Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jake

My head aches all day, ibuprofen only dulling the pain. After Nia checks my injury, we go back to avoiding each other. Something has shifted and I know we're both grappling with what that means.

I've made promises to my family, to my dead brother, and I'm going to see them through. Besides, my brother Frank was my protector as a child and it's my turn to give back to him.

Frank should have never gotten married. My nephews are a huge part of my life, but their parents, my brother, that was some crazy shit. If I ever thought I'd make a relationship work, Frank taught me we're too fucked up for happily ever after.

But when I look at Nia, I want to be a different man…

At nine, she just goes to bed.

I lay there listening to her breathing slowly, it grows deep and even.

I wish her head was on my chest.

I pull out my phone, setting an alarm for vibrate and then lay it on my chest, but I never fall asleep. My head still aches and I feel torn in ways I never expected.

I wait for what feels like an eternity and then get up, pulling my laptop out from under my mattress where it's been tucked.

Mason was alerted that the systems in the house went down, and I know he's going to have even more questions.

I don't bother with a shirt as I make my way into the gym and softly close the door.

Firing up the computer, I open my email where I find a link to start our chat. I'm fifteen minutes early but I open it anyway and then start browsing Vegas news.

A rash of crime has hit the city and if I were to guess, the Carcettis are behind it.

Mason appears five minutes before our official start. "Jake."

"Mason," I answer my nephew, sitting back in the chair. "What's the word?"

Mason grimaces. "It's ugly."

Shit. My hunch was right. "Tell me."

"I could start with how I'm currently living with Leo and his very loud sex life," Mason wrinkles his nose as Leo appears on the screen.

"I fucking heard that," Leo spits. "And I don't know where you get off telling me that my sex life is loud. I heard the spanking you gave Char?—"

"I meant, what's the word in Vegas," I interrupt, sure that Mason and Leo could explode on this call if I let them. They are brothers and they love each other fiercely, but they mix like oil and water.

Mason sighs. "We closed the Diamond."

"How pissed is Toni?"

Leo scrubs his face, his ever-present stubble scratching into the microphone. "He bombed one of our buildings. Again. Small pyrotechnics, but we had to shut the casino floor of the Starlet down."

"What else?"

Luke appears on the screen, the chat shuffling as he settles into his chair looking more tired than I've ever seen him. His dark hair is a mess and there are dark circles under his eyes. Luke usually has a devil-may-care attitude, but he's the one man who stayed in Vegas while the rest of us have scattered and I can tell he's taking the heat. "Are we discussing Toni's crime spree?"

Roman jumps on the call too, the compound lanai in the background. I can say one thing, Nia would like that space. "What are we discussing?"

"We've only gotten as far as the bombing," Leo interjects with a frown.

"The good news…" Luke smirks. "I had cameras installed everywhere with automatic backup of the footage every thirty seconds. Not only did we get several of his henchmen on camera before he shot them out, but we got Toni with them two minutes before the bomb went off. He's being investigated by the FBI as we speak."

My brows lift. I may not have to get Nia to confess to anything. Toni is going to put himself in prison. I know the rest of her family poses a danger to her as well, but with Toni behind bars, my attention and my loyalties will no longer be divided. I won't have to choose to make Nia a witness and my family will be safe from Toni.

Granted, the rest of the Italians might want my head and Nia',s but I made that problem when I put that announcement in the paper.

"Jake?" Roman asks.

I snap my attention back to the call. "Anything else?"

"We're considering moving you and Nia to the compound."

"Why?" I like being here with her. And while the compound has way more security, it might also be a place someone thinks to look. Here, we are completely off the grid, tucked far away.

"Toni's turning over every stone to find her," Mason answers. "And I mean every stone."

Luke winces. "We didn't expect him to be this adamant. He's offered the other family's major real estate to get her back, he's had men in all the competitors' establishments causing trouble, and he called Mason making all sorts of threats…"

"Like that would work," Mason snorts. "But he's going to keep trying until he lands in prison or…"

"Someone gets really hurt." Inwardly, I grimace .

"Is it because of what she knows?" Leo asks like I'll have the answer.

And I do. "Oh, she holds all kinds of secrets."

"She sharing with you?"

I nod, and then poke my fingers into my eyes. It feels wrong to share our private conversations with them. Which is so fucked up because that was the whole point of bringing her here. So I don't talk about her mother or the way Toni hurts her. Instead, I share what impacts them the most. "Toni's made a deal with a foreign family. They're going to pay top dollar for her to marry some high-up."

"Fuck," Mason grunts. He's the smartest of the bunch so I know it's even worse than I thought by his reaction. "It's probably not just a payout but a guarantee of business and labor. It's Toni's move forward to get out from under our debt and keep his family in the game."

I can hear his worry. "Does that mean she's in real danger?"

"It means…" Mason shakes his head. "We meant to take a pawn when we took Nia. But instead, we captured the queen." He runs a hand through his hair. "And whoever holds her at the end, wins."

Roman taps his fingers on the table in front of him. "We should move her here as soon as possible."

I shake my head. "Is there any indication Toni is closing in? Because if not, I'm making really good progress here."

"What else have you learned?" Mason asks, cocking his head to the side.

I have learned a lot but not just about her. I'm coming into focus too, not that I'm telling them that. In fact, I don't want to tell them any of it.

"Your father wasn't Maria Carcetti's first affair," I murmur pushing my fingers deeper into my eyes. I feel like I'm betraying her, and I take a breath, trying to decide how much more to share when I hear a strange thumping in the house.

I go silent, lifting my head and sharpening my focus.

"What's wrong?" Roman asks quietly. As the man closest to me geographically, it's his job to ask the question.

But I don't answer, as I hear the noise again .

Is Nia in trouble? My chest swells, my hands curling as, without warning, I slam down the laptop, stuffing it between some towels in the workout room.

The muffled noise sounds again, even as my phone starts to blow up with text.

What the fuck happened?

Where did you go?

Is everything all right?

Pocketing the phone, I move into the hall, cocking my head to listen. I hear it again. It's clearly coming from the bedroom. Nia is in trouble. I rush forward, knowing that I'll do anything to keep her safe.

I grab the door handle, but that's when I hear it…a soft moan.

My teeth grind together. Adrenaline pumps through me as I toss open the door, thoughts of Toni and the danger to Nia driving me forward.

But the moment I'm in the room, I stop.

Nia lies in the bed alone, her eyes closed. Her head thrashes to one side, a low moan falling from her lips. "Jake," she softly whispers as her leg kicks out, crashing into the footboard of the bed. "Daddy."

And that's when I look down and see her hand between her legs.

Is my little girl masturbating while she dreams about me?

A jolt of sexual energy like I've never known pulses through me. She's been tempting me for days but I'm not the only one who is tempted. Even in her fucking sleep, I'm who she wants.

Well, little girl, ask and you shall receive….