Luciano
The whiskey burned down my throat in a familiar sting and I sighed, relishing the taste. This was good stuff. Closing my eyes I took another sip and nodded in appreciation.
I had just obtained the bottle and man, my dealer did not disappoint. Might as well give the man a tip or two. I dropped my glass cup on the table and glanced at Luca who simply glared at his glass of whiskey.
“You’re not drinking that?” I asked, cocking my head to assess him.
Luca’s blue eyes flashed at me angrily, a frown on his face. “Drink? How can you drink at a time like this?!”
I chuckled and poured myself another glass. Luca always did have a temperament. Growing up everyone naturally assumed I was the hot-headed one of the trio. But it was Luca all along. Fucking mad man.
I had seen him take down someone three times his size with the sheer force of his anger alone. He was quite difficult to reason with especially when he was angry.
“Luciano!” He yelled again when I raised another glass to my lips.
“If you keep yelling like that, people below are going to assume I’m doing things to you.” I teased. “And trust me when I say I have eyes for women only.”
“More like one woman only,” he spat and my eyes narrowed, the playfulness in my tone dimming a little.
“You might want to watch how you tread,” I warned, holding his blue gaze as I sipped.
The wind ruffled his hair- not mine. I had been sensible enough to gel it down. I was a fucking Mafia Lord. If my hair got all over the place and covered my face or worse, got stuck in a shitty place, I was dead meat. Hence why I always had it gelled. I hadn’t thought it was much of a problem anyways until I met Raven.
The woman makes it a point to ask me not to gel my hair and while it was most annoying because she had no fucking right, sometimes it was just plain adorable and I’d give in just to see those green eyes light up with glee.
Raven.
Damn, what would I do about her?
“You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you?” Luca asked.
Feigning ignorance I gave him a disgruntled look and held the glass to my lips. “Thinking about who?”
“Man, I know you. Don’t play games with me. I know you’re all over that green-eyed bitch-”
“Luca,” I gritted my teeth. “Watch what the fuck you say.”
He barked a harsh sarcastic laugh and dragged a hand through his hair, most likely to calm it down and stop it from moving all over the place.
We sat on the rooftop of a resort I owned. It oversaw almost all of New York and every fucking time it stood up here, I was reminded of the empire I had created in America.
“She’s not just a woman you fuck, right? Something else is there.” He said spitefully.
“What else could be there? Raven’s a woman I fuck and nothing more.” Well except that the fucking part wasn’t true yet. But soon it would be. She couldn’t stay away if she fucking wanted. And I was sure that she didn’t want to.
I had seen her face when I touched her in the bathroom. Had seen her eyes close and those sexy lips parted as I stroked against her. She had been so wet and hot and willing and if she wasn’t just trying to be stubborn as fuck, I’d have tupped that ass months ago!
“You’ve got the faraway look in your eyes just at the mention of her name!” Luca spat. “Fratello, I see the way you look at her, I’m not fucking blind.”
“I never said you were. You’re just reading too much into what you see. Raven’s not the problem here, it’s the fucking Castello.”
“How do you know,” he murmured, his blue eyes holding mine. “that she isn’t working with them?”
I paused and mulled over his answer then shook my head. “Luca, did you hear how she saved me?”
“Anyone can do that.” He grumbled, holding the glass of whiskey tighter in his hands, and down the drink. That meant I was getting to him.
And people said I was difficult to deal with. Fucking hilarious. They had not met Luca yet.
“Not everyone can swing from fifteen feet out the window of an extensive ballroom to catch the one who tried to assassinate her boss,” I explained.
“And that impressed you, didn’t it?” Luca taunted. “Did she catch the killer?”
“No,” I replied, shrugging. “But she earned my respect even more. I had not expected that she could go to such lengths for me.”
Luca sucked his teeth and shook his head. “I swear you’re crazy.”
I grinned and tipped my head at him. “Instead of discussing Raven, how about we talk about that? The assassin and why on earth the men haven’t fucking found him yet.”
Luca sighed, reclining against the chair he sat on, and dragged a hand down his face. “I don’t know man. For some reason, we cannot track down the bastard. All our leads keep ending in a fucking blur.”
“As expected. The Castello are quite determined to take this too far, aren’t they?”
They were a group of men who had deviated from the mafia when I became Lord. There had been a lot of resistance. The last mafia lord was a weakling and sissy who leeched off the strength of his men and hid behind them like a fucking pansy.
The mafia was restless, everyone seemed to be having ideas and it seemed like the family I had known ever since I was fifteen was going to fall apart. Someone had to step up to become the Lord that could bring the mafia back. The Lord they could respect. One that would not hide behind them when battle broke out, or when shit hit the fucking fan.
“Remember when we disposed of Luigi?” I asked.
“How could I forget? I was scared shitless. You wanted to take down the boss! And we were just eighteen you bastard, I think I peed my pants that night.”
I laughed at the recollection. “But it went well, didn’t it?”
“Si,” Luca mumbled, “It went well. We ended Luigi, you became the new boss. There was quite a major unrest though. Those oldies didn’t want a boy telling them what to do.”
“Mhmm,” I hummed. “And then I made a mistake.”
“What?”
“I gave them a choice,” I said bitterly. I told them they could choose to remain or leave. I rarely make mistakes but that was a major fucking mistake. I should have just ended it right there. Put a bullet through their heads and silence every opposer!”
There was silence for a while before Luca spoke up. “But you couldn’t do that.”
I shook my head and poured another glass. “I couldn’t kill my family.”
“And you never kill for no reason. A reason such as opposition didn’t seem good enough to kill them to you.” Luca explained and I nodded. He did know me very well. I had been fucking nice all along. And then these fuckers were repaying me with shit.
They would get whatever it was that hit them after this.
“Luca?” I called, and he gave me a weird look before mumbling a ‘yes’.
“We’re going back home. It’s time to take the poison out by its roots.”
Luca frowned for a while, his dumb ass trying to understand the metaphor. I watched his eyebrows shoot up when he finally realized what it meant. “Italy?!”
I nodded, clenching my jaw in anger. “Italy.”
“You’re fucking serious?!” Luca asked in disbelief. “Hell, I thought you never wanted to come back.”
“I’m the boss, where else would I go too? It’s been years. Might as well drop in, see the men, end the fucking Castello get my ass back here, and make us the money we need.” I explained.
“Fuck, man. That’s… that’s great. I’m sure Giorgia would be thrilled to see you again.” Luca mumbled in a rather sad tone. He was still angry about me carting Giorgia off to Italy.
Whipping out my phone, I scanned the messages that I had received weeks ago and finally fell upon one she had sent to me just before she left America.
“Your filthy assistant knows who you are. She knows you’re in that mafia.” Giorgia had texted and that was all she said.
I had read it ever since then and while it didn’t bother me much, it unsettled me. I couldn’t leave Raven alone here. Since she knew who I was, she would be in danger from the Castello as well. And there was the fact that she had chased down the assassin.
“I’m bringing Raven along with me,” I announced and watched Luca spit the previous whiskey out of his mouth in shock.
“No way in fucking hell!”