Chapter Sixteen-Luc
CHAPTER SIXTEEN-LUC
A virgin.
“Luc, what are forecasts for this quarter?” Nico asks me.
I rumble through the numbers hardly paying any attention to them.
I don’t have to. I know this shit by heart.
Days have passed since I’ve talked to her, touched her. I know it’s fucking stupid.
I’ve been here every fucking day.
Holed up in my office like a snake in its den.
Waiting.
Watching.
Trying to catch up with what’s going on inside me.
She had day shifts all this week, so it was a little easier on me. But tonight is her first night shift and I’m all coiled up, ready to strike.
A fucking virgin.
This woman has me off fucking balance.
My pillow still smells like her. I wouldn’t allow the cleaning service to wash it.
The sheets were stained with her virgin blood, and I was so fucking tempted to keep them.
But that would be sick.
Still should have kept them, my inner voice comments.
I wipe my hand over my face. Maria is haunting my every moment.
Asleep, I dream of her.
Awake, I think of her.
I need to know what she’s hiding.
Well, you’re not going to find that out in here, asshole.
My inner voice can be a real dick sometimes.
“Luc, what do you think?” Nico asks, and I make a noncommittal humming noise.
The discussion has moved on to other properties we have in development, and I half listen while our realtor gives us his report.
My job is to serve the king. That’s why I got my law degree. That’s why I do what I do.
All our dealings, legal or not, require thoughtful inspection. Having a degree, or several, does not make me smarter than anyone else. But it makes me the right man to deal with some shit Nico simply doesn’t have the patience for.
He is fine with letting me do that. So, I do. I handle the stuff he doesn’t want to.
I use all my education, my expertise, what I know about the area where we choose to invest our hard earned money.
Sometimes it is a simple deal, sometimes we invade, depending on whether it’s Viper Enterprises or simply the Vipers who are taking over.
You see, when you have an infestation of snakes, you either get rid of them or they rule.
The government didn't get rid of us.
The cops couldn't, or maybe they just wouldn’t, because we cleaned up the streets they refused to.
We take care of people who come from the same place we did.
That's why we're in power and that's why we will remain in power because the real power is with the mob. The forgotten people on the fringes of society.
They need someone to look out for them, and that's what we do.
We provide for them.
The Vipers.
We keep the schools clean. We fund recreational centers, senior aid, and daycare.
We control the so-called government heroes.
Who do you think started the real epidemic hurting society? Who do you think allows the cartels, murderers, rapists, and worse to walk free just to get a deal done?
It is not us.
You cross a Viper, you get bit. Period.
We do bad things. I’m not saying we don’t. But the way I see it, so does the government. Some of it is worse than anything we’ve ever done.
If anything, the Vipers have more ethics than most politicians I’ve met. And yes, I have met many.
It is simply part of the package, being a Princeton trained lawyer representing Viper Enterprises.
Every government everywhere in the world has their own issues. Their own slimy politicians, greasy dealings, and coverups. It’s like they have their own morality.
And so do we. I'm not trying to say we're better. I'm just saying we're not all that different
A motherfucking virgin.
I’m trying to focus, but my brain can’t stop thinking about it. Maria was untouched.
Completely fucking innocent.
I should feel bad, but I don’t.
If anything, the fact she submitted willingly to me makes me want her even more.
She was a virgin, and me, I’m a tatted up, pierced fucking monster.
But the thing is, I don’t think Maria is all white lace and halos. She has secrets. A past.
And I am dying to learn it. But my research on her is at an impasse. It seems Maria Mendoza only showed up on paper six years ago.
And I know what that means. But I need to know all of it.
A week has passed, and I haven’t fucked her again. But I need to. Soon.
She’s still keeping secrets. But I’ve been doing a little more digging and what I found isn’t comforting.
Soon. I’ll have the truth soon.
At least, that’s what I tell myself.
“Yo, where’s your head at?” Angel says.
I look up to find the realtor left, and Nico and Angel are just staring at me.
Nico seems amused. But Angel seems actually confounded.
I guess that makes sense. He is the muscle around here. Just like I told Baby Girl.
He’s the muscle. I'm the brains. And Nico is the king.
He earned his crown fair and square, and the truth is, I don't want it.
I'm happy to serve the crown. Happy with my position.
Nico allows me to do my own thing. He doesn't care that I run my own investment firm, and that with my businesses I made tons of my own money.
He comes in with me on deals when he wants, and I am more than happy to share the wealth with him and Angel.
Nico also understands what drives me. He was there for me when my sister OD’d on the same junk that killed his mother.
He recognizes my pain, my need to exact my revenge on people I feel deserve it. And he is supportive.
Sometimes I use legal grounds. I’ve been responsible for the closing down of more than one laundering front.
All it takes is the right words in the right ears, a little envelope on the side, and bam.
Sure, there’s always flat out war, but in war everyone loses. Nico and Angel joke that I am a pacifist.
It always makes me roll my eyes.
It's not that I'm not violent. Because I am.
I've killed people. I've hurt people. I've made threats after my sister died horribly in a dank alley, her body too weak to fight the poison her pusher stuck in her arm.
I was just a kid then, but it was Nico who helped me avenge her death.
We cleaned up that block. Got rid of the drug dealers who refused to monitor their product.
Now I do it without him. He has other deals to attend. The ports are important.
But I still see it as my personal mission to keep our old neighborhood streets clean.
So, yes, I employ my own guys, my own branch of Vipers to see to that.
Truth is, lately, it’s not enough.
The same motherfucker who burned our warehouse is responsible for the recent influx of heroine laced with too much fucking fentanyl.
Sanchez Junior and his band of fucking morons.
I'm capable of things that maybe they don't even know, but now it seems I'm capable of something else.
Maria.
Virgin.
Mine.
I never knew I had it in me to feel this way about someone. But I feel it. For her.
Obsession.
Affection.
Infatuation.
Desire.
The likes of which I never thought possible.
“Earth to Luc,” Angel persists.
These men are my family.
But I’m like two seconds away from cold cocking that fuck.
“Leave him alone, Angel. Luc has got things on his mind,” Nico says, and he’s grinning wider.
“Shut the fuck up,” I grumble, but then I’m smirking, too.
“Yeah? It’s been a while for you, bro. I think this calls for a drink,” Angel says, getting up to round the small bar next to Nico’s desk.
I roll my eyes but accept the tumbler of Whiskey Neat he holds out to me.
“What are we drinking to?” I ask.
“To the women who drive us wild,” Nico says, and his gaze flicks to Angel who looks pensive at that toast.
Well, that’s interesting.
I sip the dark, rich liquid and I nod.
Nico is definitely a good king.
He is just the right amount of unhinged and benevolent.
Maybe I should get his advice about Maria?
“ M aria’s worked for us for a while, bro, why now?” Angel asks.
“Because,” Nico answers, “someone fucked with what Luc here claimed as his, even if only in his mind. He fucked with her, and it was time Luc let everyone know who she belonged to. Right?”
I look at the king, and my eyes widen. I dip my chin.
He’s absolutely fucking right.
Maria is mine.
And someone did fuck with what’s mine. And they did it here.
In my house.
Motherfucker.
Fury fills me, and it’s a familiar old friend.
“What am I doing?” I rumble.
Instead of making sure everyone knows my woman is off fucking limits, here I am at the Den, in Nico’s office, on a Friday night, and she’s out there, alone, working the bar.
Now, I’m mad at myself.
What the fuck am I doing, wasting time chatting with these two knuckleheads?
“Where you going?” Angel calls out as I walk to the door.
“To take my woman home.”