Page 68 of The Hidden Heir

I nod slowly. “Do that,” I encourage him. “But I don’t think the leak is in our security detail. Otherwise, whoever is doing this would’ve gotten their hands on Valentina and Michael by now.”

“Who else do I look into then?”

“Everyone. My associates. What’s left of my family and their associates. Close friends, business partners, ex-husbands and wives. Everyone.”

“Including Victor?” Solomon replies.

I hear the doubt in his voice. It resonates with mine. But what can we do? No one is exempt in this scenario. Someone close enough to the fold provided Lanny and his dead partners with enough intel to throw some serious wrenches into my operations. Tonight, they almost did the unthinkable.

Whoever the traitor is, I have to find them before something worse happens.

21

VALENTINA

Iwatch Michael as he sleeps in his bed, snuggled under his baby-blue blankie and holding his favorite plushie, a tiger almost as big as my boy, with beady eyes and large black stripes on its back. I listen to the sound of his even breathing, finding comfort in the rhythm, as the moon pours into the room and shimmers across his sweet face.

I hear Luca’s footsteps echoing from the hallway, followed by the sound of a closing door. He’s in our bedroom now, so I make sure the baby monitor is on before I join him.

“Luca,” I say, finding my husband as he stands near the window.

The same moonlight glazes his powerful frame in a subtle, silvery glow. I see the blood on his shirt, the bruises on his knuckles, his chest rising rapidly with every deep breath. He furrows his brow as he turns to look at me.

“Darling,” he whispers, unbuttoning his jacket.

I’m freshly showered and wrapped in a silk robe, a soft layer of deep red pouring over my body as I approach him. My bare feet sink into the thick, warm carpet while my heart races the closer I get.

“Is everything okay?” I ask.

“It will be,” he says, removing his shirt, then his pants.

Lust burns brightly in his hazel eyes. He doesn’t have many words left in him, not tonight, anyway, and while I have plenty of questions to ask, I’ve learned the value of timing when it comes to Luca Petrucci.

My husband is a powerful and a dangerous man. And I’ve had plenty of time to think since Victor brought me back to the mansion. I’ve yet to make my decision, but the more I ponder, the clearer it becomes that the day might come when I will have to bid Luca farewell, when I will take my son and find a way out of this world—for good.

Until then, however…

I admire his athletic frame, a dark shadow against the backdrop of the French-style window. My gaze follows the sharp lines of his jaw, his broad shoulders and strong arms, the ropes of muscle stretching down his abdomen, the raw force of his thighs expressed through thickness and mass, and his massive erection beckoning me closer.

“For what it’s worth, I’m getting closer to the truth,” Luca says.

“What did the shooter tell you?”

“Everything he could, though it wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked.”

“What will you do with the guy?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Luca snakes an arm around my waist while his other hand loosens the cord of my rob. The move is swift and decisive, revealing my naked curves to his hungry eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” he says.

I know what it means. The implication is right there in front of me, but the sizzling heat between us becomes unbearable and impossible to ignore. I cave in, embracing the monster beneath the man, begging for his love and his affection, for his savagery and shamelessness.

He grabs me by the back of the head, forcing me to look up at him. “You’ve turned my world upside down, Valentina. And I don’t know how to navigate it anymore. It used to be so simple before,” he says, his voice low and dripping with desire.

“I don’t know what to do with myself either,” I confess.

Ignoring the pang in my heart, the whisper that tells me to find my way out of this crevice before I’m swallowed up and definitively destroyed, I let my palm rest on his bare chest, fingers brushing over the dark curls of hair. Luca exudes manliness and fire through every pore. He is irresistible.