Chapter 13
Luke
W hile I enjoyed this time to be with Emma, I knew we had to be practical and step out of hiding sooner or later. We’d agreed to let the chips fall where they may with what we’d done. Almost three weeks had passed since I killed Antonio’s favorite fighter, then broke out of his custody. Nearly a month had come and gone, and if that wasn’t enough time for everyone to react, then maybe they needed more pushing.
“We’ll check in on him,” I explained to Emma after I suggested that we speak with Jimmy directly.
He was the main link we had to the news among the mafia families. Emma warned me that rumors ran rife and not to necessarily trust everything he said. My trust in him was already low. At first, she agreed that speaking with Jimmy directly would result in better and faster answers.
The last couple of days, he hadn’t been texting or calling, and that was also another reason for me to want to see him. I never knew if I could fully trust him, but I had to try.
“This is a good first step toward answers,” Emma said as we headed out to the car that Randy’s relative had arranged for us. We would owe that man for risking his neck to help us. There was no price too high for a solid friend in times of trouble. We couldn’t keep the first car we’d fled with. We left it abandoned, knowing one of my father’s men would look for it.
“But?” I asked, keeping my hat low as we stepped outside.
She was wearing glasses and a hoodie. Even though it was hotter than hell and so muggy, she said she was fine with some sort of a disguise. The gun tucked in my waistband made me feel better about going out in public too. We weren’t walking far. According to Emma, this area of the city wasn’t any family’s turf. And when we got in the car, the tinted windows would conceal us until we reached the Rossini estate.
“But it’s Jimmy Rossini.” She shook her head as she got into the car, sighing in relief that we could be hidden again. “It just... It goes against everything I’ve been taught. I’ve been trained to despise my father’s rivals. I don’t. I never did. Why would I when I never interacted with them?”
I chuckled as I started the car then pulled from the curb. “What about me?”
She smiled. “You sure were a surprise. Never mind. I’m just thinking too much into it.”
“Hey, you’re entitled to your opinions. It makes sense. Heading to see Jimmy has to feel like a traitorous action.”
“Ha! I’d say sleeping with you made me the traitor of a century.”
“Do you regret it?”
She rolled her eyes and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Hell no. I can’t consider myself a traitor to my father or my family when I’ve vowed to sever all ties with them. I’m with you, Luke. Now and forever.”
On the drive, we both kept an eye out for anyone tailing us. Nothing seemed suspicious on the way there. When we reached the overgrown lawns of the Rossini estate, she grimaced. “I see what you mean.”
“Yeah, it looks like it’s been left to rot.”
“Well, the house is still standing.”
“You call this a house ?” I grunted a laugh. “It’s a fucking palace.”
She almost smiled, perhaps amused at how our lives had been so different. I had grown up poor, and she had all the wealth she could’ve wanted. Now, she was relying on me to provide for her and I had the potential to be extremely loaded as a mafia prince.
The guard post was empty, and she frowned. I swore, speeding up to get down the long circular drive faster.
“I thought you said there was some security here.”
“There was.”
But now there wasn’t, and that couldn’t bode well for any Rossini in the house.
I parked, and she held her gun at the ready as she ran inside with me.
The door swung open slightly, but something stopped it.
I wedged it further ajar, and once we entered, we found the dead guard’s body that slid over the marble floor of the foyer.
“Shit.” She kept her gun up, at the ready. Following me seemed unwise. She was armed. I was too, swiping the gun off the dead guard, but I wasn’t experienced with using a firearm. Still, I had to go first in case she could encounter any danger.
We headed inside, and the eerie silence seemed like a bad omen. A warning.
“Jimmy?” I hollered.
She cringed, elbowing me. “Way to give away our location,” she whispered.
“Fuck it. If anyone’s here, I’d rather get it over with.” I spun in the huge central foyer.
Double staircases led to the second floor, and in the middle of this open area, I felt too exposed and vulnerable. Keeping my back her his, I pivoted in time with her.
“Jim—”
A low groan sounded from the left, cutting off my holler.
We ran that way. It sounded like a moan of pain, and my instinct to help kicked in.
I pushed open the door to what looked like an abandoned library. Jimmy lay slumped on the floor.
“Oh, fuck,” she whispered it, likely alarmed by the blood pooling around him.
“Jimmy?” I hurried with her, dropping to my knees.
“You can’t be yelling for me like that here,” he scolded. His voice was gritty but quiet. One eye was swollen shut, but the other was slitted open to see him crouched over him. “Marlo will hear.”
“He’s alive?” I asked as I scanned my uncle’s beaten body.
“Here.” She pressed the end of Jimmy’s shirt to the huge gash on his side.
He flinched a bit, realizing I wasn’t alone, glancing at Emma. “Oh. You brought her with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at my uncle’s testy comment. Then I furrowed my brow at her gesturing at me.
“Give me your shirt. I need to stem this bleeding.” She set the gun down to use both hands for helping Jimmy. Her supposed enemy.
I lowered my gun but thought twice.
“They’re gone,” Jimmy said.
I remained skeptical, but I set the gun down and removed my t-shirt.
Emma ripped it into two pieces, pointing at me to hold it on Jimmy’s arm.
“Who?” she asked.
“Your men,” Jimmy replied. “Or they will be your men.”
She cringed and shook her head. “The only man I’ll call mine is this one right here.”
“Oh. You’re ready to defy your father and your fiancé—”
“Antonio wasn’t her fiancé yet,” I argued. “And now I am.”
“What the—” Jimmy coughed and tried to sit up. “Are you fucking insane?”
Emma held up her hand to show him the ring.
“Shit. You are that insane.”
I scoffed. “I told you I wasn’t giving her up.”
Jimmy swore, stunned about this development.
“Who did this?” she asked. “Giordinos or the Marcheses?”
“Marchese.” Jimmy exhaled a long, hard breath as I helped him to sit up more. He wasn’t fully upright, and she continued to compress his wounds. His arm didn’t seem to move too well, but he looked like he’d live.
“Vincent and Antonio found out about you, Lucas,” Jimmy said. “I don’t know how. Maybe they just saw you and then looked at me and realized we might be family.”
“But I’ve fought for years and no one thought twice.”
“Well, they did now. You got their attention by fighting Orsen. Then you really got their attention being seen with her.” Jimmy frowned at Emma. “And then killing their fighter in the ring. I don’t know how they figured it out. They did.”
She shared a worried look with me. This would up the stakes even higher.
“They showed up here—”
“Vincent and Antonio?” she asked.
“Just Antonio. He was furious that I’d hid the fact that Marlo had a bastard son all this time. They’re mad that Marlo has any child at all.”
“Because the Rossini power would go to the heir,” I reasoned.
Jimmy nodded. “Or a sibling.” He shook his head, grimacing. “I see she’s giving you a lesson on how this works. “But it’s more than that. Vincent planned to have Antonio marry you,” he said, looking at her, “to unite the families. Then once Marlo was died, they’d carry out a hit on me and eliminate me. That was the original plan. The Marcheses would rule in Miami, even further beyond.”
“That’s what we’ve pieced together,” I said, checking how the bleeding was stopping from where I compressed it.
“They came here, Antonio and a couple others, to beat me into telling them where you were. They showed up so suddenly, Sean only had enough time to run up and guard Marlo’s room.”
I winced, realizing how easily Antonio could have tried to set his master plan into action immediately by taking out the sickly Rossini boss.
“But I wouldn’t say a fucking thing. I spent thirty years hiding you, Lucas, and if need be, I’ll spend another thirty years hiding you some more.”
Would you want that?
I glanced at Emma, wishing I could get her opinion on this. Once more I wondered if I’d want out of this mafia world and remain ignorant in bliss, like an ordinary civilian. Or should I embrace my role and accept this power after Marlo was gone?
Either way, I would stand by Emma. It didn’t matter to me if she preferred for me to stay out from this dramatic lifestyle laden with violence and hardships.
“They left me alive because they realize they need me to find you.” Jimmy frowned, almost glaring at me “You’re not supposed to be here .”
“I’m not hiding forever,” I argued.
“You need to. Antonio wants to kill you. And you dumbass”—he shoved his foot at me—“you started talking with Ben and spreading rumors that you want to fight Ferris at the end of the summer.”
“Fuck that.” I scoffed. “I’m not fighting in any match anytime soon.”
“Too bad. You started stirring shit, and that turned into a challenge. Ferris isn’t someone you can back down from, and now with they way you killed Antonio’s other fighter, you’re getting all the damn attention you don’t need!”
Emma frowned at me, seeming glad that Jimmy’s bleeding was slowing. “Who’s Ferris?”
“The Marcheses’ famous fighter,” Jimmy answered over me.
“I wanted to get a bigger fight to make money faster,” I explained. “He normally arranges my fights.” I tipped my chin at Jimmy. “But he kept saying I wasn’t ready yet.”
“As in not ready to get all that attention! I was trying to keep you in small fights so you wouldn’t attract too much attention from the men who’d get suspicious about you. The men who’d want to put a hit on you.”
“I didn’t know the ramifications of getting Ben to put my name in for a fight with Ferris. Then again, had my mother and uncle told me who my father was... I might not have!”
Jimmy hung his head and shook it slightly. “I spent all these years doing my best to hide you. I didn’t want you to be killed.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Was that the only reason?”
“What?” Jimmy scowled at me. It was a morbid, grotesque expression with the bruising on his face.
“Or did you want to keep me hidden so you could get the power from Marlo after he died?”
I watched Jimmy closely for a sign he could be lying with whatever he replied with. He either didn’t have a tell or he was being sincere. Then again, he was beaten badly. Maybe he couldn’t move much without grimacing to begin with.
“For a while, that thought entered my mind. But the older I got, I realized that I didn’t want all the power. I was Marlo’s second-in-command, and in that position, I had lots of hits placed on me.”
I accepted his answer, nodding slowly and not arguing.
“I hoped that the day could come when I could teach you how to be the leader this family needs.”
Jimmy’s reasoning was the proof that we wanted to hear. This would confirm that Jimmy didn’t want to take over.
“Once you reveal yourself as Marlo’s heir, I will help you, Luke. I will continue to look out for you and show you how to adjust.” He turned to face me, frowning more. “But not with her. You cannot try to be a leader with her.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “That’s his decision to make.”
I grinned, entertained that she was borrowing my insistence for consent and making my own choices.
“The Rossinis and Giordinos have always been enemies,” Jimmy reasoned.
“Too bad,” I retorted
He stared at Emma, almost like he wanted to see confirmation that she was here with him and not running at Jimmy’s comment.
“If you want me to lead this family—any family—it will only happen with her at my side. I will not give up my fiancée.”