Luca

"Thank you, Pablo." I said, shaking his hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

A few feet away from us, the lifeless body of one of Silvano's soldiers laid in a pool of blood. After putting a bounty out on his head, Pablo hand-delivered him to me this morning after our meeting with Angelo. Pablo wasn't just a capo in the Salinas cartel, but he was a highly skilled hitman. One with wild and sophisticated ideas of torture, and when he offered to help me with the man who put the bomb on Charlotte's car, I happily accepted.

Violence was a part of this job, and when the person on the receiving end deserved it, it thrilled me. But when I had my hands on the bastard who endangered Charlotte and Marco that way, it was next level. I fucking loved it.

"The pleasure was all mine." He gave me an evil grin. "And our next shipment of guns will be..."

"It's all taken care of, Pablo. No charge."

He nodded. "What do you say we head back to the hotel and celebrate?"

Pablo and I made our way to resort. This evening, Charlotte and I would be having dinner with Pablo and his wife, and few other of my top clients. These things were usually just bunch of bullshit, but I found myself actually looking forward to it tonight. I couldn't wait to show Charlotte off, and I couldn't get to her fast enough.

I hated leaving her in New York, and begged her to come with me a few days ago, but in the end, she declined and stayed back as we originally planned. A part of me admired her even more for not wanting to let something like this control her life, but I knew how dangerous that could be. If she underestimated the amount of danger she could be in and went along business-as-usual, that would give Silvano the perfect opportunity to get to her.

Security was increased at the hotel and the club tenfold. I wasn't going to take any chances this weekend, although certainly Silvano wouldn't be ignorant enough to try something with all the attention. Almost all of my men would be at this event, including our closest allies and partners, and Silvano had to expect we would have Charlotte under lock and key after what he tried a few days ago.

I was hoping a few days away like this would help her settle and be just what we needed.

When we got back, Pablo went to his room, and I went to the boutique expecting to find Charlotte and Reggie. When they weren't there, I went up to the room, but found it empty as well. I was starting to feel a little panicked when my phone pinged with a text from Reggie.

Charlotte and I are at the deck bar. With Mrs. Salinas.

Damn it. How the fuck did that happen? The Salinas family wasn't one that you fraternized with without some sort of string attached to it, and Charlotte was galivanting around the resort with Esme. That, in and of itself, was dangerous. Esme was conniving, and I knew that well. On multiple occasions, she'd come on to me, despite being married to Pablo. She always had an ulterior motive.

I slammed my hand on the wall of the elevator as I headed back downstairs. Why was it so hard for her to follow my orders when it came to this kind of thing? She was nearly blown to bits two weeks ago. It was one thing to move forward, but it was another to be so careless.

When I got to the back deck, I could see Charlotte sitting with Esme at one of the fire pits. Long dark hair cascading down her back, and a glass of champagne pressed softly to her rosy lips. Esme threw her head back cackling, and poured both of them more champagne.

Jesus. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration, looking for Reggie. He was standing at attention near the outside door, his head on a swivel watching for anything suspicious. At least he was doing making himself useful.

"Reggie." I said walking towards him with my hands in the pockets of my suit.

"Boss, I'm sorry. I tried to get her to go upstairs, but she insisted. I would have had to retrained her to get her upstairs." He spoke quickly trying to defend himself. He was clearly nervous, since before we had left New York, I had been very explicit about what I would do if he left Charlotte alone again.

"Then restrain her next time."

Reggie looked at me a little dumbfounded as I walked towards her. I took a deep breath trying not to appear so angry. Esme caught my eye first.

"Luca!' She squealed. "You've been holding out on me. Your girlfriend is amazing."

Charlotte turned around, meeting my eyes. It was hard to be upset with her when she had that sweet smile on her face. God help me, she melted me.

"She is." I agreed. "Hey baby."

"Hi." Char stood up, getting on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips. Damn, I missed her the last few days.

"Sit down, Luca. Join us for a drink." Esme said, batting her eyelashes at me.

Charlotte went to take her seat again but I caught her hand. "Actually, Charlotte and I need to be going. We'll see you at dinner, though?"

Esme smirked, and stood up. "I know a man who wants to fuck his woman when I see one. I'll see you guys soon."

I led Charlotte back into the hotel and toward the elevator. It was silent as we rode up to the thirtieth floor. My suite took up the entire space.

"You seem upset." Charlotte said, frowning.

I let out a sharp laugh. "You're perceptive. I am a little upset."

"Bad day?"

I shook my head as we went inside. "No, Charlotte, my day was fine."

"Then what is it?" She crossed her arms over her chest apprehensively. I hated the tiny glimpse of fear I saw in her eyes.

"I told you to pick an outfit and then wait for me up here. Do you want to tell me why you decided to go out drinking with Esme?"

He eyes widened. "Wow. That's what you're upset about? You're the one who passed me off to your friends after telling me you'd be at the airport. I met Esme in the boutique. She said her husband was with you, and I thought it would be nice to have a friend in..."

"There are no such thing as friends in the Mafia world, Charlotte. Especially not the Salinas family. There is not a damn thing they do that doesn't come with strings attached." I bellowed. "Esme is dangerous. Extremely dangerous."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" She glared. "It's not like I knew who she was."

"That's entirely the problem, Charlotte. I know you want things to be normal. I know how difficult this is to get used to. But you can't be so quick to trust people. Especially with Silvano still in the wind." The more defensive she got, the angrier I became.

She ran her fingers through her hair, biting back tears. "This is bullshit, Luca. You can't control every second of my life."

"That's not what this is about, Charlotte." I let out a heavy sigh. "You know why I was with Pablo? He's a hit man for one of the most dangerous and ruthless Cartels in the entire world. He's here because I put a hit out on the man who bombed your car and he delivered him to me this morning."

Charlotte flinched when I reached for her hand. "I know that's difficult to hear, but that's reality. Everyone in this world is a threat, and you have to be more careful in how you handle that. You can't just go grab drinks with a random woman you meet in a dress boutique that tells you she knows me. She could have been working with Silvano, or any other of my enemies, and just trying to get you to go with her."

"Okay, I get it." She turned away from me, wiping at the tears on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry." I sighed. "I'm just asking you to be careful. To be weary of people. Not everyone has good intentions. In fact, most people don't. At least in my world."

Charlotte nodded.

I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. "I don't want to fight with you anymore. I've missed you, and I'm excited you're here. I can't wait to show you off tonight."

"I've missed you, too." Charlotte softened, turning back to me. "And I understand what you're saying. I'll be more careful with who I trust."

"Thank you." I smiled, kissing her forehead. "I'd die if anything happened to you."