37 - Cruel woman

Federico's POV.

I felt like the happiest man alive as I made my way to my office, unable to wipe the grin off my face as I greeted Dante and took a seat.

"Someone looks awfully happy," he remarked, his brows raised in surprise.

"That's 'cause I am," I replied, leaning back in my seat.

"This is unusual. I'd say you got laid last night but it's definitely more than that," he observed, looking at me thoughtfully.

I nodded. "You're not wrong about the getting laid part, but there's more, too."

"And? What is it?"

I chuckled at his eagerness. "I'm in love, man. I'm in love with Mia," I admitted, unable to stop smiling.

Dante grinned at my confession, not even the least bit surprised. "About damn time you realized it."

This time, I was the one who raised my brows. "You knew I had feelings for her all this time?"

"I think everybody other than you did. You've never been as protective of anyone outside your family as you've been of her. You've refused to leave her alone ever since she got shot. And the girl took a fucking bullet for you. It's pretty obvious she loves you, too," he explained. "I'm happy for you, man," he added, clapping me on the shoulder with a smile.

I mulled over his words in my head. He was right. Even though I had told myself time and again that I did not want to get into anything serious with Mia, I'd been falling for her for a long time now without even realizing it. It wasn't the grand gestures that had made me fall in love with her. It was the smallest of things, like how I could share anything with her without having to worry about what she would think of me, the way she would stay up late waiting for me just to make sure I got back home safe, the way she would glare at me and get me right back on track when I was being an overprotective asshole, not to mention how fucking smart and hot she was.

It had taken me a long while to realize that I had feelings for her. But the day she had gotten shot and wouldn't wake up was when I truly understood how much she meant to me.

We hadn't known each other that long, but the thought of her not being there anymore had brought me to my fucking knees that night. I'd sat by her bedside the entire night, praying to whoever was listening that she'd wake up and come back to me.

That was when I knew that she was it for me.

She was the one I'd do anything for.

And when Luca had kidnapped her, and she had kept her ego aside and helped me make the right decision for the good of the family, I knew I'd made the right decision. I did not plan on being the boss of this organization for the rest of my life, but Boss or not, she was befitting of a Queen to rule by my side. It was just a plus that sex with her was out of this fucking world. And how could it not be? The woman was fucking perfect in every sense of the word. Just thinking of that hot body of hers naked underneath me as I made love to her over and over again had me hardening in my pants.

It had been a task to leave her sitting in the room and come to my office to get some work done. Because I knew for a fact if I stayed in the room with her, all I would do was seduce her and fuck her six ways to Sunday even though that was all I'd done last night and then again, this morning. I had a feeling she needed the break just as much as I did, if not more.

"You're thinking of her, aren't you?" Dante muttered, making me look at him.

I felt the tips of my ears heating up in embarrassment as I shifted in my seat, subtly adjusting myself.

Dante chuckled. "You've got it bad, man."

I nodded, not even denying it. "I do. She's fucking perfect, you know?"

Dante smiled. "Of course, she is. I won't keep you here long because I know you're just about dying to be with her again, but you need to have a look at this," he said, pushing a black folder toward me.

I frowned as I reached forward and opened the folder. Inside were pictures of a bunch of women, scantily dressed with a name and price tag at the bottom of each page.

I looked up at Dante questioningly, wanting to hear from him what this was even though I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was.

"The Russians are having an underground auction at one of their warehouses in two days. This is the auction catalog," Dante sneered, seemingly as disgusted at the information as I felt.

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. I had asked Dante and a few other connections to look into information on the warehouses that the Russians used to run their human trafficking rackets according to what was on the USB Mia had transferred information into and this was what he had found out.

I realized belatedly that I had to tell Mia about this. Her sister could be a part of this auction.

"Right," I muttered, closing the folder.

"And Luca has flown to Milano for a few weeks to recover as per your orders," Dante said, making me nod. Dante was the only one I'd told about Luca and what he had done.

We had a small business in Milano as well, and I figured sending Luca there while he was supposedly out of commission would help me distribute his workload to others without raising any suspicions amongst the foot soldiers about a potential falling out between us. Besides, it would keep my sister from worrying about his injury as well. You couldn't worry about something you didn't know about, after all.

"Right. The farther away he stays from me, the better. It's a miracle I didn't kill him that day," I muttered, my fists clenching in anger as an image of a bruised and bound Mia flashed in front of my mind's eye. For a moment there, all I'd seen was red, ready to put a bullet through Luca's head, the fact that he was my brother-in-law being the furthest thing from my mind at that time.

Not only did he want to kill Mia because of some fucked up sense of loyalty to the family, he had also killed Julia for the same reasons. It did not take away from the fact that I still felt immensely guilty that Julia was dead, but at least I could rest easy now knowing I'd taken the threat away from Mia. I knew I couldn't always protect her from everything but I'd be damned if I didn't try my hardest to make sure she was safe.

"The only reason that man is alive today is because of Mia. Pretty ironic considering he wanted to kill her," Dante said, giving me a sardonic smile.

I nodded, agreeing with him. "Anyway, I'll show this to Mia. She needs to know."

Dante smirked at me. "Missing her already?"

I rolled my eyes at him, flipping him off before I got up and moved towards the door, Dante chuckling behind me.

When I entered my room, Mia was sitting on the sofa with her feet propped up on the table and her hot pink laptop in her lap, wearing just my t-shirt. Fuck, if it wasn't the sexiest sight I'd ever seen.

"My clothes look way better on you than they do on me," I said, walking up to her and giving her a chaste kiss on the lips. I pulled back from her with a grin on my lips, feeling like a giddy teenager that I could now kiss her whenever I felt like it.

"I don't know about better, but they're definitely more comfortable than my own," she replied, looking down at herself almost self-consciously.

I smiled at her before remembering the file in my hand, my smile vanishing as I did so.

Grabbing her laptop, I closed it before putting it on the table in front of her.

"Sure, take it away, not like I was working or anything," she mumbled dryly, rolling her eyes at me.

"You should see this," I said to her instead, sitting down next to her as I handed her the folder.

She frowned at me before opening the file anyway, letting out a small gasp when she took in the contents of the file.

"The Russians are auctioning them off the day after tomorrow at one of their warehouses," I explained to her.

"Delilah is not amongst them. But I think we should attend this auction. She might be there, or we might get some clue as to where she is," Mia said, her face serious as she looked at me.

"I can't persuade you to stay home for this, can I?"

"Nope. So don't even try. At least not if you still want to have sex with me," she replied, smirking at me.

My brows raised. "Is that how it's going to be?"

She nodded, her smirk widening.

"You, cara, are a cruel woman," I said to her, even as I pulled her into my lap and captured her lips in a slow kiss, unable to help myself.

God, I could never get tired of kissing her.