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“Did they whistle for you?” Ugo mocked. His dark and hard features and tone were something I was used to from the man I often encountered within these walls. A quick glance to his sly smirk was the only acknowledgment he received from me. I wished I hadn’t even given that to him. He whistled as I walked past him with a locked jaw, ready to beat the whistle out of him with my fist. Instead, I ignored him.
I couldn’t touch him, and he knew it.
My footfalls were loud against the pristine marble floors. I passed the first set of pillars, then the courtyard that sat in the middle of the house with maintained flower beds all around its perimeter. A small iron table and chairs rested untouched on the far-left corner. Once the courtyard was behind me, I turned to my right and lightly knocked before opening the door.
Lucca’s office was grand just like the rest of his house. Floor to ceiling bookshelves in dark detailed wood decorated both sides of the room. He stood with his back to me, speaking through his phone and looking out the big double pane windows that overlooked the backyard and pool. With his attention occupied, I looked away from his tailored black slacks and button up.
Viktor sat on one of the brown leather chairs closest to the mahogany desk. He looked up from his phone and pushed his blonde hair away from his blue eyes. Viktor and I were the only ones who shared blood. Well, half. We had the same last name, as we shared the same mother. Even with different fathers, anyone could tell we were related. Same hair color and blue eyes, although mine were a shade lighter. He was broader and an inch taller than me, but his hardened features and the creases on the corner of his eyes showed our five-year age gap.
He smirked up at me, followed by a nod, but otherwise sat quietly as Lucca continued his conversation through the phone. I walked up to him and rubbed his non-receding hair line just to fuck with him about his age. He quickly waved my hand away with a sneer and my lips perked with a side smile. He motioned for me to take a seat on the open chair, but I preferred remaining standing.
Arlo stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the bookcase. His tired hazel eyes looked my way, and he managed a small dip of his head, greeting me. With my second brother was where the resemblance ended. Arlo and Lucca looked more alike with tan, olive skin and dark hair, but other than that, they were too different to even be considered related. But we are brothers.
We might not share blood, but blood was nothing compared to bond and loyalty.
I swear each time I saw him, he got bigger. I pat my stomach playfully, referring to his weight gain. Unaffected at my jab, Arlo uncrossed his arms and pulled the hem of his gray tee up, showing off his muscles and ink that covered his body. His brow quirked in response, and I shrugged. His attention shifted the moment Lucca ended his call and turned our way.
Lucca rolled his head and walked to the right corner of the room where the crystal bottles filled with liquor stood on the wood bar. He poured two fingers of amber liquid into a cut crystal glass and downed his drink before pouring another. His eyes stayed on the glass for a second before he turned and gestured to us for a drink. We denied the offer.
Lucca sipped on his drink, composed as always, but his tired eyes matched Arlo’s. They seemed stressed even. Which I was sure was the reason he’d already downed a drink and worked on his second. The phone call had his mind racing, but he hid it well. We were the only ones who got to see the small glimpses behind the mask he’d now mastered, bits he’d allowed himself to share with us.
If there was a person I would never want to cross, it was him, my oldest brother. Out of us four, he was the most reserved, and only spoke with purpose and nothing more.
His gaze turned to the cap that still rested over my head, and his eyes lowered to my eyes. No words were needed. I took it off and lowered onto the chair, hoping to relax my now tensed muscles.
“Brief me,” he said to Viktor as he remained standing, his eyes following the swirling bourbon in his glass.
“I will have to take a step back from coming so often,” Viktor replied.
Lucca lowered to his seat behind the desk, and with precise movements, he removed the cufflinks that decorated the cuffs of his dress shirt, and rolled the white sleeves up to his forearms. From his neck to his fingers, he was covered in ink. Only a couple are from the life I was not a part of. A dangerous life. The rest of his tattoos were his way of expressing what he wasn’t able to with words.
“I will let you know if anything changes with any shipments, either I’ll send you a message to meet or I’ll find a way to come and talk to you,” Viktor explained.
“That bad?” Lucca’s brow quirked.
“New agent. And a tad too nosey for their own good.”
“Does Arlo need to take care of it?” Lucca sneered, and his demeanor darkened.
“No, I will,” Viktor replied too quickly, and I wasn’t the only one who'd noticed. “I said I will, Lucca,” Viktor repeated. He would never speak to Lucca this way outside these walls.
Lucca took a second before he tilted his glass to Viktor.
“Perfect timing, really,” Arlo said from the corner, waiting for Lucca to elaborate the details he was willing to share with me inside the room.
“With the hierarchy changes Sal will make soon, things are a bit… warm on this side of the law.”
Sal was as close as a father figure to Lucca. He was also stepping down, and word was he would be handing the keys to the Kingdom to the closest person he had, his prodigy, Lucca. The Mancini name would end with Sal, the Organization becoming the Moretti Mafia.
I’d kept my distance from this life—the mafioso life. Seeing three of my brothers in the Cosa Nostra was enough. Although, I wasn’t the hero, or the outstanding abiding officer. No, I was one of the insiders they had in the precinct, but the most trusted. It was the deepest I would go, and the extra cash it brought was better than living with a cop’s salary. If that meant I was a crook, I didn’t care, as the last thing I wanted to see was my brothers behind bars. So, I did it for them.
“Keep your distance, both of you.” Lucca nods to Viktor and me.
Arlo was right, this was the perfect time because with my new assignment, I doubted I would have much time for my extra-curricular activities. Honestly, I was relieved. I could have my full attention in keeping the child safe.
“Everything good with you?” Lucca asked me, and a ghost smile played on his lips. It never turned into more.
With a ten-year difference, Lucca still tried to father me. In his eyes, I would forever be the six-year-old boy with the tear-streaked cheeks, holding on to him as he left behind the Home For Boys at the age of sixteen. He’d come back three years later when Arlo turned sixteen and helped him get emancipated. Two years later, Viktor turned the magic number on his sixteenth birthday, having the chance to leave the childhood hell-hole we’d been in. Viktor had denied Lucca’s help. Viktor wouldn’t leave me behind — alone. A week later, Lucca had returned with Sal. I never found out what deal they’d made, how they managed to give a sixteen-year-old, who was jobless and homeless, custody of an eleven-year old.
