Where Nico’s hands touched me, my body sizzled. I lurched back, unsettled. “I’m fine. Let go.” My words were hoarse, pushed past clenched teeth and a raw throat. As soon as his hands loosened, I jerked away from him. I put a few feet between us, shifting so the open sliders through which he’d entered the room were to my back. His dark eyes swirled, and I shivered from the intensity.
He wore a pair of gray sweats and no shirt. I didn’t need to look to know he had a gun in the back waistband. Christ. He was chiseled, solid—so much muscle. I kept my gaze locked onto his, unwilling to let him see I was even a little affected by his touch. Nothing good would come of revealing the slightest weakness.
“What the fuck was that?”
The fine hairs on my body rose, registering the threat in his tone, but I didn’t know him well enough to tell whether the threat was directed at me. “Nothing. A bad dream. Night terrors.” I waved the incident away, attempting to downplay the hell I’d been trapped in. “It’s best to leave me alone if they come. It’ll pass.”
“Bullshit.” He held still, his body tense.
I shrugged, trying to appear calm. “I don’t know what you want to hear. I remember nothing. Never do. That’s how night terrors work.”
His gaze narrowed before he stood, towering over me. I should have felt intimidated by the fury that rolled off him in waves. Oddly, I didn’t. But I should have. The guy I’d obsessed over in reports and pictures while trapped in my father’s house more often than not wasn’t the same version as the flesh and blood one. When he scrubbed a hand down his face then through his hair, I trailed his movements. There was enough space between us, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“You’re lying. And sooner or later, you will tell me what happened that caused you to wake up fighting like that.” His hand dropped to his side, and several seconds ticked by before he pivoted to the open door. “I’m making coffee and food. Come eat. Or don’t.”
I didn’t move. I barely breathed. My entire body felt like it’d been in the presence of a predator. That Nico was a member of one of the deadliest Mafia families in Chicago proved how just my reaction was. But the sense of danger was different. I never wanted to cross him.
Before he ruthlessly yanked the chair loose to open the door and pass into the hallway, he caught my gaze over his shoulder. I froze, locked in the fierceness of brown eyes swirling with black. “If you want my protection, you’ll come clean. I don’t need to get tangled up with your family. I won’t risk more than I already have.”
CHAPTER SIX
NICO
Anger made my movements stiff as I got the coffee going. I didn’t need the caffeine based on the jolt of adrenaline from the first ear-shattering scream Mia had let loose minutes before the sun rose. What the hell had happened to her? Caught in a nightmare, she’d fought me as if her life depended on it.
My gut warned that more was happening behind the scenes with Mia, which meant it was time to reach out to my brother before she joined me in the kitchen. I couldn’t promise her that we would marry for her protection unless I cleared it with the boss of our family, mainly due to who her father was.
With a cup of strong coffee, I let myself out onto the patio, where I would have privacy.
I tapped Marco’s contact, and he picked up on the third ring.
“Should I be concerned that you’re calling me this early?”
Most definitely, but I didn’t admit to that. “Any news on who planted the bomb at the club?”
“Yeah, and it’s not good.” Marco’s voice growled through the receiver. “The bomb’s signature points to the Verretti family.”
A surge of fury rushed through me.And why is Dante so concerned about finding Mia?My level of distrust went up a few more notches, as I tallied additional reasons not to trust her. “What’s the plan for retaliation?”
“Nothing. Not yet.” A door slammed in the distance, and I could make out his wife, Elena’s, laugh. “I have a meeting with Dante later today. Something isn’t adding up.”
“I have news as well. I found Mia Tucci—or rather, she found me.”
“Where is she?”
“Here.” I glanced inside to make sure she hadn’t entered the kitchen yet. “We had a storm, and our security took a lightning strike. It’s glitchy at best, which enabled her to come up behind me while I was on the beach.”
“That explains why she got the drop on you. But why is she in Grand Cayman?”
“To find me. She wants protection from both the Amatos and her family.”
“Joey Tucci will have a problem with that. There has to be a good reason for us to get involved in the mess that’ll cause.”
I ran my hand through my hair.This is so messed up. “She’s negotiating a marriage with me for protection in exchange for taking down the Tucci prostitution ring.”
Silence met my words as the rippling waves broke gently along the shore. It was pleasant out, but the humidity and temperature would soon rise with the sun.
“It’s not a bad idea. If we can take down the ring, we’ll weaken the Tucci family with a direct hit to their finances.”