Mafia Heir

Chapter 18

Charlotte

"Is he going to be here all day?" Jenni whispered as we sipped our coffee behind the front desk of the gallery. She was referring to Angelo who had taken up residence in the lounge area, sprawled out with a magazine on the couch.

"Unfortunately." I groaned, rolling my eyes a little bit. When Luca said that Marco or Angelo would be with me at the gallery, I assumed he meant they'd be posted up outside in the car watching. Instead, they were taking turns sitting inside watching every move I made.

I hoped once all of this business with Silvano was over, Luca and I could have a normal relationship. One that didn't involve me being locked in his castle and babysat constantly. I didn't know much about the Mafia, but this felt suffocating.

"I'm not complaining." Jenni grinned. "He's not too bad to look at."

The corner of Angelo's lips turned up slightly and I knew he had heard her. As if he needed any more confidence.

"Remind me again why Luca thinks you need a bodyguard?" Jenni raised her eyebrows, turning back toward me.

"He's not a bodyguard." I said. "He just wants to be sure that the guys who attacked me don't come back."

I so badly wanted to tell Jenni the truth. Every bit of it. The date with Luca, the second attack, finding out Luca was in the Mafia. How insatiable I felt when he showed up at my door to apologize, and the way we spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening in bed. Going over to his house and realizing that the man I thought was an art collector was really an international criminal hell bent on destroying me. I wanted her to help me sort through the barrage of emotions I was feeling, and make some kind of sense of this. My judgement was clouded by the tall, dark, and handsome Italian man that made my heart skip a beat every time he smiled at me, and I desperately needed to talk to someone about it. Someone who wasn't involved.

Luca was clear that that wasn't an option, though. I couldn't talk to Jenni, or anyone, about what was really going on.

"And is that why you're staying at his house while he's gone?" Jenni grilled. I should have expected this. I was in the gallery pretty sparingly over the last few weeks, and we didn't get much time to talk. I knew she was dying to know the juicy details of what was going between Luca and I, but honestly, I didn't even know myself. I liked him, sure. We slept together, yes. But were we a couple? I didn't really know. And was that what I even wanted?

Luca and the Mafia were one in the same, and if we were together, my life would be bound by the rules within it. That was already happening—Angelo sitting in my gallery was proof of that.

"Yes, I'm staying there because its safer than my place right now." I said.

"So, he thinks those guys might come back?" There was hint of fear in her voice.

"We don't really know." I hated lying to my best friend this way. They already had come back, and Luca was almost certain it would happen again.

"And you guys are officially together now, huh?"

I blushed, shaking my head. "I don't know if you can call it that. We haven't talked about it."

"I hope you're not talking about it because you've been too busy fucking him to talk." She laughed again, and then her eyes got wide. "Wait a minute, you've had sex, right? Tell me you're not staying there and not sleeping together?" The level of her voice rose and I cringed. Angelo could surely hear we were talking about.

"Would you keep your voice down?" I hissed, glancing towards to Angelo who, to his credit, was showing no signs of eavesdropping.

"Answer the question."