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  Except to know why your husband tried to kill you and kidnapped your son.

  Her eyes change from flaming to ice. Skin beginning to turn red.

  Goddamn, I loved it when she switches from hot to cold and vice versa. It shows me parts of her haven’t changed at all. It makes me take a trip down memory lane.

  “Stop trying to make things better. My father is never going to get over us being together if he finds out we’re sneaking around. Why can’t we go to him and tell him we fell in love? The heart is going to love who it wants. I love the choice mine made for me, and so do you. He’s my father, surely once he sees us together, he’ll understand.”

  She lifts my head from where I’d just dipped down to take one of her nipples in my mouth through her shirt, hoping she’d stop the rant she’d been going on about for the last ten minutes. Face as red as her hair, eyes shooting daggers. Now she’s shoving me away, ready to argue more.

  Swear to God; this touchy subject is the only time we fight. She doesn’t know the real reason why we can’t sit in front of Lorenzo and tell him about us, why I can’t take her out on a date and show her off. Why we can’t be an ordinary couple, but I sure did, and even though I love her, and would fight my way back to her no matter where I was. Many people will suffer because I couldn’t stay away.

  “I’ll never stop trying to calm you down. If I have to play dirty by getting up close and personal with your nipples, then so be it. I’ll do anything to make sure you are happy. What we have is permanent between us, Sienna, as in forever. We’ll find a way, I promise.”

  Regret and lies. I’d have found a way to be with her no matter what I would have had to do.

  “Cold?” I swallow my groan as I flick my gaze at her nipples and right back to her striking face. It gets me an eye roll and the crossing of her arms. Which I fully take advantage of by eyeing her cleavage.

  My dick screams to slide between those tits.

  “You’re an asshole. My son is missing, and you have sex on your mind. Unbelievable yet typical.” A sad expression dances across her face.

  My lungs clamp, insides yelling for me to shut the fuck up and give her some room when she glances at her phone. She’s done that half a dozen times in the few minutes I’ve been here.

  She’s hoping her son will call. It makes me loathe Joseph all the more for hurting her and, no doubt, their son too.

  Dirty rotten bastard, and here I am, acting like one. I can’t seem to help it when it comes to Sienna Ricci. To me, that’s who she’ll always be. Not Sienna Bennett. Joseph doesn’t deserve the honor to have a woman as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out to carry his last name.

  The thing is, she isn’t letting that beauty on the inside out, it’s concealed underneath years’ worth of scars and pain.

  My regret decides to lay a blow to my chest. The way I hurt her, striking me upside my temple.

  My fault.

  “That’s not all I have on my mind, Sienna. Not when it comes to you. I want all of you. I want you safe and secure in my arms, right where you belong. I want to talk to you for hours. I want to get to know your son through you and take our time getting to know one another again. I want to take you on a proper date. Anywhere you want to go,” I whisper. That is all the God’s honest truth, whether she believes it or not.

  I’ve sat around with my thumbs shoved up my ass long enough, biding my time while she settled in as best as a woman with a missing child can. She needs to know I mean what I say and that I have the upper hand when it comes to her protection as well. If I didn’t, the men sitting in cars in the parking lot, and the sniper on the roof of the building across the street wouldn’t be there. They are the best. Give zero fucks who they kill. Her father permitted me to handle covering her safety. I’ve left no stone unturned.

  “Now, sit down and hear me out, Sienna.”

  We have unfinished business as well as new, and she will listen to me. I know Sienna. For some goddamn reason, she wants to protect me. It’s the caring blood in her veins. The blood her husband likely tried to drain until there was nothing left. If she needs a transfusion, I’m the man who matches. I know that with every aching bone in my body. What I don’t understand is why she feels that need when it comes to me. If she thinks I’m afraid of Joseph, then she needs a reminder of who I am.

  “You lying piece of shit. I’m calling my father.”

  Shrugging, I challenge. “Go ahead. It’ll be a waste of your time.” I draw in her rose scent, sucking the intoxication into my lungs.

  Goddamn. I missed that scent too.

  She puffs out a breath before sitting, starts to pick up her phone only to place it back down and snatch what appears to be a picture frame before spinning away from me. Yeah, that will stop quickly. The only time she’ll turn her back on me again is when I’m holding her while she sleeps.

  It’s been years since I set eyes on this beauty, I’ve seen her from afar since she’s been here. It didn’t do a thing for my craving. Seeing her close doesn’t either, only touching, tasting, and getting that spark of life back into her will.

  “I’ll give you a few minutes to collect yourself. After, you will turn around and face me.”

  “Fuck you, Lane.”

  “I’m quite capable of fucking you, La Mia Vita. You have no idea how much I want that right now. How many nights I’ve pictured sitting you on top of this desk, spreading you wide and feasting before I bend you over it and bring you more pleasure than that animal you married ever did.” My body pulsates with an abundance of lust mixed with anger.

  The thought of him touching her has always felt like liquid nitrogen running through my veins.

  Now that he’s taken her son, I want to smother him with the coolant and freeze him to death. Guarantee he’s stolen more from Sienna than her son. Guarantee that photo she’s clinging to is a picture of Luca too. The boy I’ve avoided looking at in Lorenzo’s home over the years like the plague.

  Because he isn’t mine, he’s the son of an undeserving psychopath.

  Death is too good for Joseph. He needs to be bent over permanently, hands shackled to his ankles, and become someone’s bitch.

  “You can trust me, Sienna. You have every right not to believe it, but you can. I’m here to help you.”

  When I heard about her son, I wanted to go to her, but I had to ground myself. Once I did, I bought the home she shares with her father. She doesn’t have a clue I own it.

  I wanted Sienna here once she’d been convinced staying in New York wasn’t going to bring her son back. I wanted her close to me so my brothers and I could keep an eye on her while Gabe went on his hunt to find Joseph. Not to mention, Lorenzo would have peace of mind that her security was meted out by someone he trusted.

  Loyalty and trust are everything in the mafia, and Lorenzo thought he had it with Joseph. Who’s to say anyone else on his payroll wasn’t part of the plan. So far, everyone is in the clear. If I find out otherwise, they will die. Plain and simple.

  Guilt licks up my spine. I might have betrayed Lorenzo years ago. I’ll ask forgiveness and pay the price when the time comes, but I’d never take a child away from their mother.

  It’s an unforgiving sin.

  It kills me, seeing her twisted up with worry. Every night I lay in bed and wonder if she’s sleeping, crying, is she eating, losing her mind.

  “I won’t let you go through this alone, no matter how hard you try to push me away.”

  “You want to fuck me, Lane. That’s all you want from me.”

  She thinks I want sex, she’s right. There’s no better woman than her for me to sink my nearly eight-year abstinent cock inside of. Shit, I can almost feel her tightening around me. Can picture her back bowing, her neck angling, and her lips parting.

  I’m hard as granite thinking about it. But she’ll come to me when ready. That’s the only way I’ll have her sexually again.

  She whirls on me and, we stare at one another, the tracking of her eyes over my f
ace tells me she’s searching to see if I’m lying about owning this place.

  I’m not. It’s mine.

  My older brother Logan designed it.

  Dim lighting with exposed brick on the inside, white starch linens, and some of the best steak this side of the Mississippi. Scenic euphoria from dining on the rooftop, which offers a skyline view right in the heart of Houston’s busiest district.

  It’s something I wanted to leave for Lexi to have as her own. My daughter is not only into swimming and anything else she can get me to agree to, but she’s also into cooking and baking. Lexi took that up with Ellie. At seven years old, my little girl has the mind of a twenty-year-old. I swear she does. For now, this restaurant’s in the hands of an incredible woman. Regardless of what spits out of her mouth, it’s hers to do as she pleases.

  I take a seat in the plush green chair across from her desk. I had my sister-in-law, Ellie, decorate this office in green and white with hints of pink. Green to match the lightest shade of the color I’ve ever seen—Sienna’s eyes. White for the color of her snowy skin. Pink because when she’s turned on, her skin flushes, it made my cock weep every time I ran my fingers across her throat to her ears.

  Beautiful.

  “I don’t want anything from you, just your help. Tell me, is this the ever-changed Lane Mitchell’s way of making himself feel better for being lower than low by making promises to me he knew he would never keep? Either way, I quit. I’ll have my bags packed and move back to New Orleans. I’ll leave all of you behind. Especially the loyalty my father seemed to have forgotten when it comes to me.”

  We will see about that.

  “You’re safer here than anywhere you go. And…” I pause, pushing back up to lean into her space again. Fuck, I’m slipping. I want to kiss her so damn bad. She has the poutiest plump lips I’ve ever seen. “Your father raised you to know loyalty doesn’t always mean blood.”

  She flinches as if I’d slapped her. I study her for a moment. There’s something about that word loyalty that bothers her, and it doesn’t have a thing to do with her Father.

  Why?

  I decide to change the subject. To remind that no matter how scared she might be, she’s thinking with her head.

  “It pleased me to know you heard me as I came down the hall. Why didn’t you pull the trigger if you hate me so much?” Having a gun stashed speaks volumes to me. I’m a sneaky bastard when I want to be, and I was.

  Growing up the way Sienna did, she’d been trained to watch her back. She had a wicked backhand, and she could strike someone in the throat with her elbow before they saw it coming. Her father taught her that. It is the quickest way to drop a man if given the opportunity.

  That was one of the first things Lorenzo and Gabe taught my brothers and me when we were initiated as associates into the mafia. How to kill someone with your bare hands. Also, always have your eyes trained in every direction, keep your guard up, ears perked, and watch people around you. Trust very few.

  “Please, you? I’m not here to please you, Lane. Do you want me to shoot you? I’ll pull it out and shoot you in the mouth so you’ll shut up.”

  And there went my cock, twitching to be freed. At least she still has that sassy mouth.

  My gaze trails down Sienna’s neck, where I’m hypnotized as I watch her skin change to a light shade of pink right in front of my eyes. I can’t help it; my lips kick up into a half-smile.

  I’d love to ask if being this close to me is turning her on. I want to know if she’s wet. Is she thinking about lying spread eagle on this desk waiting, begging, and getting angry while she waits for me to make her scream.

  I won’t. I’m here to gain trust, to make demands she’ll follow.

  “The sooner you tell me what I want to know, the quicker you can get back to work. You aren’t moving anywhere, Sienna. Understand that now.”

  She gasps, tears forming in her eyes.

  I lift a hand to wipe them away when they fall, they never do. But she flinches, takes a few steps back, far enough to be out of my reach.

  Fucking Joseph. He’s terrorized her. He deserves to have his head severed and placed on the flaming gates of hell for all to see as they enter.

  “I don’t owe you a thing. My life is none of your business, Lane. You gave up that right when you screwed other women the same time you were screwing me. My son is missing because…” She takes a deep breath and shakes her head, stiffens her shoulders, and locks her jaw as she swallows her pain. Christ, there’s so much more of it in her eyes than the day she caught me with two women. “No, I won’t give in. You asked me not to play games; I don’t want to play yours either, Lane.”

  “This isn’t a game, Sienna. You were never one.” If she were, I’d have won her years ago.

  She’s breaking. I hate myself all the more for it. But I need to know what I’m dealing with when it comes to helping her the only way I can. If it weren’t for Lexi, I’d be with Gabe right now. Instead, when we heard about the kidnapping, my younger brother Seth took off in the middle of the night to meet up with Gabe.

  “That was before.” She pauses, tilts her head, leaving me to connect the dots. I can’t when I don’t know what’s going on, and my patience is thinning by the second. When I asked why Joseph would do this, Gabe said no one knew. Not even Sienna. That’s a damn lie.

  “I’m not that girl you used. You don’t control me, not anymore.”

  I never used her. That subject is for another day. Right now, I want to dig the truth out of her so I can help her escape the confines of her mind. Parts of Sienna are hiding in there. Parts I heard in her angered tone that want out. She’s holding things in. No one knows better than me how those things eat away at you until there’s nothing left.

  “Did you let Joseph control you? Did he hit you?”

  “No, I loved him, and he loved me.”

  That was a purposeful stab to my chest. It’s also a goddamn lie, as well as a subtle way of telling me to fuck off.

  I don’t bother to bite back my smirk even though I’m raging inside. I’m going to get her to tell me why Joseph would be stupid enough to kidnap Lorenzo’s grandson, attempt to kill his daughter, and think he can get away with it.

  Every time I think about what Joseph is putting Sienna through, I want in on the settling of serving revenge bloody and cold. I hope whoever finds him cuts out his heart.

  “I will push until you break. What does Joseph have on you, Sienna? It must be something you’d risk living in hell for not to tell your father your husband abused you.”

  I will beat Joseph until the flesh falls off his body.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you if it makes you go away. It’s my fault Luca is missing. He didn’t want to follow in Joseph’s footsteps. My father wasn’t happy about it at first. He grew to accept it; Joseph did not.”

  That’s what I thought, but there’s more.

  “You stayed with Joseph to protect your son, Sienna, that’s a mother’s love. Not fault.” That’s a saint—a woman who puts her child first.

  Her hands shake profusely. Tears well in her eyes again, and fear builds across her face as she holds the picture up in front of me. I want to close my eyes, but nothing could tear them away from the boy staring back at me.

  Luca’s hair is as dark as mine, eyes the same color as Sienna’s, and a smile that reminds me of Lexi. Every feature a mixture of Sienna and me.

  Air juts out of my nose. My breath catching in the bubble of anger lodged in my throat. I grip the back of my head with both hands, and I squeeze.

  Turmoil and pain slam me in my chest. I can feel it course right through me, hitting every extremity in my body.

  “The fuck? No. Tell me it’s not true. Tell me you did not keep me from my son.” A growl burst that bubble, rage tightening my windpipe. I need to get out of here before I shake the ever-loving hell out of her.

  The tables have turned, and I had no idea. Not one clue had dropped in all these years that Luca was mine.
<
br />   “I’m sorry, I had to. I stayed with Joseph to protect our son, Lane.”

  Ours.

  My regret sits itself smugly on my chest—guilt sloshing around like gasoline in my guts. I had a lot to repent for, sins up the ass, but this, I can’t make heads or tails of it.

  “You’re sorry. You deny me years of being able to know my son, miss all of his firsts, and all you have is your sorry. Luca is mine to protect—the same as you were. You took choices away from me for what, revenge? Is that why? Fuck you, Sienna. You can go to hell. Does your father know? Gabe?” There’s not a chance they do. I’ll unhinge if they’ve kept this from me.

  How could they not see me in him? How the fuck can this even be? I have a son. Luca is mine.

  “No. Joseph said he’d kill Luca if I told anyone. You don’t understand what it was like for me. You’ll never understand.” Her lips tremble, eyes going wide and clouding over with the hell she’s gone through as we stare at one another.

  My pain rotates in my stomach, a spinning wheel with emotions I can’t quite grasp due to a shit ton of anger threatening to swallow me whole, and my face burns with the hot blood rushing through my veins.

  Murder. I will commit it in a hundred ways.

  “I’m going to kill him. Joseph is a dead fucking man.” My voice thrashes out hoarse, no doubt strangled by the stiffness in my neck and the firm clench of my jaw.

  Blood is all I see. Joseph’s bright red blood dripping off my fingers as I cut out his soul.

  “You wanted me to stay away, Sienna. You got it. Un-fucking-believable.” He may have put her through hell on earth. I would have brought her to heaven while protecting our child.

  I grab the photo and bolt, slamming the door behind me.

  There’s only one person who can calm the rage flowing through me like a river gone wild.

  My daughter, with the most angelic smile. My daughter, who doesn’t like it when I swear. My daughter, who wants to be a mermaid. My princess.

  I need her sweetness to control the beast in me.

  Chapter Three