by Mia Taylor
“You broke the door of my restaurant,” Gio growled but Luca could see resignation in his glittering black eyes.
“You’re worried about a goddamn door? Take it out of my cut. I’d be more concerned about having your establishment known as the rape capital of Miami. That girl was brand new to the city. This was her first impression.”
Giovanni relented slightly, perhaps noting the seriousness of what Luca was saying.
Sure. He wouldn’t want something cutting into his bottom line, after all. Of course he hears me now that it might affect his income.
“Calm down, figlio,” Gio sighed. “You’ve had a long day. I will take care of Augusto. Go home and rest up.”
“No!” Luca snarled. “You have no control over that piece of shit. You give him a slap on the wrist and he continues to act however the hell he wants. It stops here. I don’t want him, Gio. If you keep him under me, I swear to God, I will make his life more miserable than if he was dead.”
“What did you say to me?” Gio’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Say it again.”
Luca knew he had crossed a line but he could not shake the image of the trembling girl from his mind.
If I had been five more minutes or if I hadn’t picked up on Tanya’s hint, Teresa would just be another missing girl right now. Or worse.
Luca knew it went beyond the general loathing he had for August in that instance.
Tanya had been right; Teresa Milano reminded him of Mara but not in any way he could easily identify.
They both had the same luxuriant black hair but that was where the similarities ended.
Mara had been coffee-eyed while Teresa’s irises were an almost ethereal blue.
Mara was short while Teresa was long-legged, something he had noticed beneath the flattering red dress.
Jesus Christ. I was checking out a victim of an attack.
But he could not shake the feeling that he knew Teresa from before, like they had been aligned in some other life somehow.
Or that she is somehow connected to Mara.
Luca shoved the idea of his former girlfriend far from his mind, focusing his attention back on Giovanni, who was almost frothing at the mouth.
“I love you, Luca,” Giovanni hissed. “If I had a son, I would want him to be like you.”
Luca waited for the disqualifier to his boss’ words.
But… he added with silent smugness.
“But make no mistake about who you’re talking to. I will end you the same way I made you, capisce?”
Luca gritted his teeth, knowing that Gio did not make idle threats, but anger was bubbling in his stomach, giving him a slight indigestion.
Don’t push the old man. He is not known for his patience. You’re already skating on thin ice with him.
“I can’t work like this,” Luca said simply, somehow collecting his words in a rational, even tone. “Get him out of my sight and put a muzzle on him. You can only cover for him for so long before it all comes toppling down.”
“I said I would deal with him.” There was a finality to Gio’s words and Luca knew he’d taken the conversation as far as it would go.
Either the old man will do the right thing or I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.
Their gazes locked in a silent battle of wills but Luca wisely averted his eyes first. There was no point in antagonizing the don any further.
He had spoken his piece.
“Is Augusto still in the basement?” Giovanni called as Luca turned to leave.
“He better be if Frank and Tommy know what’s good for them.”
Gio grunted but he didn’t stop Luca from leaving the restaurant.
At the back entrance, Tommy jumped to attention as Luca stormed outside, slamming the fire door in his wake.
“Luca, I swear, we didn’t know—”
“Shut up!” His voice was like whiplash and seemed to have a physical impact on Tommy, who reeled back. It was the first time that Tommy or Frank had ever seen him shift, even though they had heard rumors of his capabilities. The two soldiers were still coming to terms of the reality that their immediate boss was a dragon, capable of terrors beyond their imagination.
“You are just as disgusting as August,” Luca spat, unlocking his car. “Get out of my face. I’m gonna deal with your ass later.”
Tommy did not respond, which was to his benefit, because Luca was sure if the weasel had spoken, he would have pinned him to the alleyway with his Saab and set him on fire with his breath.
As he drove back up I-1 toward Edgewater and home to his rented house, he hoped that his nerves would still, but it seemed like the closer he got to his place, the worse he felt.
I just want this day to be over already.
But Luca wanted something else.
He wanted to travel back into the downtown core and return to Teresa’s apartment. He wanted to sit outside and keep watch over her, not so much because he worried that August would find her, but because he just wanted to be near her.
You’re exhausted and your brain is melting. You stay away from that girl and mind your own damned business. You shouldn’t have even given her your card. That was a rookie thing to do.
Yet somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to care.
Luca pulled into his driveway and jumped out of the coupe, not wanting to spend one more second inside the vehicle.
He had done enough wallowing in his car for one day.
The last thing he wanted to do was remember Mara and thinking of Teresa Milano made him do exactly that.
I shouldn’t have left her my number, he thought, shaking his head as he made his way up the walkway toward the front door.
Luca reasoned that the girl would never use it. She had no cause to trust him, even if he had saved her from the attack.
She’ll probably be on the first plane back to Richmond tonight.
The idea filled him with a sense of melancholy, as if he had lost something he never had.
Go to sleep, stronzo. You’re going to need all the energy you can get to deal with the aftermath of this shitshow and the mess with the shipments tomorrow. Forget about Teresa Milano.
Luca knew it was easier said than done.
~ ~ ~
“How do I look?”
He gazed at her sleepily from the bed, licking his lips as she sashayed around the bed in the dress on the balls of her feet.
“You look like a model,” he replied, grinning as his hand moved toward his crotch, adjusting his morning wood. “Or like Nicki Minaj.”
Mara scowled at him, spinning away to re-examine herself in the full-length mirror.
“Would it kill you to pay a decent compliment occasionally or does everything have to be backhanded with you?”
He tensed at her tone, knowing they were in for another blow out.
“I was paying you a compliment. You know how many people want to sleep with Nicki Minaj?”
Mara scoffed and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door.
His erection disappeared as a familiar stress built in his shoulders.
Something was going on, he could sense it. For weeks she had been acting strangely, not being where she said she would be.
He had not resorted to having her followed yet, but he was getting very close to that place.
“Come on, babe,” he yelled out to her. “Let me see it again.”
“Why? So you can insult me again?”
She’s picking a fight. That’s another thing she’s been doing lately. Something is up with her. I can smell it.
Luca slipped from the bed naked and sauntered toward the bathroom door, his hand on the knob. It was locked.
“Open the door, Mara,” he growled, his amusement becoming anger.
“No!” she snapped. “Leave me alone!”
He pounded on the door.
“Mara, open the goddamn door,” he snarled. “Or I’m going to bust it down.”
“Screw off, Luca,” she retorted.
&nbs
p; The words sent a spark of rage through him and before he could stop himself, his foot lashed out, splintering the frame of the door.
Mara choked and gasped, her cell phone falling from her hand as she jumped up from the toilet seat cover.
“Luca!” she screamed.
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one!” she panted, reaching for the phone, but Luca kicked it out of her reach, snapping it up before she could touch it.
A red film covered his eyes as he grabbed for the fallen device, reading the texts on the screen.
As if in slow motion, he lifted his head and stared at her, his breath catching in his chest.
“What is this?”
Her lips parted but no words came out…
The alarm chimed in his ear, causing him to start.
Luca lifted his head, swallowing the lump in his throat.
He snatched the cell and turned off the incessant dinging, dropping his head back to the pillow, his breathing jagged.
Goddamn it, Mara, he thought, his head beginning to pound.
He rose, his head throbbing now as he thought about what the day held in store for him.
A part of him just wanted to crawl back into bed and turn off his phone but that wasn’t an option.
He was a caporegime.
Dad would be so proud, he thought bitterly, making his way to the bathroom.
It wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning and he was already miserable. He didn’t have high hopes for the day.
Sticking a toothbrush in his mouth, he studied his face dispassionately.
Mara’s face turned opaque with fear, her arms raised as he approached, hurling the cell at the wall over the toilet.
“Luca, please!” she squealed. “Please calm down!”
“Calm down?” he echoed. “Calm down? What the hell is this? You’ve been lying to me, to everyone!”
“I can explain!”
“There is no explanation for this,” he breathed.
Slowly, he turned to look at himself in the mirror but he didn’t recognize the face staring back at him.
His eyes bulged from their sockets, his dark waves an unkempt mess around his livid face.
In that moment, he wasn’t sure what he was capable of.
Luca shuddered and wrenched his gaze from his reflection, half spitting and half gagging into the sink.
Damn you, Mara. Stop haunting me! It’s been three goddamn years.
But as he rinsed out his mouth, trying to get his head on straight, he knew what had happened to Mara would stay with him forever.
The image of her cowering in the bathroom was alive and well in his head.
Because it was not a nightmare; it was a memory.
Chapter Six
Who to Trust
“Detective, I have to tell him you’re—” the receptionist tried to say, but Angela was already ignoring her. Without permitting the desk manager to finish her sentence, she stormed into Agent Duggan’s office.
The huge, bird-like man was on the phone, his eyes widening in disbelief when he saw her.
“I’ll call you back,” he said, dropping the receiver into the cradle. “Angela, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
The innocence in his questions only infuriated her more.
“Really?” she snapped angrily. “Really, you’re asking me what I’m doing here? Really?”
His brow furrowed and he sat back in his chair, making a steeple out of his hands.
“Angela, I know you’re new to undercover work, but there is protocol, one I thought we had gone through. It’s dangerous for you to come here like this.”
“There is also supposed to be a level of protection. I seem to remember covering that too,” she snapped. “What the hell happened last night?”
Duggan shifted his eyes away and Angela felt a frisson of shock course through her body.
He knows what I’m talking about too! They were listening and they didn’t intervene!
Her gut swam with bile, knowing that they would have allowed her to be assaulted without lifting a finger to do anything.
“You were okay,” he said. “We had eyes on you. You should have called me when you got in.”
“I couldn’t call you!” she yelled. “Luca Gallo popped by to see how I was doing.”
“What?”
The news seemed to genuinely surprise him.
“Well, when my team failed me, Luca stopped August DiFranco from doing God knows what. So, thanks for that.”
Duggan leaned forward with interest, his eyes shining.
“He came by your apartment? When? What did he say?”
“You didn’t pick any of that up on the wires?”
It was Angela’s turn to be confused.
Were they even listening or watching? What kind of half-assed operation did I walk into here?
“Never mind,” she sighed, whirling around. “In the future, I expect a little reinforcement if I’m getting attacked.”
“We wouldn’t have let anything happen to you,” he insisted, but Angela was not sure she believed him. “But sometimes we just have to let things play out to keep the integrity of the operation.”
Angela whirled back around, gaping at him in shock.
“What the hell does that mean?” she yelled. “Me getting attacked is all part of the plan? It’s for the greater good?”
“Of course not!” Duggan gasped but Angela could detect a note of dishonesty in his tone.
“Christ, this is messed up,” Angela swore. “No wonder Val got killed. You guys don’t know your asses from your elbows. And you think the police are incompetent. I have never seen a shitshow like this one.”
“Hey!” Duggan snapped. “Whatever happened to your cousin had nothing to do with us.”
“Yeah, well, sorry if I don’t believe you. Have you considered that August DiFranco had anything to do with her disappearance? Maybe she was one of his victims. He’s been at this game for years.”
“August didn’t join Luca’s crew until the following year,” Duggan sighed. “He wasn’t even in Miami at the time.”
Why am I having a hard time believing anything that’s coming out of your mouth right now?
Angela grunted in frustration and threw open the door to the office.
“Angela!”
“What?”
“Don’t come here again. You’re endangering yourself,” Duggan warned.
She snickered.
“All of a sudden you’re worried about my safety?” she spat. “Thanks for the tip.”
She was gone before Duggan could respond, making her way out of the FBI office with even more irritation than when she’d come. She didn’t bother with the elevators; the pent-up anxiety in her blood needed to be expelled and she reasoned that exercise was one way to burn it off.
All night she had paced around the apartment, debating what to do.
She half-expected Luca to return or for an agent to knock on her door and take her to safety.
Grabbing the burner phone connecting her to Duggan, she thought about calling him, but she couldn’t understand why no one had reached out to her.
A sea of confusion washed through her until the early light of dawn made one thing perfectly clear: the only person who had shown her an iota of concern was the man she feared was responsible for her cousin’s disappearance.
Her consternation was replaced by a burning anger toward the FBI and by the time the sun had fully risen, Angela had stormed into Duggan’s office.
Now I’m even more messed up than before, she thought. How come they didn’t know that Luca Gallo had come to my apartment last night? I thought the place was wired. I thought I was wired. He seemed to know about what happened at La Perla but not afterward?
It could only mean one of two things: either no one had been watching her the previous night or she was not as wired as she thought.
That’s ridiculous. What possible benefit could there be for throwin
g me in blind? It doesn’t help them in the least.
She was getting a headache thinking about any of it.
I need to go home and get some sleep. When I get up, I’ll figure out a new plan of attack since hanging out at La Perla didn’t work.
Hailing a cab down the street from the FBI building, she weighed her options.
As far as she could tell, there was only one thing to do: have a nap, take a shower, and call Luca Gallo.
~ ~ ~
Of course, she couldn’t sleep when she returned to her apartment and she stalked about the small unit, toying with the business card Luca had given her.
I have to come up with a good story for calling. I can’t just play damsel in distress… can I?
Angela wondered why not.
True, it was a foreign concept to her, but it might work in this case. Luca had already saved her once and it would give her the upper hand if he thought her weak.
But there was something in his eyes which told her he didn’t respond well to vapid, ditzy women.
And you don’t want to give him the impression that you’re hitting on him.
She wasn’t naïve. She knew that there were going to be parts of the job which would push her limits in various directions, but she didn’t want to encourage anything if she could avoid it.
Imagine sleeping with my cousin’s killer.
Angela tried to muster a shiver of revulsion at the thought but oddly, it did not come.
Instead, she thought of what his piercing green eyes would feel like, boring into hers as he mounted her.
What the hell is wrong with you? she yelled at herself. He’s handsome but he’s not that handsome!
She wondered why she was lying to herself. The burning attraction she felt toward him was unmistakable and accompanied by an equal amount of red-hot shame.
If he was not the target of her investigation, she would be throwing her panties at him, guaranteed, and the idea worried her.
Jesus Christ, Ang, keep your shit together. Find a booty call if you must, but stay away from Luca Gallo like that. You have no idea what he’s capable of.