Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 39

Addy watched as Arwen hugged Deidre and rubbed her back. Near the end of dinner, as the young woman was eating her peach cobbler, she suddenly broke down in tears. He admitted, he was comfortable with a lot of things but poor Deidre sobbing over one more

birthday her parents missed due to their murders was not an event he was relaxed in observing.

He considered it was damn good thing Arwen had admitted to killing the group who had killed her aunt and uncle because he would have been hard-pressed to stop himself from replaceing every last one of them and avenging the deaths of two people he didn't know. He watched Deidre sniff against Arwen's shoulder and give him an embarrassed look.

He stood and began clearing the table and paused behind Deidre and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, "piccola, it is good for you to cry. You never have to hide how you feel around me."

She sniffed and leaned closer into Arwen's embrace. "I think I'm going to go take a hot shower and go lay down. It's been a weird day," Deidre whispered. "Would you prefer I left?" He asked curiously.

"No!" she protested as she got out of her seat and hugged him. "It feels better to know you're here."

He was stunned the girl had approached him and flung her arms around him, but he smiled softly and hugged her tight. "Go on then piccola, go get rest."

He and Arwen watched her climb the stairs to her bedroom before he continued clearing the table. He spoke softly, "Deidre and I were the same age when we lost our parents. It changes you. That she has not come out broken and twisted has much to do with you." "It has to do with a lot of therapy," Arwen argued and rose to help him clear the table. "I was surprised she invited you to come to dinner. She's always demanded it just be the two of us. She's getting rather attached to you."

"Does this bother you?" he asked curiously. Her tone was brusque.

"No. I'm just worried."

"About?" he began loading the dishwasher.

"We've been together a short time Addy. Yet, you've become implicated in my life is so many ways and it's going really fast. Your knowledge of my extra curricular activities is scary enough but the thought she," Arwen looked in the direction of the upstairs, "could get hurt puts me on edge."

"Let's clean this up down here and then we can go have a chat about things," he nodded to her as his gaze followed hers up the stairs. "Where we won't be overheard." "Okay," she nodded.

They worked in silence until the kitchen was in pristine condition and he was satisfied with the state of it. They quietly climbed the stairs to the bedroom and Arwen paused and put her ear to Deidre's door and closed her eyes and sucked in a shaky breath. "Is she crying?" Addy asked as Arwen put her palm against the door as if wanting to touch the girl on the other side.

She nodded.

"Our chat can wait." He motioned to the door. "I have my laptop downstairs. I'll bring it up and get to work while you help her through what she's going through."

"Are you sure?" Arwen whispered lifting blonde eyebrows in his direction.

He pointed to the door, "I told you before. She comes first. She was here long before me." He jogged back down the stairs to retrieve his laptop bag and then made his way back to Arwen's room. He kicked off his shoes and then swung his legs up on the bed, propping pillows behind his back.

The first thing he did was check in with Oriana.

"Hey Addy, how are things?"

"Busy Oriana. How is my casino?"

"Winning." She grinned at him on the video call.

"Good. No issues to report?"

"Nope. How long before we get a new FBI Agent assigned to us?"

"It's already happened." He gave a shrug, "an agent O'Malley approached me here at Arwen's house today."

"You serious about her boss?" Oriana lifted an eyebrow. "I thought perhaps you were filling in time since you were back in New York but it's the second time I've seen the headboard behind you."

"Damn right I am," he smirked at her. "Get used to it."

"Good. It's about time. I need a godchild."

"Santino would fight you for the title," he grinned at her.

She wiggled her fingers at the camera, "bring it."

He laughed at her words, "give me the rundown. What's going on?"

He listened attentively to the summary of the evening thus far and after a promise from her to send in her morning report first thing in the morning he said goodnight. He then did the same call with the manager of his casino in Atlantic City and then the Casino in Italy. The six-hour difference between Italy and New York had him calling in at five in the morning.

His manager answered first ring, "good morning Pauly."

"Morning boss."

"How did the night go?"

"It went well." Pauly's voice was short as if he'd been running.

"You sound out of breath."

"I am out of breath. I found your leak and I've been having some fun with the ones we had brought in." Pauly's voice had a smile to it. "I messaged Santino two hours ago, but he told me to leave you alone. He said you were celebrating the birthday of a little girl." Addy sat up straight, "he was right. I was busy but I'm all ears now. What have you found out?"

"Luca and Ferraro were in a partnership. Ferraro's family is pissed you've taken over for Luca because they made a lot of money selling girls, but Ferraro was working with the Russians too and some of Ferraro's men were taking kickbacks from them." "F**k." Addy growled lowly.

"It seems the Russians want you to honor the agreement you had with Ferraro's family. Since you've all but eliminated their family and cut their ability to use his shipping company, they're pissed. They paid off a couple of guys who were loyal to Luca." He chuckled, "I'm out of breath because I had to beat the information out of two Russians and a couple of Sicilians. Santino sent in back-up for the guys here. I managed to get the names of two guys loyal to Luca and one of them will be a surprise."

Addy knew his face went blank. "Who?"

"Mancuso's kid. You let him step up to take over for his father who was f*****g high all the time. Mancuso is pushing the kid to do what he wants behind the scenes. Santino will be rounding them up shortly. Joey Jr has been in direct contact with the Russians." "Son of a f*****g b***h," Addy spit furiously. "I had him with me when we grabbed the girls off the dock."

"He's born and raised in New York, boss. Not one girl would have been able to finger him. I finally got one of the boys here to talk after a bit of convincing."

The splash of running water in the background made Addy chuckle darkly. "Are you giving someone a bath, Pauly?" Pauly was his cousin and was as loyal to Addy as Santino and Enrico were. They both had bastards for fathers. Where Pauly's dad died when he was younger, Luca had felt it was his right to "raise" Pauly with as much violence and brutality his own father would have given him. Pauly's favorite way to interrogate an enemy involved water of various temperatures, various depths and in various orifices. Pauly had once had to have a catheter following a particularly traumatic beating by Luca when he was only sixteen. He had become quite adept at inserting and removing the devices. Even Addy had to admit the thought of Pauly clinically using catheters on their enemies made his stomach turn.

"Why yes I am." Pauly's laugh was as wicked as Addy's. "Can I say the Russians were not so thrilled to get an internal cleansing."

Addy gave a bark of laughter, "I do not even want to know the details." He sighed, "I'll check in with Santino next. Ciao," he ended the call laughing as Pauly yelled into background it was time for Nurse Pauly to deliver the enema and the muffled shrieks in the distance.

Arwen stepped into the room as he was sending Santino a text. "Why do you look like you just watched porn?"

"I found my leaks," he grinned his dark eyes like coal, "I know who put Zoya into trouble. You can take care of her and whatever you replace out but I'm dealing with my leaks myself." "Have at it," she leaned against the closed door and folded her arms. "You really just make yourself comfortable here, huh." She waved at the way he was lounging her bed.

"Why not?" he looked up from his phone where Santino responded he, Enrique and a specific team of their guys were rounding up everyone associated with Mancuso and his son. Mancuso had been an enforcer for his grandfather and had been brought up along with Luca. He should have known the man would have convinced his kid to be a problem. The kid had made several comments to him about his drug-addled father's behaviour and had understood the kid was pissed with his old man. He'd vetted the kid with a couple of his New York affiliates. It seems they lied. They would pay the price for betraying him. Wrongs were going to be righted tonight.

He closed his laptop and set it and his cell phone on the nightstand and patted the bed, "come. Let's have a talk." As she didn't move, he sighed, "mia cara, do not mistake my casual appearance for ignorance. Today I found out things I very much want to discuss with you. If you insist on me coming to you, I will consider it disrespectful."

She glowered at him, and he almost chuckled at her fierce expression. He loved using the word disrespect around her. It instantly raised her hackles, and put her into battle mode, and he enjoyed very much when she argued with him. Having the feisty and strong- willed woman fight him at every turn only to bend to his will when they were naked made his c**k twitch in the most delicious way possible.

"Arwen, sit." He motioned to the bed and fought the smirk on his lips as she grumbled and moved to sit beside him on the bed. He lifted his phone when he got a text message alert and laughed aloud when Pauly sent him a GIF of the scene in the movie where a woman in a wedding dress s**t herself on the street.

"Why is someone sending you scenes from Bridesmaids?" Arwen wrinkled her nose.

"My cousin is doing an interrogation. He has an affinity for water torture."

She made a face of confusion before sitting up straight and covering her mouth in horror. "No!"

"Yes. He's an odd son of a b***h but he gets results and I love him for it."

"He," she gasped as she considered his words, "Are you saying he puts water in their a*s?"

"A*s, p***s, mouth, ears, nose, oftentimes multiple holes at once. He's very gifted."

"Holy shit."

"Nothing holy about it," Addy chuckled. She slapped at him in disgust, and he laughed. "You asked."

"I wish I could take back my question."

"Too late. Let this be a valuable lesson, mia cara. Do not ask questions unless you are a hundred percent certain you want the answers to them. Especially of me."

"Duly noted." She rubbed her forehead in disbelief.

"Now, I have questions which I do very much want the answers to." He watched with interest as she looked away and stared at a spot on the wall. "It is not an interrogation, Arwen. You want to know what we are and what will happen to Deidre in the event we don't work out. Why?" "What do you mean why? I don't want her hurt. She's getting quite attached to you Addy."

"Yes. I am also attached to her. I will be part of her life for the rest of her life. She is important to me, and I consider her my family. She is forever under my protection."

"She doesn't need your protection."

"I am aware Bellona protects her, but you must admit there can not be anything as too much protection for a girl as special as Deidre." At her nod of acknowledgement, he leaned towards her sideways, "Arwen, I told you. I feel a kinship with her. We lost our mothers at the same age. I am most interested in learning from her how she keeps her kind heart. Does she know the circumstances of her parent's deaths?"

"When she was fourteen, she looked it up online. I had told her they'd been murdered but never gave her specifics. She read how her mother had been gangraped while she'd been shoved into a pantry closet. She had used the school library. I had to go get her at the school and nobody knew why she'd gone catatonic. I had to have Clara hack the school and replace out what her internet search had been and what she had read."

"Yet, she is still one of the sweetest people I've ever met."

"Therapy. Lots of therapy." She admitted ruefully. "Sabine," she looked to him, "the Black woman with us at the gelato shop. She's a shrink. She and another Bellona psychologist have worked with Dee from day one."

"Sabine is Cam Torres' shadow's wife."

"Gideon is her husband, yes." Arwen grimaced at his description.

"I bet she could kick his a*s."

"I've watched it happen. We do girls' fight night in Torres' basement. Once we all got slicked up with oil, and Isabella and Sabine tag-teamed Torres and Gideon. It was hilarious. They kicked their asses. The olive oil was used to the girls' advantage." He chuckled, "I think I would like to watch such a thing."

"We'll invite you next time." She shrugged.

"Arwen, why do you think you and I will not last." He watched as his blunt question immediately removed any expression from her face. For a woman as enthusiastic as she was, she had an incredible ability to draw a neutral expression. "It's not I don't think we won't last. It's more I don't want to put the horse ahead of the cart. We are very new, and I don't want to make assumptions. I live here. You live in Vegas and Sicily."

"I told you before, I have houses all over the world. My home is Sicily but where I choose to live and spend the bulk of my time depends on my business needs. At the moment, it's New York. I relocated my entire team to New York last weekend."

"Oh."

"If I'm being truthful, which I prefer to be with you Arwen, you played a role in my decision to move back to New York."

"I did?" she turned to him in surprise finally dropping her impassive façade.

"Yes, very much so." He cupped her cheek gently, "Arwen I care for you a great deal. You have captivated me from the moment I first saw you at the underground fight. I cannot get you out of my head. You are always there, in the back of mind. I want to spend more time with you. As much as I possibly can," he could almost see the wheels turning at his admission

"Why?" she grimaced, "I'm nothing like the kind of women a man like you would normally be with. I've seen your exes Addy. They're glamourous and sexy while I'm a single parent living in a farmhouse, raising chickens. If you had no idea Bellona existed, which, you didn't until the last little while, there is nothing special about me if you take Bellona out of the equation." She waved her hands, "it's not like you knew I like rough s*x. You knew I could fight. You knew I was a friend of Jesse's. Nothing more."

"Arwen, the s*x is a bonus. I like you. I like how you challenge me. You excite me. You excite me in a way I haven't ever been excited by a woman before. If you told me the only way you wanted to have s*x from now until the end of time was missionary style, I would be thrilled to have missionary s*x with you. It is you who excites me, Arwen. The woman you are. The strong fierce woman who would take on eight bikers with no experience just to protect your family. The woman who responded immediately to protect a stranger today and get her to safety without regard for her own safety. You are brave, loyal, and empathetic. You are a woman who puts your family and friends ahead of everything and everyone else and it is a quality which appeals to me greatly." He reached a hand and touched her cheek, noting the way pink tinged her pale skin. "The notion you are an assassin with Bellona is an added bonus and is f*****g hot. It makes me want to drill you over piece of furniture in this house."

She gave a small laugh at his words, "Addy."

"Arwen," he held her face ensuring she couldn't look away. He studied her blue eyes intently, making certain she heard the words he spoke, "I want to be with you. I do not foresee this changing anytime soon. You need to stop replaceing ways to end us as we are beginning. I am an intense man. I know what I want, and I want you. I want you more than anyone I've ever been with. Can you accept I am not going anywhere?"

She nodded solemnly, her eyes staring into his unblinking. If someone asked him, he could tell them her left eye had three specks of brown in it and the right only two. Her eyes grew fiery and shot daggers which should made him wither but instead made his c**k hard. They also elicited the need to protect her and hold her when she was needy and vulnerable, which he admitted, was a rare vision. It was her eyes which had captivated him in the underground club when she had clearly been looking for trouble and he had wanted to give it to her. The way she had immediately backed away when Jesse had identified him, had created a desire in him for her to see all of who he was and not only the scary head of La Famiglia Cavallaro. He saw pain, torture, healing and love each time he looked into her eyes. He would never tire of staring into them. Now he could see she needed reassurance. He would give her this and more.

"This morning with the FBI agent, I said you were my girlfriend. You mentioned we are lovers. These are entry-level words for what we are. I am certain we will be infinitely much more than this for many years to come." "Years?" she gulped.

"Decades," he grinned wolfishly. "Unless you tell me you don't want the same things."

She took a breath and then smiled, "I do want the same things, Addy."

"Good girl." He smirked noting immediately how she responded to his praise. The fierce woman was born to be submissive to him, "now I have questions about other things."

"Such as?"

"The dragon lady who punched me in the balls today. She wants to use me and abuse me." Arwen giggled at his accusation, and he frowned at the sound. "She punched me in the manhood."

Arwen laughed loudly at his words, "I heard. Jesse said I should kiss your booboos better."

"You absolutely should. I believe she pulled her punch." Arwen frowned at him, and he met her surprised eyes. "How much do you know of her?"

"She's the head of our organization. She's been there for an exceptionally long time. I've seen her kill without blinking. I know she's more ruthless than Clara, Naomi and Jesse combined. I'm pretty sure the only person who knows her actual name is Jesse and none of us want more details than what we know. She's f*****g scary." Arwen met his gaze directly, "I would rather swim freely with bloody stumps for legs in shark infested waters than piss her off and be on her bad side."

"I know her, Arwen. I knew her and her sister before today. I think they kept this from Jesse." He tilted his head as her mouth opened and closed like a fish.

"How do you know them?"

He watched as Arwen appeared as if she were struggling to breathe.

"Wait, I don't want to know." She held up her hand and then reconsidered, "very minimal details. Minimal."

"Your Artemis is the wife of one of my college professors. Torben and I took the same maths classes in university, and we competed heavily for top marks in the subject. Torben was teacher's pet and is good friends with them and often would go to their house. I went once and had dinner with them. They made it clear they knew who my grandfather was, and when I mentioned it to my grandfather, he was fairly certain your Artemis worked for MI6 because he couldn't replace anything on her. Not a thing. Her history didn't exist, so we suspected British Intelligence. Was he ever wrong," Addy chuckled? "I've maintained my distance from then on." He made a face, "I believe the woman has been waiting nearly fifteen years to get me to work for her. Now she has me by the balls she bruised earlier today."

"Are you angry about it?" Arwen's question was quiet.

"No." he refuted her question with sincerity. "Arwen, a few times you've said to me I'm a good man. I am not. I am the furthest thing from a good man you will ever replace. I will never claim to be a good man. However, if I can do something good in the midst of all the s**t I have to do as the man I am, then I will not hesitate to do it. If your Artemis asks me to lend her a landing pad or safe passage to save a young woman, then I will do it."

She nodded. "Then you're also a Bellona asset."

He twisted his lips in self-mockery, "it seems so."

"You're the only male asset we have."

"What about Torres?"

"We don't use him." She made a face. "He's good as a cover, but Jesse and I have had multiple conversations where we are fairly certain Artemis is not his greatest admirer. She calls him meathead, to his face. She uses him as a cover during missions or for example when Torben was in danger recently and Torres was hired to protect him. Juggernaut f****d up and Jesse ended up kidnapped. We used Torres as the cover for us going in and getting her out."

"Jesse had been kidnapped?" He immediately dropped his hand away from Arwen. "When?"

"A couple months back?" She shrugged. "The guy drugged her, and she hit her beacon." She was smiling widely at him, "by the time we'd gotten to her, she had killed Roel Van Dalen after she beat him to a pulp. In her panties. She killed him with a letter opener." He watched as the woman he adored roared with laughter at her story. He was puzzled by a detail of her story, "A letter opener? Who uses letter openers?"

"That's what we said!"

"Arwen, as interesting as this story is, I have something else I need." He looked back to his phone. "I have two hours before my men come collect me." She smiled at him, "what do you need?"

"I had a rough day, mia cara. I allowed myself to be overpowered by five women. I really need to assert some dominance."