Page 57 of Protecting Charity

“Sounds like a brilliant woman.”

He huffed. “Not really. She’s too cocky for her own good, and that will be her downfall.”

“And what is that they will destroy her over?”

The curiosity turned from a tingle to an itch, and I suddenly wanted to know what he knew.

“Oh, I think you know, Charity.”

I smiled with derision and walked away from him promptly to Luca, where he stood with the one person I’m sure would be interested in learning an FBI agent was attending his event.

“Gentleman,” I said. Placing my hand on Luca’s shoulder, I then whispered in his ear, making sure my lips touched the shell faintly. “Agent Harding is here, and he confronted me.”

He nodded with understanding as I glanced back to take note Owen was still standing in the same position I left him in, and he was watching me without concern that I was about to get his ass kicked from this party.

Luca leaned over, relaying the message to Elias, who then snapped to Pooch like a goddamn game of telephone. Elias said a few garbled words to him, then Pooch jumped into action, and I watched with a bright smile on my face as he chased away the rude FBI agent hell-bent on ruining my complicated life.

Pooch held his hand in the direction he wished for Owen to walk, and Owen took his suggestion to my dismay. I would have loved to see what Pooch was capable of. Go figure, two men I hate, standing together in the same room. Owen looked at me, and I gave him a light finger wave along with a wicked smile he’d never forget. Best not to taunt the beast, but I honestly couldn’t help it. He crossed the line with what he did at my parents’ home. He was trying to rattle my bones and rile me up; I knew that.

He wanted a reaction from me, so I would slip up and say something. It was the only way he would get the evidence he needed to arrest me and make his career. I could see the headlines now; FBI agent captures the Mafia’s most dangerous enforcer, effectively saving the world. Okay, that was an embellishment, but still. He wasn’t working on the case they brought him here to do, which did a disservice to Allie.

I turned back to Luca, and he slipped his hand around my waist, pulling me in tight against his side. The conversation took a strange turn as someone brought up the cult member that assumed responsibility for slaughtering his entire family.

“It was gruesome. He told the police he was trying to get right with God.”

“Sounds like he was smoking a little too much PCP. Am I right?” He nudged the man standing next to him, and they chuckled as if sharing an inside joke.

It sounded oddly familiar as I recalled the news broadcast a while back of the man that shot up a research center in California saying something similar. Fucking whack-a-doodles. Where did these people find someone so dumb to believe this shit? Were they just so desperate for acceptance that they would accept whatever spewed out of someone’s mouth?

It took me back to what the Priestess said about me killing someone I loved. I had forgotten it for all of twenty minutes, then it was eating at my soul again like a fucking parasite that couldn’t be killed.

Luca dug his fingers into my side a little tighter, drawing me from my gloomy thoughts, then slipped his hand into mine. “It’s time. Elias will show us where to go and bring us to our seats. Then, we are to sit down and be quiet since it’s a silent auction. Please do not make a scene, baby.”

I chuckled. “I never make a scene.” I knew it was a bald-faced lie. Making a scene was what I seemed to master tonight.

Luca cupped my cheek, then rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip. Just one simple act had me weak in the knees and me forgetting all my troubles. I gripped his wrist and stared into his chocolate depths, envisaging the future. I could stay here forever, forget the world around me, and be at peace as I stared into his soul.

I think he sensed my storm under the exterior calm. He gave a slight bob of his head in acknowledgment to something unspoken yet understood, then pressed his lips to my forehead and pulled me towards the inconspicuous door with a dapper man standing beside it. Luca pulled the second invitation, the size of a business card, and gave it to the man in a black suit. He flipped it front to back, examining it. Placing it in a dropbox beside the door, he opened it for us to step through to an empty room.

“I need to search you for weapons,” the man said.

Luca raised his arms to the side, and the man patted him down, then stepped up to me, and I did the same. His hands slithered down my hips and thighs, then down to my ankles and back up again to my chest. His palm touched my waist and lingered a little too long under my breasts, then snaked around to my back and around to my breasts again.

“If you touch my tits one more time, I’m going to break your fucking fingers one by one,” I warned him.

The guard coughed, choking from my crass response, and stepped back, then nodded towards the other door for us to walk through.

Sneering at the man, I grabbed Luca’s hand again and squeezed it in a death clutch. Where were these nerves coming from? I could handle most anything they threw at me, but for some reason, this put me in a rather tricky position.

‘Do nothing’ was what he said. Sit still, say, and do nothing, to be precise. That was the absolute opposite of who I was. I was a take action, kick-ass, ask questions later, kind of gal. How he expected me to sit tight was anyone’s guess. If that little girl was here, I wouldn’t let her slip through my fingers. I’d stop her transfer at any cost. That was what I was here to do; I couldn’t fail her.

We walked down the darkened stairs with red velvet walls straight from a fucking porno in the seventies. Who the hell was the decorator? I should fire them and save Elias some money. I ran my fingers across the material just to make sure it wasn’t an illusion, and sure enough, velvet. The crimson cloth tickled my fingertips just enough to make me cringe.

“Should I add it to the room?” his rich voice startled me from my internal frowning.

“I’ll never sleep with you again if you bring it anywhere near your home.”

His chuckle caused me to smile in the dim light only I could witness.

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