Page 17 of Rescuing Melissa

Fucking Bruno doesn’t mention how selfish this whole thing is. He doesn’t remind her that we want that thumb drive to save our own asses, and that saving hers comes second to protecting the family.

Melissa nods. “You’re going to have a tracker on me? And how will you know when I have eyes on him to come in and get me out?”

“Antonio can give you a panic button. But really, once you’re stopped in one location long enough, we’ll move in. We’ll be following you the whole time. Never out of our sight.”

Melissa closes her eyes, pausing before she speaks. “He won’t let me go, Brunello. I went on one lousy date with him, and I’ve regretted it ever since. You can really make Lance leave me alone, not just for a night?”

Brunello’s reply is sincere, but not good enough for me. “You have my word.”

My fist clenches with rage. “Fuck you and fuck your word, Bruno! She’s terrified!”

Melissa returns to my arms, not to find comfort for herself but to quell my spiking nerves. Her voice is quiet as she speaks to me. “I can do this, Giovanni. Ineedto do this. If there’s a way to get Lance to leave me alone, I want to do it.” She leans up and pecks my lips. “I have to be free of him once and for all.”

My lashes sweep shut as my forehead presses to hers. “Then I’ll take you away from here. I’ll get us a car and we’ll drive someplace he can’t find us.”

She kisses my lips once more. “Lance can always find me.” She shudders against me at the truth in her own words. “I have to end this. If your brothers can help me get away from him, I have to take that chance.” Her hand rubs across my chest. “And if I can help your family the way you helped me, so much the better. You act like I’m the only person who matters. You matter, too.”

My eyes squinch tightly shut, as if that is how I plan to fend off the inevitability I can see we are racing toward. “You don’t trust that I can get you out of town safely.”

Melissa thumbs at my chin. “I don’t know you, Giovanni.” She brushes her cheek to mine. “But I want to know you. I want to be with you, but not if I have a shadow over my shoulder for the rest of my life. And I can’t get to know you if the information Lance has puts you behind bars. Please, Giovanni. Brunello is right; this is the only way we can be together.”

“Fuck, Melissa. I’m sorry!” I slump in her arms. “I want to do right by you. I want to be with you for more than a night before shit rains down on our heads.”

She tightens her arms around me. “First things first: we get Lance behind us. Then we go out on a fabulous date.”

“And a second and third?”

She meets my gaze with insecurity before voicing her truest wish. “Infinity dates.”

Pride and joy lift my posture that this magnificent woman wants me for more than a quick fuck. She wants to be with me, to go out with me.

Just like Brunello has Jessica by his side, once Lance is dealt with, I will have Melissa to come home to.

My eldest brother’s voice interrupts my happy moment. “Shit, Gio. I didn’t realize. This is bigger for you than our aversion to not using a random woman as bait. You’re talking about breaking the family rules for her. No girlfriends, little brother. It’s Rule Number Three.”

Worry flares in me that Bruno might come down hard and try to warn me away from Melissa. “You’re one to talk.”

“I’m not about to bust you on that. But I will tell Antonio to be extra careful with her tech. We don’t want anything to happen to her, Giovanni. I promise. She’ll be gone an hour, tops.” His cadence lightens. “What do you say, Sis?”

And just like that, I am soaring. My brother calling my woman his sister is as much of a “welcome to the family” as I could have hoped for. Brunello isn’t going to get in my way if Melissa and I want to have infinity dates, as she put it.

Melissa squeezes my hand. “Let’s do this. I’m ready to track Lance down, Brunello.”

And just like that, my spirits crash into the depths of despair, because I know that things like this never are without casualties.

“No,” I tell my brother, and then end the call. I don’t care if Melissa agrees to the plan. I don’t, and I’m not letting her out of this room, no matter how safe they promise she will be.

9

Even as Melissa puts on jeans and a fitted pink t-shirt that hugs her tits, I refuse to entertain the notion that she will be leaving for the trade.

“It’s not happening,” I warn her. “I’m telling you; I don’t tolerate the people I care about being smack in the middle of danger.”

She kisses my lips as she straightens out the hem of her shirt around her soft waist. “You love your family, and they are in danger, just as I am. Holing up in a hotel should be for fun, not out of a sense of danger. Don’t you know how badly I want to make love to you for days on end? That can’t happen if Lance is still out there. We have to think long-term, or we’ll never be free to be together. Don’t you want that?”

I kiss my woman, sucking on her lower lip to try and tempt her to take her clothes off. “You know that’s theonlything I want. I still have to get you back for sliding your finger into my ass.” I nuzzle her nose with mine. “Never again, by the way.”

Melissa snickers. “I love that you think I’ll ever play by the rules. Watching your body freak out was too much fun. We are definitely doing that again.” She cups my cock through my pants. “We’re going to do it so often that you start asking for it.”

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