Luca offered to hold the meeting at noon in the upstairs room of his club, the same room we’d met Sera’s father in, and the other members of the family agreed. More tables were brought up and drinks were supplied. Luca himself met the Capos at the elevator doors to shake their hands and welcome them. After they were checked for weapons, of course.
I stood just behind Luca, as did Tristan, and I received more than a few semi-hostile looks as men who’d known me since I was very young piled into the room. But I wasn’t worried. Half of them had wanted to kill me for years for some of the things I’d done. After today, a few more wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
When everyone had arrived, Tristan called the guards downstairs and told them to lock the doors to the club. No one was to go in or out until a decision had been made.
I gave a nod to two of Luigi’s men as they joined us at the big table. “Tony. Marco.”
“Enzo.” Marco returned the gesture as Tony glanced around the room. Marco was a long-time member of the family, of the older generation, and had been with Luigi for as long as I could remember. Tony was his son, and was still learning his manners. However, someday, he was going to piss off the wrong person, and they’d get beaten into him before his daddy could save him.
As Luca was still the underboss, and the only living son of the deceased, he was the first to speak. “As you all know by now, my father was killed last night,” Luca announced to the room at large. Condolences were spoken, and he accepted them with the spirit in which they were given before turning his attention to the two men who’d been at Luigi’s when it happened. “What were the police told?” he asked Marco.
“We told them what we always tell them. We have no idea what happened. The door was locked. We found him that way and his new bride was gone. No, we didn’t see or hear anything. Etc. Etc.”
“And any incriminating evidence was cleaned up before they arrived?”
They both nodded.
Luca nodded. “Good. As soon as they release his body, we’ll start the funeral arrangements.”
Marco stood up, and everyone’s attention turned to him. Except for mine. I continued to scan the room for any signs of anyone who wanted to take the decision being made today into their own hands. “As the only living son and the underboss, it’s the natural order of things that you, Luca, should be voted in as boss. But you know everyone’s going to be thinking the same thing we are, so I just thought we should talk about the elephant in the room, so to speak. I’m not saying you did this, and I’m not saying you didn’t. All I’m saying is that there will need to be proof that this wasn’t just you getting tired of waiting, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Luca told him.
“Good,” Marco said. “And please accept our condolences, also. Your father, like your brother, will be greatly missed.”
“No,” Luca said. “He won’t. Luigi was a self-centered bastard who rose to his position strictly through intimidation and fear, and treated his men worse than dog shit on his shoe. He treated his family even worse. Me, in particular.”
“With all due respect, Luca,” Marco said. “You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead like that.”
Luca leveled an icy blue stare at him. “Why not?” When he didn’t respond, Luca leaned back in his chair. “So you think I killed my father in a power play.”
“Not you specifically, no,” Tony answered. He didn’t say anything more, or even so much as glance my way, but the implication was there that he knew exactly who’d pulled the trigger.
“Well,” Luca told him. “I have a lot of respect for you, Marco. And I’ve always been honest with you, so I’m going to be honest with you now.”
Pulling out his phone, he held it up for all to see. “I have a recording of a message left for my father. From Boston Billy.” Tapping his phone screen, he played the message we found last night. When it was done, he slid his phone back into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He didn’t explain what the message meant. There was no reason to. Everyone there could interpret the true meaning behind it.
Luca turned to look at Marco and Tony. “I assume you two knew absolutely nothing about this?” he asked them.
Marco met his stare. “No. Of course not.” But I could smell the sweat running down his spine. “It’s a shame, what happened to your father,” he told Luca. “A damn shame. May he rest in peace.”
A few men made the sign of the cross. No one else asked any questions or made any other comments. The pieces of what happened the night before fell into place, and everyone would assume that Luca had done what he had to do to protect himself. No one would blame him.
One of Gino’s sons spoke up from a table near the back corner. “What about Luigi’s new wife?”
Turning my head, I stared at him through my sunglasses as adrenaline began to burn through my bloodstream. To keep myself from going for the gun I had strapped to my calf, I laced my fingers together on top of the table.
“What about her?” Luca asked.
“She’s missing, ain’t she?”
“Yes,” Luca told him.
“She was staying with you for a while, is that right? Did she know about this?” he asked. “Because I’m thinking that maybe she was in on all of this, and it would be nice to know where she is now.”
“Was she planted in your father’s house by you?” Gino added.
Luca stared at him for a long moment, and I knew what he was thinking. How the hell did these guys know Sera was at Luca’s house? Did Luigi tell them? Or her father? “My father’s widow is completely innocent,” he told them. “She knows nothing except that her wedding night was ruined.”
“Then she’s a witness,” Gino said. “And now she’s disappeared.”
Marco turned to me. His eyes fell to my injured hand, and I flexed my fingers. “Do you have any idea where Serafina is?” he asked. “We know you two were…close.”
I smiled, but it was cold. “I fucked her, Marco. More than once. That’s it.”
“She never mentioned anything to you? Nothing personal at all? Any friends in the area?”
“It was kind of hard for her to speak with my cock stuffed between her lips.”
“Serafina will not be a problem,” Luca told him.
“If she’s a witness, then she needs to be dealt with.”
The room came alive with murmured agreement.
Luca waited until things died down. “I’ll deal with my father’s widow. She won’t be a problem. My guess would be she’s not exactly heartbroken about the turn of events.”
“But now she’s a liability,” Gino’s son said. “She could be out there talking to the cops right now.”
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore. “Sera won’t talk.”
Gino narrowed his eyes at me, his distrust of me clear to read. “How do you know? You just said you only used her to warm your dick.”
I gritted my teeth at his disrespect, but I kept my tone even and controlled. “Because she grew up in this world. And she’s not stupid.” I didn’t have to say the rest, that she knew if she talked she’d be the next one taking a long nap in the dirt. “Besides…” I allowed my gaze to roam over the room, meeting the eyes of everyone there. “Luca said he’ll handle her. So consider her handled.” Even with my sunglasses on, most of the men fidgeted nervously when my attention was on them.
“Shall we move on?” Luca suggested. With a nod at Marco, he handed the floor over to him.
“All right,” he said. “You all know how this works…”
The vote didn’t take long, and Luca was officially put into the position of Boss. It was a close call, however, between him and Gino, and the latter wasn’t taking the loss well, although he tried to put on a nonchalant face.
We talked about some other matters and agreed to meet there again after the holiday. Then the Capos were shown out to go spend time with their families—after all, it was Christmas day—while we waited to hear from the police that Luigi’s body had been released.
When everyone was gone, I rubbed my eyes with my uninjured hand, trying to ease the ache behind them. But it was no use. “Whatever you feel you need to do to me, do it,” I told Luca. “I deserve it. If you want to take me outside right now and put a bullet through the middle of the head, I won’t try to run. All I ask is that you take care of Sera.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” he said after a pause. “Even though honor dictates that I should.” He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his dark blond hair. “I hated my father. You know that.”
“He was still your father.”
But Luca only shook his head. “If you hadn’t killed him, I would’ve done it myself eventually.”
My eyes snapped up to his.
“You fucked up last night. Really fucked up. Not because you killed him, but because you were careless. Also, I don’t have enough of the family on my side yet. At least not where I’m sure of their loyalty to me, and now we have to contain the damage.” He paced away a few steps and back again, thinking.
“What about Sera?” I asked him. “She’ll be killed on sight if anyone sees her before we can prove she won’t rat on us. Even if they’re loyal to you.”
“Yes,” he said. “But I’ll do everything I can to help you keep her safe until things calm down.”
My eyes met his, and I hoped my sincerity showed as I said, “Thank you, Luca.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You helped me with Veda when she first came here. You still do. And I know you would give your life for her. I will do the same for your Sera.”
Though guilt still ate away at me for I’d done, I was humbled by the love and forgiveness of this man who was not only my friend, but my brother. Sometimes, it wasn’t the blood in your veins that bound you and made you family, but the blood you were willing to spill for each other.
He suddenly smiled. “Take the rest of the night off and go see to your girl. Hell, maybe if you get her a nice enough present, you can convince her to like you again.” With a smirk, he grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair where he’d laid it earlier and shrugged it on as we walked toward the elevator.
Sera was angry with me, and I didn’t blame her. I’d be angry too if someone had done the same to me. And I wouldn’t easily forgive them.
But now that I had her back, what was I going to do with her? It was quite obvious to me now that, much as I told myself I would forget her, there was no fucking way in hell I would be able to sit back and watch her marry someone else. The very idea of witnessing her walk down the aisle toward another man—again—gnawed away at my insides until I felt sick.
When I gave her up, I’d just kept telling myself that no matter what happened with her, it was better than ending up dead. Which is what would’ve happened if she’d stayed with me, and, like my previous wife, got on Luigi’s radar somehow. Which honestly wouldn’t be hard. Her pink hair alone would make her stand out. And if he’d noticed that she was special to me, he would’ve used her to get to me anytime he felt he needed to. Because that was the kind of bastard he was.
And when she became a thorn in his side, he would remove her permanently. But he wouldn’t dirty his own hands. Oh, no. Doing it himself would put a target on his back, so he would make me do it. A test of my loyalty.
I wanted to think that I was better than that now. Stronger. But the god’s honest truth was I didn’t know what I would do if I was ever again put in the position of choosing between my only family and the woman I cared about.
So I did what I had to do to keep her safe, knowing she would hate me for it.
But now, Luigi was gone. Luca, my friend and brother, was the new boss. And I had faith in him. It was what he’d been groomed for. But he was also a man who understood what it was like to have a woman become the very air you breathe, and who would never order another man to do something so sick as to put a bullet into his own wife.
A sense of relief so strong it made me lightheaded rushed through me. No, I would never have to make that choice again. Sera could be mine forever.
I just had to talk her into forgiving me. And then keep her alive long enough to prove she wasn’t a rat.
