LUCA {Full Book}

33

I pushed through the bar door, eying the crowded space until I saw her and her girls at the middle table.

They were the center of fucking attention and I watched around them, seeing all the fucking stares she was getting and knowing exactly what was behind those stares, that was the reason I had to be here tonight.

"Salve signore."

Crystal gestured to the seat next to hers and I sank down, snapping my fingers for her before grabbing her waist and pulling her onto my lap.

I had missed her and I threw my arms over her waist, pulling her into me, inhaling her like a fucking addict.

"Luca, this is Megan and Nia. Girls, this is Luca... we are.. seeing each other now."

I buried my face into her neck, sucking her skin between my teeth with a hard kiss. "Ladies."

They both smiled, as expected, before looking back and forth at each other, using that silent chick talk. Then the Nia one leaned towards us.

"So where'd you two meet?"

"Here..." Crystal laughed. "He was an ass and I turned into a cliché."

"Cliché?" I repeated and she twisted her face up to mine.

"Because I fell for said ass."

"I fell for your ass as well." In fact... I ran my hands over her thighs, squeezing my way up to that ass. "You look sexy tonight."

"Long day, didn't have time to go home and change."

"You wear this shit to work?" We needed to discuss some rules tonight. Tight tops and tight skirts were a no-go for bars or work. "Where's your office?"

"Schuster and McIntyre, up the street."

I knew those hipster fuckboys, trying to compete with the established law firms in Manhattan while wearing fucking buns on their heads. "It's all guys."

"Not any more." She cheered to her girls, proud of herself for being the only chick amongst the wolves, no, the fucking fleas.

She thought they saw her potential but I guarantee those assholes only saw the fucking skirt, and the potential underneath it. She was too good for them.

"Why are they keeping you so fucking late?" As if I didn't already know the answer. As if I hadn't pulled that same shit on my hot assistants. Stay until it's dark, grab a drink, share a cab, fuck until midnight.

"New client," she shrugged. "Oh, that guy from the cab the other night, your friend- Adam Cohen."

What.the.fuck.

I bounced my knee, popping her right back into the chair next to me and meeting her eyes. "Repeat that."

I watched her lips, feeling the fire spreading across my skin.

"Adam Cohen. I guess he has an in-house legal team but apparently they're not enough for what he needs."

"Crystal!" I could feel the bitter taste in my mouth, the fucking vile as I started losing restraint and I slammed my fists under the table. "What the fuck did he say to you in the cab the other night?"

"Whoa!" She took a sip of her drink, giggling over to her girls like this was all some happy fucking coincidence.

"Dammit Crystal! What the fuck did he say to you!"

Her eyes went wide before she rolled them towards her friends but I didn't give a fuck who was here.

"Umm... he got in and said 'Oh, you're Luca's friend Mary.'"

She was a lawyer, she was too fucking smart to fall for the backwards questioning! "And then..."

"I said, 'no, Crystal.'"

Jesus fucking Christ. "Tell me everything he said next."

"Luca!" She laughed.

"Dimmi!"

"He said, 'that's right, one of the many Crystal's, Crystal Jackson.'"

Fuck. She had to have known then that it was a fucking trap! That he was a fucking weasel.

"... and I corrected him, 'Mancini, you probably know my father, Giuseppe Mancini.' Then he apologized, noting how quickly you run through women and I made the cab driver pull over and I kicked him out."

So now that fucking psychopath had her name, shit even her father's name, and her fucking address.

"He asked for me specifically, since we'd met, but..." she shrugged to her girls, talking silently in that fucking chick language. "I'm only in the office a few days a week."

"Did he ask about me?" I was short, ignoring the way she was gesturing towards her friends, not giving a fuck if I sounded like a dick.

"He did."

Fuck. Please tell me you didn't fucking say a word, that you told him to mind his own fucking business.

"... and I told him exactly what you told me to, that we were seeing each other."

Jesus fucking Christ.

"Apparently it's some extortion case... but that's all I'm privy to."

He didn't know when to fucking quit, thirty years of fucking brotherhood with him and now he was coming after the one thing I had. He thought my threats were empty, he thought that since I took what was his that he could come after what was mine. He was fucking wrong.

Everything went black, distant, even the voices and I stood up, bumping the table before slamming the chair aside.

"Luca?" Crystal gripped the table to steady it, eyes up on me.

"Go straight to my place when you're done here."

"Where are you going?" She started to stand but I raised my hand, keeping her down.

"To finish what I started."

"What?"

I pulled my keys out of my pocket, tossing them over to her. "Do not go home, capire? Understand? Go straight to my place. Wait for me. Do you understand?"

"Yeah..." she nodded back and I took off.

I plowed through the door, feeling the anger I had been holding in about to fucking burst. "FUCK!"

I pulled out my phone, googling the time in Grand Cayman before pushing it to my ear.

"Ciao?"
"There's a thorn and I need it cut."
"Ah, hai trovato una rosa?"
"Sì."
"Resterò in contatto."

I would start the mess, they could clean it up.