I shouldn’t do it. I shouldn’t do it.
“I… needed to know. I know why you did it. I do. Tag, what is he capable of?” Best to change the subject.
“Everything, my girl.” He pulled in a breath. “He was one of my best friends, and in the absence of Marcus, I trusted him with all that was dear to me. You and your mother.”
“I don’t remember him being around.”
“You wouldn’t. Whenever I got him to watch over you guys, he would have kept his distance. I wanted to keep you out of business. You especially. Your mother, however, wanted me to keep her in the loop. I told her what she needed to know, but I guess that kind of kick-started her involvement with Tag.”
“How did she manage knowing what you did in the business?” That question was really me asking how it was my mother could have been with my father knowing he was a criminal.
“She just did. We didn’t go around killing people, Amelia. Doesn’t mean we’re the good guys, but we’re not about that.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I said with a curt nod. “I’m truly sorry for what Mom did to you. I knew how much you loved her.”
“I did. I do. You mustn’t blame her.”
“How can you say that?” I narrowed my gaze at him, unable to comprehend that remark.
“She was a good woman, and a great mother to you. Sometimes people fall out of love. That’s what happened to her. She stopped loving me. I wasn’t enough for her, and I wouldn’t let her go. I kept trying to fix things between us, but nothing worked, then, when I saw her with Tag, it killed me. It’s not the first time that I wish I could have done things differently. Especially since I lost her.”
“I wish that she could have been faithful.” I appreciated him trying to keep the vision of Mom high in my mind and not wanting to spoil the image I had of her and the person she was, but there was never an excuse to cheat.
“It’s okay, love. I don’t want us to look back with regret. There’s a lot to regret. Lord knows I have my fair share of regret. I just wanted one thing, and that was to see you again. If I can make sure you’re safe, that will be one more thing I can take with me.”
He was already talking like he knew when he was going to die.
“Dad, what did the doctors say? Is there a time when things will get really bad?”
“Pretty much.”
“I’ll… I’ll be here.” I couldn’t hate him. No part of me did, even if my moral senses of judgment pulled at me. There was only disappointment knowing that he was different than the person I’d built up in my head when I was a child. It was always disappointing to find out that someone was different than what you expected. Especially a parent. Hating wasn’t in me, particularly when the thing that fueled his actions was protecting me.
He dropped his gaze to his lap, and when he looked back to me, his eyes brimmed with tears.
“That’s a lot more than I deserve. Thank you.”
“It feels right. I feel better being here than trying to fight the past.”
“You were supposed to be a dancer. You should be dancing in some grand show by now or teaching at Julliard. I never wanted this for you, and foolish mistakes and jealousy led me here.”
“Dad, I know you didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. But it happened, and as for me, I don’t really know what I want with my life.” I just knew two things: I couldn’t be Amelia Taylor anymore, and I knew I wanted to be with Luc. “We can start, though, by focusing on the now.”
“I agree.”
I leaned in closer, so I could whisper. “We need to get the diamonds.”
It was just Millicent who was in the house. I’d seen two of Dad’s men outside.
“I’m still in two minds about that.”
“It’s best we have them. I know it’s almost out in the open, but it would be worse, worse for me, if we found they’d managed to locate them and break into the facility to steal them.”
“We’ll have to create a diversion. The house is being watched. Everyone’s being watched. I feel paranoid just talking to you now.” He sighed.
“Don’t worry about that.” At least all my years of being a cop would count for something. I could plan a stealth mission with my eyes closed. “I got that covered.”
I didn’t like this business about the house being watched. How were they watching?
I stood up and looked up to the book case, where I knew Dad always kept a camera.
“Dad, we should cut the security system.”
“No, that thing keeps us safe. It’s impenetrable. We have state-of-the-art equipment. I swear that’s the only thing keeping me alive. That goes straight to my contact in the CIA if anything looks out of place.”
The CIA. God, why was I even surprised?
“Dad, trust me. You thought the phones were bugged. That’s why you wouldn’t speak to Luc. The security system can be bugged too. Hackers can hack the frequency and tap into whatever they want. If we want a diversion, we need to cut the system. That way we control what we can see, not what we can’t and have to worry about.”
“Ugh, Amelia, you guys are stripping me of everything I feel works.”
“That’s not what I’m doing. I’m a cop, remember, and I happen to know a lot about things like this. We cut the security system, and we put a guard on to check who enters and leaves the premises.”
“Sounds like you’re in cop mode, for sure,” said a voice from the door.
Luc.
His voice whipped me around to him in an instant.
I’d expected him to come by a little later. I wasn’t even fully dressed yet.
The smoldering look he gave me made me blush.
I ran my gaze over his form, taking in the way his long tight-sleeved T-shirt clung to his muscles, making them stand out. He showed off the tattoos snaking up his thick forearms by rolling up the sleeves.
The dark pair of jeans hung low on his hips.
He was the kind of man who made casual look like he was ready for the runway and dressed up like he was ready to be featured as the heartthrob of any woman’s fantasy.
The image of him stripping me down, bending me over the sofa, and taking me from behind popped into my head.
Not a good time at all to be thinking like that.
Dad grunted, reminding me that he was here still.
“Boss.” Luc looked over at him and nodded.
Now Dad scowled. “What do you want at this time of day?”
I forgot that meeting of ours sounded like I should have met him somewhere. Maybe out back or something.
I didn’t expect him to come in to see us. Just me.
“Is everything okay?” I cut in before Luc could answer.
“As good as it can be.” He smirked with that sexy smile. He focused on Dad and inclined his head to the side. “I need Amelia for the day. You can have her back later.”
Dad straightened. “Is this about getting the diamonds?”
“Nope.” Luc shook his head.
“Well, what is it about? Why do you need her for a whole day? I haven’t seen her in years.”
The mischievous expression that washed over Luc’s face told me I had to cut in fast. I’d grown accustomed to him and knew that not everyone needed to hear the truth. There was only one thing we could be doing for the whole day.
“Dad, I’m going with Luc.” I rushed to Luc and took his arm. “I’ll be back tonight. In the meantime, cut all the security systems.”
Luc made a show of taking my hand into his and pulling me away. Taking only a second to glance at Dad, probably reminding him that this was his doing. He put us together, and he shouldn’t complain if we were.
The minute we got into the hallway, Luc pulled me to his massive chest, slipped his hand behind my neck, and brought his lips down to mine.
I moaned into the kiss forgetting where we were. I was pretty certain that that moan was loud enough for someone to hear.
I didn’t care. The kiss intensified, and when he cupp
ed my right breast, I thought I was going to fall apart.
“Fuck, Amelia, you feel so good,” he spoke against my lips.
Awareness returned to me, and I pulled away from the embrace.
“You are trouble …” I used to say Detective, but he wasn’t a detective, never had been. He looked at me with expectancy, probably thinking I’d recoil from my memories. But no, I wasn’t losing heart or faltering. For him I was falling, falling deeper than I had control. “You’re trouble, Lucian Morientz.”
A buoyant smile inched up those full, sensual lips of his. Charming and sure, showing off perfect white teeth.
“Come with me, and I’ll show you how much trouble I can be.” He tugged on my hand, but I pulled back.
“Luc, we can’t be gone for the day.” I had to be realistic, as nice as it sounded. We had to plan. If it was one thing I knew, it was trouble never rested. It was like interest. It continued to grow and fester until you did something to stop it. There were no breaks. So, we had to jump to whatever plans we had before things started heating up again.
“We do, goddess. I want a… I want a normal day with you. Just one day, then we can go back to this. We can acknowledge the shit that’s being thrown in our faces. I want to make love to my girl.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that came to my lips. “Make love?”
“Make love. There’s a difference. Don’t tell me I was the only one who spotted it the other night.”
He wasn’t.
I knew what he meant.
There was a point the other night when I’d thought I would float away. My body disconnected from my soul, and it was like I was looking at myself with him, holding me, touching me like he couldn’t touch me enough for it to be enough.
“No, you weren’t.”
“Good, come with me, goddess.”
Chapter 16
Amelia
I pulled on a summer dress I used to wear when I was here last. I was surprised that my body still fit into it. I guessed, though, that except for the increase in the size of my breasts, my body was still pretty much the same size.
Actually, I looked better, more like a woman.
I wanted to go to the stores at some point and grab a few things, just clothes to wear and other items. I didn’t know when that was going to be, though, with everything going on, and it looked like today Luc had other things in mind.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror and then my room before I left. It had been nice sleeping in my room. Dad had left it all the same too.
Last night when I went in, I’d been surprised to see it just the way I’d left it. He’d had it cleaned. That much I could tell because of the fresh pine scent that filtered through the air. I didn’t do any more exploring, though, other than looking through my clothes in the wardrobe. I didn’t want to see anything dance related or Julliard related, or Mom related. I wasn’t ready for any of that yet.
A baby blue, nineteen-fifties-style Cadillac was parked outside on the drive.
I gasped at the intricate beauty as I beheld it. This was the kind of car you’d see in a film or in some collector’s room. Probably worth millions.
“Is this yours?”
“It sure is.” Luc smiled, running his hand from my waist to my ass and giving me a little tap. “You like it?”
“It’s beautiful.” It was truly beautiful, but then everything was. His cars, his home, his heart, him.
“Hey, there’s only one beauty here, and that’s you.” He winked at me. “Goddess.”
“Charmer.”
“Just telling the truth, doll.”
I giggled, feeling… well, what could I say? This felt normal. Being with Luc was the only normal I had because I could be myself with him.
I didn’t know how I could feel this way in the midst of all that was going on.
But the answer was him. I’d realized the other day that that feeling I got about nothing else mattering when I was with him was real.
It was true.
Wasn’t just something I made up or felt in the heat of the moment.
“How many cars do you have? Scratch that. I mean vehicles.” I’d seen a Ferrari and a bike back in LA. I guessed he must have rented those, or he could have bought them.
He was rich enough.
He raised a brow and grimaced. “I’m not sure. “
“What do you mean?” Who lost count of how many vehicles they owned? I had just the one car back in LA.
“I lost count, doll. But the good news is, I’m not half as bad as Claudius. The man is into motorcycles. I swear he’s obsessed, and there’s nothing anyone can do to help him.”
I laughed. “And you don’t think you’re obsessed?”
“No, because apart from my actual bike that you haven’t seen yet, I collect vintage cars. That’s an actual thing to be proud of. He’s like an adrenaline junkie.”
Okay, I had to agree with that.
From what I saw of Claudius reminded me of one of those extreme sport types who’d jump a bike from a plane or something crazy like that.
When we got inside the car, I noticed the back seat had a large picnic basket and a bottle of Domaine Leflaive—Montrachet Grand Cru as in from Côte de Beaune, France.
“Jesus, Luc, what the hell is all this?”
“I said normal. I’m going to show you what normal means for me, here in Chicago.”
“Expensive wine and vintage cars.”
“Part of the seduction.” He winked at me.
“You don’t have to seduce me.”
“I do. That way every day’s an adventure. I wake up thinking How can I have her today?”
This was nice. I almost felt like things really could be like this. For us.
I wanted the excitement of each day being an adventure with him.
I leaned forward and kissed him, wanting more but sating my needs with the fire from the kiss.
The day was bright and beautiful.
We drove out for hours, got stuck in traffic twice, but the time gave us a chance to talk.
When I saw where it was we we’re heading, my spirits soared. We we’re heading down to Lake Michigan. The scenery around that area was amazing.
We pulled up in a little area at the entrance of thick woodland.
I’d never been here before.
Luc took the stuff out of the car, then my hand, and led me to a secluded area by the lakeside.
I had to stop and take a moment to take it all in when I saw it.
The area was covered in gardenias, just like the image I got when Luc had talked about his vineyard in Italy.
“Luc, oh my gosh.”
“Yeah. It’s not Italy, but it’s close. I bought this plot of land a few years back.”
Bought the land. Of course.
“You own this?” I gasped.
“Just this part.” He motioned with his hand, waving about the place in a casual manner, but he pointed to basically everything.
“That was everything.” I laughed.
“Nah, just as far as that tree with the sign and most of the lake.” The tree he pointed to was so far away I could just about make out the little sign it had hanging from one of the branches.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?” he huffed.
“You own most of the land, you are mega rich, and you’re trying to tamp down what you have.” I could see straight through him.
He sighed. “Okay, since today was about me showing you what a real day with me is like, I guess I’ll confess.”
“So, most of the land is yours?”
“Yes,” he replied with a slight hint of hesitation.
“I love it.” I tucked a stray wisp of hair behind my ear. “Why wouldn’t you want me to know that?” I brushed my finger across his chest, relishing the feel of the hard walls. I smiled at the contact.
“It’s not that. I just don’t want you to be thinking about how I got it.”
Oh, I saw that now, unde
rstanding. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
“But this is about the real you,” I pointed out. “Also, while I love the picnic idea, aren’t we supposed to be naked right about now?” I arched a brow and considered him. I was addicted to the man and how he made me feel.
He made me forget. Everything.
I wanted to forget everything now and get lost in him.
He leaned forward and kissed the bridge of my nose, lingering there for a moment, then pulling back an inch to remain close to me.
“Change of plans.”
I pressed my hands to his chest, then ran my fingers up to cup his jaw. He closed his eyes and pulled in a breath, showing me he savored my touch.
“Why the change of plans?” My voice forced him to open his eyes.
“Too much sex means we never get to know each other. God knows I can’t get enough of you, Amelia, but I don’t just want us to be physical.”
Okay, I liked that. I really liked that, and it meant a lot to hear it and know he wanted to know even more about me.
Was there any point to me acknowledging that I’d fallen for this man long ago and never quite realized how badly I’d fallen?
“Me neither.”
He brushed his lips over mine, then stepped back with a gentle smile that showed off his dimples.
“You’ll like what I made us.”
“What is it?”
“A grand feast combo of French and Italian food.” He looked proud of himself.
It sounded heavenly.
He set down the basket and pulled out a tartan-patterned blanket first, laying it down for us to sit on.
Luc then took my hands and ushered me to sit.
When he started setting out the food, I saw that it was indeed a heavenly feast.
There was French bread and a selection of cheeses, which included my favorites; Brie and camembert. There were slices of honey-roasted chicken and beef. Little pots of different dishes here and there that looked interesting even though I didn’t know what they were.
“Luc, you made all of this this morning?” My eyes grew wider the more I looked and saw the love and care that had gone into everything.
He nodded and gave me a satisfied smile. “Yes, doll, made the bread too.”
Mafia Scars (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 2) Page 14
