Page 25 of I Would Die For You

Then my thoughts veer to the most important topic tonight. “There’s a threat to Kaya’s life?”

“Si. It needs to be snuffed in the egg.”

“It will be done.” I bow a little in acknowledgement. “How do you want it to be done?”

The Don chuckles. “It’s your prerogative. As long as it’s a strong message.”

“Va bene.”

Already, ideas are swirling around. We’ll need to do a reconnaissance, then figure out how best to strike with the least possible damage and collateral on our side. I smell a stake-out in my immediate future. I need a shower and a change first, and also to grab all the intel we have on Daku as well as my work kit.

A shudder goes through me. I’ve been building my work kit for a couple of years now. Using it was always in the distant future, and reckoning I will be putting it to its frightening uses sooner rather than later is chill-inducing.

“Take Valentino with you. It will be good for him to see how things can and will be done from now on.”

I acquiesce with a nod. Valentino may not be a Don or ever to become one as his family, although prominent, isn’t of the usual pedigree to ascend to such lofty heights, but he will be leading aBorgataone day, and men like Don Giacomo and myself are the future of this age-old world that’s the Mafia. It will be good for my cousin to get a broader perspective regarding what the future of our kind may look like.

“I know you won’t let me down, Stefano. But make me proud, too.”

“Yes, Don Rossi.”

“Kaya, she is precious.”

She is.

“No one comes after what’s mine and gets away with it,” he continues.

The subsequent nod is my cue to leave, and I take it and exit the room.

As I’m coming down the stairs, these last words are replaying in my head. The object of tonight’s discussion has clearly been Kaya. More than me taking on the mantle as the Don’s enforcer, he knows I have a vested interest in this issue. Kaya, I have feelings for her. I want her. I need her.

But the way the Don said ‘mine’ rankled something inside me. Does he see her as his? It’s true he ‘gave’ her to me, yet does it mean she’s no longer his? I frown. He wouldn’t do that, would he? Take her back after… No.

When I lift my head, my gaze snags hers where she’s standing across the lounge. Her eyebrows furrow, cheeks hollowing as she purses her mouth. I can see it on her face, all the questions. What did the Don want, where do we stand, where do we go from here and are we even going somewhere?

Are we? I never really pondered the way Kaya came to me that first night in the club. Yeah, my godfather had ‘given’ her to me just minutes earlier. But ultimately, she was doing his bidding. Just like she must’ve been doing every time she went up to his office and emerged close to an hour later. I doubt they were enjoying a nice conversation over a drink. Plus she doesn’t drink. It can only mean…

She was his before she became mine, no doubt about it. The scent of her arousal, the Don smelled it before me, was intimate with it and with her body for months prior to her coming to me. And should he ever want her back, she won’t be able to say no. Nor will I be able to stand in the way. I’m his enforcer, he’s my Don, period.

Then again, all this is a moot point if she’s dead. A shiver courses through me. I can’t let that happen. The world needs her in it. I need her in the world. So this is what I’ll do—I’ll protect her, in the best way I know how. I’ll be the Don’s enforcer, and I’ll be a fucking good one, too.

My feet are eating up the ground without me having torn my eyes from hers. When I reach her, I grab her and pull her into my arms. Everyone here knows we’re together, and fuck them if they’ve got a problem with it. I have to have her in my arms, to feel her alive and warm and solid against me. This woman…

“Stefano?” she asks softly, so much confusion in her tone.

This might be the last time I hold you, ama.An enforcer never knows if he’s coming back from any mission. But I don’t tell her this. She doesn’t need to worry overmuch. She deserves only brightness and laughter and orgasms and…I gulp. Yeah. Love. She deserves love.

Am I the man who can give it to her, all things considered? Or will my Don, the man I see as the father I’ve always wanted, take her from me just when I fall?

Chapter 9 Stefano

Onecallandmycrew was assembling at my apartment less than an hour later. I have three men dedicated to my service. They know every intricacy of how I wish to proceed as an enforcer, and each of them has his strengths which complements my job.

I met Gianluigi Costa at university. He was there to study medicine, following in the footsteps of his healer grandmother who wanted him to look after the family when she was gone. Our areas of interest overlapped, and when I figured he’d be a good man to have on my team, he agreed to my offer and opened up to me. He also had two brothers who could prove helpful. Giancarlo was a tech whiz, and Gianluca was a party animal who knew someone who knew someone and so on all over Torino and Piedmont.

It was a no-brainer to recruit them, and tonight, they proved to me how right I was in deciding to trust them. We’re ready to roll out almost immediately because they came prepared, all the logistics already in place.

“What now, Boss?” one of them asks.

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