Valentino noticed that Francesca hadn’t answered the question of her delivery and neither had Stefano. He decided to test his initiation into the family. “Weren’t you all just instructing me on how I should make absolute certain that I give Emmanuelle a full partnership and not fuck up my relationship by being overprotective? The next thing I know, you’re handing Francesca down the aisle like she can’t walk on her own and declaring no female children are allowed to be born because they demand equality. I’m getting whiplash from the constant back-and-forth.”
“I am as well,” Grace said in her quiet voice. “Vittorio, you were going to give me an explanation of what you meant. How a man shouldn’t be overprotective of his woman because that could ruin his relationship.”
Vittorio unsnapped his wife’s seat belt, lifted her right onto his lap and flipped Val the bird behind Grace’s back. Val’s phone vibrated.
Famiglia at work. Nice one, Val, Dario pointed out.
I thought so.
Someone is bound to take out a gun and shoot you.
Might be worth it, Val fired back.
I have to admit beating the Ferraros at their own game feels satisfying even if you do get killed. I promise revenge.
Thx.
“The thing is this, Grace,” Vittorio said. “Francesca is pregnant again, and we have to look after her. She’s very fragile in that condition. We all love her very much and don’t want anything to happen to her or the baby. You can’t tell me you don’t feel just as protective of her. I love you for that.” He nuzzled her neck.
Val watched Grace lean back into him, her lashes falling as if her eyes were heavy. Even so, Vittorio was very careful of her artificial shoulder and how unstable it was. Valentino needed all the techniques he could get to handle his woman. Emmanuelle was a little wildcat when it came to sex. If he wasn’t careful, she was going to get the upper hand far too soon.
“I’m not pregnant,” Grace murmured, her voice so low Val barely caught the little thread of sound. “And I think you’re overprotective of me.”
Vittorio kissed his way over her neck to her ear. “Do you think that, Grace? That I’m overprotective of my most precious treasure? What is overprotective? You’re not tied to my bed the way I would prefer. You’re not confined to the house with guards at every door. I’d like that as well. You aren’t stripped naked and cuffed by the ankles and wrists to the St. Andrew’s Cross looking out over the lake, where I like you waiting for me, unable to move. That’s overprotective to me. You have a successful business out in the public, and I give that to you even though I worry every damn minute you’re exposed.”
His voice was velvet soft. Again, if they weren’t so close, Val doubted if he could have heard a word Vittorio said to his wife. The brothers acted as if they didn’t hear. He knew Dario listened, but he wouldn’t care. He was the kind of man who would do the things Vittorio threatened his wife with.
“You have a shoulder that refuses to heal. Your health is fragile.” His teeth bit on her earlobe and tugged and then scraped down her neck. She arched her head back to give him better access. “I’m careful with you, Grace, not overprotective, but that’s coming. Should you ever get pregnant, you’ll be seeing that side of me, and you’ll be fine with it, won’t you?”
She turned her head to look at him, one arm sliding around his neck. “Yes.”
Emmanuelle threw her arms into the air. “That is so not me, Valentino. I hope you never think that’s me.”
He laughed. His little wildcat was so far from Grace’s or Francesca’s personality it wasn’t funny. He liked both of the other women, but he was madly in love with Emmanuelle.
“I’m well aware, Emme. Have no worries on that score.”
You are so pussy-whipped.
Ouch.
You are. You have been since you met her. You should be ashamed. She’s cut your balls off.
“Dario thinks you cut my balls off.”
Emmanuelle raised an eyebrow. She took his phone from his hand and stared down at it for a few long minutes while overhead a voice told them to prepare for landing. In a few minutes, they would be getting married. Emme would be his wife.
He watched as she carefully sent his cousin a new text.
Val’s going to have the best sex of his life. Anytime, anywhere. That’s what shadow sex can get you. Thought to help you out with that but seeing how you view what loving a woman does to you, I know finding even the right shadow woman for you would be doing her a disservice. Too bad because there’s nothing like it in the world.
Hearing Dario groan was very satisfying.
Emme grinned at him. “I do so love revenge.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Emmanuelle stood in the mouth of the shadow tube watching each of the men in the room carefully. These were the men her husband would have to trust with his life. If they betrayed him, there was a better-than-average chance that he could die. He was giving instructions. Laying out the raids to them, in what order. They were going to hit Miceli’s main businesses and shut them down.
She knew he planned on killing Miceli’s key people and taking prisoner anyone who might be able to give them information on where the children were being held. It wasn’t in the warehouses. They had the ability now to stop the auction, but they needed to know where everyone was being held and also how each pipeline worked. They were separate from one another. It wasn’t only little girls brought in, it was also little boys. It wasn’t only teen girls, it was also teen boys. However, it was always women if they were older. As far as Val had found out, there were no men brought in over the age of seventeen.
The idea of human traffickers made Emme sick. She couldn’t imagine how Val and Dario felt. They’d been on the trail of this ring for over two years. They knew Miceli, Tommaso and Angelo were involved, but they needed to know all the players. They needed to know which of the other families were providing children, teens and women. There had to be one or two very powerful figures that stayed behind the scenes and ran everything. Those were the men Val and Dario were ultimately after. Even if they shut down Miceli, it would only cause a brief disruption, not halt the business.
Emmanuelle had spent a great deal of her life in the pull of the shadow tubes, but this was the first time she was responsible for the man she loved. That was a terrifying thought. If she missed something, if one tiny detail escaped her and she overlooked a sign of treacherous intent, Val could be ripped from her in an instant.
Her heart accelerated. Her lungs burned for air. The beginnings of a panic attack. Valentino’s dark gaze shifted toward her for one second. A hot, dangerous lick of heat sweeping past the shadow they’d created for her. He took a deep breath of air into his lungs—her lungs. Let it out. He knew. He always would know. They were that connected.
She was ashamed that she’d let herself panic. That wasn’t her style. She breathed on her own, feeling the flood of warmth surging through her veins. She didn’t want to be distracted, but she knew he was reassuring her that this was his life. He was used to the danger just as she was used to the danger of her life.
Emme kept her gaze from straying to her gorgeous husband and, one by one, inspected each of the men who would go on the raids with him. Normally, a man of his stature would never lead the raids, but Val insisted that if his men were going to put their lives on the line for him, he was going to direct the entire operation with them. Miceli wouldn’t expect them. He would never think that Valentino would dare to raid his lucrative businesses himself. He might hit one, but all of them? In a single day?