Undressed By The Mafia God

"Christ," he whispered against her mouth. "I love you. I love you so much." Luca reached around his neck and pulled out the chain.

The rings dangling from it caught the soft light of the medical room, small and beautiful. For days, they had rested against his chest. Every time he had touched them, he had remembered the brutal certainty that David had taken Veronica from him and left behind proof because he wanted Luca to suffer properly.

Which, credit where it was due, the bastard had achieved.

"I found these at the mall he took you from," Luca said quietly.

Veronica’s eyes dropped to the rings.

"I made a promise," Luca continued, his thumb brushing over the metal. "I was going to find you and put them back on your finger." His mouth tightened. "But now that I think about it... no."

Vee looked up sharply. Luca slipped her rings off the necklace, leaving only his still attached to the chain.

"These are tainted."

Veronica reached for the rings before he could pull them away. Her hand closed around them carefully. "No...They aren’t tainted."

Luca frowned. "Bambola—"

"They are reminders." She looked at the rings in her palm. "Of what we represent. Of what we survive."

Veronica lifted her eyes to his. "It doesn’t matter what is thrown at us. It doesn’t matter who tries to break us. We will always come out stronger." Her fingers curled around the rings. "I’d like to keep them."

Luca was not convinced. He could remember the rings removed from her fingers by a man who had no right to breathe in the same world as her. To him, the diamonds carried the memory of being too late. "Babe..."

"Please, love. These mean a lot to me. I’m not going to let a maniac ruin what they are."

He took the rings from her, one by one, and slid them back onto her fingers. Veronica looked down at them and smiled. Luca held her hand. "Do you..." He paused. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Her smile faded. She looked away. "Maybe later."

Luca nodded immediately. "Okay."

She glanced back at him. "What I want is a proper bedroom, a shower, and a proper bed."

"You got it." He rose carefully. "Come on." He helped her sit upright, then steadied her as she swung her legs carefully over the side of the bed. He slipped an arm around her waist.

Then she turned back instantly. The panic in her eyes hit him.

"On second thought," she said quickly, "maybe I should stay."

"Okay?"

She swallowed.

He searched her face, keeping his voice calm. "Why are you changing your mind?"

"Well, I don’t know." Her gaze dropped to her stomach. "I guess... I don’t..." She pressed her lips together, frustration flashing across her face. "The stress..."

Luca understood before she finished. "You think something may go wrong with the baby?"

Vee looked up at him with fear beneath the joy. The dark twin of happiness, standing right beside it, whispering reminders of what they had already lost. "I’m sorry."

His brow tightened. "Don’t."

"I know strength is expected of me. I really wouldn’t want to risk anything," she said. "Not after the drugs, and the fear, and..." She looked down again, her hand hovering near her stomach before settling there carefully. "I should probably stay put."

"I’m afraid too." He sat beside her on the bed again. "I guess I have always been afraid," he admitted. "My mother got in my head, I suppose."

"I don’t understand."

Luca took a breath. Silence had done enough damage already. He guided her back against the pillows. "My mother asked me how I dealt with losing our first baby." Luca stared at their joined hands. "I thought I had dealt with it because I kept moving.I thought if I didn’t stop, it wouldn’t catch me."

"When you started talking about babies again. I realised..." He swallowed hard. "Maybe my body broke because some part of me was terrified of going through that loss again. I wanted a child with you," he said quickly, fiercely. "I still do. I have always wanted that with you. But I think I was afraid to hope. Afraid to love something we could lose."

Finally, Veronica let out a shaky breath. "Do you think we need a professional or something?"

"Babe, my line of work doesn’t really allow me to spill my guts on a doctor’s couch," Luca said with a faint chuckle.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"I’ll figure it out," he said and leaned forward, pressing his mouth to her knuckles. "Right now, happy thoughts are what we need."

"It really is all over, uhn?"

"Yes, love," he said firmly. "It is. But I’ll be damned if you still do not get the comfort you deserve. I’ll have the doctor see to you in our room. How about that?"

"Will you be with me?" she asked, pouting like a child.

"I will pop in and out to attend to David business but I will always come back to you." He kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then the corner of her mouth. "I will always come back to you," he repeated. "You and our baby. Come on," Luca said, standing slowly. "Let’s get you where you can rest properly."

*****

Don Enzo arrived at the Genovese house the next day. This time, he was welcomed through the gates not as an enemy, but as an old friend carrying fresh grief. That did not mean the guards were relaxed.

But they allowed him in. Massimo received him in the study. There was a hollowness to him now, a quiet ruin where rage had once stood. Graziella was dead. Bianca was dead. David was alive only because Luca had not yet decided the exact shape of his ending.

He had come to terms that his children inherited all the worst parts of him and Graziella.

Massimo offered him a stiff drink. Luca entered moments later.

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