Luca's pov
Cara wasn't at Rico's when I arrived. Delia, or was it Diane? Whatever her name was, also didn't know why Cara was yet to clock in. Cara wasn't the tardy type but it has been over an hour since her shift began. Worry ate at my chest and something dark took over my thoughts.
I stormed out of the bar, whipping my phone out of my pocket to dial Sergio when coincidentally, a call from him vibrated through the device. I answered in a millisecond.
"What the fuck happened?" I boomed, taking alarmed strides to my car.
"Don, Signorina Cara-"
My blood roared like crashing waves at the mention of Cara's name, my windpipe closing up with the thick cloud of dread intent on choking me.
She better be alright, she better be f ucking safe. Or hell will break loose.
"-her landlord had shown up and thrashed her place. We got there before more damage could be done to her possessions and we rounded up the hired thugs."
Although relief the size and depth of the Pacific washed over me, budding fury pounded in my veins. "You were supposed to be watching her apartment, how did this cunt of a landlord get to her?"
"He had come in through an alternative entrance we knew nothing about until now," Sergio all but spluttered at the dangerous tinge in my voice.
The hotness in my blood should be melting my skin by now. I wanted to punch the man until I made a pudding out of his face. "You knew nothing about it?" I growled into the phone. "Did you not survey the apartment grounds like you were supposed to soldier?"
"We did-"
I've had enough of his incompetence. "I'd deal with you later, keep that fucking landlord and his thugs where they are. I'm on my way." I hung up, not waiting for his reply.
Sliding into my car, I revved the engine on with the urgency of a firefighter and I drove the fuck out of there.
I found several of Cara's possessions strewed carelessly in her hallway when I arrived. The thugs responsible for it, knelt grudgingly in her living room and were tightly watched by Sergio's men, their knives out. The bitchass landlord sat on Cara's couch, a trembling mess as Sergio and Nino loomed over him.
I ignored them all, my gaze narrowing on Cara where she was slumped against her bedroom door, her tiny form shuddering with suppressed sobs. With every step I drew closer to her, my heart squeezed tighter and my anger surged.
"Bambina," I called softly when I got to her and bent to her level but she didn't look at me and the dismayed expression she had on her tear stained face, the defeat plaguing her beautiful features, cut at me like a jackhammer and my anger came to a boil.
I pulled out my gun from the waistband of my pants, turned to the thugs and shot one of them in the arm. The bastard howled like a coyote, falling back as he writhed from the painful piece of metal now lodged in his upper arm.
Cara jerked beside me. The sound of the gunshot made her far away look disappear, finally getting her to notice me, recognition seeping into her gaze. "Luca."
I held her face with my free hand. "Yes baby. It's me."
Her eyes flickered about like she was still trying to make sense of things. "They… they-" she looked around the mess that was her apartment and fresh tears began pouring out her troubled blue orbs.
I crushed her against my chest and let her soak my jacket with the tears all the while glaring torrents of death at the thugs who had scooted away from the one I had shot. Fear and alarm had settled in their features as they now knew the gravity of what they were dealing with. Who they were dealing with.
Cradling Cara in my arms, I pushed to my feet and carried her to the bed. She grabbed my arm as I began tucking her in.
"I'd be back, baby." I promised her. "I just need to take care of this."
"Don't hurt anyone." She whispered and that brought a dark, humorless smile to my lips.
"I can't guarantee that."
She shook her head with a vehement force. "No. Please Luca, don't."
I regarded her for a bit. How could I win against that heart tugging look in her eyes.
"Promise me." She insisted.
"Fine, I'd just have a chat with your landlord." I ground out before kissing her forehead and jaw. My voice became softer. "Don't move from here okay?"
"Okay." She said in a shaky breath.
I left her and walked out the door, sparing her one last glance before I shut the thing. I waited to listen for any sign that she was getting out of the bed. When I heard nothing, I took slow strides to where her landlord sat frozen in fear.
"Who are you people?" He asked in a quaking voice, once I stood in front of him.
I noticed the food I'd gotten Cara, sitting messily on the floor and my jaw tightened with my anger. She was supposed to eat all of that.
The look I gave her landlord was long and calculating as my mind worked on what to do with him. Unfortunately, the option of hurting him was out. I could kill him, shoot him between the eyes and he'd be dead before he knew what was happening. Painless, no hurt involved.
Sergio yanked him out of the couch and shoved him to the floor. My furious gaze remained locked on him as I sank on where he'd been sitting. I studied the bastard's frightened face, reading him from his facial features and expressions alone. And from the faded cut on his left eyebrow, his nose that obviously had been broken twice or more, I could tell Cara's landlord did more than just leasing wretched apartments. My gaze dropped to his trembling hands, the weasel was obviously into some shadier business.
My eyes shot back to his face. "Your name."
"Walter- Walter Edwards." He supplied immediately.
I leaned back on the couch. "Explain what the fuck this is."
He adjusted his position on the floor, eyeing Sergio and Nino before stuttering. "She- she owes me rent. I gave her a notice that expired four months ago. She knew what to expect when she didn't meet the terms."
"That doesn't give you the right to vandalize her property." I growled, hating the fact that I couldn't crack his jaw like I badly wanted to.
"Forceful eviction is legal." He muttered under his breath but I ignored him, my mind on the fact that Cara had omitted any mention of her debt.
Something uncomfortable scratched at my chest. The woman had never once said anything about it and the fact that she withheld the information annoyed the hell out of me. It was disappointing that she didn't trust me yet with important issues like this. I fuck her and then I cuddle her afterwards, bring her food and spend more time in her apartment than I do in mine. How clearer could I make it known that I wanted to be part of her life?
Also, it fucking gnawed at me why Cara was owing something as simple as rent. As Amanda's daughter, my father was supposed to pay a stipend to her account every month. Either the old don wasn't doing what needs to be done as her stepfather or someone is making sure that the money doesn't get to her.
My silence must have given her stupid landlord the wrong impression because he suddenly added. "I hope you now realize what this would mean for you thugs if I decide to press charges."
It took just a single cold smirk from me to make Sergio kick the idiot in his ribs. And the soldier kicked him hard. Walter Edwards yelped from the pain, pressing his arm to the affected side as he doubled over.
I might have promised Cara not to hurt him, but my men hurting him without a spoken order from me didn't count.
"Watch how you speak to the don." The soldier warned.
Walter Edwards eyes grew twice their size and his red face paled. "D-d- don?"
I motioned for Nino to bring him closer before leaning in until we were eye to eye.
He tried to recoil away from the darkness oozing from my body and dripping in my voice but I grabbed him by his scruff and when I spoke again, my anger was thinly controlled. "Yes, Don. Do you know who I am Walter Edwards?"
He shook his head immediately, his gaze averted and I knew that Cara's landlord here was a dirty liar.
It didn't come as a surprise when ordinary civilians knew me. I've appeared on TV countless times for a wide range of reasons for them not to. However, most of them didn't cower like Walter Edwards here when they recognized me. He didn't recognize me as what most outsiders knew me to be: a businessman. Walter here, knew me as don of the Cosa Nostra.
The bastard dabbled in the underworld one way or the other like I had deduced.
I gripped him tighter. "You're one lucky fella and that's all thanks to your nice tenant. She's the reason why I'm going to spare your stupid ass instead of feeding you to sharks like I initially planned on doing."
His eyes flashed to Cara's closed bedroom door, gratitude heavy in them. "She can keep the rent, I have no need for it anymore."
I pushed him away and relaxed into the couch once more. "You're not doing us a favor here, Walter. You'll get your fucking rent and after that, you'll never in your miserable life bother Cara again. She's under the protection of the Cosa Nostra and disrespect to her means disrespect to me. Do you understand?"
His head bobbed like a bobblehead.
My gaze switched to Sergio. "Inform Dominic to wire him ten thousand dollars." The landlord gaped me and I added. "What? You need more?"
He shook his head with much vigor than needed. "No, no. It's just… that's double the amount Cara owes me."
The look I gave him was stony and his eyes dropped to the floor.
"Get up." I snapped and he obeyed immediately. "Make sure you give Sergio here your account details and don't ever let me hear about you again."
I glanced at the shaking thugs, hating the fact that I'd have to let them go as well. "Take your minions along."
The soldiers watching holding them hostage shared confused glances as the thugs got up. They probably were wondering why I'd let them off so easily.
That made all of us.
Walter Edwards stuttered his bank account details to Sergio who noted it down on his phone. "Thank you. Thank you." The landlord said over and over again before scurrying out the door. His thugs on his heels.
Tension pierced into the air, thickening and volatile and my men gathered in front of me, their stance unmoving yet taut with dread of what came next. They were right to worry, what I planned on doing to them was no simple punishment and I will carry it out in due time. Right now, I needed to check on Cara.
"Make sure you find that alternative entrance in the next ten minutes." I told Sergio, springing to my feet and straightening my crooked jacket.
"Yes don." He hurried to reply.
I turned away from him, from all of them and headed to Cara's room, knocking once before going in. She sat where I'd left her on the bed, biting frantically into her nails, and she seemed to have withdrawn into her head again, not even noticing when I sat beside her.
"Bambina," I said, touching her knee and she flinched. "Easy, it's just me."
Her eyes reflected her worry. "What happened out there?"
I gave her knee a squeeze. "Your landlord won't be coming back."
She blanched. "Did you?"
"I promised you I wouldn't," I all but snapped, annoyed that she'd even think I would harm the bastard even after I promised not to.
She relaxed and let out a sigh that was both relieved that I kept to my promise and dismayed for whatever reason. "I'm homeless now." She whispered with a sad smile and the fresh tears brewing in her eyes tore at my chest.
Something fiercely protective filled my veins. "Not on my watch."
I watched as confusion cut across her face before her eyes widened with indignity. "Tell me you didn't do something crazy like bully Mr Edwards into selling the entire apartment building "
"I didn't do something crazy like bully Mr Edwards into selling the entire apartment building."
Her eyes narrowed at me in suspicion. "Luca, what did you do?"
I shrugged. "I paid your rent, just like anyone else would. See, not crazy."
It was sick of me but I preferred the rising annoyance radiating off her to the sad, devastated state she'd been in before now. I suddenly got the urge to make her even madder.
"But that doesn't mean I'll still let you stay here."
Her face twisted into a deep scowl. "That's not up to you."
"We'll see." I drawled before lifting her off the bed.
She drew in a sharp breath at the sudden action then began fighting against my hold. "No, we will not. I won't let you fix my own problems."
I ignored her and carried her into her bathroom, putting her gently to her feet in spite of her squirming. "Strip," I commanded.
She gaped at me. "What?"
I went around her to get the bathtub faucet running. "You can't bathe fully clothed can you now?"
"Luca, I'm not going to take off my clothes. We're still talking."
"You're still talking." I corrected, facing her again.
Her anger was now palpable and the fierce look she gave me was having the opposite effect on me. I didn't feel threatened by it, the twitch in my pants was proof that I was feeling something entirely different. Dio, she looked so hot when she was mad.
"You know you're responsible for my incapability to pay my rent." She said all of a sudden, throwing me off.
I blinked at her, wondering what the fuck she was on about now. "What?"
"You botched up my $1000 per hour job, remember?"
It took me a few seconds before it came to me and I snorted. "Cara no one was going to pay you a thousand dollars per hour for a tutoring job." She scoffed and I lifted an eyebrow at her. "I basically saved your life, you ungrateful brat."
It was her turn to snort. "I'm sure you did." She folded her arms beneath her gorgeous, gorgeous boobs and I fought to stay focused on the conversation.
"I tried giving you the money, remember?" I reminded her. "You flinged it at me."
She winced with exasperation. "Well that was because I didn't work for it."
I sighed tiredly. "Cara, strip and get in the tub."
She jutted her jaw. "I don't want to."
A twisted smile pulled at my lips. "Do you want me to rip your clothes off and haul you into it instead?"
She glanced down at her little black skirt and indigo mesh top combo. Her gaze shot back to me. "You wouldn't."
The smirk I gave her did, in fact, convey that I would.
She cursed and began taking off her sexy clothes, gracing me the sight of her even sexier body. "This conversation isn't over. I won't let you fix my housing problem." She bit out as she struggled with her tight skirt.
I reached for her and pulled her into me, taking over the task, fully aware that the battle she was intent on fighting was long over before it began.
She wasn't staying another night in this dump and that was final.