7. Knox

Chapter 7

Knox

I dropped instantaneously from ecstasy to shock. I know why you're really here . My brain scrambled, trying to think of a story, a way out of this. But one glance in Luca's eyes, and I knew it was over.

He had me.

I rolled onto my back and covered my face with my hands. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

To my surprise, Luca laughed. "Did you think I meant to fuck a federal agent?"

I began to laugh with him. "I guess we're both really bad at our jobs."

Maybe it was the tension releasing, just finally knowing I didn't have to hide from him anymore, but I laughed until tears were streaming down my face.

Luca pressed his lips to mine when he caught his breath. "Have you ever done this before?" He reached down and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

I shook my head. "Never."

"Me neither. I mean, the feds don't send many guys, but I'm very careful who I sleep with."

I slid my hand around his chest and squeezed. "I loved it."

I wanted to tell him it had never been like that with anyone before, that I felt myself falling for him, but I wasn't stupid. Naive, maybe, but not stupid. He was still a crime boss who had mailed someone's finger to the FBI.

Sitting up, I hugged the blankets to my chest. "What do you want to know?"

Luca slid his hands beneath his head and stared up at the ceiling. "What were you sent here to find?"

I hesitated, unsure how much of the operation I was willing to blow. My cover was shot, so the smart thing would be for me to leave town, tell my boss I'd been made, and get reassigned somewhere else.

But not seeing Luca again felt like something I couldn't do.

"We…don't actually know. We know you have ties to the Costa family. My boss is hoping you can lead us to some bigger fish, but they don't actually know the extent of your operation. I'm here to find out how deep you go."

Luca grinned up at me. "I think you just found that out." His smile made me want to climb on top of him and start all over.

I slid lower beside him and pulled the covers over me, pressing my growing dick against his thigh.

Luca turned and pulled me into his arms, kissing me deeply. "Knox, I don't know what's happening here. I've never felt like this before. It sounds cheesy, but there's something between us that I can't explain."

I nodded, relieved he'd said out loud what I'd been feeling so I didn't have to. "I feel it too."

"Glad it's not just me." He exhaled through his nostrils and held me tighter. "So what're we gonna do? I mean, your boss is expecting information, and I have a business and family to protect."

My mind was spinning as I choked out the only thing that came to mind. "I don't think I'd make a good double agent."

Luca laughed and pinched my ass. "Agreed. You're way too sweet and earnest. But I might have a better idea."

Knox laid out his plan for me, and it was good. He would help us take down the Costas, who had been taking advantage of his family for years. In exchange, we would give him immunity and help protect his family as long as they continued to feed information to the FBI.

It sounded great to me, but selling it to my boss was an entirely different story. And even more of a risk for Luca.

I took Luca's hand and threaded my fingers through his. "That sounds like it could be dangerous."

"Yes, it's dangerous. But it'd be worth it to keep the feds off my ass. I mean, you've seen my operation, Knox. We're small-time. We might have associations with those who deal in weapons and people but we're all about entertainment. Helping people have fun."

I wanted to believe the casinos, strip clubs, and betting rooms were the worst of it. I just hadn't seen enough yet to know for sure. Also…there was the finger. "Luca, who's Joe?"

His body stiffened slightly against me. "Joe?"

"Yeah, I overheard you talking the other night at the casino, and someone said 'We'll take care of him, like we did to Joe.' I asked my boss, and he said Joe was the last Fed to come out here, but he disappeared."

Luca sighed heavily. "Don't worry about Joe, okay?"

"Yeah, but you sent his finger ?—"

"I said don't worry about him," Luca snapped.

I sighed, frustrated and annoyed. I couldn't just stop worrying about Joe because I was afraid that whatever happened to him was gonna happen to me too. "Fine. I'll talk to my boss tomorrow, but can we just forget about all that, just for one night?"

Luca wrapped his arms around me and slid me on top of him. His cock stiffened and grew beneath me as he pulled me in for a kiss.

I was ready to take him again. I was always ready for this alpha.

We spent the night alternating between fucking, talking, and getting snacks from the kitchen. We just couldn't get enough and kept going until we eventually fell asleep, exhausted and wrapped around each other.

The next morning, I went home and called my boss before heading in to work. It took a bit of convincing, but he agreed it was probably the best deal we could negotiate and gave me the green light to move forward. Of course, I left out the details about me and Luca, and at Luca's suggestion, I made the whole plan sound like my idea.

Luca had given me a couple pieces of valuable information that my boss was excited to hear. "It'll be like dangling carrots," Luca had said, and he was right.

"This is great, Knox. Great stuff. Good work! I can't believe you got Luca Francesco to go along with this. That guy is a beast ."

I scoffed under my breath. "Yeah. He is a beast."

After I gave Luca the go-ahead, our plan moved quickly. He secretly arranged to have the Costas hold their next auction in Gilded Lake. His light and laid-back demeanor was instantly gone once he extended an invitation to the worst kind of people into his town for a few days.

Regardless of what he did for his real income, he was still mayor, and he truly cared about his community.

Luca's biggest fear was that someone in the Costas organization would figure out what we were up to. If that happened, a full-on war would break out and there would be few survivors. I did get a tip from one of the guys in the bureau that someone was planted with the Costas, too, though I had no idea who it was.

Luca put his most trusted men on setting up for the event, while I started to get to know the rest of the Francesco family. Most of my days were spent with Claude, driving around the state and seeing more of the day-to-day operations up close.

And my nights were spent with Luca. We mostly stayed at his estate, nestled into the serene beauty around us and enjoying all the luxuries Luca provided. But some nights, he had to go out to make an appearance at the casino or participate in some event. I hated not being on his arm during those public outings, but we still had to be discreet about our relationship.

There was no reason to advertise to our enemies that we were falling for each other.

Or rather, I was falling in love with him.

As much as I felt it, I couldn't tell him yet.

It was hard to tell if Luca fully grasped the danger he was putting himself in by helping me, but I was fully aware of it. It was always on my mind. The Costas were not easy to fool, and I kept waiting for something terrible to happen.

No matter how many times I tried warning Luca about what they were capable of, he shushed away my concerns as if he didn't want to know. Maybe because he already knew. Or maybe he just thought he knew, but my presence brought an even higher level of danger to Luca and to his entire family.

My brain told me I shouldn't put him in that situation if I truly loved him, but my heart wouldn't let me walk away. I didn't think I'd ever be able to walk away from that man.

When the week of the auction finally arrived, I was practically living at Luca's house. But for the sake of not creating new targets on either of our backs, we agreed it was better if I stayed away from him while they were in town.

I'd built a lot of trust with Luca's family over the past month, but none of them knew my cover. Luca was the only one who knew I was an agent. Well, Luca and Claude. If my cover was blown by the Costas, I wanted as little connection to Luca as possible.

The night before the Costas arrived, I went over to spend one last night with Luca. I couldn't shake the nagging thought that it would be our last night ever. I didn't know what was gonna happen to me after it was all done. If we pulled this operation off, I might be transferred. And if we didn't pull it off, Luca and I would probably both be dead.

It was a lot to contemplate.

Luca had set up a beautiful dinner on the terrace. It was becoming a familiar scene, one that I hoped I'd enjoy for a long time in the future. He guided me to the table and kissed me, then pulled out my chair.

Matty poured our wine then rushed off to grab our salads.

I was about to take a bite when Luca stopped me.

"Wait a minute…" Luca picked up a cherry tomato with his fingers and fed it to me, laughing. "I thought our first dinner deserved a redo, since I knocked it all to the ground."

I smirked, remembering the first time we'd made love. "God, that was so fucking hot."

"I'm so glad I met you, Knox." Luca grinned and slid his chair toward me.

I held a cherry tomato up, and he nibbled it then sucked it into his mouth, looking at me with his dark eyes. "Me too, Luca. I really… You've come to mean a lot to me."

Luca swallowed and then kissed my hand. "I know. Me too."

Silently, we ate and watched the waterfall cascade down into the stream below. There was still so much unspoken between us, but neither of us were ready to say the words out loud.

I loved the man.

I knew it as deeply as I'd ever known anything, but voicing it would put him in more danger than he was already in, and I couldn't do that.