Page 80 of Bossy Ex's Brother

I didn’t ask them why, and I frankly didn’t care. I just wanted Luca to be alive and safe.

A few hours after they rolled Luca’s body into the trauma unit, Dr. Colson came out and told us they’d managed to pull out all the bullets, and Luca was alive. They were just waiting for him to wake up. It was a relief, but I didn’t think I could fully relax until Luca woke up.

I insisted on staying by his side throughout the night, which worked out because Bethany was staying in the adjoining room. They wanted to keep her for observation because she seemed to have gone into shock. Brandon told me that he’d sent some men to watch over the kids at home, and I nodded distractedly, feeling as if I was hearing him from afar. He also told me Felix was alive, just a little wounded, but he didn’t want to leave the younger ones at home to get treatment.

I was dozing off sometime around midnight when Luca finally opened his eyes.

My heart caught as those beautiful eyes instantly swam to me.

The first thing he asked me was, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

And then, after I shook my head, he breathed a sigh of relief, shutting his eyes and muttering a prayer. Then he said, “It’s okay, you know. If you wanna call the cops.”

His eyes opened, and he caught my gaze as he smiled sadly. “You didn’t sign up for this, and I’m so fucking sorry I got you and your family involved. You can call whoever you want and ignore whatever Brandon or whoever told you. I’ll take care of them.”

And I could tell from his face that he meant it too. Even if my talking to the cops meant that he would land in jail and would serve time for it. Even if it meant that he would have to fight everyone here to make sure I could be safe.

He was making that sacrifice for me. Again.

“He’s been asking around, especially since he got his woman. He never wanted to be in the Coppolas in the first place. He only joined so that his brother didn’t have to.”

And I knew it was true. I was willing to do the same thing in there, willing to prostitute myself for Bethany to escape. How could I begrudge him the same thing?

“I won’t talk to anyone,” I said as I held his hand. He looked surprised but then frowned and pulled his hand away.

“You should go.”

“No,” I responded.

He glanced at me almost angrily. “Do you have any idea who I am? The type of shit I’ve done? Do I need to give you a full report before you realize you shouldn’t be here?”

I shook my head, slightly sick to my stomach but unwilling to give in. I knew what he was doing. Trying to distance himself from me so that I would be safe. But now that I was associated with him, I knew I wouldn’t be safe anyway. They already knew me. And the only safe place was by his side.

He wasn’t a good man. But I was his regardless.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him firmly, getting up on the bed. I ran my hand through his hair and drew his eyes back to mine, marveling at the somewhat stubborn look on his face, which also held a hope that lurked underneath. I could see, under all the bluster, the little boy he never was.

“Just tell me the plan,” I said. “Because now that my family is involved in this, I need to know what your plan is to get us out of this.”

“You trust me that much?” he whispered, his voice full of emotion.

“With my life.”

He shook his head in shock for a few minutes. And then he drew me to him with a harsh kiss filled with so much passion, love, and emotion that I knew it even before he said the words.

“I love you,” he hissed against my lips. “I fucking love you. You’re my entire world.”

“I love you too,” I told him, finally letting it off my chest.

It was the first of many during our roller-coaster relationship.

Luca told me all about his mafia dealings and the problems with the Morettis. He said he’d made peace with them, but he didn’t trust them yet to hold up their end of the deal, so he placed some of his most trusted men to watch me and all of my siblings throughout. I thought they would be freaked out, but most of them were pretty understanding. Bethany, of course, thought the whole thing was kind of exciting, but the whole kidnapping incident seemed to have given her a new lease on life. She came to me soberly one afternoon and told me that she planned on finishing high school but wanted to take a break before college because she wanted to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.

“I don’t want you to just waste your money,” she told me. “Even though you’re practically a billionairess now.

Oh yeah, that’s right. I’d become rich overnight. I didn’t know exactly how much Luca was worth before dating him, and finding out he was a billionaire didn’t change my opinion of him one bit. It intimidated me less than the fact that he was a crime lord.

I tried not to think about everything he’d done, telling myself that he did what he had to do to survive and protect his family. If I were in his shoes, I probably would have done the exact same thing. Maybe I was just cruel to justify it. But he told me that he never went after innocents, women, children, or the non-affiliated, and I believed him. And now that he’d taken a step back from it all, allowing Brandon to lead the Coppolas, I was happy to put it behind us.

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