Sera had fallen asleep by the time I got the text that Tristan had returned. After I snuck into the bathroom and showered off the remainder of the blood, I put my sweats back on and added a T-shirt, then made my way down to Luca’s office.
Tris was sitting on the couch with Luigi’s phone in front of him, fingers typing away on the laptop he’d brought with him. His tie was lying beside him on the cushion and the first few buttons of his shirt were undone.
“Any progress?” I asked him.
“Getting there,” he said.
Luca was standing over by the table where he kept his whiskey. He’d changed into a pair of jeans, a pullover cotton shirt, and some house shoes. He had a near empty glass in his hand. I joined him, pouring myself one.
“How is Sera?” he asked.
“Sleeping.”
“Good.” He finished what was in his glass in one swallow and turned to pour another. “Word of my father’s death is getting around the family fast. I’ve already been contacted by Gino. He’s setting up the meeting for tomorrow to vote in the new boss.”
“So we need to find something tonight.”
“Yes.” He glanced over at Tristan as he took a sip of his whiskey. “My father was always careless about security. He was too confident of the power he wielded. Thought he was impervious to everything. Thought no one would ever dare to try to take him down.” This was said in a perfect imitation of his father. “Hopefully, that’ll play in our favor.”
We chatted quietly about a few other things while Tristan worked on getting into Luigi’s phone. It didn’t take him long.
“I’m in.”
Luca and I exchanged a look, then we joined Tristan in the sitting area in front of Luca’s desk. Tristan tapped the phone screen a few times, then handed it over to Luca. Laying it flat on the table where we all could see, he went into his father’s text messages and started to scroll. Most had no name attached to them, just a phone number. He gave those numbers to Tristan if the wording, though innocent enough if anyone outside of the family saw it, seemed suspicious at all, who then looked them up on his laptop to identify the user. Whether or not they wanted to be found wasn’t an issue. Tris would find them.
Then he moved onto the call list. I logged all of the numbers in the history into a notebook, noting times and dates of calls.
But the real winner came when Luca went into Luigi’s saved voicemails. Specifically, one that was left on Luigi’s wedding night, so he hadn’t had a chance to listen to—or delete—it yet. Luca pulled it up and tapped the screen to put it on speaker. A man’s voice, one we all recognized right away by the Boston accent, was loud and gruff in the quiet room.
“Hey, boss. Got your invitation to the fundraisah. I’ll need a cah to pick me up at the airport, and I’ll bring that gift to your son. It’ll be mad quick. I won’t get the chance to see everyone. But maybe next time, eh?”
Luca played it twice more, and then he set the phone down and leaned back on the couch, his expression unreadable. Tristan and I exchanged looks. That message may seem harmless to anyone who didn’t know Boston Billy—the name of the hit man from the north end of Boston who was infamous in our world for being discreet, precise, and never getting caught. He was in and out. No muss. No fuss. Leaving dead bodies in his wake before anyone even realized he was in town.
Holy shit.
Luca’s father had a hit out on him. And from the sound of it, he wanted Billy to take out me and Tristan too, but Billy decided it was too risky and it would have to be done at a different time. Smart move on his end. There was no fucking way he’d get to both of us before we found him.
Luca pulled his own cell phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and tapped in Billy’s number. He didn’t have to look at it. We all had it memorized. If any details needed to be discussed, he’d switch over to a burner phone and call from there.
“Billy.” Luca sat forward and rested both elbows on his knees. “It’s Luca. That gift you have for me? You can return it. Also, you should know, my father—Luigi—passed away tonight. Yeah. Thank you. No. No. Of course not. It’s business. I understand. Yes. I’ll let you know where you can send flowers. Give your wife my best. And have a Merry Christmas. Thank you.” He hung up and laid his phone on the table beside his father’s.
We wouldn’t have to worry about Billy showing up at the fundraiser now. No one was alive to pay him.
When Luca just sat there, staring at the two phones lying side by side, Tristan spoke up. “This is an acceptable reason to have Luigi removed. It was your life or his. The family will accept it.”
Luca nodded his head. “Yes. They will.”
“And they will know I was the one who did it,” I told him. “It would be expected.”
“Yes,” he said. “But there’s no reason to name names. My father was a problem. He was taken care of. Just like my brother. End of discussion. We have the proof we need right here.”
“It’s enough for the family,” Tristan said. “Very few will vote against you now. We know many stayed with your father out of fear, and now that that fear is gone, they have no reason to.”
“Are you all right?” I asked my friend when he went quiet again.
“I will be,” he responded. “By tomorrow, I will be.” Clearing his throat, Luca grabbed his phone from the table and rose to his feet. “I’m going to bed. You both should do the same. I’ve doubled up the guards outside tonight, although I’m not expecting any problems. However, we may have to move again before all this is said and done.”
“Or just purchase a second house in a secret location,” Tristan said.
Luca smiled. Just a little, but it was there. “Or that.”
We said our goodnights and went our separate ways to our rooms in Luca’s large lake house. He was right. Tomorrow would be an eventful day. We needed to be alert. And hopefully, when all was said and done, Luca would be the head of the family. After all the hard work he’s put in and all the shit he’s taken from his family, he deserves it.
We just needed to live through tomorrow.
