Adalyn swallowed down the vomit that was rising. Whenever someone goes missing in the mafia, it means only one thing.
“What if he’s—”
“You don’t know that yet,” Lake tried to console her.
No, Adalyn didn’t know that. She didn’t know anything; that was the problem. She at least needed to know what happened to him. It was always better to know than not to know.
No matter the cost.
“What are you doing?” Sal asked when Adalyn kept walking.
She didn’t open her mouth or turn back, determined to see him.
Sal kept following her. “You can’t do that. He’s with someone.”
“Try me,” she barked back at him.
When she raised her hand to pound on the door, Sal tried to stop her, but she kicked him in the nuts.
“What the fuck!”
“Where is he?” She banged on the door as Sal toppled to the ground.
“You little b—”
“I know you’re in there, Lucca!” she yelled, continuing to beat the door down.
When the door to his office finally and quickly opened, she almost hit Lucca’s chest.
A very unhappy and furious demon stared her down.
“I’m sorry, but she kicked me in the … balls.” Sal’s voice was very high-pitched.
“Where is he?” she asked with a determined expression. She didn’t care how scary or how incredibly hot Lucca looked when he was mad; she wasn’t leaving until she had answers.
“Leave,” was all he said before he began to shut the door, but it stopped when a small body with long, black hair came out from behind him.
A scarred eyebrow rose. “Who?”
Adalyn was shocked that Chloe had appeared from behind him. Has she been hiding behind him? What are they doing in there? Stay on track, Adalyn!
“Angel,” Adalyn finally answered.
As a slight tinge of hurt appeared in Chloe’s eyes at the mention of his name, all Adalyn’s furiousness left her. She understood Angel was Lucifer’s son, but that wasn’t who he was to her.
She felt herself beginning to plead with her. “He’s been missing, and no one will tell me where he went.”
Chloe stared at her for a moment, then tilted her head up to Lucca. “Where is he?”
Lucca slowly, visibly began to break down. Then he turned his head back to Adalyn, silently killing her with his eyes before he gave in.
“Sal, get up.”
Sal managed to stand with his hands protecting his possessions.
“Let her see him,” was all he said before the door slammed back in her face.
“Thanks, Chloe!” Adalyn yelled, smiling at the door.
As she turned around to see a very pissed off Sal, it was the first time she had ever seen him mad, which was strange.
Giving him a helpless smile, she tried to laugh. “Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
Silence was all she got.
“Are they … okay?” she asked, recalling how she might have kicked them a little too hard.
“No. No, they aren’t.” He slightly adjusted himself before walking away.
Oops.
Adalyn followed Sal, not knowing where he was taking her until they got off the elevator on the ninth floor, then went up to a random hotel room. She watched as Sal pulled out a key card from his pocket, then slid it in, unlocking the door.
“Here?” she asked quietly, suddenly nervous, not knowing what to expect on the other side of the door.
Nodding, Sal opened the door for her to go in.
Stepping into the room that looked much like the one Angel had been in before, she practically jumped when the door was closed behind her. Then she tiptoed in farther, not seeing him until the bed came into view. She gasped at the sight, almost unable to believe it.
Walking closer to him, tears beginning to brim her eyes, she saw that he was black and blue all over, severely beaten. Placing a hand on the sleeping Angel’s arm, she quickly pulled it back when he jumped awake with a force that didn’t look like he should have been capable of in his condition. It seemed as if he had awakened from a nightmare and was ready to fight.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped, slowly trying to sit up and get comfortable. The way he had jarred himself awake hadn’t helped his injuries.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just …” Trying to calm her nerves from the fright, she took a breath, wondering if she should admit the truth. Then she did. “I was worried about you.”
Staring at her for a moment, he relaxed, losing his harsh expression. “You were worried about me?”
“Yes. I thought something might have happened to you, and it looks like I was right.” When she took a step toward him, her eyes got a little cloudy at seeing him like this. There were bruises covering his face and other parts she could see that weren’t covered by his T-shirt yet were hard to see from all his dark tattoos.
Noticing her distress, he seemed to take on a different temperament. “I just got beat up a little, is all.”
Is he being … sweet?
She gave a little chuckle as she tried to dry her eyes. “A little?”
He tried to laugh himself but wasn’t really capable. “Okay, I might have gotten the shit beat out of me, but to be fair, there were three of them.”
“Three? Who were they?” She was lucky to be looking at a man and not mashed potatoes.
“It doesn’t matt—”
“Yes, it does.” She stared at him, realizing it had to be Carusos. “Joey was one of them, wasn’t he? What if he does it again?”
That sweet temperament vanished in an instant. “That’s my problem, sweetness, not yours. I’ll deal with it.”
Seeing the look of retribution in his eyes, Adalyn slowly nodded.
“How did you find me? Who even let you in?”
Biting her lip, she debated on telling him the truth. “I may have kicked Sal in the balls trying to talk to Lucca to get him to tell me where you were. Sal let me in.” She smiled at the last part.
Amused, Angel curved his lips up, smiling. “Did you really?”
“I did,” Adalyn admitted with a laugh. “No one was telling me where you were or where you went, and I couldn’t get in touch with you. I thought you might have died.”
“Give me your phone,” he demanded.
Doing as he asked, she submissively handed it over to him.
Touching the screen, he managed to type with the arm that hadn’t gotten hurt too badly. “I’m giving you my number, but know that my phone’s being watched, so only contact me if you need me.”
“Okay.” She felt better now knowing she could find him if he went missing again.
When he handed her phone back, she reached out to grab it, then found herself grabbed and dragged down to the bed to sit beside him. Shocked at first, the second he placed his hand on her jaw, she melted into it.
“Adalyn, there’s something else I need from you.” His tone turned as dark as his eyes that now bore into her. “I put an address in your phone under my contact.”
Her heart was pumping out of her chest not sure if she was liking where this was going.
“If anything happens to me, I need you to make sure that my friend and my friend only gets the ring.”
Shaking her head, she didn’t like what he was saying. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
He slowly grazed his knuckles against her cheek. “I don’t belong here, sweetness; you know that.”
He had told her so simply, and she knew he was right, as sad as that fact was. She remembered what she had told him herself when she first met him. You’re in enemy territory. For as long as he was there, he would never be safe.
Nodding, she agreed to do it for him.
“Promise me.” He didn’t ask but ordered to hear it from her.
Whispering her promise, she gave him what he wanted. “I promise, Angel.”
“Thank you.” He s
miled and continued his motion only for a second longer before he let her go. “You better go before Sal or Lucca come back to check on you.”
“Am I going to see you again?” Adalyn bit her lip, not wanting to leave his side. She didn’t know what this meant for Angel, if or when he could go back to watching her at school, or even if Lucca would allow it, considering the Carusos hated him so badly.
“I don’t know when I can see you again, but I’ll find you, sweetness,” he made his own promise this time. “I still need the ring you stole from me, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” She smiled, but you’re definitely not getting it back anytime soon.
Taking a breath, assured she would see him again, she started to leave, but then she remembered she at least needed a name for who to return the ring to.
“What’s your friend’s name?”
Getting up from his bed, hurt and stung by the name he had given her, she walked away from him.
Hearing that name had burned her soul. It was in the way he had said it, the way he had formed that beautiful name, the way it had sounded as it had passed his lips, and the look in his eyes as it did. It was something only a woman would understand when the man she was falling for said another woman’s name.
It was a name she wouldn’t ever forget, no matter how desperately she wanted to.
Bella.
Seventeen
I Am and Always Will Bleed Luciano Blood
“How do you feel?” Lucca asked, taking a seat in the corner of the room.
Angel didn’t even turn his head to look at him, knowing who it was. “How the fuck do you think? Your men almost beat me to death.”
Flicking his lighter on and off, he started to twirl the fire between his fingers. “Sorry about that.”
Damn fucker wasn’t even apologizing for his men.
“Can you name them?” he asked, flicking his lighter closed.
Angel looked at him then, knowing exactly why he wanted to know. And let you have all the fun? “No.”
Nodding, Lucca stood, going over to him so he didn’t have to use energy to look at him. “I promise you this, it won’t happen again.”
“So, I guess you’re still not letting me go.” He sunk back in the bed, defeated. He at least thought getting the shit beat out of him was going to give him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“I can’t do that. Not until our families find peace again, and not until I find out who killed Tom.”
Fuck. He was going to be surrounded by Carusos forever.
“I can, however, start treating you like one of my men,” Lucca said simply.
Shocked, Angel didn’t know if he had heard him correctly. “What?”
“Starting tomorrow, you will be a soldier for the Caruso family and will be compensated as such for the time being. This means you answer to me or my father.” The last part was the most important that came with a warning from the underboss. If he was to agree, it would mean he would now bleed and die for the Carusos, who he was now working for, who he had been led to believe were his sworn enemies his entire existence. Then again, beaten, bloodied, and trapped didn’t give him much of a choice. His blood was Luciano, and there was no changing that.
Angel nodded, silently hoping that consenting wouldn’t come back to haunt him.
Before Lucca could leave, there was something he wanted. “I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
Staring Lucca down, he let him know it would be a deal breaker. “I do my job and protect Adalyn without one of your men watching me.”
“Fine.” Lucca glared back, his voice taking a deadly turn. “You betray my trust, though, Angel, it will be the last thing you ever do.”
One Week Later…
As she walked outside, the air seemed crisper. It was going to start snowing anytime now. Adalyn would welcome some change right now. It had been one long week since she had seen Angel last; she just hoped he was still breathing.
School didn’t seem the same anymore without him. Truth be told, her life didn’t seem the same anymore without him. He had ended up being the surprise of her lifetime, and she truly felt he had changed her life forever. There were some people who could do that to you, even if you had only met them for a second. You just could never forget them.
Waiting for the Escalade to pull up, she was shocked to find that it never did. Instead, it was the car Tom had used to pick her up.
Great, another one.
It wasn’t until the car pulled up right next to her that she was able to see who it was through the dark tint.
Angel, wearing sunglasses, rolled down the passenger window when she just stood there in shock. “Are you going to get in, sweetness?”
“You’re still alive,” she whispered, still stunned, never in the slightest having expected him to come back so soon.
When she still didn’t get in, he opened his door and got out to go to the other side. Amused, he opened the passenger door for her. “I’m a lot harder to kill than that.”
Her lips turned up in a smile, and she was finally able to get in the car. “I can see that.”
Watching him close her door before getting back in, she could see by his slow movements that he still wasn’t back to normal, and looking at his profile now, she could see why he was wearing the big shades—his face was still bruised.
Still staring at the bruises, she actually hurt for him. “Does it hurt?”
“No,” he answered truthfully. “Pain isn’t really an issue for me.”
Looking at his inky hands as he turned the steering wheel, she knew he had to be a freak. “I bet not with that many tattoos.”
“I enjoy getting tatted,” he admitted with a half-sinister smile.
I knew it.
“How many do you have?”
“Too many to count.”
Her brow rose as she became too curious for her own good. “How covered are you?”
He was silent a moment before he answered, “Almost completely.”
That didn’t help her imagination. It only made her want to know how much of a freak he was. However, she figured it wouldn’t be polite to ask if his ass or dick was tatted, too, so she asked a reasonable question instead. “How old were you when you got your first one?”
“Sixteen.”
“Sixteen? Is that even legal?” No wonder he was already covered in tattoos.
Smiling, he laughed. “With a parent’s permission, yes. But in my case, it was illegal. I have a great tattoo artist, though, so it came out good.”
“Did you get in trouble?”
“No. Tattoos aren’t a big deal in our family. Almost everyone has them.”
“Oh.” The Lucianos were a lot different than the Carusos; that was for sure.
With silence filling the car and now that her shock at seeing him had worn off, she realized that he alone was taking her to school.
“No one else came with you?”
He looked in the rearview mirror at the cars following behind him. “Lucca’s agreed to trust me, but I assume I’m still being watched.”
Lucca’s agreed to trust him? “So, what does that mean?”
“He asked me to work for him legitimately while I’m here.” Well, here as in forced to be here.
“Really?” She almost couldn’t believe it. It was unheard of.
Angel nodded as he pulled into the parking spot beside the Escalade.
“So, it’s like you’re kinda a Caruso?”
Looking at the girls’ and the Carusos’ faces that were a mixture of disbelief and disgust said it all. “No, I am and always will bleed Luciano blood.”
Eighteen
Shit That Only Happens in Romance Novels
Lake and Adalyn looked at each other when Angel didn’t stay outside the door but instead followed them into their classroom.
“What are you doing?” Adalyn asked when he ended up taking a seat behind them.
Angel reclined back in his seat, getting comfortable. �
�I don’t want to stand outside like a dog. I can watch you both better from here, can’t I?”
“He’s right,” Lake said, agreeing too easily with him.
Narrowing her eyes, she stared at her friend. You just want to look at him. “I’m not sure if he’s allowed.”
The end of his lip tilted up. “It’s a big class in a big college, sweetness; no one’s gonna notice an extra person.”
Lake practically swooned when she heard him say sweetness. “Yeah, no one will notice.”
Adalyn had to contain herself from rolling her eyes at her friend and at Angel, who seemed to be getting a kick out of Lake agreeing with him.
Looking toward the front, she could see the girls glancing back to get a look at him as well. He was hard not to fucking miss, considering he stood out like a sore thumb with all his tats. Her friend was one of those girls, too, who couldn’t look away and hadn’t turned her head back toward the front to mind her own fucking business.
“Are you not in pain?” Lake asked, concerned about his bruises and his condition.
Angel made a slight wince behind his shades. “A litt—”
“He’s fine,” Adalyn sharply cut off his charades while glaring at them both.
“Adalyn, quit being so rude! Look at him. He’s clearly in pain.” Lake tried to get closer to see the bruises on his face when he raised his sunglasses.
“Oh, he’ll be hurting when I get Lucca to take a baseball bat to his ass,” she muttered angrily to herself under her breath.
“Did you say something?” Lake asked her when Angel had abruptly placed the shades back on his face.
Giving a fake-ass smile, she silently murdered them both in her head. “Yeah, I said poor baby.”
“Who would do that to you?” Lake asked in a nurturing voice.
I wish I did.
“I don’t know, Lake. Maybe you should ask your boyfriend,” Adalyn emphasized with another fake-ass, million-dollar smile to, you know, remind her that she had a fucking boyfriend!
Lake snapped her head back to the front then, before quietly speaking after clearing her throat. “I’ll do that.”
Angel (Made Men Book 5) Page 7
