“Does the ring belong to you?”
He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out the gold ring that bore a horseshoe surrounded by diamonds. He stared at it for only a moment before placing it back in his pocket, returning his attention to her. “No, it belongs to a friend.” His voice cold and sharp, it was more than obvious he didn’t care much for talking.
“Okay, then.”
“So, you won’t tell?”
“I meant I believe that it actually belongs to your friend”—a smile now came to her lips—“not that I wouldn’t tell Lucca.”
Maybe I shouldn—
She saw the lightness behind his dark eyes flash as he used the hand on her throat to force her to look up at him even more. At the same time, he moved his face and body ever so close to her, until there was hardly any space left between them. Then he dropped his voice to a dangerously low tone.
“I don’t think you see that I’m the one with the upper hand in this situation, sweetness.”
Now her heart raced, and she knew very well he could feel it under his grip, but it wasn’t from fear. No, it was from what he was doing to her uncontrollable body. It was putty in his hands, and if she didn’t get out of here and far away from him soon, the bad boy would find out exactly what kind of upper hand he had with her.
“You’re not going to hurt me,” she told him with just as much certainty as he had told her she wasn’t going to scream the second he pulled his hand away.
Something in him changed again, bringing the half-hearted smile back to one side of his lips. He brought the hand that wasn’t over her throat up to her face, running his long, cold, tatted fingers down the side of her cheek to gradually sweep her thick brown hair behind her left ear. He kept pushing until the locks fell behind her left shoulder, exposing her tanned skin. When he then began to lean down, she would have sworn he was going to kiss her exposed shoulder. Instead, he stopped and turned his mouth to her ear, getting so close that, when he spoke, his scruffy beard tickled it. “You sure about that?”
Adalyn bit her lip, trying to fight the warmth that was rising in her belly. She really, really needed to get away before she did something she would soon regret … Most likely regret.
“You hurt me, and you’re dead. Considering you’re not a Caruso, you’re in enemy territory. You’ll be in much bigger trouble hurting one of their women than if you were simply stealing a ring.”
Angel backed up only an inch, telling her he knew she was right.
She turned her head slowly, wanting to look into his dark depths once more before she had to leave.
“Don’t worry; I’ll keep your secret. But you’ll owe me.”
He spanned his hand along her throat, stretching her neck up farther. “Sweetness, I’m the last person you’d want owing you.”
She could hear the hint of a threat in his tone, but it didn’t stop her. Too enticed by the angel, she whispered, “Something tells me I do.”
“I was wrong about you.” Letting his eyes travel all over her, he finally dropped his hand from her throat as he took a step back. “You are stupid.”
She guessed a part of her should have been hurt by those words, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she must have been stupid for not screaming when he had removed his cold hand from her mouth.
When she twisted the doorknob and cracked the door open, the light from the hallway began to illuminate the shadowy man, causing a dim halo to outline his body. She couldn’t help smiling as she stepped out and started closing it, causing the halo surrounding him to slowly disappear.
“Probably, but I wasn’t the one stupid enough to steal from a Caruso.”
Three
‘Not Exactly a Caruso’
The next day, Adalyn waited in the fall air for her ride to pick her up and take her to the college. It was always a black Escalade, driven by a Caruso goon, holding her best friend, Lake, as well as Elle and Maria. Another Cadillac always followed them, full of other goons who would guard the girls throughout the day.
Ever since a break-in at the casino hotel, the Carusos no longer took chances, especially with their women. She also figured, by the time Chloe attended college with them next semester, there would most likely be two cars carrying Carusos to protect the underboss’s girl.
There was definitely a hierarchy of protection between the girls. At the top was Maria Caruso, a.k.a. the mafia princess. Maria was the daughter of the boss and sister to Lucca and Nero. She was to be protected at all costs. Otherwise, you were certain to die a miserable death … if they got to you before you were able to commit suicide out of failure. Next on the list was Elle, being Nero’s girlfriend with one bodyguard to protect her. And then there was Adalyn’s BFF, Lake, who was the daughter of a soldier and Adalyn’s stepbrother, Vincent’s, girlfriend, who happened to be the consigliere’s son. Now, since she and Lake shared all the same classes, they happened to also share a bodyguard. However, she knew the bodyguard was there to protect Lake more so than her. And that was where Adalyn’s name fell on the list—dead last.