Athena
“Nice to see you too, jackass. Just flew ten hours in to see you only to be welcomed like this?” The man whose name I still did not know commented with a wolfish grin. He had beautiful features and looked… Different.
All the men who worked for Luciano and were part of the mafia had a rough and hard look to them. They looked like they had seen shit and had been through shit. The man before me looked like some prince.
His brown hair was almost blonde-like, and it was gelled back just like Luciano’s. Well just like how Luciano’s hair was before we kissed. Now it looked like it had been yanked in several places and the gel made it stick out in different directions. His eyes were hazel. They shifted with the light from green to gray.
Damn, he was a pretty boy. There was no way he was in the mafia.
Luciano cleared his throat and folded his arms, narrowing his eyes in a glare. “I told you to give me a call when you get to New York, Luca.”
Hold up? Luca?! I closed my eyes trying to ransack my head for where I had heard a name like that.
The text on Luciano’s phone that I had tried to read.
His words at the dock.
….”Luca will handle it. Find that mole!”….
Oh no, I thought, my eyes widening. The pretty boy was part of the mafia. Fuck!
“We thought we’d surprise you,” The woman said, a snarl on her lips. “Didn’t think we would surprise ourselves.”
If Luca was part of the mafia then that meant this woman was as well. They seemed to have a bond with each other. All three of them. The idea was disconcerting. I had always imagined Luciano as a solo lonely figure who was power and money hungry. I had not imagined that someone like him would have friends.
“Yeah, who’s the hot chick?” Luca echoed, walking towards us. Instinctively I stepped away from Luciano. I didn’t like the look on our new visitors’ faces. Luca looked at me like I was an interesting piece of puzzle while the woman flat-out glared at me.
I still did not know her name.
Luciano growled, causing them to look at him in surprise. He cleared his throat awkwardly and turned to look at me.
“Excuse us, Miss Gonzalez,” he said, a cold mask on his face. And if that didn’t hurt me, then I was made of stone. What happened to being called Raven? It wasn’t really my name, I knew that, but still! Who were these people and what hold did they have on the mighty Luciano Moretti?
“Gonzalez? It sounds like a rotten name.” The woman commented snidely, a condescending look on her face.
I considered smacking her on the face briefly but when Luciano cleared his throat, I shoved the thought aside and strutted away from the scene into my office. I closed the door lightly, leaving just a centimeter space in between for sound to filter through. I needed to have all the facts before I considered my next cause of action. The arrival of these people may change everything I had in mind.
“Who is she, Luciano?”
“Giorgia, calm down, there’s no need to get all up in my face,” Luciano grunted. I heard shuffling and someone chuckled. So her name was Giorgia. How fucking fitting. What was going on though? Curious, I peeked through the glass. Giorgia had pulled Luciano in for a hug and he had chuckled! Chuckled!
“Oh let him go already, you’ll smother him at this rate,” Luca grumbled, dragging a chair to sit on.
“I was so worried!” Giorgia said, her voice suddenly filled with empathy and warmth. She didn’t sound like the cold ass witch that had called my name poop. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Luciano held his arms wide, his lips pressed in a fine line as if he found her fussing over him quite annoying. Yet there was an amused glint in his eyes. The hell? He only looked at me like that!
“Calm down you dumbass, who cares who he looks at?” My mind snapped and I slid down the door, not wanting to watch the scene anymore. I would rather listen in. That seemed safer. For my mental health at least.
“Did you get those bastards?” Luca asked after a while.
“What do you think?” Luciano bragged and I could imagine he said that with an impish grin on his face. “Tore them to pieces.”
“It’s Castello, isn’t it?” Giorgia asked and Luca cleared his throat awkwardly.
“You told her?!” Luciano growled and Luca groaned.
“She made me tell her! Fanculo! You know how Giorgia is. While you’re here flexing like a king, she tortures me in Italy.” Luca whined and I held in a snicker. He sounded way too carefree to be in the mafia. Why would someone like him join a group of murderers, bandits, drug dealers, and basically a bunch of bad people?
“Was I not supposed to know?” Giorgia asked in a mischievous tone. “I need to know these things, Luciano.”
“No, you don’t, Giorgia.” He disputed. “What you need, is a fucking stable life. Luca, please tell me you’ve found her a husband?”
There was silence and I heard Luciano sigh. “I have you just one job to do-”
“I’d rather move a fucking mountain,” Luca replied. “She’s as tough as the Carthaginians. She’d rather eat nails than go on a date with anyone. Even me. And I’m the fucking king of the crop… Ow! Stop hitting me, woman!”
“You deserve it! King of the crop, my foot!” Giorgia snapped.
My stomach rolled in jealousy. Luciano had friends. Friends, he could be just himself with. Friends that goofed around and joked around like idiots. Friends who flew ten hours from Italy to check if he was safe. My lips curled in a sad smile. Mahn, I was pathetic. All I had was Frederick and a revenge quest to hold on to.
“What now? What’s the next course of action? I’d say those bastards need to be taught who the Lord of the mafia is.” Luca said.
“Hell yeah!” Giorgia yelled. “What do you say we pay them a visit at their hideout?”
“We haven’t found it yet, so calm down, Missy,” Luciano replied. “However, it would seem our supplier’s in cahoots with them. Remember that cargo of missing weapons I told you about?”
I guess Luca must have nodded because Luciano continued. “We found it with the men who attacked us. Seems Dylan’s switched sides.”
“We should go teach him a lesson!” Luca shouted.
“No,” Luciano replied in a thoughtful note. “He’s our key to finding their hideout. If we get rid of him, it all goes to waste. I placed Marcus on his tail.”
“Marcus? You still have that kid?” Giorgia muttered and Luciano chuckled.
“He’s not much of a kid anymore,”
“Either way, he is quite perseverant. He has to be the only one who has lasted this long.” Luca commented and Luciano grunted.
“He is. The Castello has taken so much from me. They’ll pay back everything. Every life they took, every money they laundered, every weapon they stole. It will all be paid for.”
“Si,” Luca replied in a rather ominous tone. “It will.”
I moved away from the door to my seat, trying to process what I had just heard. The Castello weren’t just attacking the Italian mafia now, it would seem they had been long-time enemies. The mafia’s weapon supplier was being a double agent and would most likely meet his demise very soon, considering the way things went. I pulled my lip into my teeth and got out my phone.
Calling Frederick was risky, but I could send a text. Using a language app, I sent Frederick a coded message, telling him to find out who the supplier of the mafia is and to take him into custody as soon as possible because his life was in danger. That man held the key to meeting Castello and Castello was the key to bringing Luciano down.
In other words, everything was connected. If I played my cards right, I should be able to reach my goal before the end of the month.
Resuming work, I had no idea when Luca and Giorgia had left. Hell I had been too busy, I hadn’t noticed three solid hours passing by. My phone vibrated with a text from Frederick.
“… He’s dead. We found him dead with the insignia. The mafia got to him first.”
My brows furrowed and I rose slowly to look through the glass, Luciano was on the seat. He had not left the office ever since Luca and Giorgia had left. If Luciano was here, then how was the supplier dead? The mafia law was that only the lord of the mafia could handle the branding insignia.
Did that mean there were two mafia Lords,
Or…
Was someone else impersonating Luciano?