Chapter 20
Vegas Bound
Luca sat in the passenger seat with one arm resting on the door with conflicted thoughts stuck in his mind. Roy’s Cyber truck zipped past other cars on the freeway effortlessly with Rod Wave’s latest album on blast. Vegas waited ahead of them.
Luca and Roy had things plotted out thoroughly. Men awaited their arrival with their eyes glued from a distance on Lennox’s main headquarters. After all the plotting and thoroughly proclaiming war with his uncle, Luca found himself sleepless every night.
He thought it would be easy to condition his mind into believing that he would end La’Nova without any second thoughts.
He’d only known her for six weeks. Forty-two days.
A handful of nights and conversations with her that somehow carved themselves into him deeper than women who had known him for years.
She crossed him in the worse way. Luca reflected to the hesitant looks she gave him each time he drew closer.
He felt her body stiffen when he was near and touched her.
Luca ignored a lot of signs along with small confessions of her not being the woman for him.
He even saw her battling with herself, forcing herself to not like his touch.
La’Nova forced herself to check out of conversations that he’d tried to spark with her.
A lot of times the pair sat in silence. Just being in each other presence was hard for them both to deny the raw chemistry that kept them both curious.
La’Nova gave Luca nothing but a feeling too strong to shy away from.
She had his mind betraying him in the worse way possible.
He found himself back in the pits of darkness.
The same hollow feeling returned to the center of his chest, radiating throughout his entire body.
Luca was back at square one. His throat hurt, he only felt better when he laid in the twins room and talked to them each day up until it was time to hit the road to Vegas.
Her gray eyes haunted him. Her spicy vanilla smell lingered in his nostrils. Luca felt sick to his stomach, mouth watery like he’d throw up at any moment.
“Get your head together.” Roy turned down the music.
“I’m getting there,” Luca whispered truthfully.
He shook his head then looked out the window.
“Our connection wasn’t imagined.” Luca flexed his jaw. “I know energy, I can feel when some shit locks into place.” He shook his head.
“I’m trying to unlock what happened between No—La’Nova and I because—”
“You don’t want to kill her,” Roy bellowed out.
He flicked his eyes over at Luca, not caring that he had to cut him off. Luca’s heart skipped; he kept imagining himself looking at La’Nova’s heart-shaped face, sad eyes, and pulling the trigger.
“I loved Dontrell,” Roy paused. Sadness caused his throat to constrict thinking about his late mentor. “I used to wish that he was my real pops.”
“Niggas got plenty of excuses why they deadbeat parents. Men like us… our excuse is we busy, securing the legacy. Making this money, so we ain’t got time to stick around and raise no kids… That wasn’t Dontrell.” Roy smiled.
“Dontrell made time for you and Kentrell. He even made time for me. My dad hardly even acknowledged me, while my momma tried her hardest to wear both hats. She was mom and dad since Ronald’s bitch ass was too busy with his side pieces.”
“That’s why you were always at our house. Mrs. Gracee hated how much you loved being there.” Luca smirked.
He couldn’t stand Roy’s parents. Luca never knew much about them except how they looked.
He wasn’t welcomed over their house, but Roy always found a way to the Bonetti estate.
The boys went to the same private schools together.
Dontrell and Lucille knew how much Roy meant to Luca, so they always included him in family gatherings.
Unbeknownst to Roy and Luca, Dontrell threatened Ronald when he tried to keep the boys apart.
“Yeah, she did.” Roy smiled.
“People we look up to, love and follow behind not perfect. Whatever Dontrell did to La’Nova was unforgivable.
Doesn’t matter how we view it. She knew his status when she pulled the trigger…
which tells me, she already ready to die behind her decisions like Kentrell was ready.
We all got to take accountability and answer to our sins.
This shit right here ain’t shit but a fucked-up cycle that’s gone keep spinning. ” Roy shrugged his shoulders.
“So, what you saying?” Luca inquired.
“I ain’t judging you…” Roy answered, switching lanes.
“You fell in love with the woman who killed your father.” Roy sadistically smirked.
“It’s better to say that shit out loud then to shy away from the raw truth. After we wrap this shit up with Lennox… you and La’Nova need to have a conversation. She owes you that… whatever you decide after the conversation is had… I’m behind you as your capo and brother.”
Luca’s chest tightened, he nodded his in understanding then tried to ground himself.
“She could be a threat… Di Lucas knows everything but wants me to find out for myself. Even if I decided not to kill her, he would.” Luca closed his eyes briefly.
“I doubt it.” Roy glanced over at Luca. “We both know if the old man wants somebody dead bad enough, he’d get the job done before we could blink.”
“He waited for me to do what he couldn’t,” Luca stated thoughtfully.
“I’m killing his son when he could have done it years ago,” Luca added.
“True. Shit be harder to do than we think,” Roy shot back.
“That’s why I don’t want you to far gone in your head about this shit with La’Nova.
You lost a lot of yourself behind them bars.
You was hollow the day you stepped out of them confines.
Then she came along, along with the twins.
You start feeling fulfilled, locked in with yourself as well as them.
You ain’t never tried to get help with your speech and the pain that you feel when talking.
They made you do that shit.” Roy gripped the wheel.
“Seeing you light on your feet because her camper was parked right on your grass, made me happy.” Roy chuckled.
Luca exhaled and cracked a small smile. Everything Roy said was truthfully spoken. He let his words settle where they needed to. Not in his head but in his chest.
The engine hummed steady beneath them, tires eating up miles as Roy’s Matte black cyber truck sailed smoothly on the freeway. Luca stared ahead now, not at the road, but at the space just beyond it, falling into his own thoughts.
Roy didn’t just talk to talk, he protected Luca in many ways that was unspoken. Beyond the title and the rank, Roy was the one man who had always seen Luca as human first. Roy never needed to drag words out of Luca. He knew his silence was him processing everything.
Roy thought about how bad Luca had it for La’Nova and couldn’t hold back his chuckle.
“I never thought I’d see the day…” Roy looked over at Luca with a silly grin.
“Ill Na Na ain’t even have you this whipped.”
Luca snapped his eyes at Roy.
“Fuck Sanarah,” he declared harshly.
“Hell yeah, fuck her.” Roy chuckled.
“Bitch laid down with Kentrell knowing he wasn’t gone treat her like you did. Then had the nerve to have babies with him… Only thing I can say about her, is she seem like a better momma than Tracy. You won’t have to raise another pair of Trell’s kids with her.”
Luca nodded his head in agreement. He was thankful for Sanarah being a decent mother.
She wasn’t good in his eyes because she chose to have a baby by a man that didn’t give a damn about raising kids.
Cain and Abel were both a handful, but Luca loved them like they were his.
The boys kept his mind off of the shit he tried to avoid.
They gave him something to look forward to outside of Mafia business.
Luca finally turned his head away from the window to look over at Roy.
“You’re my brother.” His whisper came out low and controlled.
Roy’s jaw tightened. He nodded, eyes fixed on the highway, throat working once before he spoke again.
“Then trust me when I say this.” He glanced over at Luca. “If it comes down to choosing between your heart and your crown… don’t forget you gotta live with yourself when it’s all said and done.”
“I’m aware of that, but are you?” Luca lifted his thick brows in Roy’s direction.
“Nigga,” Roy drawled. “I ain’t in no love dilemma, life or death type of shit like you.” Roy teased with a lopsided smirk.
“But you hate the fact that you can’t stay away from Serenity… the girl I was supposed to marry,” Luca finished, flitting his eyes over at Roy.
Roy paused, taken aback by Luca’s statement. It shouldn’t have surprised Roy by what Luca said. His best friend was the most observant person he knew. Luca would rather observe instead of ask for simple answers.
“The pussy good.” Roy shrugged.
“Good enough to spend six figures every three months at House of Angels?” Luca’s whispered words cracked into a low chuckle.
“The fuck you on?” Roy glanced over at Luca with a pointed stare.
“I went through Lucille’s books.” Luca shrugged like it was nothing. “You were her top paying customer, most of your payments went to Serenity.” Luca concurred.
“I was curious about why she wanted to match me with her… My answer was crystal clear. Lucille saw how infatuated you was with the girl and thought I’d be the same way.”
Roy emitted a crack of laughter that Luca lightly joined in on.
“Man, LuLu something else. Got to love her fake matchmaking ass. She must don’t know that her son doesn’t go below two hundred and fifty pounds when it comes to his women.”
Just as Luca was getting ready to respond, Roy’s phone sounded off.
“What’s the issue?” Roy already suspected some bullshit before the caller could utter a word into his burner phone.
Luca steadied his gaze on Roy as he watched his face contort into a glower. His stomach twisted and in second Roy had the car accelerating faster.
“Have everybody stay in position. That’s some inside shit that we have nothing to do with.” Roy declared into the phone before hanging up.
“Shit went left.” Luca sneered.
“It’s a lot of motion outside of Lennox’s underground casino. Looks like he got a war with somebody else,” Roy remarked with a flick of his hand.
“We came at the right time,” Luca reckoned.
Both men’s eyes fixated on the bright neon lights miles ahead of them. They were about to enter Vegas in less than twenty minutes. Luca’s mind went into terminator mode. The men that him and Roy had in place wouldn’t make any moves until one of them directed to do so.
Luca’s only wish was that nobody took Lennox out before he could get to him.