Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

I fucked up. I knew it the moment I sank inside her. I'm not going to be able to let her go, but I also don't see a way I can keep her either. Right now, I'm pacing the length of my living room. My father and grandfather both sitting on the sofa watching me with caution.

"I fucked up," I tell them.

"I'm sure whatever it is you've done, it's not as bad as you think it is," my pops says.

"It is." I run my hands through my hair. I called my father this morning and told him I needed his help. He rocked up twenty minutes later with my grandfather. This is what our family does. We're always there for each other, although I'm not looking forward to the looks of disappointment when they find out the truth.

"What is it?" Nonno asks, his patience waning. He's retired, but he still commands respect in every room he walks into.

"I… ah… I have an FBI agent handcuffed to my bed right now," I tell them. I didn't want Kayleigh to wake up and disappear on me, so I did the only sensible thing I could think of. I made sure she couldn't.

"Say that again?" Pops jumps up from the sofa.

"I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't let her just walk out," I tell him.

"Why not? What did you tell her?" Nonno asks.

"Nothing. I haven't told her a single thing," I say.

"Then why is she handcuffed to your bed?" My father glares at me

"I saw her at school a week ago. I thought it was odd for a new student to be starting so late in the semester so I took her photo and had Dante run it," I explain. Pops sits back down and signals for me to continue. "He found her FBI records, and then I figured I'd beat her at her own game."

"By tying her to your bed?" Nonno questions.

"No. That was… unexpected. I took her on a date last night, to Clentelle," I wince as I say the words.

"You knowingly took a federal agent into a fucking restaurant full of gangsters?" Nonno growls. "Do you have a fucking death wish?"

"No, I wanted to make her uncomfortable," I admit.

"What happened?" Pops grinds out between clenched teeth.

"Frank Esposito stopped by the table to say hello. When he turned to leave, he looked at Kayleigh like he was trying to pin where he knew her from. I panicked and introduced her as my wife."

"Why would you care if old Frank was interested in the Fed or not?" My father continues to glare at me.

Nonno chuckles and shakes his head. "You know, if word's out that you're married, people are going to expect it to be true. You can't lie about these things," he says.

"So I'll marry her." I shrug.

"You'll marry her?" He raises his brows at me. "She's a fucking Fed . You want to marry a cop? How do you think that's going to work out, exactly?"

"She can't testify against me if we're married," I tell him.

"She can, however, feed intel to her partners who can and will build a case," Pops says.

"What else do you know about her?" Nonno asks.

"There's no record of her existing before she was thirteen," I reply.

"Thirteen?" Nonno pulls out his phone and dials a number. "Romeo, dig up the case that put Frank Esposito away. Send it over to me," he says and then disconnects the call. My grandfather isn't one for pointless conversation. "Frank got busted when he went rogue. Put a bullet in the head of an accountant who was working for his family. The wife and daughter were there. They were going to be next if the Feds didn't burst in."

"Wait… You think Kayleigh is that daughter?" I ask.

"They went into witness protection. No one ever looked for ?em because, well, it was Frank. His family was relieved he was locked up," Pops says.

"If she was that kid, he's not going to remember where he knows her from and he's going to come after her to find out," I verbalize what we're all thinking.

"He will," Nonno agrees.

"Okay, so how many people will I piss off when I kill him before he can lay a hand on her?"

My father and grandfather look at me like I've lost my mind. And maybe I have.

"Fucking hell, you've gone and fallen for this woman." Pops shakes his head. "I don't know where the fuck I went wrong with you kids. It's like you're all out to give me a fucking heart attack," he adds dramatically.

"First, you're going to go and uncuff her. We don't hold women against their will in this family," Nonno says. "No matter who they are."

"Oh, she wanted to be in my bed." I smirk, remembering the events of last night and the multiple times I made her scream my name.

"Don't be an ass. That's someone's daughter you got in there. Someone's sister." Pops slaps the back of my head. "All women deserve to be treated exactly how you'd want your sister treated."

If anyone did to Aurora what I did to Kayleigh last night, I'd fucking kill them. There is no way anyone is touching my little sister. Just no. Fucking no.

"Tell me again why I can't kill this Connor kid?" I ask Pops.

"Because we want your sister to come home, not run farther away." He sighs. "Trust me, no one wants the asshole dead more than I do."

"Go and unchain your wife, Enzo," Nonno tells me. "I want to meet the granddaughter who's going to try to lock us all away."