“What’s he doing now?”
“Still watching. Another guy just joined him. They were both together last night.”
“Hey, I don’t want you hanging around bars like that. It’s dangerous.”
“You almost sound like you care.” She giggled, running her fingers over my cheek.
I wondered how the fuck we must have looked to everyone else here.
Amelia would not be happy if she saw me like this.
“I do care. If you need money, you let me know.”
“I don’t need or want anything from you.” She went to move away, but I pulled her back and bent low to her ear.
“I don’t care if you want it or not, and I’m being serious.” From inside my jacket, I took my wallet and gave it to her. I took her hand and closed her fingers around the hard leather. There were five hundred dollars cash in there and about ten grand on the credit card. “Get gone for a while. Use the cash first. It’s enough to get out of Chicago and stay some place safe. Password for my credit card is 0100. Take everything on there.”
“Luc—”
“Maria, I’m serious. You glued up to me like this just made you a target.”
“I know.” She held my gaze. “He, um… he took out his phone the minute I walked up to you. Maybe he’s talking about you, maybe he’s talking about me. Or both. Risky. But you take risks when you love someone.” Her voice quivered.
My lips parted, and all I could do was stare. She loved me. I felt even worse now because I couldn’t return the sentiment.
I’d known Maria for years. It had started wild and always stayed wild. It was just sex, nothing more, not even a date. She usually worked at the diner Claudius and I liked going to. When she saw me, she knew what I wanted. I should at least have some level of feelings for her to consider her mine at one point or another. But no. Not even now. Yet there was Amelia, who I’d only known for months.
“Maria, I…” There was nothing I could say that wouldn’t make me sound like a jerk.
“I didn’t say it for you to tell me back.” A little smile tugged at the corners of her delicate mouth. “You’d be lying, and you’ve never been a liar.”
“I care about you.” I had to say something, and that was the truth.
She leaned in again and brushed her lips against my cheek. “Be careful, Lucian, and thanks.”
She stepped back, still holding my gaze, then moved away from me.
I watched her until she left the bar, going through the large oak doors. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I now felt like I was being watched.
Please be okay, Maria.
Later, I’d send someone to check on her. Right now, I had to take care of these guys.
I stood up and walked out back to where the dumpsters were. I hid in the alley way behind the metal door.
Just as I predicted, a man came through matching the description of what Maria had given me. As I’d walked out of the bar, I didn’t need to look at him to get a picture. Doing it this way was enough. He stepped out and looked around with confusion on his stupid face.
The stupid look was the first to go when I slammed the door shut and jumped out at him. The fool tried to draw his gun, but he was too late. The fucker didn’t get a chance to because I drew mine first and shot off his middle and forefinger. He screamed, and blood spurted from his hand.
His scream intensified when I headbutted him into the wall and grabbed his neck. I couldn’t believe they’d sent this guy after me. Fucking pathetic. At least give me a challenge. Not this pansy ass Nancy boy.
“Where is Victor staying?” I barked, pressing his head into the wall.
“Let go of me, man,” he wailed.
I pressed the barrel to my gun under his neck, and the man’s eyes widened. “Talk the fuck now before I blow your brains out.”
“More will come. Doesn’t matter if you kill me,” he taunted.
“Yes, I gathered as fucking much. But why waste one stupid asshole and time when I can torture the info from you?” There was a shuffling sound on the other side of the door. Maria had said there was another guy.
The door flung open, and out he came guns blazing. This guy was bigger, more in my league but not enough to take me down. I was a good shot, always. A bullet smacked right between his eyes before he could really get going.
I barely had to move the gun away from my new friend’s neck.
The other guy crumpled to the ground, leaving his shocked friend.
“You didn’t know who you were dealing with, did you?” I taunted, widening my eyes at him so he could see my wrath.
I got the shock of my life when the fool started laughing, then I noticed it. The red nose and the raw skin inside his nostrils. Then slightly dilated pupils that seemed to look more spaced out as I looked at him. He was a user. Some kind a drug addict.
Back in LA, Victor had killed Cole, Amelia’s confidant in the underground. After his death, there was a guy called Brandon, a drug addict, snooping around, sniffing around like a fucking rat. A pawn. Definitely not a foot solider, just someone they’d sent to fuck with us. He’d ended up dead too.
This guy… he was one of them. He was a pawn, as was the other. People knew me, and these types of guys didn’t approach a guy like me and expect to live. Victor knew that too.
And there wouldn’t have been just two of them. Two runts of the litter that barely added up to one.
Fuck.
So, they were here for something else, then. What was it?
“Why are you following me?” I tightened my grip on him.
“To give you a message, mafia boss.” He laughed, and his eyes did that crazy like jangle as he scrunched up his nose.
“Give me the message and don’t fuck with me.”
“Gladly.” He continued his laughter. I had to ram him harder into the wall.
“Talk!”
“Victor sends his love,” he sputtered.
“Does he now?”
“He says he’ll fuck your girlfriend first before he eats her. The same way he fucked Henry’s wife right in front of him before he cut off her foot and ate it.”
My hands stilled, and I lost my grip on the fool.
God. In. Heaven.
No.
No.
No.
When I’d managed to get to Henry, Victor had him hanging from the ceiling of the old mental home in some sick game where he had to try and swing across to his wife, Lydia, to save her. Her left foot had been gone.
I remembered the ghostly pale look on her face as she’d tried to hold on to life.
Below them had been the two children. Victor had strapped a bomb to the them. I thought I’d saved the kids, but I didn’t. I didn’t save any of them. To hear that more evil had happened before I got to them was heartrending.
Fucking Victor. This was how you got to a guy like me. By messing with my mind.
Screwing with my mind. I wouldn’t have known that Henry had to endure all that and Lydia had to go through that.
In my head, the image of them on their wedding day popped up. I would never forget how happy they’d looked. I’d never seen two people happier in love together. Then they went and surprised me more by being even happier when their children were born.
I would have loved to tell my friend that I, too, had found that one woman to steal my heart. The woman who could change me into what I’d probably wanted for myself all these long years.
But Henry was gone. Victor had shot him in his head, and Lydia, and he’d fed their children poison. All were dead.
Poor Lydia. That woman had been beautiful in every way and had loved Henry with her last breath. Victor had raped her.
It wasn’t often that anything brought me close to tears and madness. But this…
Jesus Christ.
I wouldn’t have known what really happened. I wouldn’t have known because in my book, no one had lived that night to tell the tale. Just one person who I’d thought was dead.
I zeroed in on my new friend feeling the last shred of humanity slip away from me.
I raised my gun and pulled the trigger. The fool cowered against the wall when he saw that. He was, however, still laughing from whatever drug he’d taken.
My hands shook, and I realized that if I killed him, that would be ending him mindlessly. Self-defense was me. Self-preservation was me.
This was part of the game. I hated that Victor could know me so well.
Fucking bastard.
I was about to release the trigger when I suddenly imagined Amelia’s beautiful face. Days ago, when we were at my place, I’d talked about changing. Then it became evident that I couldn’t, but that was different to this. I wasn’t telling her I couldn’t change for her. I was saying I needed to do whatever I could to protect her, and I would.
I saw her beautiful face looming before me in my mind’s eye, and it stopped me from pulling the trigger.
Instead of firing the shot I was nigh of releasing, I turned and walked away, letting the fool live.
However…
My years of experience kicked in. That clicking sound.
Click-clack…
That was all I needed to hear. I snapped around quicker than he could release the trigger and fired a bullet straight between his eyes.
Self-defense, self-preservation.
It was different.
I watched him go down. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he crumpled as blood gushed from the wound.
I took out my phone and called the number for the cleanup crew.
Chapter 6
Amelia
I didn’t think he would answer the phone.
It rang out the first time and went through to voicemail. I could have given up and left a message, but I needed to speak to him.
Sinclaire needed to hear what was happening from me, what had happened.
I called again, and that was when he answered on the second ring.
“Taylor?” His voice sounded strange, faraway, and the name Taylor felt odd, reminding me of the fact I’d been a lie to a man who truly was my friend.
“Sinclaire, it’s me, yes.” The last time we spoke, he’d told me he was done with me. He found out about Luc, knew he was basically a fraud, and then came to my house only to find Luc leaving.
The worst thing was that the night before, Sinclaire had kissed me. My head was as crazy and foggy now as it was back then. One thing that was certain though was, I needed to bring the skeletons out of the closet.
“How’ve you been?” he asked.
“Not that great. Can I talk to you?” I sat on the window ledge in my bedroom and gazed outside looking at Dante and Gio, who were walking around on the front lawn. More guys were called in on the premises after Victor had been sighted.
“We’re talking, aren’t we?” Again, he sounded so distant and cold. It was understandable.
“Sinclaire, a lot has happened over the last few weeks. More than that.”
“Tell me about it. It’s been awhile since Roose approved vacation leave for three members of our team to be away at once.”
God, that’s what he thought.
“Yes, it must be hectic.” I didn’t know what the hell to say next.
“It’s pretty quiet with Jefferson and Holloway gone.”
Gone.
They were dead. Both of them, and I didn’t know how I was supposed to tell him that, and shit, anyone could have been tapping into this line right now and listening in. I could put him in danger by saying too much.
I never thought this through. I released a slow thoughtful breath and ran a hand through my hair.
“Sinclaire, please take care of yourself.” That was the best that I could say.
“What? You called me to tell me to take care of myself? That’s rich. Are you shacked up with the mobster?” His voice boomed across the line harsh and raw.
“Please, take care of yourself, and if you don’t mind, could you check in on Gigi?”
“Amelia…” That was strange, him calling me that too. He never did. “You sound weak… What’s going on?” He knew something was wrong.
He knew me well enough to know when things weren’t okay. It was nice to know that even when he was mad as hell with me and probably wanted nothing to do with me he still cared.
I paused for a moment to contemplate what I could say to him. “I never told you this. But I think you’re the only person I ever truly trusted wholeheartedly. I never told you much, but I didn’t need to. I don’t even think that I trusted Max or Gigi the way I trusted you.”
“What’s going on? Has he done something to you?” Worry was heavy in his tone.
“No, he would never. I just need you to promise me you’ll take care of yourself.” I thought of something. We had a code from when we were in trouble but dealing with the situation. “Be like a golden eagle riding on a horse.”
He went quiet knowing instantly what I meant.
“Amelia.”
“Goodbye, Brad.” That was his name.
I hung up before he could respond and turned to put my phone back in my bag.
I froze, though, when I saw Luc standing in the doorway. Hurt washed over his face. Hurt and something else I couldn’t describe.
I didn’t need to be told that the hurt on his face had to be down to him catching what I’d said to Sinclaire. I didn’t know how long he’d been standing there, but I knew he must have heard that last part.
He must have heard me, must have heard every word I’d said to Sinclaire.
I knew the part that would have gotten him the most. It was when I’d said I trusted Sinclaire wholeheartedly.
My conversation wasn’t long, but it was enough.
Luc walked up to me. The phone started ringing in my hands. Sinclaire was trying to call back. I placed the phone on the bed, and we both watched it ring out.
Luc reached out and cupped my face. Looking deep into my eyes, he looked like he was searching for something. Then he dropped his hands to his sides.
“Pack a small bag.” He breathed ragged.
“What? What happened?” Something had happened. “Did you find something? Victor was here.”
“I know, goddess. Please, just pack a bag.”
“Where are we going?”
“I need normal. I need normal for a few hours. I need that with you. I can’t… Please, just pack a bag.”
What happened to him?
He looked me over, and his bottom lip trembled.
“My dad. I need to see if he’s okay.” I pointed to the door.
“He’ll be fine. Someone will stay here and watch the place.”
“You said we should stay here, you said that—”
“Fuck!!! Fuck, Amelia, please,” he cried. “Just pack a fucking bag and come with me.”
If I was worried before, I was scared now. Luc had never spoken to me like that before, and he’d never looked like this either. What came next shocked me even more.
A tear ran down his cheek, and he quickly wiped it away.
“What’s going on in here?” Claudius asked from the door.
He looked in at us, gun at the ready.
“We’re leaving for the day,” Luc told him. He turned to face Claudius with a sneer on his face.
“Leaving to go where, Lucian?”
“Home. It’s where I’d have my girl with me if this shit weren’t happening. We wouldn’t be cooped up in here in Raphael’s house. Fucking Raphael. Fuck him. Fuck him, Claudius. Son of a bitch, fucking son of a bitch always thinks he knows what he’s doing, but he’s wrong. This time, he messed with the wrong people, and we have to suffer.”
“What happened?” Claudius asked in a controlled, even tone. I was surprised at the way he was able to keep his cool because clearly, Luc had cracked.
Whatever these guys had done had cracked him and made him lose it.
Luc opened his mouth to answer and closed it again. He starte
d again and sighed. He then walked over to Claudius and stopped to rest his hands on the door frame.
Claudius placed his hands on Luc’s shoulders and stared him straight in the eyes.
“What happened, brother? You tell me.”
“Lydia, Henry’s wife. A goon sent a message from Victor to me, letting me know Victor raped her first and made Henry watch. He made him watch that happen to her. Then he cut off her foot and ate it.”
I had to press my lips together to hold in the shock that coursed through me.
Luc had told me what happened to Henry and his family. It was awful, and it made me feel sick, but this …
Claudius looked thrown too, but he released Luc, and understanding washed over his face.
“I can’t let that happen to my girl. It won’t. He would have to kill me first. Cut my head off, and even then, I would come back to protect her.” More tears ran down Luc’s cheek, and his words gripped me.
He was right in what he’d said earlier. They all were. This was above me, and it started with Dad.
It was above all of us because I didn’t think anyone here was used to dealing with a psychotic madman who had the power to mess with a guy like Luc, and from the expression on Claudius’ face, I could tell Victor had reached him too.
“Claudius, you’re a better man than me, but I can’t be helpless, not like this. I can’t let someone I love die. You know what I mean. You’d do the same if it were her, if you could bring her back.”
When Claudius nodded with understanding, I realized there was something they were talking about that I wasn’t privy to.
“One night. Then you come back here.” Claudius held up a finger.
“Claudius—”
“One night, and you come back here with your plan of what you want to do.”
Luc sighed, looked back to me and reached out his hand. “Doll.”
I picked up my purse thinking it was best to take it.
I moved to him, took his hand and looked at Claudius as Luc took me away.
He gave me a curt nod of reassurance that I held on to.
It was one that told me I needed to up my game too and be strong. Somehow, some way, I needed strength.
Mafia Love (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 3) Page 5