Page 125 of A Beautiful Crime

And Carina Fiore is looking at me as her king. As the man she was always meant to be with. A man who isn’t evil. A man who didn’t cause her rebirth all those months ago. She’s looking at me as if I’ve been the missing piece in her life.

The door closes softly behind her. The sound causes her to snap out of our trance. “If this is not a good time-“ She begins but I silence her with a look.

Extending my hand I wait for her to take it. And it comes to a relief after so many times before, she no longer hesitates.

She glides across the room like she owns it. With confidence she never had before.

And as her hand closes in mine everything feels in its rightful place. My eyes soften when I gaze up at her. “You’re always welcome, mia leonessa.” And her gaze back at me? How her eyes soften back, it does me in. I brush a kiss across her knuckles and watch the flush bloom her skin. Still such an innocence to her. Patting my thigh with my free hand she accepts the gesture and sits on my lap.

The scent of cherries and lingering sex fills my nostrils. To hide my growing erection I grasp her hips and seat her on my cock. She stiffens before teasing me with a slight wiggle of her hips.

My vixen.

“Carina,” Rico says her name as his own form of hello.

I splay my left hand over her thigh. Her own comes to rest on top of mine.

A ring is missing from her finger. One should’ve already been placed there. I’ll fix that.

“Rico,” she greets back with a nod of her head. She then shifts her attention to the images decorating my desk. She picks up each one after staring at them intensely. Her hand keeps hold of the third photograph and her finger points at the tattooed crest. “These are soldiers of Luca.” I don’t miss the way her voicehardens when she says his name. And neither does Rico. “He sent soldiers to sabotage the port?”

Rico waits for the nod from me to speak freely. And I do. He nods back and then discloses the information. “Soldiers from your brother have stolen a shipment from Tao Haung. He-”

“The leader of The Triads,” she finishes. I’m surprised she knows who he is. Perhaps she wasn’t as sheltered as I thought she was. As if reading my mind Carina says, “I’ve eavesdropped outside of papa’s office from time to time. Learning little pieces of information as best as I could.” It strangely fills me with pride. My brave beautiful woman. “He had tried to gain a meeting with Tao but much to his chagrin never could.”

At full disclosure I tell her, “He’s not a fan of your father.”

At which she replies, “I don’t know of much who are.” She releases the image and turns her attention to me. Dio mio, I could stare in those eyes for the rest of my life and never get tired. “Are you going to kill him?”

“Your papa?” She nods her head. “Would it bother you if I did?” I already know the answer to this. I know how she truly feels. I just need her to say the words. To confirm what I know.

“No,” she breathes. Something settles in her eyes. There’s a certainty. “He stopped being my papa a long time ago. And he never proved himself to be one.” My heart aches for the little girl who couldn’t obtain the love and affection of her papa. At least in this dark and cruel world I had parents who loved me. They would’ve done anything to protect me.

“Would you like to do the honors?”

She shakes her head. Her eyes are fierce as she says darkly, “There’s only one man I want to kill.”

Snaking my hand from her hip, up her back, I then cup the back of her neck. I bring our faces close and I breathe in her intoxicating scent. “And you will.” I place a tender kiss on her open lips. Before it can deepen I reluctantly pull away. Lustglimmers in her eyes. It takes all of the control I have to not swipe everything off my desk and lay her on the wooden surface to feast upon the delicacy of her cunt only to then bend her over the desk and fuck her hard.

Remembering we have an audience of one I release the hold I have on her neck but keep her close. With that beautiful dazed expression I’ve come to love in her eyes she settles back against me. And there is no mistaking the erection I painfully have.

Her eyes then cut to Rico, who stares at us with complete boredom, before cutting back to me. “Are you declaring war?”

“No.”

Her eyebrows pinch. “He’s sabotaged your business. Isn’t that enough?”

“Yes, it is. But I believe Luca wants war. He wants me to go after him. He’s orchestrating a plan himself to where he can ambush me.”

Rico then inputs, “We can’t allow him to have the upper hand.” Carina’s attention returns to him. The green eyed monster in me is fucking pissed another man has her attention.Dio mio, Constantine. You can’t kill your most trusted man because he has your woman’s attention.Still, the irrational impulse is there. What can I say? I really am not a good man. “He’s expecting a war. Has his men and gained others to fight against us. We can’t fall into his trap.”

Carina listens intently. “The only ones I know of who would fight alongside The Fiore Famiglia are the Irish.”

My brows raise. Rico cocks his head. New information to the both of us it seems. The Irish have been a thorn in our sides but so have countless others. When you are at the top everyone wants to see you fall.

But for him to be in allegiance with Savio is suspicious behavior.

It was The Sicilian Outfit that had run The Irish mob out of New York. The Outfit Savio belongs to caused ruin for The Irish Mob empire. The Sicilian Outfit had only held power for so long until our Outfit, The Camorra Outfit, won in a bloodbath.

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