Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Clara

I couldn't look at Gio.

My new husband.

Not in the eye.

Not after last night.

Thank goodness for the other people around the breakfast table. I'd thought Gio's mother was scarier than him, but right now, she was my refuge as she chattered on to me about how lovely the wedding had been. She wanted to rehash the whole event, from start to finish, and I was happy to let her.

Because I couldn't look at him.

He'd watched me use the facilities. He'd wiped me. And then he'd pleasured me to the point of blacking out. I'd fainted, like a doozy girl, from the ecstasy.

My body was still sore, still humming today. I couldn't sit comfortably, and not just because of the physical ache.

It was impossible to look at him and not think about how he'd literally laid claim to every part of me over the past few days… and I'd loved it.

I wanted him to do it again.

Which made him the most dangerous man I'd ever met.

I'd rather fight Tomas than be alone with Gio again. At least with Tomas, I'd only be fighting the big brute. I wouldn't also be battling myself.

"We need to make a plan for today," Jack said, raising his voice so he could be heard by the whole table. The whole table being him, Hailey, his parents, Gio's mother, myself, and Gio. Beside him, Don DiNardo, his father, nodded his approval of Jack taking the lead. Jack's gaze cut down to the table to me, and I stiffened. "Clara, we need that note."

The note I'd found in Leonardo's room.

"Right-o, daddy-o." I gave him a mock salute. "I can take care of that for you."

Gio's hand came down on my shoulder. I had seen the way he'd stiffened out of the corner of my eye. He did not like me calling Jack ‘daddy-o' even though it was common slang and not at all the way I called him ‘Daddy.' Interesting. I wondered if I could use that, yet there was a little warning signal that went off in my brain. After all, I knew how he'd punish me when I was just some dame. What would he do now that I was his wife?

Did I really want to find out?

"Or," he said pleasantly, though there was an undercurrent of threat to his tone, "you could tell me where to find it."

Immediately, I shook my head. He wasn't cutting me out of this. I didn't care what he did with his hands or his dick. I was the one who found the note in the first place. Hailey was my friend. Lifting my chin, I made myself look at him full-on in the face. My insides tightened as our gazes clashed, his handsome face settled in an expression of bemusement.

Okay, so part of the reason I hadn't wanted to look at him was because he looked so damn good, it was easy to forget he was the devil.

Devilishly hot with his hands. And mouth. And— Stop it, Clara.

Get a grip.

I was not going to be one of those dizzy dames who completely lost her head over a man.

"I know exactly where it is. I can go get it and bring it back here, easy." Besides, that gave me a reason to get out of the house for a bit. I needed to go check on my cats. The poor beasties had gone without me for several days now, and even though they could fend for themselves, I liked to keep an eye on them.

"Then I'll come with you."

I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it. That might work even better. I could hand the note off to him and find an opportunity to escape. If I had the note, I would feel like I had to get it back to Hailey.

This way, I could leave the house, giving me the opportunity to escape and fulfill my duty as a friend. Plus, from the way Gio made his statement, I probably wouldn't have been able to convince him to let me go alone, anyway. It would be easier to get away on the streets when it was just the two of us.

I shrugged, as if it didn't matter to me, though my mind was already spinning with plans. A little sadness, too, which made no sense at all. I shouldn't be sad to get away from this madness. Maybe I was sad because I'd miss Hailey.

That must be it.

It definitely wasn't because I would be sad to be away from Gio, my husband, who made my body feel things I'd never imagined.

"I also need to go clear out my desk at the precinct." There were things there that I wanted. Needed. Like a stash of cash that I kept hidden in the false bottom of my desk drawer. I smiled innocently at his suspicious look. I knew Hailey had tried to come back to work and Jack hadn't let her.

Pretending to cooperate with that might buy me a little trust on his end, one would think.

"I'll go with you for that, too," he said. I shrugged again, putting my head down and focusing on eating. I needed to keep up my strength if I was going to go on the run from the mob today.

* * *

Gio

My wife was up to something. I figured she meant to run, but I wasn't sure how or when she was planning to do it, which was going to keep me on high alert all day. If I was being truthful, I was looking forward to the chase.

Looking forward to proving she was mine all over again.

And again.

As often as I could get my cock in her, in every way I could.

Having her at breakfast with the family was satisfying in its own right. She was shifting uncomfortably in her seat, eyeing me like I was a cobra about to strike at any moment. Before Jack spoke up, I'd been toying with the idea of tossing her over my shoulder again and carrying her off in front of everyone. Just to show that I could. Just to see what she would do.

My dick still liked the idea, but business came first. Especially dangerous business like this.

"We'll pick up Leonardo today if we can," Jack said, glancing at his father. Uncle Lorenzo nodded his permission.

This was going to be dicey. We were planning on taking out another Don and his heir. It would be best if no one ever knew what happened or why, but if there was blowback… having that note from Don Bianco to Leonardo would be crucial. Most Familias would understand why Hailey would ask her husband for retribution after reading that note. They might not like it, but they would understand it. And if it did come out, it would hardly hurt Hailey's reputation to be known as the cold-blooded bitch who took a hit out on her own grandfather and cousin to pay them back for the murder of her parents.

The Biancos were known to be a little crazy, anyway. Hailey might be a DiNardo now, but she still had the Bianco blood.

"I know his schedule," Clara offered up easily. It was her cooperation that was most suspicious to me. While there were good reasons for it, I also expected a bit more fight from her—especially when it came to accompanying her to retrieve the note and her things from the precinct. Watching her as she talked through Leonardo's usual daily movements, I enjoyed seeing the heat rise in her cheeks.

She was determinedly not looking at me.

In fact, she was so focused on not looking at me that she might as well have been staring at me.

A smug smile curved my lips, and I leaned toward her, reaching over to play with one of her blonde curls at the nape of her neck. She stiffened, stuttering a moment before picking up where she'd left off, determined to ignore me. The desire to throw her over my shoulder increased.

It would be pretty hard to ignore me with my cock in her.

But I would save that for later.

As breakfast cleared up, Clara and Hailey huddled together, speaking softly. I hung back, watching everyone, when movement in the doorway caught my eye. Frowning, I went over. Anthony, another cousin, though more distantly related than Jack, stood there with a smirk on his face.

"I have something I believe you've been missing," he said to me in Italian, holding up his hand with my great-grandfather's pocket watch. I grabbed it from him, peering at it to make sure it was the watch that I thought it was… It was cleaner, shinier than it had been when I'd lost it, which made no sense.

"Where did you find it?" I asked, also speaking Italian. If Anthony was doing so, he had reason.

"In your new bride's things from her boarding house." The smirk on Anthony's face grew as he took in my expression. "She must have good fingers if she lifted it from you without you noticing."

Good fingers, indeed.

My own fingers closed around it, relief flooding me at having it back in my possession. My mind cast back to Jack and Hailey's wedding and dancing with Clara… No wonder I'd "lost" it. And she'd held on to it since then.

I didn't know if I was flattered or furious that she'd wanted a token from me, even back then. I did know that my hand itched to punish her naughty bottom. Yes, she'd stolen it from me before we'd caught her thieving and warned her against it. On the other hand, she hadn't fessed up to this original theft.

I couldn't do anything about it right now, but my babydoll was going to be in for an interesting night. I was already starting to plot and plan, even as I walked up behind her.

She felt my approach.

I could see it in the way her body reacted. Pleased, I cupped my hand around her hip, pulling her into my side. Hailey gave me a suspicious look, bordering on disapproval, but she seemed to have accepted that Clara was mine now. At the very least, she didn't say anything against it.

"Keep her safe," Hailey said to me.

My babydoll made a disgusted noise.

"I can keep myself safe," she told Hailey. "I've been keeping myself safe. I'm the one who found the note, on my own, without anyone watching over me, in the first place. I'm far better at keeping myself safe than you are."

"Then how did we both end up in the same position?" Hailey snapped back at her, though she subsided as Jack came up behind her, his hand going to the back of her neck. She settled in as his thumb rubbed along the side of her throat.

I could feel Clara bristle beside me, but Hailey had made a good point.

"Let's go, babydoll," I said, chuckling. I winked at Hailey. "I'll take good care of her."

Clara's ire at Hailey was immediately transferred to me with those words. Scowling, her steps were a little slow at first as I pulled her along with me, but she picked up the pace after a moment.

"I don't need you," she muttered, making me chuckle again.

Letting my hand slide down possessively over her bottom, I enjoyed the way she stiffened, her steps quickening even more as though she was trying to escape the touch of my fingers, but since her pride kept her from actually running from me, she couldn't evade my grasp.

I gave her pert flesh a tight squeeze, eliciting a little squeak she tried to muffle before releasing her and letting my hand return to her hip.

"But you have me all the same," I murmured.

And she did. Till death do us part.