Coveted: Men of Mayhem: Book Two

by Luciani, Kristen

  “Damn right,” Tommy grunts, the first one to attack the plates set out on the table.

  Like he didn’t just finish a whole pizza by himself a few hours ago. And that was only what I saw. Who knows what else he devoured once I left? With only one working arm, it’s pretty impressive.

  “So have you heard from your tech geniuses?” I ask, following Julia into the kitchen. “Have they found a location on Elia yet?”

  “He’s still offline. They’re keeping tabs on his activity and will get to me as soon as they get a location on him.” Alek’s eyes flicker over to Julia and he lets out a sigh. “I expect he’ll show up again at your mother’s funeral.”

  Julia’s eyes widen. “Does Papa know? Is he safe? We’re supposed to see him afterward,” she whispers.

  “I’ve already spoken to him,” Alek says. “And he knows the risks of going to the funeral. It’s not going to stop him, though. He’s been staying in the safehouse with his crew and will go back there right after the funeral.”

  “That’s when we’ll show up,” I say, placing my hand on top of Julia’s. “I know you want to go to the funeral, but it’s just too risky. Alek spoke to your father this morning and made the arrangements. The funeral is a bad place for you to be. We believe both Nic, Elia, or possibly both of them, will turn up. Everyone will be looking for you, Julia. The only way we can keep you safe is to bring you to your father after the burial.”

  “What happens after that?” she asks. “You bring me to him and then what?”

  I exchange a look with my brothers. “We go after the threat,” I say. “And we eliminate it so you never have to worry about it again.”

  “You guys are just missing one key detail,” Tommy says with a mouthful of food. “We may know where to find Elia once your hacker friends find him. But how the hell are we gonna find Nic? He’s gotta be pissed at Elia for kidnapping Julia. And now Ant and I are on his radar, too, for stealing his ‘leverage’ or whatever the hell he thinks of Julia. We fucked up his plans, too.” He smirks. “Let’s face it. We all have. And if we don’t end this shit now, he’s gonna come at us hard and fast. Nobody will be safe. And we have a lot to lose.”

  “One thing we know for sure is that Nic won’t go back into hiding until he finishes us off.” I pick up a fork and press my fingertips into the prongs. “An attack at the funeral is likely because he knows Graziani will be there and he’ll count on Julia to show up, too. When she doesn’t, he’ll go after Graziani and use him to get to Julia, thinking she’ll come running if she hears her father’s in trouble.” I look up. “But she won’t, because we’ll already be there waiting.”

  “At the safehouse,” Diego nods.

  “That’s the play, how we’ll take him out.” I drop the fork and it clangs against the wood grain.

  “And what about Elia?” Julia asks.

  “He won’t stop until he finds you,” I say. “But we have one thing going for us, and it’s a big one.”

  “What’s that?” she asks.

  Alek grins. “You’re not Elia’s only target. He wants Nic dead even more than we do.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Diego mutters, stuffing a slice of bacon into his mouth.

  “The point is, with your father’s help, we can get them to play right into our hands. And that’s when we destroy them both.” I sit back in my chair. “We’re the ones in control of this game now. Nothing gets past us. We take them out as a team, and we win as a fucking team.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Elia

  “You must be hungry,” I say out loud, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I stretch my arms overhead, not really waiting for a response.

  It was more of a rhetorical question since the duct tape slapped over Enzo Tallerico’s mouth would make my question pretty impossible to answer.

  I walk out of the bedroom and head into the kitchen…straight to the espresso machine, momentarily forgetting I have a captive who requires sustenance.

  As the espresso brews, I pick up my phone from the counter and smile at the return message on my screen.

  A much more pressing matter.

  I’ll be over at eight. You’d better have a plan.

  Oh, yes, Nic. You can fucking bet that I do.

  I’d texted him last night with an offer.

  A carrot, really.

  An assurance that I can get him exactly what he wants. Julia. Since he’s desperate, he walked right into my trap.

  It’s that damn ego of his. So fucking big that he can’t see anything beyond it, no matter how angry he is at me for fucking up his plans.

  Nic thinks he’s got me right where he wants me.

  And he’s too blinded by his lust for power to realize it’s the other way around.

  Thanks to my cameras, I was able to spot one of the guys in his crew sneaking into the house and turning on the gas. His plan to get rid of me…to get rid of us all…failed in an epic way. He finally tracked me down on the live stream and knew the Marcones swooped in to rescue Julia.

  He plays to win.

  But this time, he’s going to lose.

  Big.

  The machine bleeps and I pour myself a double shot, relishing the fact that my life is about to change.

  Everything I want is within reach and soon, the world will celebrate my successes with me.

  I sip the scalding liquid, not bothering to blow on it before it hits my lips. I relish the pain. It keeps me alert and on my game, and I need that more than ever right now.

  I’m about to play my final hand.

  Well, at least it’ll be the last one I play with Nic as my opponent, something he’s always been. But as usual, he underestimates me and what I’m capable of.

  He knows nothing of my plans, but that is going to change.

  The doorbell chimes, and I take one final sip of the espresso.

  Right now.

  I slide off of the counter stool with a fork in my hand and pad over to the front door. I drop the fork on the table in the foyer on my way to the door. I open it, a shiver of excitement slithering down my spine. This is just too good.

  I hope my fans are ready.

  Nic stands in the doorway, his lips twisted into a sneer. He just can’t help it. Even though I lured him over here with a promise to help him find the Marcones, he still can’t hide his contempt long enough to greet me.

  It’s always been this way.

  If Via had fucked up, he’d have forgiven her in a heartbeat.

  Then again, if you ask him, Via would never fuck up in the first place.

  I swallow my rage, force a smile, and wave him inside.

  Nic pushes past me and I peer outside at the street. There’s a car across the street, packed with his goons, no doubt.

  They won’t be able to help him in here.

  My domain.

  “Thanks for coming,” I say. “We have some plans to discuss, plans that will right a lot of wrongs and shift power back to the rightful master.”

  That master being me.

  Nic swivels around, his thick arms folded over his chest. He’s almost my height, stretching himself as high as he possibly can. “You purposely defied me, Elia. You were instructed to bring Julia to me. Instead, you went off the grid, holding her in that…that hellhole!” His nostrils flare.

  I walk toward him, my hard glare making him shrink into the floor. “How ironic that you call it a hellhole,” I say, my teeth clenched. “When what you did there turned my life into that very thing…hell.” I push my chest into him. “Remember?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about or what any of this has to do with Julia and the Marcone family.”

  “It has plenty to do with them, actually. I took Julia because she was the one bright light in my life. I did what you asked. I followed her, I watched her, and I fell in love with her. Exactly as my mother intended. I listened to her play that violin and heard Mama’s voice speaking to me, promising that this woman could bring me the happiness
that you stole from me.”

  “You’re a fucking lunatic,” Nic seethes.

  “Maybe,” I say with a shrug. “But you made me this way. You created this hate and this fury by taking away everything that was good in my life and then casting me aside so that you and Via could run the show. It was always Via. Never me. You kept me close enough to make sure I didn’t wreck any of your grand plans. But you never intended for me to take over.”

  “How could I when you never did anything fucking right?”

  “If I was such a liability, why did you have me carry out this last order? If Julia and the Marcones were so important to you, why didn’t you have someone else deliver?”

  “I should have!” he bellows, his fists clenched at his sides.

  “But you didn’t because inside of your plan was another plan, right?”

  Spots of color flood Nic’s cheeks, his breathing stilted.

  “Your plan wasn’t to take Julia for leverage. She was a pawn to you. Your real end game was getting to the Marcones. You wanted them to suffer and you knew they’d show up to save her.” I walk around Nic like a predator eyeing its prey.

  Oh, and I can’t wait to pounce!

  “And of course, the plan would allow you to handle the liability at the same time.” I raise my voice, not wanting any of my words to be lost on my faithful audience who I know is listening with rapt attention.

  Nic tries to back away from me, but I reach out and press my hand to his shoulder. “Not so fucking fast,” I say. “You’re gonna listen to every word I say!”

  “More of your bullshit?” he spits, shrugging off my hand. “Because that’s what this is!”

  “Really?” I shake my head. “The Marcones took so much from you — Via, money, power, business opportunities. You’ve had a vendetta against them for years, and this was your chance to crush them.” I lean in close. “Just like I’m about to crush you.”

  His eyes widen, and I snicker.

  “You didn’t think I’d connect the dots, did you? How can a man of such power and stature be effective as a leader?” I give my eyes an exaggerated roll. “He can’t be. No, Nic. The person fit to oversee your organization needs to be strategic, calm, and logical. You’re all emotion. You act out of rage and anger, but you don’t ever think about consequences…who you hurt and who can hurt you.”

  “Goddammit!” he yells, shoving me backward, but my feet remain rooted to the floor. “You crazy bastard! I knew you were plotting against me! You wanna know why I never gave you more of a role? It’s because I knew you’d just fuck everything up, like always! I gave you plenty of chances!”

  “You kept me close so that you could keep an eye on me. You used me as bait more times than I can count. You made sure I never rose in the organization because you didn’t trust me,” I hiss.

  “That’s fucking right! You should be dead right now!” His chest heaves as he lunges for me. I sidestep him and grab one of his wrists just before he goes for the gun hidden in his waistband. That’s what happens when you have others fight your battles.

  You get sloppy.

  You miss chances.

  And ultimately, you die.

  “I know,” I say against his ear as he grits his teeth from the pressure. “But that’s what happens when you send someone in to do work you should have done yourself.”

  “That gas leak was supposed to kill you all!”

  “Yes, well, good thing for me that it didn’t, right?” I snicker. “But very bad for you. You see, I still have a chance to fix things for myself. I took out insurance. Your insurance failed you. Mine has already paid itself off in spades.”

  He swings an arm out, the only free one he has left. With one swift motion, I block it, the bone cracking on impact. Nic lets out a yelp as I squeeze his other arm tighter.

  “You’re too slow, old man. And I’ve been waiting for this for too long…to execute my plan, the plan that will finally right a very devastating wrong.”

  I shove Nic against a wall, his face pressed to the sheetrock right next to a portrait of my mother. “She told me what happened!” I bellow. “Her last fucking words, words she struggled to say because her body was so badly beaten. She told me about you and about my real father. I know you killed him and that you hired that fucker to rape my mother before bludgeoning her to death. I watched my mother die because she was trying to make a better life for herself and for me with someone other than you. But you couldn’t handle that, could you? Your lust for power and control wouldn’t allow her to be happy without you! If people knew she cheated on you and left you, the almighty Nic Fortunato, what would have happened to their loyalty? To their faith in their fearless leader?” I wave my hand at the cameras in my foyer. “It would have disappeared like a fart in the wind!”

  He grunts as I thrust a knee in his back. “I did this to show the world that you’re not the mighty leader you’ve made yourself out to be. You’ve been blinded by lust for far too long and I think that’s the first thing we need to address.”

  I pull him away from the wall and throw him into a chair. Leaning forward, I clutch his throat, giving it a squeeze. Just enough to make him panic. Not enough to kill him.

  Yet.

  He claws at my fingers, gasping and sputtering for air. I loosen my grip just enough to palm the fork on the table. I hold it up in front of him, dragging the prongs around his eye. “Wanna take a stab at how I’m gonna handle the lust issue, Nic?”

  He stares at me, his lips quivering but not forming any words.

  Fuck. I at least want him to beg for his life.

  I dig the fork into his flesh, dragging it down the side of his face as tears pool in his eyes, spilling over and mixing with the blood rushing down his cheek. “You’re fucking insane!” he shouts. “You won’t get away with this!”

  “Oh, yeah?” I ask. “Who the fuck is gonna stop me?” With a loud roar, I pull the fork away from Nic’s face and jam it into his throat. His hands fly up to his neck as he sputters and chokes, stumbling backward against the staircase. I stomp over to where his body lies writhing on the floor and lean down close to his face so he doesn’t miss a word. I pull a knife out of my waistband and hold it up to his horrified gaze so he can see the tip glimmering in the light just before I plunge it into his chest and fillet him like a fucking fish. “Nobody, Nic! Nobody can stop me!”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Antonio

  I watch Julia pace the room, hugging her arms tight. She keeps glancing at the clock on the nightstand as she passes it, sometimes stopping for a few seconds to stare out the window. Bright sunshine streams through the glass, casting a glow on her sad expression.

  I’ll never forget the heartfelt words she spoke about her mother that night at the airport…her best friend, her confidante, her biggest supporter and fan.

  Her life has been changed forever and that person no longer holds a place in her reality.

  Instead, she’ll survive only in Julia’s memory.

  And in her heart.

  She sinks onto the bed, covering her face with her hands, her shoulders quaking with choked sobs.

  I am going to destroy that motherfucker Elia.

  He may think he knows pain, but I’m going to give it a whole new meaning once I get my hands on him.

  I drop to my knees in front of Julia, pulling her against me. Her whole body rocks, the grief rippling through her.

  “Antonio, she’s really gone. I’m never going to see her again. She’s being put in the ground now and I’ll never get to say goodbye. I’ll never get to kiss her again, to hold her hand again…” Guilt and regret saturate her words, and I silently berate her father again for the moves he made, for blindly trusting Enzo and giving him control of the foundation’s financials. He may not have realized it at the time, but those actions tore his family apart.

  It will never again be whole.

  Revenge may be sweet. It may give them some closure. But it won’t ever return what’s been lost.
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  A wife, a mother…gone forever.

  “Julia,” I murmur against her head. “I can’t make this any easier on you. Nothing I say will ease your pain, and I know that. But I also want you to know that there was a reason why we met in that airport lounge. Before this week, I’d have never believed what I’m about to say. But now, I know it for sure. We were brought together for a reason. You were meant to be part of my life, to break down all of the walls and make me realize what I’d been missing for so long. That’s why I found my way back to you, why you’re here with me now. Maybe it wasn’t your mother who made me sweep you off your feet in that puddle of glass and wine, but I really believe she led me back to you that night at the house because she was protecting you. She will always be watching over you and protecting you. And just like that bracelet on your wrist, she’s going to be along for the ride of your life.” I grasp her hands in mine. “I want to be along for that ride, too.”

  She looks up at me, her eyes shimmering with tears. “Really?”

  I nod, my throat tight. Hearing myself speak these words…Jesus, it scares the shit out of me. Not because I question my feelings but because I know with every cell of my being that I have to keep this woman safe by my side.

  There’s no choice, no other option.

  It’s her.

  And it will always be her.

  “I’m in love with you,” I say with a smile, sweeping a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I knew it the second you crashed into that waitress and shattered that wine glass. I knew it when you snatched your violin case away from me at the reception desk. I knew it when you talked about your parents and your career. And I knew it when you sent me away. That fucking killed me. When I couldn’t think about anything but you after that night, I thought I made a mistake by letting you walk away, that I should have done everything in my power to prove to you that I’m not the guy you thought.” I cup her face in my hands. “I said goodbye to that guy after I met you. Forever.” I pause for a second, giving my head a quick shake. “I know it seems sudden and you’ve had to deal with a lot of shock and trauma over the past few days, but I want you to hear it. And know that I really believe your mother had something to do with it.” I let out a breath. “Maybe not only your mother.”