The Don's Bride

Chapter 2

Protection from who?" Sonia asked, her voice unsteady.

Luca didn't answer.

That silence scared her more than anything he could have said.

All around them the club was still in chaos, screams, police lights flashing, officers moving in every direction. But somehow Sonia felt more trapped than anyone else in that room. Like she'd stumbled into something that had been happening long before tonight, something she still didn't fully understand.

Marco shifted behind her, quietly cutting off any path she might have taken to run.

Her breathing got shallow. "I just want to go home."

"You can't," Luca said.

Not cruelly, Just like it was a fact.

Detective Harris glanced around before dropping his voice. "We don't have much time."

Luca nodded once, then looked at Sonia. "You're leaving with us."

"No."

It came out faster this time, more certain. Luca studied her for a moment, quiet and unhurried, while everything around them fell apart. People were sobbing. Officers were shouting. Someone was being carried out on a stretcher. And he just stood there, completely unmoved by all of it. Like nights like this were ordinary to him. Like violence was just weather.

Marco grabbed her arm. "Move."

"Don't touch me!" She yanked back hard, but his grip was hard.

"Marco." Luca's voice was sharp.

Marco let go immediately.

That small moment told Sonia everything. The way Marco obeyed without a word, without even a look of protest. She felt the fear settle deeper in her stomach.

Who was this man?

Luca stepped closer. "If you stay here, you become a witness."

"I am a witness."

"No," he said quietly. "Right now you're just a girl who was in the wrong place. But once the wrong people find out you saw my face, that stops being true."

Sonia swallowed. "What wrong people?"

He didn't answer.

"I'm not going with you," Sonia said, though her voice gave her away a little.

Marco let out a dry laugh. "You think you have a choice?"

"Marco," Luca said again.

Marco raised his hands. "I'm just being honest."

Sonia looked between the two of them and tried to make sense of how her night had ended up here. Less than an hour ago she'd been stressing about tuition and overdue assignments. Now she was standing in a room with a dead body, surrounded by men who somehow already knew her name.

Harris stepped closer, lowering his voice further. "People are already asking questions."

"And?" Luca asked.

"One witness recognized Marco."

Marco swore under his breath.

Luca's expression barely shifted, but something changed in his eyes. Not panic. Something more deliberate than that. He was already thinking three steps ahead.

"What about the cameras?" Marco asked.

"Handled," Harris said.

The word sat in Sonia's chest like a stone. Handled. Like erasing evidence of a murder was just another item on a to-do list.

Harris finally looked directly at Sonia. "You're Sonia Carter?"

She hesitated, then nodded.

Something crossed his face. Recognition, almost. "You're Richard Carter's daughter."

Sonia went still.

Her father's name wasn't something people brought up casually. Not unless they knew something.

"You knew my father?" she asked carefully.

Harris ignored her and turned back to Luca. "That complicates things."

"What does that mean?" Sonia pressed.

Nobody answered. They just kept talking around her like she was a problem to be managed rather than a person standing right in front of them.

The fear started giving way to anger.

"Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

Marco almost smiled at that.

Luca looked at her for a long moment. "You ask too many questions."

"And you kill people."

She hadn't meant to say it out loud. But there it was.

The air shifted, Marco's face darkened. Harris looked like he wanted to be somewhere else entirely. And Luca, Luca just looked at her, still, calm, Like the words hadn't touched him at all.

Her heart was pounding, but she didn't look away.

After a moment, Luca stepped closer. Close enough that she caught the smell of smoke and expensive cologne on him.

"You should be very careful what you say tonight," he said quietly.

The chill that ran through her had nothing to do with his volume. It was the fact that he didn't need to raise his voice.

Before she could respond, another officer appeared at Harris's shoulder. "Detective, reporters are outside."

Harris looked irritated. "Already?"

"They heard the shots."

Marco swore again. Luca glanced toward the entrance where police lights were still strobing through the windows, then looked back at Sonia.

"We're leaving."

"I said no."

"You keep saying that like it changes something."

She clenched her jaw. "I have rights."

Marco actually laughed. "That's cute."

"I'm serious."

"So are we."

Harris rubbed his face. "Can we please do this somewhere else?"

Luca reached for Sonia's hand. She pulled back instantly.

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

Luca's patience finally wore thin. "You are already involved. That happened the moment you saw my face."

"I didn't ask for that!"

"It doesn't matter."

"Seeing someone's face isn't a crime!"

"In my world it is."

That stopped her.

My world.

She looked at him, really looked at him, and understood for the first time that she knew absolutely nothing about who he was or what he was capable of. Only that even the police in this room were afraid of him. That said everything she needed to know and nothing she wanted to hear.

Harris checked his watch. "We're out of time."

Luca looked at Marco. "Take her."

"What!" Sonia stepped back but Marco already had her arm.

"Let go of me!" She struggled hard enough that people nearby started watching. A few officers noticed. Then they saw Luca and quietly looked away.

That chilled her more than anything else had all night.

Marco spoke low near her ear. "Stop fighting. You're only making this worse."

"You're k********g me!"

"No," Luca said, already walking ahead of them. "We're keeping you alive."

"That doesn't make it better!"

Marco steered her down a back hallway away from the noise. The sirens outside were muffled now. The music was completely gone. Everything felt hollow and cold.

At the end of the hallway was a black door leading outside. Two armed men stood on either side of it.

Sonia dug her heels in. "No."

Marco exhaled slowly. "Please don't start this again."

"I am not getting into a car with people I don't know."

"You've been talking to us for twenty minutes."

"That does not make us friends!"

One of the guards coughed to cover a laugh.

Luca pushed the door open without looking back. Cold air came rushing in. Outside in the narrow alley behind the club, a row of black cars sat waiting. Dark and expensive and completely intimidating.

Sonia's pulse jumped.

Marco nudged her forward. "Move."

She turned to Harris instead, desperate. "You're a police officer."

He looked away.

That landed harder than she expected. Of everything that had happened tonight, that small gesture, a man in uniform simply refusing to meet her eyes, felt like the final door closing.

"You're seriously just going to help them?"

His jaw tightened. "Get in the car, Miss Carter."

Nobody was coming to help her. She understood that fully now.

Luca had stopped beside one of the cars and was watching her again. For the first time, she noticed a small smear of blood on his cuff. Not much. Just enough.

"You're scared," he said.

Sonia almost laughed. "What gave it away?"

His expression stayed even. "You should be."

The honesty in that was its own kind of terrifying.

Marco opened the car door. Sonia stared into the dark interior for what felt like a long time. Every instinct she had was screaming at her not to get in. She knew with complete certainty that if she stepped inside that car, her life would not look the same on the other side of it.

But she also knew she was out of options.

She looked back at Luca. "Who are you?"

He paused. Just briefly, just for a second, but she noticed it.

"Luca De Santis."

The name landed quietly. But around them, the guards straightened almost without realizing it, like the name carried its own gravity.

Sonia had grown up in this city. She didn't know much about the people who ran things in the dark, but she knew that name. Everyone did.

And standing there in that alley, blood on his sleeve and nothing in his eyes she could see, Luca De Santis looked exactly like what he was. The kind of man who existed in a world most people only ever heard rumors about.

Marco nodded toward the open door.

Sonia took a breath.

And got in.