“I don’t feel so good,” Kara says and stumbles. I stand immediately and grab for her. She falls into me, and I hold the water bottle in my other hand. “Can we go?” She went from having fun to messed up real fast. I look at the glass she just drank, but I don’t think drugs work that fast.
“Come on.” I move with her toward the exit. Before we step outside, I turn back and don’t see the man anymore. Bloody hell, I missed my chance at finding out his name or if he is more handsome up close. He probably is more so, but I’ll never know and that’s for the best.
“I’ll help you.” Cody offers to take her, and I see the concern in his eyes. She collapses as he lifts her into his arms. We make our way back to the yacht with the others following behind us.
* * *
Dante
The music pulsesthrough the club. The lights are bright with smokey halos around them. I hate being here, but after the funeral today, I told my father I would come here and check it out. He’s still pushing me to come back to the family business and help, especially now that Narcissa is dead. The woman who drove a wedge between my father and me is gone from this earth, but I still can’t find my sister. Some friends of mine are looking into where Narcissa has been all these years since she’s been missing. How all of a sudden we find out she is now dead. Maybe there is a letter telling us who she sold Luna to and why. The day Luna disappeared, her mother did too. We found out from a neighbor that some men came and took Luna away before Narcissa left.
My thoughts are interrupted when a group across the club catches my eye. Four men and three women are all partying together. But there’s one who intrigues me. I watch and can’t take my eyes off of her as she moves away from the dance floor. One of the guys she’s with approaches her from the bar with a glass. Vodka, I watched him order. She takes it but doesn’t take a sip. He touches her back and I find myself standing up. I’m going to rip his hand from his body for touching her. I’ve never felt this pull before, but I need to find out more about this petite woman. Her purple hair flashes in the light. She’s not dressed up like she’s clubbing but more like she should be at dinner on my arm. Her hair hangs straight down her back, but as she’s been sweating, I can see curls starting to form. The pair make their way back to the seating area, and I watch as she sits in a chair instead of on the sofa next to the young arsehole. She sets the glass on the table in front of her and finally turns and looks at me. From across the room, I can feel the electricity that brews between us. A feeling of warmth I’ve never felt before washes across my body. For the first time in a long time, I can’t control my body’s urges, and my cock lengthens behind the fly of my trousers.
She doesn’t shy away from my intense gaze. Her face is smooth and pale. Her lips full. The top a perfect cupid’s bow, the bottom puffy and begging for me to bite it. Her wide-set eyes make her look like a doll. My doll. She’s slender with smaller breasts that I can tell are unrestrained behind her dress, and I want to take her across my knee for letting others see them move around the way they did as she danced.
Another woman walks up and takes her glass, drinking it down in a gulp. I watch as my little doll pierces the other man with her eyes. She’s upset about something. I call over one of the VIP servers and order a Pellegrino to be delivered to the girl. I move to be closer to her. I can’t stop the pull she has on my body. Was this what Domino and Natale were talking about when they found their girls? Santi said he couldn’t be away from his when he first saw her. I don’t want to let her out of my sight.
My hand goes up, waving my security detail to me.
“Follow her. Find out everything.” I nod toward the group. The server finally delivers the drink. My doll turns to look at me, and I watch with my body locked tight when she puts the bottle to her full lips. The image of her taking my cock deep between those lips causes me to spurt a bit of cum in my slacks. I want to adjust myself when her throat flexes as she swallows. When her lips tip up and she nods, I stand, ready to go claim her.
I lose sight of her as there is a commotion with her friend. Her friend collapses, and I know that wanker intended to drug my doll. If she had drank that glass, she’d be in this condition. An image of her vulnerable to him flashes in my mind and my hand itches for my blade. I’ll cut off his balls if he touches what is mine.
I head toward her to help and confront him about drugging her, but they are out of the club and gone before I can get to them. I’m glad I put security on her.
I’m pacing the office in the club.
“How did the wanker get a drug into that woman’s drink?”
“We don’t know for sure she was drugged,” the manager snivels. Two of my guards have him between them; he’s slobbering and bloody from my fists. I crack my knuckles. I haven’t had to rough someone up in a long time, and it feels good. I’m on edge from not seeing my doll since she left. The guard I had set to follow her messaged that she and the others boarded a super yacht, and she hasn’t come out since. Some of the others were on the deck in the hot tub, but not her or her friend. The guy hasn’t been seen either, and I’m worried he’s sampling her. I’ll kill him for touching her.
I stop and swing my fist, connecting with the manager’s nose, breaking it. Blood spurts and lands on my black slacks.
“That woman went from tipsy to fucked up in seconds. Only drugs do that. If mybambolahad touched it, you’d be dead right now.”
“Bambola?” The manager looks up at me from his kneeling position, and I realize I called her my doll.
“Yes, mine,” I growl before I slam my fist hard enough into him he slumps down between my guards. “Take care of him. I’m calling the Capo.” I pull out my phone and call my father.
“Dante.” His rough voice filled with sleep comes across the line. “Is everything okay?”
“You need to hire new management and get control. The manager of Festa allowed an innocent woman to be drugged while I was here.”
“If you took it over, you’d have control over who was hired. The family needs you,figlio.” He’s instantly awake. He mixes Italian with his English, calling me son. I hear rustling over the line and then another voice. My stepmother. She married my father after my mother died.
“I don’t want the job.” I hang up and nod to the guards, who drop the manager to the floor. We leave and head to the flat I stay in when I’m in town. My estate is on the mainland, but I set up a warehouse with a loft for when I’m here on the islands. Tonight, I don’t feel like making the drive out to the farm. I want to be close and watch for my doll. I’m hoping I can see her again before the boat she’s on leaves.
On the way to my building, I stop and watch the yacht.
“What room is she in?” I point to the darkened yacht.
“She must be down below deck because none of the lights except the captain’s and galley have been on since she went aboard,” Vincenzo says.
“You’ll watch her and contact me if they leave port. She’s not to leave your sight, ever.” I’ve just assigned him to guard her. I don’t normally have guards. These men work for my father, the Capo, but I trust them.
After I walked away from the family at eighteen and went to university to study international trade, I started my business that now makes me enough money I don’t touch my trust fund. No one knows about my side job that also pays me well. Most think of me as the reclusive son of the Lupo family, the Northern Italian Venice mob. It’s not the life I wanted though. After losing Luna and my father being unable to save her, I didn’t see the point.
My money is from my import-export business. It’s partly the reason I have the large warehouse on the island. The main floor is set up as a garage for my cars, and I have rooms for the guards my father makes me have when I’m in town. I mostly stay on the mainland at my vineyard and live the farm life when I’m not traveling the world ridding it of scum. Not too long ago, I spent some time down in Sicily guarding the Morello family for my cousin.