Page 44 of Captive Vows
Or fuck her.
When the meeting concluded, I was in a hurry to get back to my home and check that she was all right. Seeing her would be the final proof to know that she wasn’t traumatized again.
Emil rode with me, perhaps sensing that I wasn’t being myself. Then when we were stuck in traffic, he came right out and asked.
“You fuck her yet?”
I cringed, giving him a hard look. “Do you always keep my fucking sex life in mind?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “No. Hell no. Trust me, it’s the least of my concerns.”
“Then why the hell are you asking me something like that?”
“Because you’re distracted. We covered for you at that meeting.”
Dammit.
“And if you’re distracted, it’s got to be her.”
I rubbed my face, sighing heavily. “I almost lost my control with her.”
He watched me, studying me and likely trying to interpret the meaning of my words. That line could refer to me losing my control to take her or kill her, I supposed. “I almost…” I shook my head. Emil and I were close. I raised him myself. Well, I raised him as a single father and the rest of the Dubinin Family as my backup. Some people liked to say it took a village to raise a child. That was true for a Mafia “village” as well. While we were close as father and son, there were boundaries to some topics, like this one. Yet, I wasn’t uncomfortable to confide in him this much. That was how much I trusted him and valued his opinions—usually.
“So?” He shrugged.
“I can’t tell if it would be a mistake.”
“Only one way to find out.”
I shot him a dull smirk.
“Or you could just sell her now and then you won’t be tempted. If you don’t want to be tempted.”
“No.” It left my lips as a single word of a refusal, one I couldn’t take back. I hadn’t been comfortable with the concept of letting another man have her. Not after I’d kissed her, not once I saw how strongly she lusted forme. “I’m no longer in the mood to sell her.” Fuck, I hated the idea of losing her at all. But in wanting her, I was endangering her.
“It’s not like it’d be a terrible thing to have a woman to pursue,” he said with another indifferent shrug, watching the scenery slowly pass by out the window. We were back in “my” car, the Rolls Royce I couldn’t let go of. Tinted windows precluded the rest of the world from seeing us in here, and Ienjoyed the freedom of this privacy to talk about this with my son.
“Because she’s an innocent,” he reminded me. “It’s not a matter of your having to worry about her being a trap or a spy.”
I nodded. That, unfortunately, happened far too many times to count. Whores and other women would use themselves to get intel for our enemies. Gabriella didn’t fall in that category. She knew nothing about what Miguel Lopez was up to. She seemed naïve that he was a drug runner at all.
“She won’t trick you into anything,” Emil added.
I nodded again, easily agreeing with him. Gabriella wasn’t a threat like that. She was only a temptation. A siren. Nothing more.
“But she is not fit for this world.” That seemed like the most direct argument I could count on. Distancing her from me made the most sense when I pointed out how ill-suited she was to be with me for anything more than the short term. She couldn’t belong with me for good.
“That’s true,” he replied. “She’s too innocent.”
Gabriella was innocent in every sense of the word. Untouched as a virgin. Clean without any crimes or wrongdoing, no blood on her hands.
“She doesn’t necessarily scare easily, though.” Raising his brows, he almost seemed amused. “When I went to pick her up, fuck, she fought like hell. Not only protesting and fighting to get free to run, but she was also calculating. She was strategic in faking that she was unconscious from the drug to try to get away again.”
I had to smile at that. Gabriella’s fight and spirit were admirable. I enjoyed how defiant she could be. It was almost something to be proud of, that she wasn’t a fool and could operate like that under pressure.
“But she’s too soft. Too good.” I sighed. “Too…”
“Delicate?”
