20. Massimo
20
MASSIMO
I watched in shock as Luna left the room. I wasn’t worried about her leaving the gym or any of my men touching her. They knew I would cut off their fucking hands if they did, but fuck, what the hell was that?
I turned to my brothers, and they seemed just as shocked as I was.
“What the fuck?” I said to the quiet room.
“She has a point, you know. You treated her like one of our men,” Elio said.
I shook my head. “The fuck I did.”
Elio’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything.
Matteo came into my line of vision. “She’s scared.” I turned to him. “She’s scared of me, and that is the last thing I want. When I came at her, she didn’t see it as training but as something real. As if I were someone who really did want to harm her.”
I saw that, too, but fuck, I had brushed it off as her being skittish around my brothers. Perhaps having them here was a mistake. But I wanted her to get used to them.
I was leaving for New York in a few days, and her protection would fall on my brothers. How would that work if she was scared of them?
I didn’t fucking know.
“Do you think there’s a reason why she would react so strongly?” Elio asked.
“You mean something happened to her at Lombardi’s house?”
He shrugged. “You know her better than I do. But even Giulia didn’t react like that when we had one of the men come in and help us train her.”
I looked off to the door my wife had disappeared through. There was no doubt Andre was planning something with Enzo. His days were numbered, even if he thought he could escape me, but if I found out he’d done something to Luna while she was living under his household, the day of his death would come sooner.
“You guys can go,” I said to my brothers, leaving the ring to follow Luna.
One of my men caught my eye and pointed to the locker room located in the back.
I came to a stop when I heard her sniffles, feeling like I had been punched in the gut.
Fuck me, but what did I know about comforting my little wife?
I knew how to keep a man alive for days chained in a dark room, and I knew where to cut to make sure the fucker who betrayed me, betrayed my organization, didn’t bleed out and die on me until I was finished with him.
That was easy.
Fuck, how I wished to be in that situation now.
I stayed by the doorway leading into the locker room and watched Luna sitting on the hard bench in the middle, her gaze cast downward, looking so lost and sad that I wanted to kill someone.
I would have if I thought that would make her feel better.
I clenched my fists, then unclenched them, and forced myself to relax. I kept the mask firmly on my face before making my way over to her.
I stopped when I was in front of her, her eyes directed on my shoes.
I waited to see what she would do. Nothing. She didn’t acknowledge me. Didn’t look up.
“Won’t you look at me?” I asked softly.
She let out a small sigh and tilted her head back to look at me. Her eyes were red and wet.
Fuck.
I bent down so that we were at eye level.
I cupped her cheek. She scowled at me, surprising me.
“What did I do?”
That was the thing. I didn’t know what I had done wrong.
“You treated me like one of your men. Why do you need me to get all the points right when I told you I wouldn’t be able to? You’ve obviously trained Matteo yourself?”
I nodded. It was true. I trained all my brothers. In our world, only the strong survive. And I made sure my brothers were strong. There was no other option.
“Then you know I would be no match for him. Or for Elio.”
“I didn’t want you to be a match for him,” I said. I knew Luna would never win in a fight with Matteo. Just like she would be no match for whatever man decides to hurt her to get to me. And with the way I was feeling, it wouldn’t be hard to guess just how much she had become my weakness.
Fuck me, but Luna De Luca had finally become the very thing that could be my downfall. And she didn’t even fucking know it.
“I need you strong enough to survive.”
“You were too tough on me.”
“Was I?” I asked, surprised. Had I been too tough? I just hated the thought of her defenseless.
“Perhaps having my brothers there wasn’t a good idea.”
She didn’t say anything to that, but the look she shot me told me she agreed. I nearly smiled. Luna was getting comfortable with me. Comfortable enough for me to see the real her. And what I saw, I wanted more.
More and more until I knew her inside out. Until I knew her better than herself.
“Why don’t we keep the training between you and me? And I’ll teach you how to shoot a gun?”
She smiled a little. “I like that idea better.”
“I do have some good ideas sometimes,” I joked, earning another smile from her.
She moved to stand when I stopped her, placing my hand on her thigh. She looked at me questioningly. “There’s still something I want to ask you, and I want you to answer me honestly.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“Did Andre ever hit you?”
The color seemed to be drained from her face then, giving me my answer.
“Why do you ask?”
“The way you acted with Matteo earlier. How you’ve been since we landed in Las Vegas, and how you were with your family.”
“It’s…”
“Remember, we agreed not to lie to each other,” I said, reminding her.
She licked her lips and looked off to the side. “It’s not as bad as you’re probably imagining it to be. He mostly ignored me. Lina’s the favorite. She’s his real daughter, after all.”
“And your mom?”
“She mostly went along with whatever Andre wanted.”
Leaving Luna sorely neglected and abused. My grip on her thigh tightened at the thought before I realized what I was doing and relaxed my grip.
She briefly looked down at my hand before moving her gaze back to me. “Lina was supposed to marry you.”
“What was that?” I asked, not sure if I heard her right.
“They were planning on giving Lina to you. But your reputation…”
“So they decided to make you the sacrificial lamb to Lo Spietato ?”
Only now, Lina was set to marry the Russian bastard in New York. Whatever they heard about me might be true, but at least I was in control of myself. The same couldn’t be said about Lina’s future husband.
“I can make them pay,” I said, not really thinking about anything but skinning Andre alive.
She shook her head, getting me out of my bloodlust. “It’s not worth severing ties with the Lombardis over.”
Meaning she didn’t think she was worth it. Fuck me.
Didn’t she know she was worth it and so much more?
“I’m glad I married you,” she confessed, bringing my attention back to her.
I didn’t say anything for a moment, wondering why the fuck it felt like my heart was about to drop from my chest and down to the fucking dirty locker room floor.
“I’m fucking glad it was you,” I finally said, and wasn’t that the truth. Of everyone in the world, I was glad it was Luna. But that was all I would ever say to Luna.
It should be all there was to say on the subject. And nothing more.
Two days later, I left for New York, taking a handful of men with me and Elio.
My brother sat beside me on the private plane, his head already on the plan we would put in place as soon as we landed in the enemy’s territory.
Which was where my mind should be. Instead, I was thinking about the girl I left sleeping in the king-size bed back at home in Las Vegas. Romeo would be staying with Giulia for a while, and Matteo would be with Luna while Elio and I made our appearance at the wedding. In part, to show the Russian bastards we weren’t fucking scared of whatever the hell they were planning with Andre and Enzo, and in part, to let Andre know whatever treaty he was able to draw with the De Luca was over.
It was over the minute he decided to marry his daughter off to the Russian when he knew we were at war.
Valentino was heading to Chicago to speak with Emilio on our behalf. One way or another, I needed to sort out friend from foe.
“You okay?” Elio asked.
I turned my head to take in my younger brother. It was still unnerving to look at him sometimes and see our father. Of everyone, Elio took after Amadeo De Luca the most, from their cold eyes to their mannerisms. Then Elio would shoot me our mother’s smile, and I was reminded once more that he wasn’t the monster who raised us but the boy I spent most of my life protecting and the man I trusted more than anyone else in the world.
“Yeah, just thinking about all we needed to do in New York.”
The look he gave me told me he didn’t believe me.
“Or your mind is still back in Las Vegas. Where it shouldn’t be.”
“Is that disapproval I hear in your voice, little brother?”
“Married or not, you shouldn’t let another person become your distraction.”
“And I’m not.”
“Right.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Not that it seemed to have any effect.
“You’ve changed.”
“I’m still me.”
He shook his head. “No, you’ve changed. I don’t know how, and I can’t explain it, but one thing is for certain. You’ve changed since the moment you laid eyes on her. I just hope you still have enough of Lo Spietato left that you can still defend this empire we worked so hard to rebuild after our bastard father nearly destroyed it.”
I didn’t need a reminder about how shitty things had been when I took the helm. Amadeo had done such a good job at hiding just how bad things were for us. I hadn’t realized the bastard nearly drove us into the ground, left vulnerable for the vultures to come in and take us.
And my brothers hadn’t known the full extent of it. Elio knew more than Romeo and Matteo, but I had protected him from all the shit I had to do and would gladly do all over again to ensure their futures.
“Are you questioning me, little brother?” I asked, a little harsher than I intended.
He shook his head. “No. Just… worried.”
“You have nothing to worry about. Just have my back, and that’s all that’s needed.”
“I always got your back,” he answered.
I didn’t respond. I knew he had my back. My brothers’ loyalty was one of the very few things in this world that I was sure of.
That wasn’t what had my mind occupied. I looked out the window and wondered if what he said was true.
Had I changed?