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Lorenzo looks between us, his gun already pointed at my head.
I did not come this far to only come this far.
I redirect the gun back in Ivan’s direction. My hands are trembling. I’ve waited for this day for so long. From the moment I first saw him stand over my mother’s limp body and I sat there terrified as a young girl, my legs unable to move. I know without a doubt he wanted to kill me that night too. And part of me wished he had.
“Do you know how disheartening it is to realize it was never me you’d fixated on,” Luca says almost sounding as half crazed as I felt. I watch him from the corner of my eye. His slow predatory steps toward me are unnerving.
“When did you figure it out?” I rasp. My voice doesn’t even sound like my own. Ivan’s in my line of sight as he thrashes and tries to kick out of the chair. Luca acts as if we have all the time in the world, lazily taunting me. I supposed he’d always been like this. The only one who was running out of time was me.
“When you pulled that little arson stunt of yours at Amor. You knew I’d react and call Ivan back to fetch my brother. The night you were in the mansion, Ivan was supposed to be there, wasn’t he? Unlucky for you he tried to steal a shipment of drugs from me the very same night. Then he got sent away to Italy and you were stuck with me. You couldn’t go to Italy and chase him even if you wanted because your father restricted you from being able to apply for a passport. If you did, he’d be made aware and you’d be brought back to his watch with a new hubby in tow. So you had to find another way to bring Ivan back, is that the gist of it?”
My gaze drifts to his and a darkness swirls within those beautiful blue eyes. He’s wearing all black, his dress shirt half undone. “I must confess I didn’t think you had that much crazy in you.”
“I don’t need to hear that coming from you,” I say breathlessly as I’m trying to contain my uncontrollable shaking.
“On the table is the contract between our fathers. I don’t suppose you really need that now do you?”
I flash him another uncertain gaze and shuffle a step to the side, further away from Luca, not at all comfortable with how casually he fills the distance between us. “No. I don’t. I knew early on the contract they’d arranged. The price was my mother, was it not?”
“Ahh but today I found out the motive behind it. Aren’t you the least bit intrigued?” he asks almost flamboyantly as if he’s loving every second of these theatrics and I definitely sense he’s toying with me.
I lick my lips and readjust my hold on the gun. My father’s motivations had always been clear from the moment I tracked back a large deposit into his bank account and he’d suddenly got himself out of a dire situation. But to ask Luca for more…would he even tell me the truth?
Sensing my trepidation, he continues. “You have mafia blood in you, sweetheart. Your father might be a coward. However, your mother came from a line of well groomed ‘businesspeople.’”
I look at him now. “No, my mother was the furthest thing from violent.”
“Perhaps when you were born. Your father and her married under a very convenient contract. Why don’t I have Ivan tell you himself since he’ll be dead by morning anyway,” Luca suggests wholesomely. He walks toward the brute of a man and rips out the gag.
“I should’ve fucking killed you too when you were too young to even string a sentence together,” he seethes.
Luca backhands him, and spit and blood go flying. I’m rattled but also mad. As if Luca was taking my prey. I had to kill this man. Had envisioned it many times before. But standing in front of him with gun in hand is a very different reality.
“Your whore mother put up such a fight. I enjoyed—”
With lightning speed Luca slices from the corner of his mouth up to his cheekbone. Ivan screams as Luca places the gag back into his bloody mouth. “Perhaps he’s not going to give us what we want, after all.”
The gun’s pointed in their direction but Luca’s unfazed. He’s never been scared of me. Even when I tried my hardest to break him from the inside out, he barely even squirmed.
“I don’t understand why you’d do this to your own second in charge?” I say. Wasn’t Ivan important to their hierarchy? Imperative to his business dealings when he wasn’t in town. For him to betray him with a shipment of drugs, wouldn’t he punish Ivan himself? So why would he bring him to me like this on a silver fucking platter?
“Consider it exceptional timing but Ivan stretched his neck out too far when he thought he could steal from me. I love vengeance more than most, but I think for Ivan…you were waiting in line first.”
My heart falters at the sick and twisted endearment.
Was he really letting me have this?
Despite everything I’ve put him through, is he really letting me have this moment?
Luca walks up to me slowly. I should be terrified of this man, especially when I’d seen so much of him. I can’t quiet my beating heart or the raging thoughts that consume me. He could’ve dealt with Ivan himself and I would’ve never known. Instead…he brought me here.
“Why are you toying with me like this?” Tears spring to my eyes and my voice is almost a plea. Luca walks directly in front of me, the tip of my gun pressing to his chest.
He’s not afraid of me and never has been.
He wipes my tears away carefully and I’m frozen beneath his touch.
I’m in shock.
