Page 75 of Claimed By the Enforcer

“You go get dressed. I’ll help you pack.” I nodded, grabbing the first outfit that I came to and headed for the ensuite bathroom.

I was quick to change, taking a moment to use the restroom since I wasn’t sure when the next pitstop would be. Traveling while pregnant was hard enough when you weren’t on the run.

I hurried back into the bedroom where Luca was just zipping up my suitcase.

“That was fast.”

“I didn’t bother folding. Shoes.” Luca nodded at my bare feet.

“Oh.” I quickly slipped on a pair of flats and started for the door, but Luca stopped me.

“Wait.” He pressed his ear to the crack in the door, waiting, before cracking the door and peeking out. He quickly jerked back into the room and carefully closed my door without making a sound. “Someone’s out there.”

“Then how are we going to get out of here? Stefano should be back soon.”

“We’ll have to go down the balcony.”

“You’re expecting a pregnant woman to scale down a balcony? Or were you thinking maybe I’d just propel down with some kind of climbing gear?”

“No. I brought an emergency rope ladder. You know, the kind they have in case of a fire.”

“Oh.”

“I figured you’d be able to handle that since you’re hardly even showing. Besides, I’d never let you fall.”

“Okay.” Luca grabbed my suitcase and tossed it into the bushes before letting me go first down the ladder.

Once I was on the ground, I looked expectantly up at him, waiting for him to climb down but instead, he removed the ladder, rolled it back up, and tossed it into the bushes with my bag.

“What are you doing?” I whisper-yelled.

“Can’t leave evidence.”

I looked around the dark yard nervously. “How are you going to get down?”

“The same way that I got up.”

Luca moved to the side of the balcony, climbing over the railing, and letting himself hang by his arms as low as he could bring himself to the ground, which being over six-feet tall, wasn’t all that far. He let himself drop, landing smoothly on his feet. He didn’t waste any time, grabbing the ladder and my bag.

“Admit it. You just wanted to show off,” I teased as I met him near the shrubbery, but Luca just smirked.

“Come on. We should hurry.” He grabbed my hand.

“Where’s your car?”

“I parked it on the road that abuts to the back of the property so we can completely avoid the frontage road. Come on.”

We ran across the back yard, slowing only for a moment once we reached the manicured treeline. Luca helped me through a hole in the fence right as the backyard spotlights lit up. I caught a glimpse of several armed men rushing toward us from a distance just as Luca ducked under the fence.

“Hurry, get in the car. They’ll be able to cut us off if we don’t get to the main road before they do.”

I scurried into the car while Luca tossed our stuff through the back-side window and jumped into the driver’s seat. We were already pulling out onto the back road before the first man made it to the fence.

The engine roared as Luca pushed it to its limit. We made it to the main road with no sign of Stefano’s men catching up. Luca’s knuckles whitened as he barely lifted his foot off the gas before taking the turn. The force of the turn had me bracing myself so that I wouldn’t slam into the door. I closed my eyes and prayed that the car wouldn’t flip.

"Where are you going?” I glanced back through the rear window. “The airport's the other way."

"We're not going to the airport. It's the first place Costa would look for you."

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