Luca Vitiello (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles Book 0)

by Cora Reilly

  “I don’t mind being protected, but I do mind being imprisoned,” Aria shouted as she turned to face me, allowing me a glance down her see-through shirt to a glittery bra beneath that accentuated her breasts. Another wave of possessiveness hit me. “Dance with me,” she pleaded with a soft smile.

  Fuck. That smile. Gripping her hips tighter, I started to move to the music. It had been a while since I’d enjoyed time in a club, but for Aria, this was the first time. Another first she shared with me. I dipped my head to her ear. “You look fucking hot, Aria. Every man in the club wants you, and I want to kill them all.”

  “I’m only yours,” she said without hesitation. I kissed her, wanting to taste her and show everyone that she was mine.

  “I’m so fucking hard,” I groaned. “Fuck. I have a call set up with one of our distributors in five minutes.” He made sure that we had enough acid, ecstasy and all of the other shit we sold to the crowds in our clubs.

  Aria touched my chest. “It’s okay. Come back when you have time. I’m going to grab a drink.”

  “Go to the VIP area.” It would make Romero’s job much easier.

  “I want to pretend I’m an ordinary girl tonight.”

  Did she really think that would work? Aria was the center of attention wherever she went. “Nobody who looks at you will think you’re ordinary.” I glanced at my watch. Fuck. I needed to get back into the office. “Cesare and Romero will keep an eye on you.”

  Aria paled when she looked toward the VIP area.

  I followed her gaze. “Fuck it,” I muttered when I saw Grace doing a lap dance for a guy. “She’s not here because of me.”

  Aria gave me a sad smile. “Yes, she is.”

  Grace looked up briefly, catching my eyes. Aria was probably right. I had to put a fucking stop to Grace’s obsession. “I can’t throw her out. She comes here all the time to party. I haven’t seen her since that night. I usually stay in the back.”

  Aria didn’t say anything and I cupped her cheek, forcing her to meet my gaze.. “There’s only you, Aria.” I risked another glance at my watch. Damn it. “I really need to go now. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With a last glance at my wife, I quickly stalked back to my office, followed by Matteo.

  The second I stepped into the room, I lifted my cell to my ear before I continued to the back office where I had more quiet. Matteo stayed in the front, checking the rest of our numbers.

  Matteo pushed into the room with a dead serious face. “Someone put roofies in Aria’s drink.”

  I jerked upright, hanging up without a word. The fucking drugs could wait.

  “He didn’t do anything. Romero and Cesare were there,” Matteo added hastily, but I barely listened as I stormed past him into the front office. Aria clung to Cesare, her face ashen, legs barely supporting her. Fury burnt through me when I glanced from my drugged wife to Rick, one of our drug dealers. The fucker would soon wish he had never been born.

  “What happened?” I got out past the burning fury throbbing in my throat, in my veins, in every fucking inch of my body. I crossed the room and took Aria from Cesare, who released her at once. I lifted her into my arms and her head dropped against my chest, dazed eyes peering up at me. Fuck it. That’s why I didn’t want Aria in places like this. With so many people around, protecting her was close to impossible, and I needed to protect her no matter the cost. A brief burst of anger toward her for disobeying flickered in my body, but it slipped away as I peered down at my helpless wife.

  Gianna kept bitching in her high-pitched voice, but my focus tunneled in on Aria. Her blue eyes clung to my face, her fingers crinkling my shirt.

  Romero explained some shit about roofies to Gianna as I put Aria down on the sofa. She looked small and vulnerable. I turned toward Rick and stalked to him. I wanted to smash his skull against the wall, leave a goddamn dent in the plaster from the force of it. But a quick end like that? No, that wasn’t going to happen.

  “You put roofies in my wife’s drink, Rick?” I asked, my voice vibrating with my barely contained anger. Without Aria and Gianna in the room, I would already have started slicing him into bite-sized pieces.

  Rick’s beady eyes shot open, mouth gaping. “Wife? I didn’t know she was yours. I didn’t. I swear!”

  I shoved Romero aside to get into Rick’s ugly face, then gripped the knife still sticking out of his thigh and turned it sharply. Rick roared in agony, eyes rolling back, but Romero kept the fucker on his feet.

  “What did you plan to do to her once you had her outside?” Fuckers like Rick used roofies for a chance to get their dick wet, and they sold roofies to assholes who wanted to do the same because no women would ever give them the time of day.

  “Nothing!”

  “Nothing? So if my men hadn’t stopped you, you would have just dropped her off at a hospital?” The mere idea that his piece of shit could have touched Aria drove a burning ball of fire into my chest.

  Aria murmured a few incoherent words. I moved to her side and got down on my haunches to be eye level with her.

  “What did you say, Aria?”

  “‘I’ll fuck your tight ass. I’ll make you scream, bitch. I’ll fuck you bloody, cunt.’ That’s what he said to me,” Aria dragged the words out of her mouth, her eyelids fluttering. Gianna lost her shit before I could, raging and screaming.

  “You will die!” she screamed at Rick.

  He wouldn’t only die. Death was for a simple transgression. This was the ultimate crime, the fucking ultimate sin.

  I stood, feeling my pulse slow as it always did before the kill, before the torture. Matteo was holding Gianna back from scratching Rick’s eyes out.

  “They will make you bleed, and I hope they’ll rape your ugly ass with that broomstick over there.”

  “Gianna,” Aria whimpered, and briefly my pulse spiked, then my eyes settled on Rick, assessing him, trying to decide how to cause him the most agony possible in as short a time as possible. Aria needed to go home, to sleep off the drugs.

  “I’ll make him pay, Gianna,” Matteo promised to his red obsession.

  I shook my head. “No. He’s my responsibility.” Matteo glanced toward me, scanned my face. He knew me, and he knew that I needed to crush the fucking bastard in front of me.

  I stepped up to Rick. His chin wobbled, his eyes twitching with fucking terror. Oh, he knew the stories of what I did to people who fucked with me. Drug dealers who kept a higher percentage than was agreed on, the goddamn Bratva assholes who tried to ruin everything with their low-quality drugs…He knew those stories, and that had been business. This was fucking personal. It couldn’t get any more personal.

  I leaned down, even if the stench of smoke and cheap aftershave made my lip curl. “You wanted to fuck my wife? Wanted to make her scream?”

  He wasn’t worth breathing the same air as Aria. He should never have even dared to look at her.

  Rick began crying. “No, please.”

  I gripped his throat and jerked him up, choking him, but this wouldn’t be his end. Too easy, too painless. I shoved him away from me so he smashed against the wall then dropped to the ground. His gaze briefly flitted toward Aria as if he hoped for her help, and I fucking snapped.

  “I hope you’re hungry, because I’m going to feed you your cock.” I staggered toward him, static rushing in my ears, poisonous fury sloshing in my veins as I withdrew my knife.

  I registered Matteo ushering the girls out. Good. I knelt beside Rick. A moment later Matteo was beside me, holding down the thrashing bastard. I jerked down his pants and he screamed. “No, no, please!”

  Begging didn’t work with me. I brought the knife down—not on his cock, though. Not yet. First, I wanted answers.

  Soon, Rick revealed that a blond woman had given him money so he’d put roofies in Aria’s drink. It must have been Grace. I should have known the bitch wouldn’t give up easily. The only other option was a Russian spy, like the killers who’d been sent out to kill Matteo and me. Or maybe even a
woman sent by my father, in case he feared Aria could turn me soft. But Rick was a blubbering mess and his brain too frayed from years of taking shit himself. I wouldn’t get more information out of him.

  Rick hadn’t known Aria was my wife. It didn’t matter. “Please,” he begged again. “I told you everything. It won’t happen again.”

  I brought my face close, smiling harshly. “You’re right. It won’t happen again.” Then I brought my knife down on his cock, and his screams pitched higher until they turned in a choked gurgle. When I was done, I stood and so did Matteo. Rick still occasionally twitched in the sea of blood around him. I went over to the sink, washed his filthy blood off my hands and face and knife. Then, I left without a word. Matteo would find someone to clean up the shit.

  I went through the back entrance toward the waiting car. Romero stood beside it. The moment Gianna spotted me, her bitch-face dropped, turning to shock.

  “Holy fuck. You’re covered in blood.”

  “Only my shirt,” I told her. Romero grabbed a fresh shirt from the trunk as I slipped out of the ruined one.

  “You have no shame,” Gianna said as she watched me. She didn’t take her eyes off my upper body though.

  “I’m taking off my shirt, not my fucking pants. Do you ever shut your mouth?” I growled, my darkness still simmering under my skin, the call for more blood still singing its siren’s song in my goddamn veins.

  Romero held out the clean shirt to me. “Here, Boss.”

  I put it on and handed Romero the bloody one. “Burn that one and take care of everything, Romero. I’ll drive.” Romero hesitated, his eyes flickering toward Gianna and Aria, and I realized he was reluctant to leave them alone with me. My first impulse was to smash him against the wall for even considering to defy me, but then I decided he probably had reason to be wary of me. But it wasn’t his call to make. After a moment, he turned and left. I leaned inside the back of the car where Aria was sprawled out, looking pasty and shaking. I touched her cheek and her eyes briefly focused on my face.

  Some of my fury slithered away. I drew back and got behind the steering wheel. I wanted to get us home, where I could hold Aria in my fucking arms until the last of my bloodlust had died down.

  Red locks took shape in my peripheral vision. “You are quite a hunk, you know that? If you weren’t married to my sister and not such an asshole, I might consider giving you a go.”

  I slanted her a quick glance, a nasty reply on my tongue.

  “Gianna,” Aria half-begged her sister. Was she worried I’d lose my shit on the bitchy redhead? I didn’t like Gianna, but she was a seventeen-year-old-girl.

  “What, cat got your tongue? I hear you usually jump everything that doesn’t have a dick.”

  She finally shut up when I didn’t take the bait. We pulled into the parking garage and I got out of the car.

  I lifted Aria into my arms and carried her into the elevator. Gianna leaned across from me, and I didn’t like her expression one bit. I lowered my gaze to Aria, knowing she’d speak to the calm in me, a place few people knew existed. “Have you ever had a threesome?”

  Did the bitch really expect any answers?

  “How many women have you raped before my sister?”

  My head jerked up. I wasn’t sure how much Aria shared with her sister. I wanted to crush Gianna and knew I could have done it by dishing out the simple truth that Matteo owned her pussy, but Aria touched my chest, and the anger drained out of me as I met her gaze. She was begging me to stay calm. “Can’t you do something else with your mouth than yap?” I muttered.

  “Like what? Give you a blow job?”

  I glanced up. That would be Matteo’s privilege. “Girl, you’ve never even seen a dick. Just keep your lips shut.”

  “Gianna,” Aria whispered.

  I strode quickly toward the stairs to take Aria to our bedroom, but Gianna barred my way. “Where are you taking her?”

  “To bed,” I told her, trying to move past her, but she got in the way.

  “She’s high on roofies. That’s probably the chance you’ve been waiting for. I won’t let her be alone with you.”

  Was she suggesting I’d fuck Aria while she was helpless like this? “I’m going to say it only once, and you’d better obey: get out of my way, and go to bed.”

  “Or what?”

  That was the fucking problem. There was little I could do. For one because she was a girl, and for two because she was Matteo’s girl.

  “Gianna, please,” Aria pleaded.

  Gianna finally stopped the bullshit. “Get better.”

  Without another glance at the bitch, I carried Aria into our bedroom. She squirmed in my hold, shivering. “I’m going to be sick.”

  The moment I held her over the toilet, Aria threw up, still shaking. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, sounding embarrassed and miserable.

  “What for?” I asked as I wrapped my arm around her and helped her up.

  “For throwing up.”

  I soaked a towel and held it out to her. Aria took it with a weak smile and cleaned her face, shaking in my hold.

  “It’s good that you got some of that shit out of your system. Fucking roofies. It’s the only way for ugly fucks like Rick to get their dicks into a pussy,” I growled, my anger rekindling. If I didn’t already have so much on my plate, I’d have drawn his torture out over a few days.

  I helped Aria into the bedroom. She leaned heavily on me. Glancing down at her, I asked, “Can you undress?”

  She gave a small nod. “Yeah.”

  I released her and she lost her balance. She landed on the bed and began laughing before she grimaced, holding her head. She definitely wouldn’t be able to undress herself. I leaned over her, trying to catch her attention. It took a moment before her eyes focused on me.

  “I’m going to get you out of your clothes. They stink of smoke and vomit,” I explained slowly. For some reason it felt wrong to undress her in her state. She was drugged and obviously not in a state of mind to refuse advances. There was a good reason why roofies were the drug of choice for rapists.

  I hooked my fingers under Aria’s shirt and gently slid it up. She giggled again, but I ignored it and her wiggling. Despite my best intentions, I couldn’t help but check her out when I pushed down her leather pants. Goosebumps covered her gorgeous lean legs right up until her tiny lace panties. I reached under her back, causing her to arch with another giggle as if I’d tickled her. I doubted she realized what she was doing. Her unfocused eyes were playful as she looked up at me. I unhooked her bra and pulled it off, then tossed it carelessly away.

  Good Lord, even drugged Aria stole my breath. She was sprawled out before me in nothing but a tiny piece of lace covering her pussy, her nipples erect in the cool room, and smiling up at me. There was no anxiety, no fear. I quickly turned away before my thoughts could wander down a dark path. I got out of my clothes before I grabbed a shirt from my drawer then helped Aria to a sitting position. It took several tries to get her into the shirt, but it would have taken even more tries to get her into one of her flimsy nightgowns. I lifted Aria once more and laid her down with her head on the pillow. She didn’t move, only peered up at me with the same dreamy smile. I stretched out beside her.

  “You’re impressive, you know?” she said, her eyes trailing over my chest, going in and out of focus.

  I touched her forehead. She was overly warm. Aria giggled and touched my lower abs before she slid even lower. I quickly stopped her wandering hand and held it fast. “Aria, you’re drugged. Try to sleep.”

  She gave me a droopy smile that was probably meant to be seductive. “Maybe I don’t want to sleep.”

  I stroked her hair from her forehead. “Yes, you do.”

  Aria blinked then yawned. “Will you hold me?”

  I turned off the lights and cradled her in my arms. “You’d better lie on your side in case you feel sick again,” I murmured against her neck.

  “Did you kill him?” she mumbled.
>
  I considered how much to tell her, but Aria knew the rules of our world. She knew the man I was. “Yes.”

  “Now there’s blood on my hands.”

  “You didn’t kill him.”

  “But you killed him because of me.”

  “I’m a killer, Aria. It had nothing to do with you.” I didn’t want her to feel guilty for something like that. This death was on me, like every death in my past, like every death in my future. They would never tarnish Aria, because I wouldn’t let them. I wanted her life to be free of the horrors of my existence. I wouldn’t let the darkness consume her like it had my mother, like it did so many women in our circles because their husbands didn’t give a fuck about them.

  Aria’s soft voice tore through the dark once more. “You know, sometimes I wish I could hate you, but I can’t. I think I love you. I never thought I could.”

  My heart stuttered in a way it never had, and heat flooded my chest. Love? Fuck. Aria couldn’t love me. She didn’t know what she was talking about. She was drugged. The roofies had messed with her brain.

  After a long exhale, Aria continued, her voice becoming drowsier. “And sometimes I wonder how it would be if you made love to me.”

  I wanted to claim Aria, to own her, to fuck her…to make love to her? I’d never made love, and I didn’t think I was capable of it. “Sleep.”

  “But you don’t love me,” Aria continued, her words a slur filled with misery. “You don’t want to make love to me. You want to fuck me because you own me.”

  She was right, and yet her words didn’t ring true. I wanted more than that. With Aria, I simply wanted. I wanted all of her, every little thing, not just her body, also her smiles and her closeness and her astonished gasps and breathless moans. I tightened my arm around her. Love.

  How did you know if you loved someone?

  “Sometimes I wish you had taken me on our wedding night; then at least I wouldn’t still wish for something that will never be. You want to fuck me like you fucked Grace, like an animal. That’s why she told me you would fuck me bloody, right?”

  It took my mind a moment to fully process her words. Grace had told Aria I would fuck her bloody? “When did she say that? Aria, when?”