49. Chapter 49
49
Luca
I stand in my penthouse living room, leaning against the fireplace watching those that I call family. They all sit, waiting with bated breaths for what I have to say, but for the first time ever, I’ve got doubts.
Something Layla asked me has taken root. This is all I’ve ever known, but does it have to be?
I always thought this would be my life forever, and I’ve spent years working toward taking back London. Pushing the Albanians out, removing the Covenant.
A new era.
A modern era.
Throw out the old and replace it with the new.
Me.
I’ve always wanted it. To take control. I’ve grown up knowing I was never good enough, because of what my mother did, the affair with the Russian. My Uncle, the Covenant families, they all spat on me just like they spat on her.
The only people who are going to get hurt here are the innocent, and for what?
Ego, power, control.
They say you need war for peace, but peace is about needing justice. Justice for my mother, justice for Layla and her parents, her grandfather.
But that justice, that doesn’t come from taking out the Albanians and a changing of the guards within the Covenant, and as I look round the living room packed with my inner circle, along with Layla, Katy, Asher Black, Levi and Duchess, I know that we are looking to the wrong enemy.
I kick off from the fireplace and walk to the centre of the room.
“This is your one and only opportunity to walk away from what comes next. When you all leave here tonight, that’s it. You’re in.”
I wait and no one leaves.
I clap my hands together rubbing them.
“Alright then, let’s get started.”
“Hello, Uncle,” I say, entering his office with Levi following me closely. Even behind his huge desk, his frame is one of control, and dominance.
John Weston is a large, intimidating man.
Calculating, deceitful, ruthless, and domineering.
Four things that I thought he’d lost over the years but turns out he’s just like he always was.
“I’ve been waiting for you two.” He leans back in his chair. “I must say I’m disappointed with you,” he says to Levi who crosses his arms over his chest. “Running around with the whore of the Langley’s. I thought the gala dinner was your way of flexing, but you’re still at it.”
“Careful,” Levi says quietly.
“Pussy-whipped.” John tsks and shakes his head. “Thought as much. What have I taught you boys about women? They are there to serve, to pleasure, to control. You’ve become tame.”
“Enough,” I say. “We haven’t come for a lecture on women.”
“No? It feels like you both need one. So, what do I owe the pleasure?” John nods to the two chairs in front of the desk, and we both sit.
“Since when did the Covenant get into bed with the Russians?” I say, cutting to the chase.
“Careful, nephew. We may be relatives, but don’t think you can come into my office with wild accusations without consequence. Now take a step back, what are you talking about?”
“Don’t play stupid now, John. Not when you’ve been playing us both so well.”
“It was you?” Levi asks his father.
“What was me?”
Levi glances at me and I nod. “You see, Cousin, you and I have been causing a bit of a headache for Uncle John here.”
John stares at me for a long moment, taking in my relaxed stance. “Your intelligence has always impressed me, Luca.” He looks almost proud. “Even as a child you had the ability to think outside the box. It was both a strength and a weakness. But sometimes that brain of yours misses things.”
He opens a drawer and puts a gun on his desk; Levi shifts ever so slightly, but I remain still. This is tactics, this is him telling us we are in his house, that he is in control. Just like he always has been.
“You manipulated me into pushing the Albanians out for you.”
He pulls a face and waves a hand. “Hardly manipulated you, Luca. You came to me with the plan. I merely saw the opportunity for you to help, it was also the moment I knew you were more of a risk than I could have ever given you credit for. You sit here saying that I manipulated you, but you were the one manipulating my boy,” he says angrily. “You wanted us to push them out so you could move in with your new relationship with the Colombians.”
“How long have you known what I was planning?”
“Do you think you’re the first person to move against us? Against me?” he asks, his ruddy face from the years of alcohol flushing with anger.
“So, you set me up with the Russians?”
“I merely called in a favour.” He shrugs. “Let’s not forget that I have an understanding with the Russians. Which sometimes means I scratch their back, and they scratch mine. You though—” he turns to Levi, who up until this moment has been listening and watching “—were you planning to kill your own flesh and blood? Your own father? Was that part of your plan?”
Levi doesn’t reply.
John shakes his head. “You were always so impatient. Desperate to change things that didn’t need changing.”
“The Covenant is dying,” Levi snaps.
“The Covenant is very much thriving,” John says firmly. “You think our organisation has ruled this long by standing still? You know what I choose to show you!” John's voice booms in the large study. “But both of you, too busy building your own fucking empires to see that there’s one already here. And it’s not going anywhere.”
“The Albanians are running you out,” I say. “You’ve lost control.”
“Yes, I admit it, the Albanians have caused more of a problem than any of us were expecting.” John studies me. “They took over our territory quickly, and your plan gave us options. But you think we’re the only ones in this world that want the Albanians out of London?”
“The government,” I take a punt, knowing that there’s a link here with Terry Peyton.
He snaps his fingers and points to me. “See, always so clever. They had become as much as a problem for the government as they had for the Covenant. You boys know how this world works. We pave the way for whoever we want in power, whoever we want to turn a blind eye. We’ve had relationships with political parties since the Covenant first formed. It’s nothing new. We have always worked alongside those government officials, and working together to push the Albanians out would work for both parties.”
“Better the devil you know,” Levi adds quietly.
“The foundations of those relationships are built on secrecy, trust, and respect,” John continues, moving the gun. “You can imagine our surprise when the couple that almost brought everything to its knees daughter appears with none other than you. A coincidence maybe or was it that I had underestimated you, Luca. Did you know who she was this whole time?”
Did I fuck.
“We had to make a call the day of the car accident, we didn’t manage to tie up all our loose ends. And when an acquaintance recognised her and realised the danger she poses to that precarious understanding with the government and those in power, we had to pivot.”
“Terry fucking Peyton,”
“So, you have been doing your homework.” John nods. “I’m impressed. You’ve become quite the united front. Layla was certainly a loose end that I hadn’t expected to resurface, and this is where you played right into my hands.” His cold eyes landed on his son. “You were so desperate to bring us to our knees, all I had to do was plant the seeds for you to do what I needed you to do.”
“You set me up,” Levi hisses.
John waves a hand dismissively. “You were already looking for information on Luca’s long-term plans, always threatened by him. It should be his seat after all. Layla gave you the perfect opportunity, and it allowed me to get what I needed too. Information. When Terry saw Layla at the gala dinner, he put a contract out on her. Desperate to finish what we started ten years ago.”
Motherfucker.
“She was supposed to die in the car accident with her parents,” I say.
“When she appeared at the gala dinner on your arm, Terry almost shit a brick. I explained our reasoning why we didn’t go back, and finish the job when she was a child. It would have looked too suspicious for the lone survivor of a car crash being in another accident so soon. What would have been the chances? So, we covered up the fact that she survived. I thought he understood that, but the thing I couldn’t anticipate is that her parents had planned for every scenario.”
“How have you kept this hidden from the other Covenant members?”
“What makes you think I have?” John says, picking up the gun and taking the safety off, then placing it back down. Realisation settles in my stomach, he’s telling us everything too easily, he’s too smug, he’s been expecting this, us. Which means he’s telling us everything because we aren’t walking out of this office alive.
“So, this was all part of your plan, use our ideas to help push out the Albanians—”
“Along with support from the government.”
“Then you set us up with the shipment container full of trafficked girls, and if that didn’t work—”
“I’d kill you.” He picks up the gun and points it at my forehead.
“Now, now, Uncle. What did you just tell me, that I’m always thinking outside the box.” I look at a red dot on my chest and it moves to Levi’s chest before disappearing to the back of Johns skull.
“That is a 50-calibre sniper rifle, belonging to a certain Roman Rook that is currently pointed at your head. I’d be inclined to maybe put that gun down. If you shoot me, I can assure you that bullet will rip your head clean off, leaving Levi here to step into your position at the table. Everything you have been working towards will be finished, just like that.” I snap my fingers. “Who gave Levi the tip-off?”
John says nothing just relaxes in his chair.
“It was Terrance Langley.”
I smile and nod. “Clever. You could take us all out with that one shipment. If the Russians had followed through, we’d all be rotting in jail.”
“You’re a smart boy, how long have you known?” John says, smirking at me.
“I didn’t. You preach to Levi about flesh and blood . But you killed your own fucking sister, and why? Because she slept with a Russian?” This fat fuck is the reason she’s dead. “I must say I’m disappointed. Whatever happened to the rules of engagement?”
“This is war,” John says. “You know all rules go out the window, as for your mother, you can’t possibly comment on something you don’t understand!”
Levi leans back and taps his lips with his fingers. “Did you ever know what they did to her? To Isabella?” he says, looking at his father. “Those so-called partners of yours? They do not deserve to be sitting at the table.”
“How other Covenant families choose to run their family, is their business. We do not meddle in what is not ours.”
“But she is mine.” Levi growls. “She is fucking mine, and they dared to lay their hands on her.”
“And that right there,” John says, propelling himself forward, pointing his thick finger, “that is why you will never take my place at the table. You are no son of mine, the moment you let her, that bitch into your bed.” He bites. “She is a fucking whore. She deserves to be treated like one. You know nothing of her past, her present, or her fucking future.”
“Yes, I do.” Levi stands leaning forward, his eyes blazing with rage. “I know everything there is to know about Isabella Langley.”
“Is that so?” John says, his voice taking on a calm deadly tone, which sends apprehension running down my spine, his head tilting to the side. “Well, I must say, my son, I’ll be looking forward to when you find out who she really is.” He glances across at me watching the exchange. “Not even you know, too busy protecting your own.”
He grins sardonically at us both, then to the clock on the mantelpiece.
“What is it Roman always says to you, always be prepared?”
Something in the way he says it, something in the way that he looks at the clock, something in the way that he leans back in his chair smirking.
“What you’ve been doing? Child’s play. Welcome to the real world, boys.”