"What's going on here then?" Marcello asked, narrowing his eyes, his voice ice-cold, dropping to barely below a whisper. "Who is this man, Zara?"
He cocked his head to the side, giving me a threatening look, that caused shivers to shoot down my spine. I felt so violated, so humiliated that Marcello had walked in on a private and intimate moment.
Because now…
I was a dead woman walking.
He wouldn't spare either of us any mercy.
I could feel my heart hammer against my chest into a frenzy.
I couldn't believe we'd been so careless.
"You motherfucker..." Marcello seethed, balling his hands into fists, murder written all over his face and his eyes.
Without warning, Luca swung at Marcello's jaw, causing him to topple over and lose his balance, falling to the ground with a hard painful smack.
"You motherfucker!" Marcello roared, coughing out blood. "You have no idea who the fuck you're messing with! I'll fucking kill you! Zara is my wife! MINE!"
Luca grabbed hold of me, throwing me over his shoulder, and bolted out of the restaurant as fast as his legs could possibly carry him. He threw me into his car, desperately making his way to the Driver's seat, and drove as quickly as he possibly could, picking up speed with every passing second.
I could feel myself convulsing in my seat, unable to come to terms with what the fuck had just happened.
Luca had just taken me away from Marcello…
It was just a matter of time until Marcello would declare a war.
"Oh my God, Luca…" I trembled. "We're both dead people walking. He's going to kill us both. We're never going to live it through this…"
"Shhh, baby. It's going to be okay," Luca murmured, bringing my palm up to his lips, placing soft kisses on my hand.
It astounded me how calm he was about all of this.
"What do you mean, it's going to be okay?!" I cried out. "You've taken me away from The Camorra's! They're not just going to take out us both… they'll take out your whole organization!"
Luca scoffed.
"They're no match for me. Did you really think I was just going to walk away, and let you go home with that bastard for another night? Fuck, Zara." He trailed off his sentence, pushing his foot down on the accelerator. "I've tried so hard not to think about you. I've tried so hard to distract myself with broads. Convincing myself that I'm no good for you. That you're better off without a bastard like me in your life. But I can't bring myself to even look at another woman. You've ruined me for anybody else. I don't want anyone else but you."
My heart felt like it was going to explode.
He'd been thinking about me this whole time…
Just as much as I'd been thinking about him.
I hated how he thought so little and low of himself. How he thought he was a monster…
But in my eyes, he was my fucking savior.
My saving grace.
He didn't see himself the way I saw him.
I saw the good in him…
He only saw the evil.
But there was evil in everybody. Cops were supposed to protect us, but most of them were corrupt. There were so many fucked-up people out there. Pedophiles, rapists…
But Luca was saving me from a forced marriage.
A lifetime of abuse that I didn't deserve.
"After what just happened in the bathroom… Fuck. I'm going to have a hard time living without you. I'll be damned if I ever let you come in harm's way, if I ever let you go home with another man. You're mine. All mine. Fuck."
Every single beautiful word that came out of his mouth caused me to set on fire. Caused goosebumps to rise on my skin. Caused heat to flood and pool between my legs. Just wanting to stop the car and straddle his hips, have his lips all over my neck, moaning his name until we both came apart and became undone.
But we needed to get away.
This wasn't the time…
Or the place.
This war needed to end first.
I swallowed down a lump in my throat, doing my best to stop myself from crying.
"S – so what now?" I asked, trembling. "Where do we go? They'll catch up with us… They'll find us in an instant."
My body pounded with nerves.
Just the sheer thought of Luca putting himself in danger to save me…
Screwed with my mind to the point of no return.
It terrified me how attached I already was to this man.
If anything happened to him because of me…
I would never forgive myself.
"I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago," Luca stated, as he continued to turn the steering wheel at a rapid pace. "I'm going to go and ask my family for help."
I heaved upwards and downwards, confused and a little lost by what he was telling me.
"W – what do you mean?" I asked. "You're in the Mafia and you don't stay with your family?"
"It's a long fucking story, baby," he sighed. "I take care of the Cosa Nostra's operations back in Manchester. I'm from the UK, just like you are."
My eyes widened at this revelation. I hadn't expected Luca to be from England too.
"But I came here for a holiday with my friend Fizz. To take a break from business. So I haven't been consolidating anybody in my organization over here." He drifted off his sentence. "Then you came into the picture. Turning my life upside down from the minute I fucking laid eyes on you. You're so beautiful, baby girl. So beautiful."
He let out a low chuckle.
"But you'll have plenty of time to get to know me later. Right now, we have a fucking shit-storm on our hands that needs sorting."
I let out a nervous giggle. The car screeched to a halt, and we made our way out. My eyes darted up to the mansion, overwhelmed by my surroundings.
Luca took his phone out of his pocket, tapping into the keypad furiously, before bringing it up to his ear.
"Fizz, we've got a big fucking problem. Make your way to the headquarters now. Looks like we're consulting the fucking family early."
And then he hung up the phone.
"Don't worry, baby girl," he whispered, taking my hand into his. "I won't let anything happen to you. You can trust me on that."
And I believed every.
Single.
Word.