Bend Me, Daddy

LUCA

I regretted the fact that I was forced to kill a man I loved as a friend. Not the way I loved Enzo and Tristan, but a friend, nonetheless. Tony was the one who'd gotten me into the club the day I was shot in broad daylight, and I would always appreciate that. Yet it was quite obvious he had no respect for me. If he had, he never would've laid his hands-or his mouth-on my woman.

And he never would've taken my brother's side.

In the car, heading back home after our delivery was canceled because Rene's cousin wasn't "feeling it," I'd watched on my phone as Veda had invited Tony to stay for dinner. How he'd accepted. And how they'd laughed and talked and drank like old friends. I saw immediately what she was trying to do, and I also saw the moment she changed her mind. My Veda was an open book to me. There was nothing she could hide.

Tony, on the other hand, knew damn well they were on camera. It was the reason he'd been so forward with her. He'd wanted to rub it in my face how easy it had been to steal her away from me. Or so he'd thought. A few weeks ago, I'd started suspecting he was working for Mario. I don't know what he'd offered him, but it was enough to turn one of my most loyal men away from me.

The original plan was to take him out to the garage and get him to tell me what my brother was up to now through whatever means necessary. But that had all changed the moment he pressed my vita up against that wall. "Drop his head off on my brother's doorstep," I instructed Milo.

"You got it." With the body wrapped in a tarp from the garage so it wouldn't drip blood all over the house, Tristan helped him pick it up and take it out to his car. Milo was my cleaner. He would take it off the property and dispose of it. I didn't know how or where, and I didn't care. All I knew was he had worked for me and some other members of the family for years. We paid him well, and not once had the law come knocking on our door. As a matter of fact, not one of the bodies had ever been found. He was fast and efficient, came whenever we needed him, day or night, and looked like a California surfer with his shaggy blond hair cut short on the sides and back, green eyes, and a hoop earring. When he was gone, we called in some help for Lisa to remove any trace of blood from the walls, floor, table, and chairs. Since I'd used a knife instead of the gun tucked into my pants, it had kept the mess relatively contained. It had also been much more satisfactory for me.

By the time I headed upstairs to shower and change, carrying my shoes and socks so I didn't track anything through the house, Veda's father was back in his room, and she was waiting for me in ours.

She turned from her spot by the doors leading out to the balcony when I came in, staring at me like she didn't know me. "You murdered him. Right in front of me."

I ran my eyes over her. She was covered in blood. "Take off your clothes," I told her.

"He wasn't even armed."

Her face was pale. Too pale. "Veda."

Her eyes shot to my face.

"Your clothes. There's blood on them. Take them off."

She looked down, her eyebrows going up in surprise when she saw all of the blood on her clothes and bare legs. "Oh my god."

Grabbing a plastic bag out of the closet, something I kept there for occasions such as this, I dropped my shoes and socks inside and then took off my jacket and shirt and dropped them in the bag, along with my pants.

In only my boxer briefs, I took the bag over to her and set it on the floor by her feet. I'd have to have the cleaning crew come back tomorrow and help Lisa scrub the floor everywhere Veda might have walked.

"Come here, amore. Let me help you."

She stood as if in a daze as I took off her shirt and shorts, dropping them into the bag. When I looked up, her gray eyes clashed with mine. "Why did you do that?" she asked me. "Why did you cut him open like that?" "Because you're mine," I told her simply. "Because it felt good. And I'll do the same to anyone who tries to take you from me."

She searched my face. Always searching. "I'll never be able to leave you, will I?"

I looked her right in the eye. "No, amore. Your place is with me now."

"What will you do to keep me with you, Luca?"

"Anything, amore. I would do anything."

She hesitated, but only for a second. "Would you kill your own brother?"

The short answer to that would be yes. Of course, I would. I would do it gladly. And not just for her, but for me as well. But at the moment, my hands were tied. I brushed her hair away from her face. "Mario will get what he has coming to him in time. Let's get cleaned up and go to bed. We can talk tomorrow."

But when I went to walk away, she didn't follow me. I stopped and turned around. She stood exactly where I'd left her. "Veda, are you coming?"

Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. "No." A sob escaped her, and she covered her mouth with her hand, then hurried to the closet.

I frowned and followed her, watching silently as she grabbed a dark-colored shirt out of her drawer and pulled it on over her bloody bra, then started digging around for a pair of pants. "What are you doing?"

"I can't stay here," she told me. "I can't stay here with you."

Something cold and heavy filled my chest and sank down into my stomach. "You're not going anywhere."

She ignored me, grabbing the black stretchy pants from the night before out of the laundry basket at the back of the closet and slipping them on.

"Veda, did you hear what I said?"

Finding her running shoes, she shoved her feet into them, then walked past me out into the bedroom without looking at me. I followed her.

"Where is my phone?" she asked. But before I could answer her, she walked out of the room, turning right toward her parents' room and leaving the door wide open.

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"Goddammit, Veda!" I yelled after her. "You are NOT leaving here."

She disappeared into the guest room, shutting the door behind her.

I stood in the middle of the hall in my underwear, trying to decide if I wanted to barge in after her and carry her out over my shoulder and tie her to the fucking bed or wait until she came out on her own. Either way, she was going to end up in my bed tonight. Where she belonged.

But before I could decide, she came back out and walked right up to me, taking me off guard. "If it's alright, I'll make arrangements to take my parents somewhere else as soon as I can. Is it okay if they stay here until my mother can travel?" "Veda..."

"Is it okay? Yes or no?"

"Yes, of course."

"Thank you," she told me. I thought she would try to leave then, but once again she surprised me. Setting her jaw, she lifted her chin, even as her eyes filled with fresh tears. "I can't stay here, Luca. You have to let me go."

I shook my head. "No." She was upset by what had happened. I understood that. And I should've waited until she wasn't in the room, but I'd let my anger guide me. "I don't have to do anything."

"You told me I was no longer your prisoner. Were you lying?"

I stared into her gray eyes and felt the ice in my chest harden with every passing second of this conversation. "No. I was not lying."

She looked down at her phone and pulled up her contacts, hitting the button that said, "Sammy." Then, her eyes on mine, she put it up to her ear. "Hey, it's me," she said when her friend answered. "Can you come get me at the marina where you dropped me off?" She paused, and I heard Sammy tell her she would. "Thank you. I'll be there in a few minutes, and I'll wait for you." Another pause. "Okay. See you soon."

"Veda, what are you doing?"

"I'm leaving, Luca. And I'm asking you to please let me."

My teeth began to ache, and I realized I was clenching my jaw. "You want to go to your friend's apartment?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I can't be anywhere near you right now," she told me as her bottom lip trembled and tears slipped down her cheeks. But her voice was strong. Decisive.

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I ran my hands through my hair, trying to suppress the scream of rage that was building inside of me. This wasn't happening. This wasn't fucking happening. "Just for tonight."

She spoke so quietly I barely heard her. "Not just for tonight."

"No," I told her. "NO."

"And it's not because of what happened tonight," she went on as if I hadn't spoken. "Not totally."

"I don't fucking understand, Veda."

She glanced down at my bare chest. "Do you want to go talk about this somewhere else?"

"No. We'll talk about it right fucking here. Right fucking now." For once, I had no idea where she was going with this. "Explain this to me, amore. I understand what happened tonight was hard for you to witness-"

She held up her hand to stop me. "Luca, I can't live in this world. I don't know the rules."

"I can teach you. Veda, you'll be safe with me. I swear it to you." My anger was beginning to disintegrate into desperation.

"But that's just the thing, Luca. I'll never be safe with you."

I drew back. "What are you talking about? I just killed a man for you."

"You killed a man for daring to touch what you consider yours. And I suspect because you knew he was working for Mario now. As long as your brother is alive, I'll never be safe here. And not just because he's getting to your people. Everything you do is centered around this... competition with Mario. This game you both play. And I'm only a pawn. Something moved around the board at will until I'm captured by one or the other."

"That's not true, amore."

She stared up at me, her heart in her eyes. "Prove it to me."

I frowned. "I killed a man for touching you tonight. How much proof do you need?"

But she shook her head. "You killed the wrong man. Tony was only a piece on the board, like me."

Ah. So that's what she was getting at. "Veda, my father put out the order Mario isn't to be harmed. If I go against that order, I won't live long enough to protect you."

"I understand that. I really do." Something inside of me cracked open wide when she gave me a sad smile. "And that's why I'm taking myself off the board." Stretching up on her toes, she took my face in her hands and kissed me hard, her mouth moving on mine until I responded to her. But when I lifted my hands to pull her closer, she broke it off and backed away. She stared up at me for a long moment as tears slid silently down her cheeks, then, without a word, she walked quickly down the hall to the stairs.

I stood frozen as I heard her talking to Enzo. I heard my phone buzz in the bedroom as he texted me. "Take her wherever she wants to go," I called down to him.

And then I went into my room and shut the door as my vita, the woman who had become my whole world, walked out of my life.