14
Luka
I spent two days in bed with Vienna. There was nothing else I wanted to do than lick her dry. But it was Friday, and I had a job to do. Marco had been blowing up my phone all morning, wanting to know the details. But I didn't give details. Details gave you something to tell the feds. No one knew the intimate details of my killings. Just me.
But as I looked at Vienna slumbering softly next to me, I wondered if I needed to tell her.
Her father was a bastard. As far as I was concerned, he was a deadbeat, and he left her and her mother for something better. What could be better than Vienna, I had no fucking idea. When her father had threatened to take Maria and Vienna away from us, Pops allowed me to take the job. It was my formal initiation into the family. Ten years ago, I made it happen. I shot that bastard point blank in the face.
When the feds found him almost five years later, he was so deteriorated we never thought they'd catch me. But they did. Someone had ratted me out, I was sure of it. Someone who knew the details.
But they didn’t have enough to keep me. I had done a clean job. I was good at it, not getting caught. Cleaning up after my own messes. It was why my lawyer had won. With enough appeals, I was a free man.
Since then, I made sure not to tell anyone else what my business was. Pops knew about this one, and that was it. He had me watch that kid for weeks. And of course he was dirty. Stupid little shit. We hadn’t told Marco why the docks needed to be cleared. Just that it had to be done.
Marco made me nervous because he had questions. Too many questions sometimes. But it wasn't that I didn't trust him. I just thought that in my absence, his position in the chain of command was a little bit higher than I wanted it to be. But that wasn't all his fault. It was the stupid fucking justice system that put me away, not him. Marco was bound by duty. Just doing his job.
I brushed a single strand of hair out of Vienna’s face. Her porcelain skin was so touchable. I dragged my finger down along her shoulder and she stirred slightly. I laid a kiss on her bare skin at the nape of her neck and got out of bed. There was work to do.
I got dressed and left her another note. I let her know that I wouldn't be back until Saturday, and to just relax around the apartment for the day. I let her know it was work-related. It killed me that I was already breaking my first promise to the woman I was falling in love with.
I arrived at the office to see my father sitting at his desk with two bodyguards flanking him. It seemed a little odd that he needed two, so I called him out on it.
“Two thugs, Pops? Really?”
He waved them off and raised a brow at me. “Sit. We need to talk.”
He stood up with his fist on the desk. His semi-bald head gleamed under a luminescent lamp. “We need the room, gentlemen.”
A couple men had been playing poker at one of the tables. They stood up, puffing their cigars, and walked up the stairs with the bodyguards. Within minutes, we were completely alone. No one disobeyed my father.
“What's going on, Pops? You seem tense.”
“Do I? Because you seem awfully relaxed.”
I straightened up in my seat. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He sighed and shook his head. “I received a call from some of our friends on the coast.”
“Jersey? What the hell do they want?”
“They say that some things are going on at the Agnelli family. They've got movement. Tightening up at the stronghold. Bringing family members in.”
“Like for an attack? Nobody has a shootout in this day and age, Pops. That’s old shit, from your time.”
He shook his head at me. “It's always my time.”
I sighed. “I know, I know. But really. No one wants to go to jail these days. Nobody wants to do what I just did. What do you think they want, anyway? What do you think they're after?”
“You.”
“What?”
“I have it on good authority that there's a rumor going around that you killed Maria's husband. And as a result, her husband's best friend came and killed her and those two men. Now the Agnellis are after the person who started that mess, and that, my son, is you.”
“You're kidding. Roberto hasn't done shit in a decade. Why now?”
“People say they figured it out years ago, but they couldn't touch you on the inside. Not enough of their own people were at your facility. Your mother and I worked hard to keep you in protective custody there. We paid a lot of guards a lot of money to keep you safe, kid, and you're out for three days and this? Who have you even been talking to?”
I shook my head. “Talking to? Nobody! The lawyers said nobody would know that I was out. My name wasn't in the papers or anything. I have no fucking idea how they would know.”