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19.

B ELLA

“I thought they were never going to leave,” Matteo said as he threw himself down on the recliner. “So much noise and people and . . . noise . . . and people.”

I burst out laughing before I said, “You sound like my brother.”

Matteo lifted his head up and frowned at me before he let it fall back again. “I’m changing the locks on my door.”

“No, you’re not.” I walked across the room until I was standing in front of him and said, “However, when I was saying one last goodbye to Coco, I noticed that you have a deadbolt. I’m hoping that will deter them for a little while.” Matteo’s eyes lit up when I pulled my t-shirt off and tossed it aside. I reminded him, “But don’t forget - you’ve got to go downstairs and talk to Sam, and I need to check on my brother.”

“I’d prefer not to talk about your brother when you’re half-naked and I’m this happy to see you,” Matteo said with a pointed glance down at his lap.

“I like the suite that you chose for me to stay in while I’m here,” I said as I kicked my sandals off. “It’s gorgeous.”

Matteo grimaced and said, “I’m glad you like it.”

“I do. I’m sure I’ll love the house too,” I replied. I pushed my pants down over my hips slowly, and could almost feel Matteo’s heated gaze on every inch of flesh I exposed. Once I stepped out of my pants, I settled my hands on my hips while I let Matteo look his fill. Finally, I asked, “Do you like Bernadette’s house?”

“Sure. Yeah. Um . . .” Matteo said distractedly as I reached back and unhooked my bra. “It’s great. Yeah.”

I shrugged my shoulders, and one strap fell down a split second before the other until my bra was only held in place by the arm I crossed over my breasts. “How much do you like Bernadette’s house?”

When he didn’t answer me for a few seconds, I asked the question again and Matteo shook his head and asked, “Like what?”

“Bernadette’s house.”

“Why are we . . .” Matteo gulped when I let my arm fall and my bra lost its battle with gravity and slipped down my arms to the floor. Matteo muttered something in Italian under his breath before he swallowed hard and ordered, “Come here, Twang.”

I shook my head and hooked my thumbs in the band of my underwear and ran them out so that they were on my hips and said, “We’re talking about our living situation.”

“We are?”

I slid my underwear down a mere inch and then stopped before I said, “I’d like to discuss it.”

“Discuss what?” Matteo asked as he sat forward in the recliner and rested his elbows on his knees.

“Are you going to move into Bernadette’s house with me?”

“Sure.” Matteo reached out and tried to grab me, but I took a step back.

“You will?”

“Will what?” Matteo asked as he scooted closer to the edge of the chair. “Come here, Twang.”

“When are we moving in?”

“Where?” Matteo asked. He shook his head and looked up at my eyes before he asked, “What are you doing, Bella?”

“I’m trying to have a conversation with you.”

“Why don’t we talk while you sit on my lap? Better yet, why don’t you talk while you sit on my face?”

I giggled and shook my head before I said, “I’m trying to get to a certain point here, Matteo, but you’re not paying attention.”

“I’ve got a point for you.”

I laughed again and said, “Are you going to move into Bernadette’s house with me or not?”

“Hell, no. We’re going to live here in the penthouse.”

“We are?”

“Well . . . yeah,” Matteo said as he focused on my bare breasts. “Didn’t I already say that?”

“No.”

“I meant to.” Matteo looked up at my eyes again and smiled before he said, “You’re an excellent negotiator, Twang.”

“I wasn’t negotiating,” I argued as I pushed my panties down over my hips and let them fall to the floor. “I was trying to get your dumbass to say it out loud since you were too much of a pussy to ask me outright.”

Matteo burst out laughing and, in a lightning quick move, reached out and swept me toward him before he leaned back in the chair and set it rocking.

I let my legs fall to either side of his hips and then lifted up to give him access to my breasts before I whispered, “Yes, Matteo, since you asked so nicely, I’ll move in with you.”

“Damn right you will,” Matteo mumbled before he pulled my nipple into his mouth. He let it go and then frowned up at me. “And we’ll talk about you trying to use your feminine wiles to get me to agree to something rather than . . .”

“You’re complaining?”

“Absolutely not.” Matteo chuckled before he grinned up at me and said, “Please do that anytime you want something. Or even if you don’t want something. Or when the wind blows. Whatever.”

“You like a little striptease, Mr. Russo?”

“Only when it’s you, Twang.”

I leaned my head forward until our lips touched, and all thoughts of toying with Matteo flew out the window. Being back in his arms with his lips on mine felt like coming home after a long time away, and any doubts I had about moving to New York disappeared in an instant. I was suddenly certain that I’d made the right choice by moving to New York.

“I’m so glad you’re here with me,” Matteo murmured against my neck as he ran his hands up and down my bare back. “I’ve dreamed of having you in my place, in my bed . . .” Matteo kissed his way up my neck and across my jaw to my lips before he whispered, “In my home.”

“I’ve missed you so much,” I said before I gave him a lingering kiss. “But I do have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“Why do you still have all of your clothes on?”

“Not time,” Matteo growled in frustration. He reached between us, and I shamelessly ground myself against his hand while he tried to unzip his pants. Matteo understood the assignment and curled two fingers up to enter me as he rubbed my clit with the heel of his hand. Matteo used his other hand to twist the hair on the back of my head and pull me away from him so he could have access to my breasts again. As he teased my nipples with his mouth, I worked myself over his skillful fingers, and within minutes, I was screaming his name.

I was still in the throes of my orgasm when he yanked his hand away and impaled me on his cock, which just sent me higher into orbit. The rocking of the chair we were in along with the movement of his hips beneath me synced up perfectly to fill me over and over before bringing me right back to the brink of orgasm.

It wasn’t long before I fell over the edge again, and Matteo’s voice joined mine when we came together. He let my hair go and then wrapped his arms around me as he leaned the recliner back and held me to his chest and rained kisses on my face and neck as we worked to catch our breath.

“I’m gonna love having you here every day and night, Twang.”

“Oh, so I’m just here for the sex, huh?”

“I’d still love you and want you with me even if we never did this again.”

“No chance of that,” I mumbled as I adjusted above him to find a more comfortable position. Since he was still inside me, my movements caused him to hiss, and I could feel his cock getting hard again. “You’re still wearing your clothes.”

“You attacked me before I could take them off,” Matteo lied as he slowly started moving his hips up and down, not much, but just enough to rub against my sensitive clit and get me worked up once again.

I tried to focus and asked, “I attacked you?”

“That’s how I’m gonna play it, but you know what that means, right?”

“What?”

“It’s my turn.”

Matteo sat up suddenly, and that changed our positions enough so that he filled me once again. Instead of using the recliner to help rock us to completion like we had before, he surged forward and hit his knees before he laid me on the carpet in front of him. Before I could say a word, he had my legs over his shoulders and bent me nearly in half as he thrust deeper than he ever had before.

His living room - now our living room - was filled with the sounds of our bodies coming together and our breathless moans once more as we tried to make up for all the time we had been apart.

And just like it had been every time we were together, it was beautiful and frantic all at the same time.

◆◆◆

MATTEO

I stood in the doorway and drank my fill of the sight of Bella in my bed - not in Vegas and not in Rojo, but finally, in my home. The home I wanted to share with her but had been too cowardly and cautious to ask her to move into. The home that she was now going to share with me forever, if I had my way.

We still hadn’t talked about the six-month contract she’d signed with Bernadette, but then again, we hadn’t done much talking at all after we were left alone this evening. We had too much to catch up on physically because as much as I loved her dirty talk on the phone and video calls, none of that was like feeling her soft skin beneath my hands or feeling her body clutch at mine as she lost herself to orgasm.

But now, or at least for the next six months, if I didn’t grow some balls and tell her how much I really wanted her to stay, I could have all of those things.

And the urge to strip my clothes off as I walked back over to the bed so I could crawl in next to her warm and very naked body was so overwhelming that I knew if I didn’t turn around and leave right now, I wouldn’t be leaving until morning.

Once I was out in the living room, I sent my brother a text to let him know I was ready to go downstairs. By the time I got out into our shared foyer, he was waiting for me with a grin on his face.

“Don’t smile at me. I told all of you to get out of my house before I brought Bella up here and instead you waited to ambush her.”

“Ambush her? What she did was an ambush. It’s not right that she became such instant friends with Brett and Tabby. Now none of us are going to be safe.”

I smiled when I said, “It’s great, isn’t it?”

“It’s about time you got that too,” Luca said as he returned my smile.

I wanted to be back in bed with Bella so badly that I couldn’t stop myself from rushing things along so I asked, “Do you know what Sam has downstairs for us?”

“No, but when I sent him a text, he said that he was going to have the others meet us in his office, so it’s gotta be big.”

“Shit. For the first time in my life, I don’t want to take part in whatever excitement he’s got planned,” I said as I walked out into the hall. Gabe was gone now, and it was another of my men standing guard. I nodded at Petie before I reminded him, “The women are inside alone. Did Gabe tell you that her brother is allowed access?”

“Yes, sir, and he showed me a picture of him.”

I nodded as I pushed the button for the elevator and wasn’t surprised when Salvatore and Adrian came out of the door at the end of the hall.

“We’re just going down to see Sam,” I informed them as I put my hand up to halt their progress. “There’s no need for you to . . .”

Rocco, who had followed them out, shook his head as he said, “Oh, hell no. We’re not missing this.”

“How do they already know what’s going on, but we’re in the dark?” Luca asked.

I scoffed. “Because they gossip worse than the old nonnas who meet at the bakery every day for their morning coffee.”

“True,” Luca agreed as he stepped into the elevator. He looked over at Rocco and said, “You guys gossip a lot. ”

“I would prefer to call it being informed,” Rocco said snootily as he followed us into the car.

“Should we have changed clothes?” Luca asked, looking down at his white button-up shirt and then over at mine.

Salvatore bit his lip before he winced and said, “This is going to require protective clothing, especially if they bring in Cento and Tonio’s fathers.”

“That big?” I asked in shock. “Sam said he could put whatever it is on ice until I got Bella settled, but if . . . Fuck. How do you do this juggling thing?”

“I’m still a novice. You’re gonna have to talk to the other guys,” Luca answered with a shrug.

We were each lost in our own thoughts for the rest of the elevator ride, and when we walked out into the hallway to cross over to Sam’s office, I saw Zach, Rico, and, surprisingly, Rico’s girlfriend, Bex, walking in our direction.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Rico asked. “Better yet, do you know why he asked me to bring Bex?”

I pushed open the door to Sam’s office and found him sitting at his desk with Ziggy, Cento, and Tonio seated around the office. It looked like they were enjoying a cigar together and just casually passing the time. That gave me hope that this might not be as big of a problem as my guys had made it out to be.

It didn’t take long to realize that wasn’t the case. The office was cramped with all of us inside, so Sam got right down to it by saying, “Facial recognition picked up three of the men you encountered in Vegas, Matteo. It was odd when they appeared in your hotel there, but even more strange when they booked rooms here rather than staying at the hotel their family owns.”

“Shit. What do they want?” Rico asked. He glanced over at Bex before he looked at Sam and asked, “And why do you think Bex needs to be part of this conversation?”

“Because I need her to read them. They’re pros, Rico, and I’ve gotten nothing from them so far.”

“I bet I can,” Ziggy said with a grin as he hopped up out of his chair. “I’ve had a shit few weeks, and I’m ready to get my hands dirty.”

Sam looked down and sighed before he opened the top drawer and pulled out a manilla envelope. He dumped the contents onto his desk, and I realized that they were pictures just as Sam said, “We found them with these.”

All of us got closer, and I spotted Bella’s picture in the mix. I saw another one when Ziggy reached down to spread the pictures out, which uncovered three more. Somehow, my eyes were only focused on Bella, so it took a few seconds for the other pictures to process.

“That’s mom . . . and Ember . . . Holy shit, is that a shot of Stephania?” Luca asked. “What the fuck?”

“And here’s Tabby having lunch with Brett, Stan, and Bex,” Zach said as he before he picked up a picture of Coco playing in the park. “What. The. Fuck.”

“They had an assortment of pictures - all of which have the women you love, whether romantically or family - as the focus,” Sam explained. “They brought surveillance equipment with them, mostly cameras, but also a few long-range microphones. There’s even a drone.”

“Oh, fuck no,” I mumbled as I picked up a picture of my sister walking out of my parents’ house. “And they won’t answer your questions?”

“They will not, and I’ve made very sure to keep any damage done to them below the chest to make sure they can breathe and speak well enough to start singing. However, they’re not ready to join the choir just yet, so I thought I’d go ahead and call all of you in for some new ideas.”

“Did you get laptops and phones?” Rico asked.

“They’re already being processed to find out where they’re sending these pictures they’ve taken,” Sam assured him.

“This has to be connected to Frank,” Ziggy mumbled as he stared down at a picture of his daughters laughing together. The background of the picture was an area I recognized as one of their favorite restaurants that had been closed for at least a month for repairs after a kitchen fire. “Some of these pics are months old. Ziva cut her hair at the beginning of summer before they went with their mother to Hawaii on vacation.”

“And this picture of Coco was taken outside of Brett’s house before they moved in with me,” Zach added. He looked up and blinked a few times before he said, “I’m going to kill someone tonight, and it’s gonna be fucking bloody.”

“I assume that it will, but we should figure out how to get more information out of them first,” Bex said as she reached for Rico’s hand. “Don’t let them see me . . . No, they should see me in person. They should see all of us in person, and they should be very afraid.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rico said with an exaggerated wince. “We can’t just serve all of you up to them.”

“If you don’t tell Brett and Tabby that their daughters have been the subject of some sort of Peeping Tom who has been following them around for God knows how long and they find out later, it’s going to be your balls in the vice next,” Bex assured Rico. “They may seem sweet and innocent, but we all know that’s bullshit. I guarantee that if you bring Mattuca’s mom over here and let her see that someone’s been following their sister around, there won’t be enough pieces of the body left to dispose of because she will light them on fucking fire and roast marshmallows. You tell Brett and Tabby that someone’s been watching their kids and they’ll fight Mrs. Robono for the matches.”

“What about you? Aren’t you angry too?” Sam asked.

When Bex smiled, it was downright terrifying and even worse when she said, “I find that I feel very much like a voyeur right now, but if they need any help, I’ll be happy to jump right in.”

“Who is this?” Sam asked. “I don’t recognize the area or the women. Maybe . . .”

I glanced over at the picture Sam was holding and felt a rage consume me like nothing I had ever felt before. “That’s Bella’s mother and her sister. The woman in the background is a lady Bella calls Gamma. Hell, everyone I met calls the woman Gamma. Off to the side is her aunt or cousin or something. Her name is Liberty. The other woman is her Aunt Katy.”

“There’s a bunch of women in the next photo,” Luca said. “It’s like a sorority house or something.”

“That’s her clubhouse. I got to see it when I was there, and I’ve met a lot of those women.”

“She’s got a clubhouse.”

“I’ve fallen in love with the vice president of a motorcycle club. Did I forget to mention that?”

Bex burst out laughing and said, “Oh, shit. That’s awesome. Bring Bella too.”

“I don’t think that’s . . .” I started to argue.

Bex interrupted me and said, “That sweet-looking lady with the bright blue eyes is her grandmother, Matteo. Children are sacred, moms are sacred, but grandmas are sweet and frail and just . . . untouchable. All of them should be untouchable.”

“A few of the other women in those pictures look like they can take care of themselves, but Bex is right. Grandmothers are sacred,” Ziggy agreed.

“I’ll go get the girls,” Luca said with a sigh. “What about Stan?”

“She’s not here,” Rico said sadly. “She’s moving soon and is out of town right now looking at real estate.”

“What?” almost everyone in the room chorused at the same time.

“Not right now,” Rico said with a resigned look. We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few long seconds until finally Rico said, “We need to focus on figuring out what the fuck is going on so that when she does move, she’ll be as safe as possible.”

There were so many questions I wanted to ask Rico about his daughter’s decision to leave New York, but in reality, I was closer friends with her than with him. My relationship with Rico was one of respect, like a younger associate would feel toward a more experienced business person, but my relationship with Constance was just plain friendship between people who had spent their formative years learning to navigate the world around us that included nefarious people and, just like this instance, people who were out to get us just because of the family we were born into.

“I don’t know that Bella should be here,” I argued. “Grandmother or not, she’s new to this life, and I don’t know if this is something she can stomach.”

“Then why are you considering bringing her into it?” Bex asked.

“We’ve never talked about exactly what it is we do or anything else about our organization so . . .”

“I know they have access to television in Texas. I’m almost positive that they even have movie theaters too. It might not all be accurate, but she knows what she’s getting into whether you’ve talked to her about it or not. I haven’t had a chance to meet her yet, but the girls told me that she’s pretty freaking awesome and knows a lot more than you seem to give her credit for.”

“Like what?”

“If she was stupid, then you wouldn’t have been so excited to talk to her and about her . . .”

“Oh my God, I thought he would never shut up,” Zach grumbled as he let his head fall back so he could stare at the ceiling.

“I know, right?” Bex mumbled.

“I’ll go talk to her while you let Bex watch you interrogate the men. Get her insight, and maybe we won’t have to bring the others down.” With that decided, I left the office with Luca and Zach, not sure that I was ready to show Bella the darker side of the lifestyle I was bringing her into. In a way, I was glad that it had happened this early because if I wasn’t sure I’d be able to let her go now, I couldn’t imagine how hard that would be after she’d been here for a while.

Once we were in the elevator, I asked, “What do I say to Bella when I get up there?” I looked down at the picture I had taken from Sam’s desk that included the members of Bella’s family and said, “She’s going to hate me for putting her family in danger, and there’s no way I can promise this will never happen again.”

“I guess say it just like that,” Luca suggested. “We can do everything in our power to keep them safe, but we can‘t guarantee it.”

“She’d be better off without me. Her life would probably be better if she just went back to Texas and forgot she ever met any of us. I’m going to tell her she needs to leave.”

“Tell her that and see what she says,” Zach said with a bark of laughter. “Women love to be told what’s good for them.”

“Yeah, they really appreciate that,” Luca added.

“I don’t appreciate your sarcasm.”

“You should. I brighten your life in a way that makes you . . .”

“Yearn for the sweet release of death?” I interrupted just as the elevator door opened.

“Something like that,” my brother said with a bark of laughter.

“Let the games begin.”

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