeth at him, but he pressed his face close to hers, nonplussed.
“Sleep.” It was an order. He walked away without looking back and lockedthe door behind him.
He stayed there a moment with his hand on the doorknob. It wouldn’tmatter how many times he told her he didn’t want to hurt her, and he wasn’tgoing to kill her. She would never believe him. She would always fight him.What was the point of saving her life when his feelings would remain onesided and she would refuse to see him as anything but the monster she
painted him as in her head? Why prolong this for both of them?
She cursed and banged around the room. He stepped away from thedoor to let her have a moment. Because he couldn’t kill her. He imagined it in every way possible and he couldn’t pull the trigger, couldn’t raise the
knife, couldn’t depress the syringe, couldn’t close his hand around herthroat. He couldn’t. Part of him hated that he was weak and attached, butpart of him was glad that he hadn’t turned completely to stone. He couldstill feel. He was still human.
TBC