A week later
The morning sun cast long shadows across the landscape as Luciano approached a half asleep Jade.
He sat next to her and watched as she stirred from her light slumber.
She yawned mildly, stretching her limbs before her eyes flickered open.
Luciano gazed at her lovingly which got her taken aback.
“What’s wrong Luciano?” Jade asked.
“You look so beautiful when you are asleep do you know that?” He kissed her lightly on the lips.
Jade recoiled in the feeling of his warm lips against hers. “What’s the catch? You are being so loving” she said.
“No catch sweetheart. Right now I just feel like getting on bed with you” Luciano responded causing a shade of pink to permeate her face.
“Why don’t you then?” Jade cooed.
In as much as he badly wanted to do it, to spend the rest of his day on bed with her and fill the entire room with her moans, he couldn’t.
There were pressing matters at hand, something that demanded his immediate attention.
“I have something urgent that I need to handle my love”
“Luciano really? You’ve been running off to work since we got back here. What again this time?” Jade whined like a baby who just got her candy taken away from her.
“It’s important Jade. I am really sorry. I have to just handle it cucciola” his inflection indicated how urgent the matter was.
But Jade, reluctant to see him go, pleaded for his lingering presence.
“Luciano, please stay. Please. Let us spend one day together. Ever since we returned back, I have been all by myself” she implored, her eyes reflecting an earnest desire.
“Elisa comes to visit you doesn’t she?”
“Elisa is not my husband Luciano. You are. Please stay”
He explained the urgency, trying to soften the edges of necessity.
“It’s something at one of my warehouses, Jade. I need to handle it personally. You know I wouldn’t leave if it weren’t absolutely necessary,” Luciano explained, his voice a blend of reassurance and regret.
Reluctantly, Jade nodded, concealing the turmoil within her. “I know, but I can’t help worrying and pleading for you to stay back. I know it’s dangerous, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Luciano took her hands in his, offering a gentle squeeze. “I’ll be cautious, Jade. I promise. This won’t take long, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
Jade’s eyes searched his, a silent plea lingering. “Luciano, please reconsider. Can’t someone else handle it? I can’t shake this feeling.”
Luciano brushed a strand of hair from her face, his touch soothing. “I wish I could, but it’s something only I can deal with. Once it’s done, we can finally put all this behind us.”
She bit her lip, a mix of worry and frustration evident in her expression. “I just… I can’t shake this feeling that something’s not right.”
Luciano sighed, his gaze unwavering. “Jade, I understand, but I need you to trust me on this. I’ll be back, and we’ll get to spend time together”
Reluctantly, Jade nodded again, her silent plea hanging in the air as Luciano left, disappearing into the shadows of the morning, leaving behind a conflicted Jade, her worry etched into the lines of her face.
As Luciano departed, leaving behind his own lustful yearning to have Jade, he ventured towards his warehouse.
A grim determination etched across his face the moment he got into his car.
He did not know what waited for him there but he did know something for sure: he was definitely going to kill someone today.
As he sped across the highway, his blood boiled at the thought of finally meeting the hit man who shot him weeks ago before they had travelled to Ecuador.
The man had the fucking audacity to shoot him and he really thought he could stay in the shadows forever!
A villainous smile curled on his lips as he imagined watching the blood spill out of his lifeless body once he had killed him.
This side of him was a side Jade should never see and he would keep it that way
Within the dimly lit confines of the warehouse, Luciano’s men had managed to apprehend the elusive hitman, the same shadowy figure who had dared to cross paths with Luciano weeks ago before they travelled to Ecuador.
Tensions simmered in the air as they stood guard over their captive, awaiting Luciano’s arrival.
The captured hitman, a silhouette of defiance, remained stoically silent. Luciano’s entry into the room marked a shift in the atmosphere, a storm gathering on the horizon. The guards bowed their head in respect and one of his capos approached him.
“He was caught a week ago before your arrival. We’ve tried to get him to talk but he has been so defiant. I could have killed him but I can not without your orders Capo” he informed Luciano.
A ghastly smile broke on Luciano’s lips once more.
He wasted no time, delving into a barrage of questions, seeking the truth.
“I just want to make all these brief and quick. Why were you after me?” Luciano’s voice, a low growl, cut through the room, but the hitman, resilient, clung to his silence.
As the silence grew, Luciano’s patience waned. Fists clenched, he sought the answers that remained hidden. “Oh….” Luciano paused, facing his men. “So he is really so loyal to his boss. I love that. Loyalty to the end” Luciano laughed but the blazing anger in his words could be felt.
The walls absorbed the sound of his anger, a symphony of frustration echoing in the warehouse’s hidden corners.
“Speak, damn it!” Luciano’s voice, now a thunderous roar, reverberated through the room. He circled the hitman, eyes ablaze with a storm of anger. “You think you can come after me and stay silent? I’ve had enough of your games. Tie him up and someone get me the machete!”
The captured hitman, sweat glistening on his forehead broke down in a cry, “Please spare me. It is all for my family. If I speak, my family would be killed’
Luciano’s frustration boiled over, his temper now a tempest demanding release.
“You have one last chance,” Luciano declared, his hand gripping the edge of a nearby table. “Tell me who sent you, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you live.” Luciano said, his eyes on the machete that was handed to him and his fingers eagerly playing with its sharp edge.
The hitman, a portrait of fear, pleaded “Please spare me and I swear on my life, I would be loyal to you forever” he begged. Luciano’s fury surged, and in an impulsive act, he ordered the guards to tie him up even tighter.
“I will fucking cut you limb by limb till you talk”
The hit man begged but Luciano blocked his cries out. With one quick swing, he had chopped off his hand leaving him with a decapitated arm.
A heartwrenching cry of agony reverberated through the steel walls of the warehouse.
“Please have mercy!” The hit man cried, staring at his severed hand with his blood splattered all over.
“This is your final warning,” Luciano seethed, clenching tighter to the machete. “Who sent you?!”
The hitman, beads of desperation on his forehead, finally broke his silence. “One of your capos sir. I-It was one of them. I do n-not know his name neither can I-I identify his f-face because he would always p-put on a m-m-mask. Please, have mercy! I have said all that I know”
Luciano’s gaze remained unyielding, his wrath incarnate. There was no use in keeping him alive if he could not identify which of his capos sent him.
“Mercy is a luxury you lost when you came after me” he declared coldly. In the blink of an eye, Luciano pushed the cold opening of his gun into dying man’s mouth, muffling all his cries.
The warehouse echoed with two consecutive gunshots, the room momentarily consumed by the acrid scent of gunpowder.
The hitman crumpled to the ground, his blood splattering from his head with pieces of his flesh blown away.
Luciano, a stoic figure, stared down at the fallen threat. “We have an enemy amongst us”