Double pov
Cara
Fear splintered through my veins as I unconsciously got up from the bed. My mind was foggy and confused. "Luca, what is it?"
Luca dragged me to him, deftly fixing my halter in a matter of seconds then dropped to pick up my discarded panties. He doesn't answer my question.
I could hear noises traveling through the slightly open door of the soundproof room. Noise that sounded nothing like pleasure.
"Luca?" I prodded, staring down at him as he hooked my legs into the thong and wrenched it up. "What the hell is going on?"
Luca spared me an irritated look of impatience. A darkness brewing in his eyes. I hadn't seen him like this since the shootout at Gina's wedding. It worried the fuck out of me.
He shot to his feet, gripped my shoulders and steered me out of the room. Dominic was waiting outside with a few other men, all of them having the same dark expression Luca had and they were all armed.
Something cold and unsettling washed over me.
Shouts of alarms bounced around as whores and customers ran past us in the direction of the exit. Before I could ask what the commotion was about, Luca was pushing me in the same direction, his men hurrying along. Bodies brushed past us, everyone appearing desperate and frantic.
I decided I've had enough of Luca's tight-lipped behaviour.
I shrugged him off. "Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?!"
The soldiers seemed startled by my outburst, Dominic just glared at me while Luca was giving me an evasive look. He was agitated, I could see that clearly. Agitated and irritated, his temper high.
"You didn't tell her?" Dominic turned to Luca, his tone accusatory.
"Tell me what?"
"That there's a fucking bomb in the building." Was Dominic's impatient answer.
My heart dropped to my stomach and I froze, fear taking over my limbs, turning them to lead. A bomb, there was a bomb in Rico's?
"We don't know for certain." Luca said in an attempt to sooth me. "But we have to evacuate the bar first."
I couldn't move, all that resounded in my head was there was a bomb, ticking away somewhere, ready to explode any soon. We could all die, Luca could die and–
"Cara!" Luca shook me. "You have to keep moving goddammit. You need to get far away from here."
There was a freaking bomb… and Diana…
Shit, where was Diana?
I was instantly out of my fear induced shock. "Diana, I have to go get her." I whispered, attempting to run off.
Luca grabbed me back.
"Let go! I need to find Diana!" I fought against his hold.
"We don't have time for this." Dominic said, his voice clipped but I didn't care, I needed to find my friend.
Luca's tone was restrained when he spoke. "No single person in their right mind would remain in here after hearing rumors of a bomb. Your friend is probably somewhere safe."
"You don't know that!"
Luca sighed heavily. Dominic cursed in Italian.
"I'd have someone find her, I promise. Now we need to get you out of here."
He pulled me along after that, not stopping until we were successfully out of the building. People were still scrambling, looking for safety. A speeding van pulled up right in front of us and screeched to a halt, the door sliding open at once to the familiar faces of my bodyguards.
"Get in." Luca ordered.
"What about you?"
He didn't reply but turned to Sergio and the rest. "Make sure she gets home safely. I will give you a fate worse than death if anything happens to her so you better guard her with your life."
"Yes, Don." They chorused.
"No, wait! Luca!"
I was dragged to the back seat, powerless against the strong, arms keeping me from reaching for the closing door.
My heart began to race faster as the van started to leave. "Let fucking go of me!" I screamed to no avail, my eyes shooting to the rear windshield, helpless as the van drove further and further from Luca who watched them take me away, his eyes holding an emotion that filled me up with dread. A feeling that told me he was about to do something dangerous. Something that would put his life in danger.
Luca stayed where he was for another couple of seconds before running off in the opposite direction with Dominic and the rest of his men.
Despair budded slowly inside me as I watched the outline of Luca's body go smaller and smaller until he completely disappeared and the feeling came to a boil, exploding into fury.
"Stop the fucking van!" I shrieked, trying to fight my way to the door.
Nino let out a hiss of annoyance as he pulled me back and pressed me down on the leather seat.
"Oh for fuck sake!" He hissed again.
"Let go of me!" I screamed again. I couldn't let them take me back to the safety of the penthouse while there was a high risk of Luca not coming back to the place.
To me.
"Let her go." Sergio said in front of me, eerily calm.
"Boss…" Nino's surprise was evident in his voice.
I too was shocked by the easy capitulation. I didn't expect him to give in so quickly. Or at all.
Sergio turned to face us. "Let her go, Nino."
Nino's grip slowly loosened and I shrugged out of his reach. "Stop the van." I commanded.
"If you still want that after what I'm about to say, I will." Sergio said, his eyes challenging.
"Boss," Nino warned.
Sergio doesn't take back his words. "I just have five questions for you and I hope you will be honest with your answers."
I held his gaze. "And what are they?"
"How do you plan to get back to the Rico's if we let you out?"
Easy. "By taking a cab of course."
"What do you plan to do when you get there?"
I have no idea but-
"What if the explosion goes off while you're there?"
I pressed my lips together. Well, that would be a huge bummer-
"How do you expect the Don to focus on whatever it is he has to do if he also has to worry about your safety?"
Shit, he had a point.
"What do you think would happen to us if something terrible happened to you?"
My gaze dropped to my lap in mortifying defeat. I was a fool and he was absolutely right. I would put them in harm's way if I got hurt. I didn't even possess the wits, strength or even a means of protection to take on whatever dangerous situation I'd encounter if I returned to Rico's. The gun I stole was still at the bottom of my duffel and even if I had it with me, I could barely use it.
"I'm sorry." I blew out in a shaky breath. "I just-" I dared not raise my head, I didn't want to meet the disappointed faces of the guys.
"I understand how you feel but you have to be rational. You can't be so careless with your life and ours."
"I'm sorry." I said again. "I really am, you're right. I wasn't thinking straight."
"I really hope you do in the future." Came Nino's reprimand.
Humbled, I slinked to the other end of the seat. I turned completely to the shut window to hide the frustrated tears about to fall. Sergio had yanked me back to harsh reality, there was really nothing I could do but wait and pray Luca returned to me in one piece.
Luca
Nineteen minutes, that's all we had to disarm the bomb. Dominic had sent for Ahmed, the only one we could trust to deactivate it. But he was yet to arrive and we still haven't figured out what type of bomb it was.
Time was running the fuck out.
In order not to lose my ever loving shit, I busied myself in my office, watching the camera footage of how the bomber brought the explosion into the bar over and over again.
Something sinister loomed somewhere inside me. The bastard killed my men keeping watch on the back entrance, shooting them with a silenced gun. He made his way in, strapped the bomb to the circuit breaker and pretended to be drunk and lost when a waitress caught him coming out of the staff only room.
The unsuspecting waitress had pulled his ass to the bar and he'd blended with the other dipsos. He stayed for a while and had even bought and emptied a pint before he slipped out.
I studied the stronzo; average height, scruffy, and with a distinct limp to his gait.
A sardonic smile pulled at my lips, Alexei Mikhalov had used him because he knew he was easy to find. He wanted me to and that meant he'd successfully erased any affiliation with the bomber. The fucking pakhan was killing two birds with one stone.
Dominic barged into my office, an ever serious Ahmed following right behind.
"He's here." Dominic said needlessly.
I turned away from the cameras. "Ahmed, never thought I'd be seeing you in a situation like this."
"Me neither, Don Salvatore. Just what have you been up to?"
My grin was twisted. "You think you can undo this one?"
He was already opening his bag of inventory. It was the same one he'd been using from the time my father was still Don.
Ahmed was a very peculiar man, a seasoned military captain turned criminal, he possessed an arsenal of skills. The famous one being the best bomb disarmer there is.
He'd been scouted by the military when he was just a young Pakistani for his expert wits and was sponsored all through his education. He was a top soldier and he contributed greatly until he went rogue for some unknown reason.
On paper, he'd died on an operation in Afghanistan. He knew too much and possessed a collection of blackmail for the US Air force to exterminate him so they'd had just let him go with a new identity while keeping him under close surveillance.
His name had changed from Jafar to Ahmed and he was still summoned by the military once a while. He was also occasionally needed by the Cosa Nostra and other crime syndicates.
I took in his untrimmed hair, scruffy beard, frayed white tee, faded jeans and beat up boots. He pulled in millions of dollars yearly but still dressed like a bum alcoholic.
"Don," he started. "You know me, there's no explosive made by man that I cannot handle."
He left with Dominic after that, off to stop a bomb from blasting the place with just less than fourteen minutes on hand.
I dropped to my chair. It was still hard to wrap my head around. A fucking bomb… Alexei was one elaborate bastard.
I knew this was payback for the little delivery he'd gotten. A nice gift of Alesky and Rocco's mangled bodies that was delivered to the luxury hotel I knew he was residing at.
I didn't know what he stood to gain by blowing up Rico's and that gnawed at me. The place wasn't even a standard establishment of mine. I won't be losing much.
My fingers began tapping on the desk. There was something missing and it fucking pissed the shit out of me that I couldn't identify it.
I didn't know how long I sat there thinking about it because Dominic and Ahmed soon returned and the expressions on their faces were neither defeated nor relieved. Or smug in Ahmed's case.
"What happened?"
Dominic dropped on one of the chairs opposite me. "There's no bomb."
My face squeezed into a frown. "What?"
Ahmed drew closer and placed something on my desk. "It was a fake, here's what's real instead."
I pulled the heavily taped black strap to me and lifted it. No bomb but…
A sleek black phone blinked at me.
"Guess whoever was responsible for this was in a mood for jests."
No. I refused to trust that, for all I know the phone could be the real-
"No bomb hiding in the back either. I've opened it up." Ahmed disconfirmed my suspicion. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "My work is done here. I expect you wouldn't want me to refund you would you?" He asked but left without an answer.
Dominic scoffed and got up, "money grubbing assh0le."
He turned to me and a look passed between us.
I looked back at the phone in my hand. It required no password when I turned it on so I just swiped it open, going straight to the phone app. Only a single contact was saved.
I dialed it.
"Mikhalov." I said as soon as the call went through.
"Salvatore," a deep voice drawled on the other end. "I see you got my gift."
"What game are you playing?"
"Game? Come on, I thought we were just having fun. Taking turns surprising each other. I quite liked your last surprise but the hotel's cleaning staff didn't. She was the one who found it first you see, you gave her such a fright."
My smile was caustic. "I'm really glad you loved it. It helps to know that it'd soon be you in that state if you keep fucking with me."
Alexei chuckled. "You're skipping the sequence."
"What the fuck do you mean?" I looked up at Dominic who stared back at me with a curious expression.
"There has to be a couple more before it gets to me. You know it's never that easy."
Rage welled up in my chest but my voice betrayed nothing. "Your confidence is admirable yet misplaced."
"Is it? I was quite feeling proud of myself. You know what the Chinese say, make a sound in the east, then strike in the west. Or in this case, in the heart of it all."
A hot, prickling sensation ran through me. I ended the call on Alexei's sinister chuckle, shooting to my feet at once.
Dominic came around to me, "what did he say?"
I pushed past him, dashing for the door. "Ready up about forty men to leave immediately."
Dominic, perceiving the desperate urgency in my voice, doesn't question why. Instead he pulled out his phone and got started on the task, running after me as I burst my way out of the bar. My blood pumping with adrenaline and curling with stark fear, fully aware of what the Russian bastard had meant.
My Cara, she was in fucking danger.