The Mafia Principessa’s Nine Knights Chapter 03

The Mafia Principessa’s Nine Knights Chapter 03

“Nothing.”

My voice came out shaking.

“It’s… Pudding scratched me.”

Luca stopped halfway across the room.

He stood over me.

His eyes locked on mine, searching my face.

“Move your hand.”

“It’s nothing, really…”

“Bella.”

My full name. No warmth in it.

He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

My hand shook.

I lowered it.

Luca’s eyes dropped to my left cheek.

He didn’t say a word.

The room fell dead silent.

Something shifted behind his eyes.

His jaw clenched.

Like something inside him had finally snapped.

He dropped to one knee.

His fingertips barely grazed the mark on my cheek.

“Who did this?”

Three words.

Each one ice-cold.

My lips moved.

Nothing came out.

“Bella.” His voice came again. “Answer me.”

Softer this time, like he was holding himself back.

But his hands were shaking.

Only barely, but I felt it.

The pressure behind my eyes broke.

The tears came.

“Luca…”

I fell into him.

His arms closed around me and locked tight.

“Tell me.” His voice came from somewhere above my head, low and tight.

“Who touched you.”

“Your girlfriend.”

My face was pressed against his chest. The words came out broken.

“She hit me.”

Luca went rigid.

Every part of him went still.

I could feel his heartbeat against my face.

Each one harder than the last.

Thump.

Thump.

He didn’t say anything.

Three seconds. I counted.

Then his hands found my shoulders.

He pulled me back gently, out of his arms.

I looked up at him.

I’d seen every version of Luca’s face.

Cold at the negotiating table.

Calm when he signed a deal.

Gentle whenever he looked at me.

But this face, I’d never seen this one.

It wasn’t anger.

Anger was hot. Anger was loud.

What I saw in his eyes was pure, lethal ice.

Cold enough to make me flinch.

He stood.

“Wait here.”

His voice was level.

The kind of calm that comes right before everything breaks.

“Luca…” I caught his sleeve.

He looked down and brushed my hair away from my face.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed.

“Dante.”

Dante picked up. “Yeah?”

“Tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. The estate.”

“What happened?”

“Someone laid hands on the princess.”

Two seconds of silence on the line.

Then Dante’s voice came back, flat and final.

“She’s dead.”

Luca hung up.

Dialed again.

“Edward. Pull the footage from every camera in the living room and hallway. From six to seven thirty tonight. All of it.”

Edward had been the estate’s butler for thirty years.

“Yes, Don Luca, I’ll have it…”

“Ten minutes.”

He hung up.

Then he turned to me.

He walked over to the bar, wrapped some ice in a clean towel, and brought it over.

He knelt down and pressed it to my cheek.

Cold and stinging.

But I didn’t pull away.

“Bella.” A pause.

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

I shook my head.

“What else did she say?”

I bit my lip.

“She said… to stay away from you.”

Luca’s eyes narrowed.

I’d only seen that look once before, right before he fired a senior executive. That man was gone from the city by the next morning.

“And?”

“She said I was pathetic.”

My head dropped. My voice got smaller and smaller.

“That I don’t get to… be around you all the time.”

Something warm touched the back of my hand.

His lips.

He held my hand there, against his mouth.

“Listen to me, princess.”

“If you want to be close to someone, you be close to them. Always. That’s your right.”

“And if anyone has a problem with that, they answer to me.”

His eyes were red-rimmed.

But he didn’t let a single tear fall.

Luca never cried in front of me.

He saved his ruthlessness for the people who made me cry.

“I’ll stay with you tonight until you fall asleep, okay?”

I sniffled and nodded.

That night, Luca had Edward escort Angelica off the estate before she even made it back from the bar.

He didn’t even look at her.

He sat at the edge of my bed, holding my hand.

Pudding curled up at my feet, purring.

I closed my eyes, but I didn’t fall asleep.

Because I heard Luca reach for his phone in the dark.

The screen lit up.

He typed a message.

Through half-lidded eyes, I caught the text sent to Antonio Marino.

“Dig up everything on the Rossis.”