by Lux Miller
I pat Dante’s hand gently. “Breathe Captain Courageous. How’s married life treating you.”
Dante shrugs. “Pretty good, but apparently not as well as it’s treated the two of you. You’re both glowing, so either you ate something radioactive in Hawai’i, had a whole lot of sex, or you got to finally get some sun.”
I glance down at my arms that are noticeably tanner than when we left for Hawai’i and nod. “At least two out of three. Jury’s still out on the radioactive fish.”
Luca smiles and kisses the top of my head. “We’re getting off topic here, but while we’re on the topic of our vacation, Emily was able to catch up with some family while we were there. A couple cousins, her grandmother, and one very big secret that was so well kept, we’d no idea of its existence. But her grandmother had this…”
Luca unrolls a document and hands it over to Dante. I realize what it is about five seconds before Dante nearly drops it. “You’re shitting me!”
I shake my head quickly. “That isn’t the name I ever knew him by, but apparently that’s his birth name and one that anyone who’s been around your family long enough would recognize. It was also apparently my name until he changed it to hide from someone who was looking for him. Someone who hated your father as much as they hated mine.”
I breathe out a breath and dig into my small purse, where I have stowed the Ace of Spades card that had been mailed to my grandmother all those years ago. I hand the card to Dante, and his eyes grow wide. “That was apparently found with his body when he was killed in what I thought was a shakedown over gambling debts. As it turns out, he was murdered in a hit that was almost certainly called by Daniel Parker. The same man who killed Mandy. The same man behind the murders of multiple associates and prostitutes. And the same man who tried to personally rape and kill me, and absolutely would’ve killed Luca if not for Mike… this man is evil. Not one person in la famiglia is an innocent, myself included, but Daniel Parker has to go. He can’t be allowed to rot in prison where he can still pull strings on the outside. Your grandfather commanded the mafia from Angola… what makes you think Parker won’t do the same?”
Luca nods in agreement. “I agree with my wife. Parker has to be eliminated… at any cost. The survival of la famiglia depends on destroying him. And I know that I have a mountain of work that needs to be done, but first, I need to do something for Emily.”
I gasp and look up at him, surprise on my face. “What could be more important than planning your attack on Parker?”
Luca smiles slightly and grabs my hands. “Your father…”
I shake my head slowly. “Luca, he’s gone.”
Luca nods, bringing both of his hands up to my cheeks. He leans in and kisses me passionately and deeply, and by the time he pulls away, I’m nearly breathless. My chest heaves as I gulp in the air around me. Luca strokes his thumbs over my cheeks as he makes eye contact with me. “Emily… I know who he was, now.”
I nod stupidly. “We all do, Luca. Maybe we did get some radioactive fish or some bad sushi.”
Luca chuckles and shakes his head as a clap of thunder rumbles outside the airport and a flash of lightning zips across the sky outside the window behind Luca’s head. “Emily… I know where he is…and I can take you there.”
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Coming soon on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.
Dante Barresi. We’ve known each other our entire lives. I have loved him, I have hated him, I have needed him, and I’ve wanted to kill him. And not necessarily in that order. Every time the dangerously brooding man comes back into my life, someone gets hurt. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Now Dante is a powerful man in the New Orleans underground and I should have run screaming for the hills when the only man I’ve ever loved demanded a favor from my father, the police chief of New Orleans. Instead, I’m married to the mob and to the only man in this world with enough power over me to either save me… or destroy me…