Page 38 of Love Without Control

He sighed and stood upright, bracketing his jaw with his hand before stroking downward. “If Luca Cappitani gives you an order, you do it or else. You get what I’m saying?”

My mind worked to keep up, to put all the pieces together. “Damiano was going to let me go, but then, if he went home without his father’spurchase, he would be dead meat.”

“Now you’re getting it,” he said, picking up the scissors again, holding a piece of my hair between two fingers and snipping off the ends. “And don’t even ask me why because I can’t give you the answer to that. All I know is that once Luca found out who you were, everything changed. Damiano knew you—and every member of your family—would become a target.”

As Robert finished the haircut, I was silent, processing everything I knew, but it still didn’t make sense. Damiano didn’t even know me. Why the hell would he care if I was a target? Why the hell would he protect me when I’m sure it would have been simpler for him to disappear without me in tow?

When Robert started brushing the dark-brown color onto my hair with a black, long-handled brush, I spoke again.

“This thing you and Jamie do… do you have a success rate?”

When he was silent, I lifted my eyes to find his jaw clenched. Finally, he said, “Almost perfect. Only one loss.” His voice took on a hint of anger. “He didn’t follow our directions.”

“What did he do?”

Robert’s eyes dropped to mine, boring into them like he was imparting something very important. “We told him no contact with anyone in his old life, but he didn’t listen. He called his mistress, and, of course, the Bratva had her phone tapped. That’s how they found him.”

His lips pressed hard together as his hands continued their work.

“Why were you asking about the money earlier?”

“Oh, yeah. That. You’re not going to have to worry about rent or anything, but I was wondering if you minded using that money for yours and Damiano’s living expenses.”

“Like I said, it’s not mine, so I don’t care,” I replied. “How long until Luca forgets about me so I can go home?”

“That asshole has a very long memory, Evie. There was one guy who wronged him and then disappeared. Luca found him nine years later and decapitated him in front of his wife and kids.”

Bile rose in my throat, and it took great effort to swallow it down. “So if he’s not going to forget about me, what’s the end game?”

“Someone has to take out Luca. No one under him has the balls to do it, so it has to come from the top. From Leo, the Don. The only problem is, Leo is Luca’s uncle, and he’s always been reluctant to kill a member of his own family.”

“How noble of him,” I said sarcastically, sliding my hands beneath my thighs. I thought maybe we were going into hiding for a couple months or something, but any hope of seeing my family anytime soon was beginning to fade.

“Damiano’s brother is talking to Leo, but there’s no guarantee it will work. He has to be cautious though so Luca doesn’t find out. We need to keep Fiero in place because he’s the only one we can trust within the family.” Robert pressed a finger against the back of my head. “Tilt forward.”

I did, feeling air against the back of my neck. Though with all this new information, some missing hair seemed a lot less important.

Once the color was done processing, Robert sat me in another chair and leaned my head back into the single shampoo bowl along one wall of the metal building.

“Oh my god, that feels good,” I sighed as his fingers scrubbed and massaged my scalp.

He looked down at me and smiled. “Jamie says the same thing. She loves when I wash her hair.”

This big man’s face took on the consistency of a melting marshmallow when he spoke of his wife. “You are the cutest couple,” I commented.

“You and Damiano will be too.”

I jerked upright, splashing water and shampoo all over. “We arenota couple,” I gritted out, and Robert’s eyebrows lifted high on his forehead as he eased me back down.

“Okay, killer. Calm down. All I meant was that you two will look good together. Should be easy enough to make people believe you’re really newlyweds.”

Even the thought of that rankled me. “Except for the fact that I don’t like him.”

“I’m aware,” he said with a chuckle. “But you’re going to have to show off your acting skills and pretend when you’re out in public.”

My nose crinkled because I knew he was right. “I’ll start working on my Oscar award acceptance speech,” I grumbled.

Robert laughed. “Good. Though no one says you have to act nice when you’re not in front of others.” His grin turned positively wicked. “In fact, when you’re in private, I think you need to give Damiano hell every chance you get.”

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