Page 54 of Arranged

Chapter 19

WHEN I WOKE UP IN BEDwith Luca’s arms around me, I realized one thing.

There were no guards with us.

In all the mess, I’d completely forgotten about them.

Shit.

But when I shifted, Luca’s eyes opened. He was awake.

If he’d wanted to, he could’ve done something, but he hadn’t.

“Good morning,” he said, a lazy smile tilting up his lips.

“I think I’m going to call someone to bring us breakfast,” I said. “I don’t really feel like getting up.”

“Me either.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips against my bare shoulder.

“If you keep doing that, I’m going to lose my focus.”

“What do you need to focus on?”

“Work.”

“It can wait.”

“No, it can’t.” I ran my hand through my tangled hair. “I need to do something about Santino. He still thinks I have Jessica. He’ll probably want to know why her body hasn’t shown up somewhere or why I haven’t contacted him with demands.”

“Didn’t you say he doesn’t care about her?” He cocked his head.

“He doesn’t, but she was his at some point, and he’ll want to know what happened to her. He knows we had her, but he doesn’t know I let her go. Not knowing what’s going on might bug him.”

“Do you think he’d come for her? If he thought you had her? Just to show that he can snatch her from you?”

I pursed my lips together. “Maybe. I don’t know. I guess I could try. Maybe I could pretend I’m transporting her somewhere. I would have to make it look like it was a similar situation as before. Make him think he caught me being careless and that he can attack again.”

“Can you use the tracker?”

“Not really. We had to destroy it.”

A knock sounded on the door, startling us both.

“Valentina?” Rafael’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Are you awake?”

I pulled the covers to myself. “When you’re shouting like that, then yes!”

Luca sat up and pulled on his underwear.

“Can I come in?” Rafael asked.

“If you must.” I groaned.

The door opened.

Luca got to his feet. “I’m going to get us some breakfast.”