The following morning, Enzo brought me into Luca’s office. The underboss sat behind his desk, papers spread out before him. He looked up when we entered, then stood, buttoning his jacket as he did so. He wore a tailored black suit, as did Enzo, only his shirt was white and he wore no tie.
“Please, come in,” he told us. “Enzo, close the door behind you. Sit.” He gestured to the couch in front of his desk, removing a large book from one of the cushions and setting it on the glass coffee table. As I approached, I saw that it looked to be an English Literature textbook. One of Veda’s, I gathered.
I sat down closest to the desk where the book had been, and Enzo unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat beside me. Luca did the same, taking the chair across from us. I tried not to appear nervous, but to be honest, I couldn’t help it. I was putting my life in the hands of these two men.
Luca’s eyes ran over the scraped side of my face, already looking better than it had last night thanks to the ointment Enzo had carefully applied before we got into bed, and sent Enzo a questioning look.
“It wasn’t intentional.”
His answer seemed to satisfy him. “I was wondering if you would help me,” Luca said to me.
“That depends,” I told him. “What do you need help with?”
His blue eyes were calculating. “Your father, of course.”
I glanced at Enzo, but his attention was on his boss.
Luca sat back in the chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. “What can you tell me about your father, Sera?”
My guard shot up immediately, more out of habit than any real need to protect my father. I shrugged. “What do you want to know? And I’ll let you know if I can tell you or not.”
His gaze assessed me and left me feeling cold. “I suggest you decide quickly where your loyalty lies. With your father, who, by your own words, cares very little for you, or with the man who cared about you enough that he risked his own life to save you from a life of forced prostitution. And therefore, by extension, me.”
He was right. And I owed my father nothing. “My father is a mafia man,” I told him. “He wants what every mafia man wants: Money. Power. Control.” Again, I glanced at Enzo. I couldn’t help myself. He was so calm beside me, one arm over the back of the couch where I sat but not touching me. He gave me a nod of encouragement, and I turned back to Luca. “He wants to control all of Texas. And then the world.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he responded. “What else can you tell me? What do you know about his activities in Dallas?”
“Specifically?”
“Yes.”
“Not very much,” I told him. “I’m sorry. Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t included in those conversations.” The sarcasm was thick in my voice.
Again, his blue eyes studied me, and I had the feeling he was delving directly into my mind to catch me in any lies. “There was nothing you overheard? Nothing at all you can give me?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry. I swear I would tell you if I did. Mostly because you terrify me, to be completely honest.” Enzo’s hand squeezed my shoulder. I took a bracing breath. “But I was confined to my room the majority of the time when I was home. My father was very careful around me when it came to his schemes. I don’t think he trusted me.” I let out a sharp laugh. “Probably the smartest thing he ever did.”
Luca released a sigh and leaned forward in his chair, bracing his elbows on his knees, his expression thoughtful.
Enzo touched my jaw with his fingertips. “Are you absolutely certain there’s nothing you know that could be useful to us in striking a deal with your father?”
“I know his favorite thing is money. And power. Give him either of those if you need him to do something for you and he might agree to your deal if he doesn’t have a better offer. He might put up a fight about it to try to get more out of you, but he’ll agree in the end.”
“That’s not exactly what I was thinking,” Luca said. “What we need is something we can threaten him with. Threats always work better than promises at keeping someone in line.”
“What about parties? Or dinners?” Enzo asked me. “He must’ve taken you out with him on occasion to show you off if he was hoping to marry you off to one of his business associates.”
I thought back. My father had taken me to a few dinners once I became of age, nothing so big that I’d have a chance to wander away on my own. I tried to think if there were any names I could remember who’d also attended those get togethers. Particularly anyone who had appeared to be working with my father. Again, I shook my head. “He dressed me up and took me out sometimes, but nothing too elaborate. Just small dinners.”
Luca and Enzo exchanged a look.
“I was usually the only woman there.”
“Did these dinners consist of other mafia men?” Luca asked.
“Not always. Sometimes there were politicians or other city leaders.” I twisted my hands in my lap as I tried to think. “I’m sorry, I never really followed that stuff. I don’t remember their names.”
“Let me try something,” Enzo said. “Luca, may I borrow your laptop?” When his boss gave him the go-ahead, Enzo got up and took it from the desk and brought it over to where we were sitting. With a few taps on the keyboard, he brought up some photos of city officials in the Dallas area. He set the laptop on the table in front of me. “Do you recognize anyone here?”
I leaned forward and studied the faces in front of me. “This one.” I pointed to a picture in the top row on the far right, then one farther down on the screen. “And this one.”
“Good girl.” Enzo turned the laptop around and showed Luca the two men I’d pointed out.
“Excellent,” he told me. “Thank you, Sera. This is just what we were looking for.”
He spent the next hour showing me more photos and grilling me on any small details I could remember. I told him everything I could, even if it was something as minor as to who sat next to each other and who appeared to be in a good or bad mood when they left, including my father.
When I couldn’t think of anything else, he sat back, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face.
“As you know, Ciro knows we have you,” Luca told me. “And Luigi, my father, has managed to somehow talk him into giving us a few days before we hand you back to him. We’ll use those days to gather all of the information we can that would incriminate your father.”
I felt like Luca wasn’t telling me the whole story. “How did your father manage that?”
“I’m not sure,” he told me.
Bullshit. Luca was the underboss. Of course, he knew. He didn’t get as far as he had by being left in the dark. “I don’t believe you.”
He stilled in his chair and pierced me with those sharp, blue eyes. “It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, Sera. Just be grateful we have these days.”
“I apologize,” I told him immediately. “I was out of line. I’m just…nervous.”
“Luca.” There was a warning in Enzo’s tone.
I immediately put my hand on his knee. “No. He’s right. I shouldn’t have questioned him.” I turned back to the underboss, knowing he held my fate in his hands. “I am grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”
He gave me a nod. “Let’s move on, shall we?”
“Yes,” I agreed.
Luca looked at Enzo. “Do you want her in here while we discuss this?”
His words rankled. What they were discussing involved me. My life. But I knew the rules in this world. And unfortunately, those rules didn’t give a shit about me or my feelings.
“No. There’s no need.”
Luca got up from his chair and walked around his desk. “You may go, Sera,” he told me as he took a seat. “Thank you for your help. I may need to ask you again in the coming days.”
I got up to leave. I waited to feel the sense of disloyalty I should be feeling right now by telling my father’s secrets to men who, if not his enemies, were definitely not his friends. Just a pinprick of guilt. Something. Anything.
But there was nothing.
“There’s just one thing I need to warn you about,” I told Luca.
Two sets of eyes turned my way. “What is that?” Luca asked.
“My father isn’t exactly sane sometimes. He thinks he’s much more powerful than he actually is. At least, that’s the impression that I’ve always gotten.”
“Thank you, Sera. I am aware.”
I nodded, then allowed Enzo to take my arm and escort me out while Luca called Tristan and asked him to join them. When we reached the door, Enzo took my hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles before lowering it to my side again, but he didn’t let go.
“I’ll come find you as soon as we’re finished here.”
“Okay.”
“But first, give me back the pen that’s in your pocket.”
There was no condemnation in his eyes when they met mine. “I was nervous.”
“I know.”
Reaching into my back pocket, I handed it over, then I gave him a small smile. I left Luca’s office with a slight glimmer of hope in my chest for the first time since Enzo had told me he knew who I was. Perhaps Veda was right.
Maybe they were coming up with a plan to free me from my father’s prison.
I could only hope he would be smart enough to take the deal, or I had a very real fear this meeting would end up bloody.
