Page 78 of Luciano (Belles & Mobsters 1)

It was justpast midnight and my bare feet made no sound against the marble floor. I wore nothing but my panties and Luciano’s dress shirt that came down to my knees. There was something comforting about the familiar citrus woodsy smell of it, brushing against my skin.

I headed downstairs, to the pool area where I told Ella to meet me. The moment I stepped outside, the cool September air hit my flushed face. For a moment, I halted my step, closed my eyes, and listened to the stillness of the night while the air cooled my hot skin. If only I could freeze time and leave us in this cocoon. It might not be a realistic cocoon, but it was better than the reality.

I opened my eyes and noted Ella already seated by the pool, waiting for me, her small frame sitting on the edge of the pool with her feet dangling off of it.

“Hey,” I greeted her and sat down next to her, mirroring her position.

Throwing me a side glance, she gave me a small smile. “You look like you tumbled through bedsheets with a certain husband of yours.” Her shoulder nudged me lightly, her tone teasing.

I rolled my eyes. “Didn’t you tell me to take advantage of the fact that I was under the same roof as him?”

A soft chuckle escaped her. “I sure did, although I didn’t think you’d take my advice.”

It wasn’t my intention to take her advice, but it seemed I was a weak woman when it came to my husband.

We sat in silence, both of our eyes lingering on the surface of the pool. The darkness of the night that surrounded us reflected our fears.

“What did you find?” I finally asked.

“Your uncle and Benito King have now put a price on our heads, so other mobsters within their approved circles would help locate us.”

Boom-bum. Boom-bum. Boom-bum.

I knew it was coming; from the moment we set foot on the U.S. soil, it was only a matter of time. Seconds. Minutes. Days. Not months; I always knew we didn’t have months.

But damn it, hope was a bitch, a heartless bitch. And even now, it glowed in the dark… like a fucking lightning bug. Always a hopeful lightning bug. It would be squashed - either by the ruthless mobsters or by cruel reality.

“We’ll have to run. Without Matteo,” I whispered, and those words physically hurt my chest. Both of us threw a glance up at the marble façade of Luciano’s mansion. “Tomorrow, after my grandmother’s event. We kill her, then kill my uncle and we run.”

One heartbeat of deadly, earth shattering silence that tore at both of our souls.

“God, Grace. Do you think we could bring Mat-” she cut herself off.

“No, we can’t,” I muttered. It killed me to say that, but this was the safest place for Matteo. If we pulled through, and if it ever became safe for us, I’d come back for him. Even knowing I was doing the right thing by my son, it shattered me to walk away. I had to do it, but every ounce of my being as his mother objected to it.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.” I wasn’t but that didn’t matter. Surviving this; protecting Matteo was what mattered the most. “They won’t give up till they have us.”

I’d failed. I should have hunted down my uncle, grandmother, and Benito King and killed them all. Instead of our petty attempts at diminishing Romano wealth, we should have spent the last three years planning how to hunt them down and kill them. But we pretended they forgot about us, thinking we could live the rest of our lives in hiding. It was an illusion of safety we fooled ourselves into.

Now they were after us even more relentlessly.

“Our fan list keeps growing,” Ella muttered. She was scared, as she should be. I was terrified.

I swallowed hard. I knew what I had to do, but my heart twisted in agony with the thought of it. Tomorrow, I’d leave Matteo behind.Shit, that hurts!

It was the right thing to do, but it hurt so badly. I didn’t know how I’d survive it. He was my entire life.

Ella and I locked eyes and my heart bled. “Are you sure you want to come along, Ella?”

“Yes. My debt remains unpaid to your uncle and the King family. If I stay, Matteo is at risk.”

“Okay.” My voice was hoarse. I knew her heart was breaking too. She fell for Massimo. I fell for my husband again. This life was a damn cluster… what happened to a simple life with a white picket fence?

Oh yeah! It was interrupted by some ancient agreement by my ancestors to provide a belle for fucking mobsters. Monsters, more like it.

God, I didn’t know if I could survive life without my son in it. Matteo was forever part of my DNA. And we would leave it all behind. The only semblance of family we had.

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