Page 12 of Arranged

“It’s not working. I can’t think.” I groaned. “I just need my room back.”

“Then send Luca far away from here and you’ll have your room back. Or you can have him taken to the dungeon.”

I should definitely send him away, but for some reason, I didn’t want to do it so soon. And it wasn’t just because he was incredibly hot and into all the right things.

“Speaking of Luca,” Rafael added, “we have another problem.”

“What is it now?” I thought Luca had calm downed after his spanking.

Or maybe he appeared calm because I hadn’t gone to see him or Rafael had found better cuffs that Luca couldn’t find his way out of.

“He hasn’t been sleeping.”

I met Rafael’s gaze. “What do you mean?”

“You can check the camera footage from his room. I don’t think he’s slept at all since we brought him here. Maybe only for a few minutes.” He pulled out his phone and brought up the footage, turning the screen to me.

There was a live feed of Luca that only I and Rafael could access at any time. Maybe watching some of that would help me satisfy my curiosity and get him out of my head.

If the cameras in his room worked the way they did in the rest of this compound, then they turned off when my presence was detected or when I wanted them off. Of course, only if I had my phone with me.

I focused on the video Rafael was showing me. It was moving very quickly, and it showed Luca tossing and turning in bed. When he wasn’t doing that, he was staring at the ceiling.

“I can ask the guards to confirm,” Rafael said. “They were with him.”

I could see the guards standing at the end of the room.

“No need,” I said. “You’re right. He hasn’t slept at all.”

“Do you want me to tell the doc to give him something for it?”

“Actually, tell the guards to leave at night. They should be in front of the door. Have someone watch the camera feed while they’re out. If Luca does something, they’ll be close enough to get to him in time. They can check in on him a few times too.”

“Should I have him cuffed again?”

I shook my head. “He’s not going anywhere, and there’s not much he can do. He can make a mess again, but let’s hope he’ll be glad the guards are out of the room.”

“Okay. Do you think their presence really bothers him that much?”

“Oh, come on. He’s basically in his enemy’s nest. Yeah, we’re supposed to be friendlier now, but that’s not how it looks to him. He’s here against his will, and he can’t get away. The guards are strong and they can overpower him just because there are more of them and only one of him. Would you feel comfortable falling asleep knowing all that and knowing that they’re watching you? He can’t be sure they won’t try anything while he’s asleep.”

Rafael cocked his head. “When you put it like that, yeah. I wouldn’t be comfortable. I’d think they’d choke me in my sleep or worse.”

“But make sure he knows that if he causes trouble, the guards are going back in.” I didn’t need drama right now.

Rafael dipped his head.

“Let’s get on to the important topic now.” I needed to get Luca out of my mind. “Oscar Santino.”

“You still think we should go after him?” Rafael asked.

“I do, especially now that we don’t have to worry about the Mazzas. If we had Santino’s territory, we could shorten our drug route. And a shorter route means fewer costs and less chance that the cops or someone else will try to bust us.”

“I’m aware of all that, but you know Santino isn’t easy to defeat. Last time we sent a spy to find out more about him—”

“I know, the spy ended up dead under suspicious circumstances and we haven’t really figured out how it happened or how Santino knew who we sent.”

“What if we could make a deal with him instead?” Rafael asked. “Maybe there’s something we can offer him so he’d let our shipments through his territory.”