????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 9
Copy and have your life shortened ????
(THERE HAD TO BE WAY)
LUCA FELT MOST comfortable watching Caroline throu-gha computer screen.
He touched his cheek where she slapped him. It didn’t sting anymore, andhe didn’t regret it, but he wondered if he should. She didn’t look overlyangry at him, just surprised. Probably because she kis-sed him back. He
couldn’t imagine she meant to.
He smirked, watching her fall to her side on Tessa’s bed. She had to beexhausted. He hoped she could sleep, she needed it. Her room wasn’t litwell enough for the camera to be happy and the grainy image fli-ckered on
his screen. But he’d gotten good at reading Caroline’s facial expressionsthrou-ghblocky pixels, so he didn’t miss the realization that pa-ssed over herfeatures, followed by a firm look that meant she made up her mind aboutsomething.
He leaned forward. “What have you decided, gattina? Are you donebeing silly and trying to escape?”
The harsh vibration of his phone against the table startled him. Hedidn’t even look at the caller ID. Very few people had his number and if anyof them were calling him, it was important.
“Hello?”
“Luca.” His father’s voice sounded gruff over the phone.
Luca took a breath and shifted the phone against his ear.
“You want aprogress report?”
“I a-ssume it’s going well because I haven’t heard otherwise.”
“You would be correct.” Luca fixed his gaze on the grainy image ofCaroline.
“Everything is in place. I’m handling it.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” His father said.
“I have full confidence youcan take care of this.”
Luca opened his mouth to say ‘thank you,’ but a short beep signifiedthat his father ended the call. Luca set the phone down and ran a handthrou-ghhis hair. He would have full confidence in his own ability to take
care of this if it were anyone but Caroline.
He admired her before. She had a generosity and a selflessness thatmade him want to be a better person. She always over-tipped the kids whodelivered her pizza. She always shared her favorite candy or her best liquorwith anyone who visited her. The way she wrote public interest stories toldhim more about her positive outlook on life than about the volunteerfireman who saved a child’s favorite stuffed animal from a burning
building.
And now… She had a fire. He could always tell that she was pa-ssionatein almost every facet of life, but he hadn’t expected her to be so brave. Shewas scared out of her mind, but she refused to compromise anything shebelieved in. She lied to Luca’s face with confidence. She tried to stab himwith a steak knife. She slapped him across the face.
He shook his head. He liked her more than he should if he wanted to killher. Killing a stranger was ha-rd enough, but a person you knew? A personyou liked? Impossible. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself. But whatwas the alternative? Not killing her? Disappointing his father? Allowing herto run free and continue to try to take his family down? No.
He couldn’t argue the threat she posed. She’d been close a couple oftimes. Too close for comfort. They covered their tracks, cleaned up theirmesses, pulled the right strings, but one mistake and she could expose them.
He couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let his brothers down like that. Hismind supplied images of Giovanni dressed in a prison jumpsuit, hair
unstyled, scraggly beard weighing down gaunt ,hopelessness dullingthe spark in his eyes. He wouldn’t ever have the family he dreamed of; no
white picket fence with little children and a dog running to greet him whenhe got home. No sweet wife to spoil with expensive gifts and nograndchildren to dote on when he got old. Gio’s smile when he talked aboutthat dream could light up the darkest corners of New York’s black marketsand trap houses. He deserved that dream, or at least a chance at it. Would he
agree that Caroline’s life was worth giving that up?
And the twins. Luca could picture Alessandro and Antonio on thewitness stand at a very public trial.
They looked torn and alone, desperatefor their imagined twin telepathy to finally work and allow them some excuse, some explanation to lighten their sentence. They still had their livesahead of them. They weren’t innocent, but they worked hard. They were
staunchly loyal to each other, and to the whole family.
They had their owndreams, and Luca couldn’t sacrifice those for the sake of a reporter he“liked.”
He looked at her image on the screen, sleeping now with her legs stillhanging off the side of the bed. His heart lurched. She had hopes anddreams too, though at least some of those involved the imprisonment of
Luca’s whole family. But she wanted something just as badly as Antoniohad wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger. Who was Luca todecide that his brother’s dreams were worth more than hers?
He couldn’t kill her. It was as simple as that. He couldn’t choose. Therehad to be a way to have both, to protect his brothers and keep Carolinealive. There had to be a way. Luca watched the grainy pixels on the screen
flutter with the rise and fall of Caroline’s breaths. He would find a way. Hehad to.
????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 10
Copy and have your life shortened ????
LUCA DIDN’T ASK Caroline how she liked her eggs. He just set a plate ofscrambled eggs with cheese and salsa and two buttered triangles of wholewheat toast in front of her. It was upsetting and unsettling and made herskin crawl that he knew she ate her eggs with salsa and cut her toastdiagonally. But she bit the inside of her cheek and forced a smile.
“Thankyou.”
She’d decided to be polite, behave for him, maybe even sedu-cehim.
She would do what she needed to do to get the information she needed to
take him down. Reporters had done worse than eat some admittedly perfecteggs.
“You’re welcome.” He sat next to her in the same seat as last night.
“Are you going to kill me today?” she teased, but she was only halfjoking.
He raised his eyebrows over a mug of coffee, then set it down carefully.
“Not if I can help it.”
What comfort. She forced another smile.
“And I a-ssume you’re notgoing to give me my laptop back.” True to his word, he gave her the
suitcase full of clothes she packed. Clothes and shoes and toiletries.
Nothing else. He confiscated her laptop, her phone, and anything that could
potentially be used as a weapon. But she supposed she didn’t really need
her hairspray if he was going to kill her.
He traced a graceful finger around the rim of his coffee mug.
“I’mafraid not.” He hadn’t offered her coffee, had informed her that he didn’thave any creamer. He didn’t have to ask; he knew she couldn’t drink coffeewithout creamer. He took his with a spoon of sugar and she made note of that so they could be even on one front. He took his coffee with sugar and
he liked his eggs fried with salt and pepper and put honey on his toast.
Caroline sighed dramatically and complained,
“What exactly do youexpect me to do all day without my laptop?” It was a lot easier than she
expected to pretend that he was her boyfriend and they bickered overbreakfast all the time. She attributed that to her acting experience in the
high school drama department and not the fact that he looked cute withslightly tousled hair and a dark t-shirt.
He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
“So you’re not scared of meanymore?”
Oh she was. She was absolutely terrified, but she knew that wouldn’t
get her anywhere. She shrugged.
“You keep saying you’re not going to killme.”
She swore his eyes could pierce her soul and see right throu-ghher. Buthe didn’t push her further. He cleared away the dishes and disappeared intothe kitchen. She decided to stay put. He told her to stay there last nightwhen he cleaned up, and she wasn’t sure where she was allowed to go in thecabin, and it seemed like a good behavior that would earn her some pointswith him.
He looked genuinely shocked to see her still sitting there when hereturned, much quicker than yesterday. “There’s a tv in the living room.” Heswept a hand in that direction and she took that as permission to get up.
The cabin looked modest from the outside, but the inside was atestament to the illegally obtained fortune the Morettis were sitting on.
Impressionistic landscape paintings hung on the wall in earthy colors thataccented the throw pillows on the leather sofa and the fluffy blankethanging over the back of one leather armchair. A large bookshelf displayedthe most beautiful hardback collection of cla-ssics available in print and afew aesthetic knick-knacks in between. A shag rug warmed the floor
beneath a shiny, dark coffee table—complete with a coffee-table book aboutlocal flora and fauna—and expensive-looking vases of seasonal flowers sat
beside ornate lamps with tasteful shades. Caroline looked around, notingthe multiple locks on the door and the slight tint to the windows. Shecouldn’t run even if she wanted to.
Luca sat in one of the chairs and picked up the tv remote.
“If memoryserves, the reception out here is spotty at best.” He turned on the tv to an
infomercial about a life changing drug with side effects worse than the complication it allegedly cured. He fli-pped past a cartoon, a news station, a
black and white movie, a basketball game, and a Telenovela.
“What do youwatch?” he asked.
Caroline didn’t move to sit down. “Shouldn’t you know?”
She actedlike it was an innocent question, but she resented it and he could tell.
He shut his jaw with a snap, and he turned the tv off. “Please sit down.”
He asked nicely, so she sat on the couch and took personal offense to how
comfortable it was. “We have board games in the closet,” he suggested.
She remembered that she was supposed to be flirting with him to saveher life and to take down the mafia. She put on a performance smile.
“Would you let me win?”
He su-cked his li-ps in before pushing them out thoughtfully with a pop.
“No. Would you actually try to win?”
It was a challenge. Was she brave enough to try to beat him? What sortof girl did he want her to be? Pa-ssive and obedient or spit-fire and
obstinate? She chose to duck her chin and blink up throu-ghher lashes athim.
“I probably couldn’t even if I tried.” She hoped she came across asflirty and not as awkward or downright stupid.
He hummed, face unreadable.
“When we came here as kids we’d gohiking or fishing, but you understand why I’m not going to let you out ofthe cabin for a while.”
She smiled. “I’m a flight risk,” she said proudly. She wished she couldread him. It would make it a lot easier to flirt if he would actually react.
“Yes,” he said. “You’re really not scared of me anymore?”
She laughed from discomfort and to buy her brain some time to come
up with a cover up. “If you were going to kill me, you would have done itafter I slapped you.” A brilliant cover up because it brou-ght up the fact that
he kis-sed her last night. There might be hope for her seduction skills afterall. She patted the seat next to her on the couch as an invitation.
For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t accept. He looked like he didn’t
quite understand. But he stood from his chair and sat himself down on the
other side of the couch, still leaving a good deal of space between them.
“I’m sorry I slapped you yesterday.” Every time she said something thatmade him freeze for a moment to regain his composure and control, sheenjoyed it more.
“No you’re not.” He was right, but she wouldn’t give up that easily. Shefinally felt like she had him.
She shrugged. “I am. It just surprised me is all.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why are you sorry? I deserved it.” He didn’tlook dangerous, sitting beside her, slightly confused, posture relaxed butstiff. She was getting to him and that was invigorating.
She scooted closer in a sudden rush of confidence and reached out totouch his cheek where she had hit him, gently with the tips of her fingers.
He didn’t stop her, but he looked as wary as he was perplexed. “No,” shehummed. “I don’t think so.” She leaned in, fully prepared to kis-s him again,
but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Bullshit.” Her heart leapt into her throat and she felt a cold panic in herchest. He looked dangerous again, powerful, completely in control.
“I askedyou not to lie to me, Caroline.”
His grip on her shoulder remained only firm enough to keep her at adistance and again, she wished he would be violent so she could hate himfor something. If he pushed, her brain would have to process that instead offixating on the curl of his eyelashes and what he might do next and what hewas capable of. The anticipation of pain was always worse than the pain
itself.
But it never came. He stood up and walked to the center of the room.
“Seducing me won’t help you. Your freedom depends on factors completelyout of your control.”
Hot fury replaced Caroline’s cold panic. “Factors like what?” shedemanded, though she was in no position to make demands. “Your mood?
The weather? The phase of the moon?” She was snarling, angry, and not as
scared as she should have been.
“Caroline.” A low warning. One she wouldn’t heed.
“You have to take every bit of my control away, don’t you? Can’t evenleave it up to my good behavior.” She sprung to her feet. “I can be good.
Best behaved prisoner you’ve ever had, scout’s honor.” She held up threefingers in the boy scout salute.
He hissed a breath throu-ghhis teeth. “That’s not what this is about.”
“Then what is it about?” she yelled. “What do you want from me?”
He shook his head, a dangerous look on his face, but she didn’t get ananswer because a car pulled up next to the cabin. He watched throu-ghthewindow as it parked next to his and must have recognized it because heopened a door to a small den and gestured inside with total, undeniableauthority.
“Don’t come out until I say.”
She scampered into the den because, fu-ck it, she was scared. He closedthe door firmly, but there wasn’t a lock. She had to look at this as anopportunity. She had to be ready.
TBC