Lucca’s eyes drifted over to her before they had to return to the road. His tone changed, becoming even more serious than he already was. “Why?”
Looking down at her feet on the floorboard, she told him all she could, “He just needs me.”
Nodding in understanding, he acknowledged her but didn’t give her any false promises.
Thankful when he pulled into her driveway and parked, she almost couldn’t get out of the car fast enough, but the boogieman didn’t let her go that easily.
He dropped his voice an octave and gave her his final words. “Don’t prove him right by being exactly how he thought you’d be, Katarina.”
Swallowing what had risen in her throat, she got out of the car and slammed the door shut, knowing she had done just that. Proved the Luciano blood was tainted, and that we’re nothing but trash.
Dominic came out on the front porch. “What’d you do?” he asked, seeing Lucca had gotten out of the car to lean up against it to smoke a cigarette, knowing it must have been bad for him to drop her off.
“I gave him hell,” she told him as she stomped onto the porch.
Dominic stared at her for a second before he proudly smiled, raising his hand as she passed for a high five. “That’s my girl.”
Pushing the curtain out of the way when she entered the house, she looked out the window and watched her brother talk with Lucca.
“Why is he here?” Matthias asked after coming over to see what she was looking at.
“I may or may not have done something bad.”
Matthias got a nervous look in his eyes.
“What’d you do?” Cassius asked, coming up behind her.
“I took a baseball bat to Drago’s apartment.”
“Badass.” Her little brother took a glance at the two outside before he walked away.
Her other brother, however, looked like he was going to be sick.
Kat knew it was because Angel was still in their grasp. “It’s going to be all right.” Now, her stomach turned. Seeing him like this made her feel remorse. “Dominic always makes everything better.” At least she hoped and prayed. For his sake, not hers.
“Did you see him?” he solemnly asked.
Her mouth ran dry, wishing he had forgotten to ask while she nodded her head.
The lightness in his eyes finally returned. “How is he?”
Never in a million years could she have the heart to tell him the truth. To tell him that while he sat here dying a little more every day, the one who was captured was surviving just fine without him. “He’s okay.”
And just like that, the light evaporated from his eyes.
Grabbing his hand, she gave it a squeeze, knowing he needed to hear something, anything to feel closer to his twin. Kat needed to reassure him his brother was still just that, his brother. Even if it meant she had to lie. “He misses you.”
That was all he needed to return the light and give him hope. She wondered what would happen to Matthias… when he realized all hope was gone.
* * *
Drago was still heated when he was called into Lucca’s office, and he knew fucking exactly what he wanted to talk about. About that little psycho math witch.
“The deal will not work if you mistreat her,” Lucca told him with a puff of smoke escaping from his lips.
Was he hearing him fucking right? “Me, mistreat her?!”
“Yes.” His underboss was harsh, knowing exactly what he had done.
The truth was, it was hard for him to admit it. He didn’t have a damn reason not to like that cute pink-haired smartass, except for the last name she carried, and that scared the fuck out of him. As bad as it sounded, the only way this worked for him was if he hated her.
He had excused himself to the bathroom because he felt something different under the itching of his skin. Making him take a hard look at himself in the mirror, knowing when he came out, he needed to be who he truly was to her, a fucking asshole. Or that itch just might never go away.
Lucca could probably see the turmoil going on in his head. “What do you want to do, Drago?”
It was tempting to tell him to hell with Katarina and choose someone, anyone else from the Luciano family, but the man inside of him they had killed knew there was only one choice to satiate his need for revenge. At least that was what he was going to choose to believe… for now.
“You can choose someone e—”
“No.” Drago stopped his underboss right there with a boom from his chest. There was going to be no going back anymore, or what ifs. This was it. “Katarina is mine.”
* * *
Kat sat up in bed when the light entered her room and her oldest brother came in. When she saw the worried lines on his face by the glowing light, her heart sank for him.
Taking a seat on the edge of her bed, he gave her his back, unable to look at her. She was unsure of how many minutes had passed when he finally spoke into the darkness. “Did I ever tell you about when I first saw you?”
She pulled her knees to her chest, not recalling if he had or not. “I don’t think so.”
“You were the fucking cutest, chubbiest baby. I thought there was no way you were my sister because I couldn’t believe he created you.”
Kat smiled, beginning to listen…
…Almost every night was the same for the eleven-year-old. Every night, he would sit down with his father at the kitchen table, and while Lucifer counted his money, Dominic cleaned the guns knowing each one almost inside and out. However, this night was different.
The banging on the door started when the final gun had been racked, and when his father didn’t make a move, Dominic got up to answer it. He almost missed it at first, seeing no one standing on the other side of the door, but then he saw something squirm at the bottom of his feet, and finally, he knew what lay on the porch. “Dad….”
“What is it?” Lucifer asked, getting up from the kitchen table. He only looked at the thing for a second before he headed back to his seat. “Get rid of it.”
Looking down at the snuggled-up contents, he picked up the pink blanket that was wrapped around a beautiful baby girl. The blond hair on her head had him wondering why in all the houses in Kansas City they had picked this one, but when his eyes met her black ones, there was no denying it. Taking her in the warm house, he glanced at his father. “Is she yo—”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
Dominic had to think for a minute…. “I think there’s some baby stuff still in the basement.”
“I said to get fucking rid of it,” Lucifer demanded with his hot tongue.
“But it’s dark and cold outside.”
The devilish man abruptly stood, going for the baby. “Fine, I will.”
“No.” The young boy did his best to match his father’s tone. “Let her stay for the night, then I can in the morning.”
His father stared at him with that crazed look in his eye before he threatened him, “I better not see or hear that thing, do you understand?”
Nodding his head, he quickly walked to the basement door to get her out of sight before the devil changed his mind.
The six-year-old twin brothers followed closely behind, wanting to follow their brother instead of being alone with their father.
“What is it?” Angel asked when they reached the bottom of the steps into the cold basement.
“Hold out your arms, strong arms, strong arms,” he coached him as he placed the chunky baby in his little arms. “It’s your baby sister.”
Matthias looked at the pink bundle in his twin’s arms. “Our sister?”
“Yes.” Dominic began pulling a wooden cage into the middle of the room, then dusting it off as best as he could before going back to his brothers. He bent over, meeting them eye to eye, getting their full attention. “And we have to protect her. Can you help me with that?”
Angel was the first to bravely nod his head, then Matthias followed.
Picking her up and placing her in the old crib all the Luciano broth
ers had used, Dominic figured she was about a year old or so by remembering how the twins had looked when they were younger.
He’d been trying to keep his brothers alive since he was five years old, and he hoped he could do it again, but something told him this time was going to be different considering this one was a girl. Lucifer wanted an army, grooming his boys since birth into men who would one day control the city. The only women in his life were the many he used to try and fulfill those dreams, throwing them away when they never got pregnant or if it wasn’t a boy in her belly.
There was no place in Lucifer’s world for a girl. Let alone a baby girl.
Angel looked up at him with almost the same dark eyes she carried. “What’s her name?”
Reaching down when she twisted the blanket open, he touched the chubby baby’s onesie that was light pink and covered in cute little cats. He heard a name before somewhere, unsure if it was on TV or in a book, but he had liked it, thinking from time to time of the beautiful name when he had been reminded of it.
“Katarina.”…
…There was no one on this earth she loved more than her oldest brother, Dominic. He had always been and still was her savior, but in her heart, she knew then he could no longer save her.
It was a beautiful story, but that wasn’t why he had come in here…. “He still wants me, doesn’t he?”
“I’m so sorry, Kat.” Dominic’s head fell in his hands. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Eleven
The Princess is out of Her Castle
“This sucks.” She slammed down a pile of her clothes in a box. She had been packing all her shit up for the last day. Basically, just her personal items she couldn’t live without, her makeup, and her clothes. She would leave some of her stuff here for when she visited. “Wait, I won’t be like Angel, will I?”
“Who are you talking to?” Cassius asked coming into her room.
“Just my Shadow.”
“All right.” Her youngest brother looked at her like she was crazy. “There’s some hot girl for you.”
What did he just say? “Huh?”
“Some hot girl showed up at our door to see you. I think she’s a Caruso ’cause she showed up with a suit. Better hurry though. Matthias won’t stop staring at her, and it seems like Dominic hates her.”
“Oh God.” Kat dropped whatever was in her hands knowing exactly who it was. Flying out her door, she went into the living room to see the tall-legged blonde. “Maria?”
* * *
Five minutes earlier…
Knocking on the Luciano front door gave her pleasure. She loved ruining someone’s day.
When the door flew open, she was greeted with Angel’s other half. They might have looked like the same person, but they couldn’t have been more opposite. Whereas she was beginning to like Angel, this one, however….
“Hey, princess.” The head-to-toe inked brother smiled as his eyes traveled down her body.
I did not. That mask he put on the second he opened the door and saw it was her, she couldn’t miss. Matthias put on a façade fooling those around him, but he didn’t fool her for a second. She could see right through that mask for what he was… broken.
Todd, her bodyguard, barreled through the door pushing the twin out of the way to check the house before she went in.
“Who the fuck are you?” Dominic stood when he entered.
Maria steeped into the house before Todd got killed. “He’s with me.”
This time, it was Dominic whose eyes went down the length of her tall body, taking in her high heels, short dress, and fur coat. “Why the hell are you here?”
It’d had been a long time since she had seen the oldest Luciano brother. At the time, she hadn’t been a woman, so she hadn’t taken a good look at him. Now, as she took in his appearance, he looked much different than the twins and Kat. Whereas they were pale with gray eyes that were almost black, Dominic had tanned skin that matched his chocolate hair and set off the brown in his hazel eyes, but it was the beautiful green in them that made them sparkle.
“I, um—” She had to think a minute what it was exactly she came for. “To see Kat.”
“And what do you want with her?” He crossed his strong arms over his chest.
“Well, I thought she needed a wedding dress.” Maria raised a perfectly manicured brow. “Doesn’t she?”
“Cassius.”
She turned her head when a young boy stood up from the couch. He looked as if he was Dominic’s Mini-Me. Both brothers baring no resemblance to their father.
“Go get Kat,” Dominic ordered without looking away from the blonde.
Staring at the little Luciano for a moment longer, she tilted her head to the side, seeing something different in the boy that was… almost reminiscent… but then he walked away.
“Can I take your coat?” Matthias asked, clearly wanting to see her without the long thing as he reached to help her out of it.
“Touch me, and I’ll kill you,” she threatened with the sweetest smile.
Matthias didn’t take a step closer, somehow knowing that smile was an act.
The oldest brother, however, took a step toward her, unafraid of her or the bodyguard she’d come with. “Does Lucca know the princess is out of her castle?”
That smile didn’t disappear from her face. “Do you think I would be here if he did?”
“Certainly not.” He looked at the suit that came with her. “If this is the one who brought you.”
It took a minute before Todd realized he’d been insulted.
His hazel eyes moved back to her. “I hope the poor sucker knows whatever you promised him won’t be worth it by the time Lucca gets done with him.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Placing a tall heel in front of the other, she made the distance between them that much smaller. “It can be our little secret.”
Most men on this earth weren’t worth a second glance, but this time, she finally let her eyes glance down his body. For some reason he was different than she expected. She thought he’d be weak since agreeing to all the Caruso terms, but now she could see that might not be the case at all…
Out of all the Luciano brothers, this one, she liked. A lot.
* * *
“What are you doing here?” Kat asked when the Caruso girl didn’t stop the stare-off she was having with her oldest brother.
Finally, after another moment, she broke their eye contact. “I thought you might want a wedding dress for when you walk down the aisle.”
“I have a white dress, but it’s shor—”
“Absolutely not.” Maria stopped her right there before she could finish the word. She looked flat-out offended. “I am taking you shopping right now.”
“O-Okay,” Katarina agreed, afraid if she didn’t, the girl might cut her head off. She couldn’t have cared less if she walked down in what she was wearing right now, but she damn sure wasn’t about to tell her that.
“I’m going with you,” Dominic announced, grabbing his coat. “Matthias, you stay here with Cassius.”
Matthias, who was grabbing his jacket too, looked defeated.
“That won’t be necces—”
Dominic raised his hand, cutting her off. “I’m not having Lucca find out I let you two go alone with this fucking idiot.”
Again, it took Todd forever to figure out he was talking about him. “Excuse m—”
“Fine,” Maria agreed.
She picked up her fur-lined leather jacket, and they all headed out the door, leaving Cassius and a heartbroken Matthias behind.
When he saw the Cadillac they’d showed up in, Dom stopped in his tracks. “You know what, Ted—”
“Todd,” Maria corrected.
“Todd,” he repeated the correct name, getting the Caruso’s guard’s attention. “How about you go home, and we can all just pretend Maria snuck out by herself. I think we both know I won’t touch a pretty blond hair on her head because of what Lucca would do to m
e if he found out I did. I’m sure it’s going to be similar to what he’s going to fucking do to you if you don’t leave.”
Her bodyguard’s face went pale as she waved him to go, and he left running. “Bye, Todd.”
Well, he’ll be dead soon.
As she walked toward her brother’s car, the cold February air hit her face on a gust of wind. She looked at what the blonde was wearing. “Aren’t you cold?”
It was Dominic who answered her. “You can’t feel cold if your heart is dead.” Giving a deadly smile to the golden goddess, he opened the passenger door of his blacked-out Mustang for her. “Isn’t that right, princess?”
Did he just…. She was going to have one of her talks with Cassius tonight about how boys can show their feelings to girls in many different ways.
Dominic didn’t hate her… He fucking liked her.
Twelve
The Right One
“Um, where are we going?” she asked when Maria started walking into the expensive department store side of the mall. The side she never visited because it was ridiculously priced and outrageously stupid.
“I told you, finding a wedding dress.”
She began looking around at the nudes and golds everywhere on display and how spaced out everything was from another ridiculously priced item before she planted her feet firmly on the ground. “Not from here, we’re not.”
“Yes, we are,” she stated, clearly daring Kat to no longer challenge her about it while she grabbed her arm to get her to move. “A girl only gets to walk down the aisle for the first time once. So, it has to be designer.”
“Princess has a point.” This time, Dominic grabbed her other arm, pulling her along.
“Fine.” She reluctantly let them drag her along thinking if Dom had said it was ok— Wait. “Did you just say, for the first time once?”
Still pulling her along, she didn’t even hesitate to speak. “I’m thinking my third husband after the first two mysteriously died will be the right one.”
Drago: Made Men, #6 Page 5