Luca

I knew the very moment that this guy walked into my hotel that something was off. No one came in or out of this place without my team following up, and I had a hunch that him being here tonight was no coincidence. He was one of Silvano's men, I just knew it. With his every move being watched by Angelo, I felt confident enough to continue on to my date with Charlotte.

That had gone downhill quickly, and when she left, I went to meet Angelo for an update. That was when we saw the man follow Charlotte into the elevator. We got there quickly, but every second she was alone with him was one too many.

When the doors to the elevator opened, the man had Charlotte pressed against the wall and gun in her ribs. He craned his neck toward the door, shocked to see us and quickly scrambling away from her.

"Hey man, this isn't..."

I charged toward him, grabbing the collar of his shirt and throwing him into the wall, slamming my forearm into his throat. "This isn't what it looks like? Is that what you were about to tell me?"

The guy sputtering and gasped, the last remnants of air leaving his lungs. A deep shade of blue blanketed his face as he fought against me.

"She was..." He croaked out.

I loosened my grip, giving him a moment's reprieve so he could speak.

"She was into it." A wicked smirk spread across his lips.

As if I needed proof the slimy bastard was lying, Charlotte shook her head wildly—crumpled up on the floor with mascara tears streaming down her cheeks and a horrified look in her eyes.

"Shut the fuck up." Angelo put his gun to his temple.

I bent down to Charlotte, scooping her up off the floor. "Are you okay?"

She didn't even answer, just buried her face into my chest and sobbed--all the bravado and confidence she had just a few minutes ago shattering into pieces.

"It's okay, you're safe now." I assured her.

"Who are you?" Angelo growled, pulling the hammer of his pistol back.

"Silvano sent me."

All I saw was blind rage. Silvano was at it again. He sat in that restaurant and lied straight to my face, he was stupid enough to come after her again, and he had the audacity to send someone into my place of business. I had given him a courtesy the first time around, and but I wouldn't make that mistake again. Until I could get my hands on him directly, this guy would have to do.

I lunged at him, wrapping my fingers around his next and slamming him against the wall with a deafening thud. The harder he fought against me, the harder I squeezed, feeling the life drain out of him in my bare hands. He was no match for my strength, and all of the flailing and kicking around he was doing was of no use. I let up for a moment, and cracked my fist against his nose sending a spray of blood in all directions. Charlotte gasped out loud behind, jerking me back to reality.

"Luca, not in front of her..." Angelo nodded toward Charlotte. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. This wasn't the time or the place. Charlotte wasn't the only audience we had as a crowd was starting to form at the commotion we had caused.

I hesitated, but grabbed Charlotte's hand and led her down the hallway to my private elevator. She didn't need to be paraded around right now. I needed to get her somewhere private where we could have a very serious conversation.

One attack, I might be able to turn the other cheek on. Maybe it was a coincidence. But this was twice. And tonight, had been bolder than I had ever expected from an old goat like Silvano. There was a connection there, and I was going to find it. And if Charlotte had been lying this entire time, God help her.

Charlotte was still shaking when we got on my floor and I led her down to the doors of my penthouse.

"What is this place?" She stepped inside the front door, her voice still shaky with fear. She didn't trust me, but I was the lesser of two evils right now. At least with me, she knew she was relatively safe.

"My penthouse. I have one in all of my hotels. It makes traveling for business easier."

Charlotte didn't say anything as she walked into the living room, sitting down on the white leather couch and burying her face in her hands. Cautiously, I sat down next to her, unsure of what to say. Sensitivity was never my forte. My father always said it bred weakness, and my enemies would use it to exploit me, but I had taken that to extremes over the years. I didn't know how to comfort her, I didn't know how to make her feel better, and I wasn't sure I necessarily wanted to until I knew she was being honest with me.

"Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm okay. Just... What if they come back?"

"You don't have anything to worry about. You'll stay here, at least for tonight anyways. I will have one of my men with you at all times and even more watching just to be sure until I get this sorted out."

"Why are you doing all of this for me?"

That was a good question. Why the fuck was I spending valuable time and resources trying to get to the bottom of this? She was just a girl, right?

Wrong. I was feeling things for this woman that I had never felt in my life. It wasn't just lust, and that was getting more and more obvious as this went on. I felt possessive over her--like Silvano coming at her was personal—and I wanted to protect her. It was the right thing to do, but it was also because I couldn't stand the thought of her being hurt. But falling for her would only put her in more danger, and I wasn't about to do that. As painful as it might be, I had to keep my distance from her, even while making sure she was safe. I was walking a dangerous line with Charlotte, but something told me it was worth it.

"Because I can't stand anyone who tries to harm a woman, and Silvano knows that. He made it personal tonight sending that troll into my hotel. I need to go find Angelo. Will you be okay for a little while?"

"So, you don't want to talk about what just happened?" She snipped. Was she glaring at me?

"I'd love to." I let out a sharp laugh. I was planning on giving her a chance to recover tonight and not doing this now, but her antagonizing attitude had changed my mind.  "Let's start with you telling me how you know Silvano."

"How many times do you want me to tell you this? I don't know who you're talking about."

"Charlotte, believe me, I want to believe you, I really do. But we're not talking about some random guy here. He's head of a syndicate of the Italian Mafia and he's after you. He's attacked you twice now--once here at my hotel where he knew me and my men would be. He wouldn't go to that kind of trouble if he didn't have a damn good reason."

"You're forgetting the other common denominator here is you. Maybe this is all your fault." Charlotte shot back.

"You think this is my fault?" I narrowed my eyes at her. I'd just saved the girl and now she was blaming me.

Charlotte shrugged. "Well, it's not mine. And you've been lying to me from the very second you walked into my gallery. How do you know that Silvano guy? Why are you connected to him? Why don't you be honest with me for once?"

"You want me to be honest?" I smirked, shaking my head. I hadn't wanted to go here, but she was leaving me no other choice. "How about this? I know who Silvano is because I run a rival section of the Italian Mafia. He and I have been at odds for years, and not one single time has he sent his men to one of my establishments like he did tonight."

Charlotte's eyes widened. "You do what?"

"I'm a mafia boss." I said. "I am not the kind of guy you want to make an enemy out of. I really don't want to have to do this the hard way, but if you don't start talking soon, you're gonna learn more about who I really am than you ever wanted to know." My chilling threat terrified her down to her bones and her fiery spirit faded.

"Luca, I swear," I liked the sound of her voice begging me. "I have no idea who Silvano is. I've never seen those men before." She buried her face in her hands. "I never should have moved here. If I had any idea there were Mafia gangs in New York I never would have moved here."

"Trust me, the Mafia has affiliates in Rhode Island, too." Her naivety was cute.

She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me. "How do you know I'm from Rhode Island?"

"I know everything about you, Charlotte. I know about your parents, Elena and Josh, right?" Her face turned white. "And your little brother Noah? He's quite an actor, I especially liked his part in the play his school put on last month. I know about every speeding ticket, every grade, every doctor's visit. I know you were a track star. I know you almost died when you were seven because you ate almond cake at a friend's birthday. By the way, you should tell people you're allergic to almonds before you let them take you to dinner. Anyway, what I can't quite figure out is how you're connected to those men? What could Silvano possibly want with you? At first, I thought it may have been a coincidence but after tonight, in my own fucking hotel, I know he's got a real good reason for coming after you."

Charlotte cowered away from me, fear creeping into her eyes. She lowered herself slowly onto the white leather couch in the living room. "Luca, don't you think if I knew what they wanted, I would tell you so you could protect me?"

It was hard to argue with her reasoning there. She had a good point. I was the only form of protection she had from Silvano, and it sounded like she knew it was in her best interest for me to know.

She was crying again, giant tears streaming down her cheeks. I hadn't really considered how hard this would be for Charlotte, and was worried I'd been too harsh. I was immune to the ins and outs of this life now, and sometimes I forgot not everyone lived this way. For some reason I believed her. I groaned, hoping I wouldn't live to regret this.

"I just want to go home. Can you have one of your men take me there?"

"Fine." I sighed in exasperation. If the girl didn't understand the type of danger she was in now, I wasn't going to stop her. "Go ahead and get yourself killed. I don't care."

My words hit her like daggers, and she shrank away at the sting of them.

"Marco will call you a car if that's what you want. Goodnight, Charlotte." I tore out of the penthouse, not able to spend another moment standing there. If I stayed any longer, I might never leave. I might beg her to stay, for my own selfish reasons. I might cross a boundary that we'd never be able to recover from.

I had no choice but to leave. Even more than I wanted to stay with her, I had responsibilities to take care of.  Leaving the penthouse, I punched Angelo's name into my phone. "Where are you?"

"Your office." He answered quickly. I hung up and headed that way.

What I wanted to do was go over to Silvano's estate and wring his neck with my bare hands. I meant what I said to Charlotte—this was personal now I wanted to break every bone in his body, skin him alive and then nail his tongue to the floor. I wanted him to suffer. To regret sending that man here tonight. To think twice before ever crossing me again.

I threw the door to my office open to find Angelo and Carlo sitting in the recliners opposite my desk.

"Where is she?" Angelo asked, sliding over a stack of photos over to me. It confirmed what we knew all along, the man who attacked Charlotte tonight was one of Silvano's they had confirmed as much with Marco's facial recognition software.

"Upstairs. She's still pretty shaken up, so I didn't get a chance to talk with her much." I ran my fingers through my hair, contemplating my next move. I couldn't ignore Silvano's taunting anymore. It didn't matter he wasn't outright attacking me, he knew exactly what he was doing by coming here tonight.

"We can't brush this off as coincidence anymore." Angelo said. "He wants her. And you need to decide how far you want to push it."

"What do you mean, push it?"

"I mean, is she really worth going to war over? She's obviously lying, and if this is something between the two of them, we're the ones putting our noses in places they don't belong. We're in the wrong."

I let out a sharp laugh. Angelo, God love him, always came from the logical side of things. It was one of the reasons we worked well together. He kept my passionate tendencies grounded, and I made him push the envelope in the name of morals more times than he was comfortable with. It was a balance that generally worked, but I right now, I wasn't compromising. Not on this.

"We're not in the wrong here, Angelo. In no way, shape, or form. We know his history, we know the way he treats women. I don't care what she has going on with him, I'm not going to sit back and let him attack her the way he is. And we don't know that she's obviously lying. The only thing obvious is that that girl if traumatized and absolutely horrified at what has gone on the last few months. And she makes a great point—If she knew anything about who SIivano was and why she was being attacked, why wouldn't she tell us so we could protect her?"

"Because she knows she deserves it." Carlo chimed in. "She wouldn't tell us if she had crossed him and knew she deserved it."

I shot him an icy glare. Who did he think he was throwing around accusations like that? "She didn't deserve to be nearly raped twice at the hands of this man, and if either of you disagree with that, then get the hell out."

"Look, the point is, we don't know anything. She could be completely innocent and just somehow caught his attention, or she could be tangled up with him somehow and it's none of our business. So, put her under protection. We have a few men we can allocate to that if that's what you want to do, but aside from that, you need to let it go. You can't be involved anymore."

"Don't even start." I warned, holding my hand up to him. I wasn't in the mood for his lectures today.

"I'm serious. Do not get involved with her." He cautioned.

"I'm not getting involved with her." I rolled my eyes.

"She is not some girl you can just hook up with and never call again. You're putting this entire family in danger because you're on some conquest to sleep with her."

"Shut the fuck up. I'm not trying to sleep with her. I'm trying to figure out what Silvano couldn't want with a struggling artist from Rhode Island."

"Nice cover."

I pulled the gun out from my waistband, pointing it in Angelo's direction.

"Put that thing away before you hurt someone." Angelo didn't even flinch. "Just be careful, okay? No girl is worth starting a war over."

"Goodbye, Angelo." I said, refusing to make eye contact.

"And don't work all night." Angelo stood up and stretched.

"Goodbye, Angelo." I repeated. This time he walked out, shutting the door tightly behind him.

This was going to be a long night.