Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The officer reached my car and knocked on the window, signalling for me to roll it down. My heart raced, my palms sweating as I took a deep breath and lowered the window. The officer didn’t crouch down to look me in the face, standing tall as he asked in a voice that was calm but firm,

“Where are you going, ma’am?”

I froze, my mind scrambling for an answer. “I’m just going to visit a friend… a little out of town.”

“Where to exactly?” he asked, his tone still measured.

I felt the panic set in as my mind searched for a place. Westwood. The name popped into my head before I could think better of it.

“Westwood,” I stammered, praying he wouldn’t ask anything else. It was far from the city, but it was the only thing I could think of.

“Yeah? Is there a problem? Did I do something wrong? Was I speeding?” I managed to ask, trying to keep my voice steady.

That’s when the officer crouched down to look at me through the window. My breath caught in my throat as he still kept his cap low, hiding his face.

A faint smile tugged at his lips as he said,

“Ariella Costa… it’s been a long time.”

The sound of my old name sent a shock through me. I hadn’t used “Costa” in years. I’d changed my last name to Michael after everything that happened, and for someone to know my real name… it had to be someone from my past. Someone close. Someone from the famiglia.

He lifted his cap then, and my heart almost stopped. There, standing in front of me, was Luca.

The unease settled deep inside me, but I forced myself to keep it off my face. Maybe, just maybe, Luca had gotten out of the family. But the chances of that were slim, especially with the uniform he was wearing.

“So, you’re a cop now?” I asked, trying to sound casual. “You went to the police academy?”

Luca threw his head back and laughed, loud and carefree. The kind of laugh that almost made me forget what I was afraid of. He wiped his eyes, still chuckling, before turning back to me.

“Fuck no,” he said, his voice light and teasing. “You think I wanna be dead? You know the family won’t let me become a man in uniform unless I was working undercover.” He paused, glancing down at his police uniform with a smirk. “And does this look good on me? Because I don’t think it does. I think I look much better in my suits and T-shirts. The ladies love it,” he added with a wink like it was the most normal thing in the world.

He was handling this well. Too well. Meanwhile, I was sweating bullets, not knowing what to believe or how to react. So he wasn’t the police? Then why was he dressed like one? Why had he stopped me?

I hesitated, trying to keep my voice from shaking.