19. Luca
Luca
Chapter nineteen
When Maeve told me my wife needed me and where to find her, I was worried the woman had said something to upset her. Finn explained the situation I grew up in to my aunt, and to say she took it well would be a gross overstatement. I appreciated the fact he took it upon himself to tell her my story. I still have so many mixed emotions about Frank. I don’t know how I would have handled that conversation.
After walking into Maeve’s library and seeing Giada crying on the chair with a picture and a letter in her hand, I had no idea what to expect. Never in a million years did I think she’d be reading a note from her dead mother given to her by the wife of her father’s enemy. I can’t begin to know what her mother was thinking or why she thought Maeve would ever have the opportunity to give this to Giada. But desperate people do desperate things. If she was ready to risk her life and run with her daughter and son, I’d imagine that’s as desperate as it gets.
“This is crazy, right? It’s not just me?” Giada asks.
“What, sweetheart?”
“That my mother went to your aunt, knowing what she did about your disappearance when you were a baby. Why wouldn’t she have told your aunt about you? She felt comfortable enough to give her a letter like this, but she was never honest with her.”
“I think your mother hated what this life did to people, and maybe in some part of her mind, she thought she’d done the right thing. She knew Frank would keep me away from this world. Her trying to take you and Carlo proves she wanted no part in it. I didn’t know her, so I can’t say what was going through her mind when she delivered this to my aunt.”
I wish to hell I did though. But if Cormac and Maeve had found out that Frank had taken me to California, would they have come to take me back? The answer to that question is a resounding yes, and Cormac would have killed Frank in the process. Of that, I’m one one-hundred-percent sure.
“The truth is, we’ll never know,” Giada says, calmer than she was when I walked into the room. “I’m not going to allow the sins of our parents to affect me at this point. I’ve spent my entire life doing that. You’re right; we’re never going to know what my mother was thinking when she went to your aunt.” Giada holds up the picture of Marco and her. “I vaguely remember him,” she says with a small grin. “My mom was always happy when he was around.”
“You look a lot like him. I see him in your smile.”
“I wonder if he ever suspected he was my real father.”
I shake my head. “We’ll have to chalk it up to one of the things we’ll never know.”
That list seems to be getting longer and longer.
“I feel bad for saying this, but I’m glad she had him. At least for a little while, she had someone who loved her and made her happy.” Giada looks at me with an unsure smile mixed with a touch of guilt.
“You should never feel bad for being glad your mom had some happiness. It’s okay to separate the people we love from the mistakes they made, especially if they aren’t here to defend themselves.”
“You’re awfully calm about this. I would think, of anyone, you’d be the most upset about what my mother did, then her having the audacity to approach your aunt to ask her to give me this.” She holds the paper between us.
I lift my shoulder and blow out a breath. “I love my dad. Not Elio, but Frank. Do you think I should hate him or completely disregard the years spent thinking he was my father and loved me because I found out the truth?” She shakes her head. “I’ve just had more time than you to come to terms with people we love not always doing the right thing. Or at least the right thing in our eyes.” I kiss the top of her head. “I’m not saying it’s easy or that I got here overnight. There are days I still struggle, still feel like it’s a betrayal to my family that I love the man who stole me and lied to me. But I stopped letting it consume me a long time ago. I found peace with it, even if I don’t understand it.”
Giada gives me a watery smile. “You’re pretty amazing, Luca Bennetti.”
I kiss her sweet lips. “Right back at you, Mrs. Bennetti.”
The celebration continues with a birthday cake and more wine for my wife. When we came out of the room, Alessia looked between Giada and me and gave me a knowing smile. Who would have thought her advice about communication would be all it takes to find a deeper understanding and acceptance of both our pasts? It’s not like there’s some sort of guide for how to work through all this shit.
Giada is talking animatedly with Gemma and Alessia about some story involving her cousin and a trip they took to Spain a few years ago. I love how comfortable she’s become in the short time she’s known Alessia and Gemma. Though I rarely saw the charming side of my wife when she was a bratty teenager in high school, she’s shining tonight. Although, I suppose it could be the wine.
It strikes me that we’ve never talked about what’s going to happen after her brother is dealt with. The only time I mentioned anything about her being free after this was handled was the day of our wedding. So much has changed between us since then, but the fact still remains that Giada doesn't want any part of this life. I don’t know exactly what’s in store for me within the Monaghan organization after all is said and done, but it’s not like I have many options for future employment. I don’t think mole for the Irish mob is something you can put on a resumé.
While Finn and Eoghan discuss something or other about the next bar they want to organize a fight night at, I think about my future. Honestly, I never gave anything much thought as far as after. I wasn’t sure I’d make it out alive, so the idea of planning a future seemed a little far-fetched at the time. Will Finn want to put me on a crew? Where will I live? Will Giada be living with me? We haven’t discussed any of this.
“You ever thought about getting in the ring?” Eoghan asks. “I bet after a bit of training, you would be a hell of a fighter.”
I shoot him a half smile. “I’m more a lover than a fighter,” I reply as Giada walks up to me, and I wrap my arm around her shoulder.
“Tell that to the guy whose nose you broke a few months ago at the club,” she says.
Finn chuckles and Eoghan laughs along.
“Are you about ready to go home?” I ask Giada, her glazed eyes finding mine. My wife is a bit tipsy, it seems.
“Sure,” she replies.
“We’re going to head out, too,” Finn says before catching his wife’s eye. “It’s a rare night where neither of us are expected at the casino and I’d like to take my wife home and…”
“Please don’t finish that sentence, Finnegan Monaghan,” Maeve says, walking up behind her son.
“What? I was going to say give her the present I left at the house.”
“Oh, present?” Alessia asks, walking up to the group.
“Mmhmm,” Finn hums. “You’re going to love it.”
“I didn’t tell you what I wanted,” Alessia says.
Finn rolls his eyes dramatically. “Haven’t you learned by now, wife? I know what makes that heart inside of you tick. You think I need you to tell me what to get you?”
Alessia smiles and kisses Finn on the mouth. “Fair.”
We say our goodbyes and head out the door. I tuck Giada into her seat and start the car, pulling out to the main road behind Finn. We aren’t driving for more than five minutes before I notice the car behind us coming up way too fast. Before I have time to warn Giada, the dark sedan rams us from behind. I swerve but am able to keep our car on the road.
“Holy shit, Luca!” Giada yells, twisting in her seat.
“Turn around,” I tell her, speeding up, trying to get the hell away from whoever is in the car behind us.
I grab my phone and call Finn. “We have a tail. They just tried to run me off the road.”
Just then, the car behind us rams into us again, but this time, I'm not so lucky. Our car goes off the side of the highway, flipping down the embankment as Giada screams before landing on its side against a tree.
I’m jarred from the impact but manage to get my seat belt off. “Giada,” I call, my hands cupping her cheeks while my frantic eyes look into hers.
She’s dazed but doesn’t appear injured. “I’m okay, I’m okay.”
As the words leave her lips, I hear the sound of heavy boots coming toward us. I look out the window as the masked man raises his gun and opens fire into the car. My body covers Giada as best as I can while she’s still belted into her seat, and I pray my cousin is already out there.
When the shooting stops, Finn shouts, “Luca. Talk to me.”
Other than the broken glass that rained over me, I don’t think I was hit. “I’m okay.” I remove myself from Giada’s front, and to my horror, I come away with blood covering my light-gray shirt. I look at Giada, and her eyes are wide with terror. “Luca?” she asks before we both look down and see the blood pumping from her shoulder.
“Oh God. Finn, Giada’s been hit,” I yell and look into my wife’s eyes. “You’re going to be okay, baby. We’ll get out of here and get you stitched up.” Before I finish my sentence, her eyes close and her body goes limp, only being held in place by the belt around her chest. “Finn, hurry up.”
He rushes to the front window that's been shot out by our would-be assassin’s bullets and looks inside. “Shit,” he hisses as Alessia comes up behind him, a look of shock and fear marring her features.
“Okay, Luca, I need you to hold her while you undo the belt. I’m going to reach in and have you hand her to me through the window. Alessia, call the doctor and let him know we're on our way. His contact information is in my phone in the car.” Alessia nods and turns, running toward the car parked on the side of the street.
As gently as I can, I release Giada from the seat belt and pass her to Finn, doing my damndest not to jostle her. Once she’s safely in his arms, I crawl out of the window myself and look at my wife’s pale face. Ripping the shirt from my body, I put it over the wound on Giada’s chest. We hurry up the embankment, Finn with Giada in his arms and me applying pressure to where she’s shot. Alessia opens the back door of the sedan, and I quickly climb in before he passes my wife to me. I continue holding the shirt to her chest as Finn rushes around the car and hops in the driver’s seat.
He grabs his phone and dials a number. “Eoghan. I’m sending you my location. Luca’s car was run off the road, and Giada was shot. The shooter and the car are on the east side of the street. I need a cleanup. We’re headed to the doc’s house now.” Finn hangs up and sends our location to his brother before he speeds away on the quiet highway.
Alessia turns in her seat and looks from me to Giada with tears in her eyes. “She’s going to be okay. Our doctor saved my bodyguard. She’ll be fine.”
I don’t respond. My gaze is focused on my wife’s face as I pray she opens her amber eyes again.
It takes Finn seven minutes to get to the doctor’s house. Seven of the longest and most excruciating minutes of my life. The doctor meets us in the back driveway and takes one look at Giada before a flurry of activity begins. The doc shouts orders at his staff waiting outside of the operating room as they wheel my wife behind the door.
I try to go in, but the doctor stops me. “You need to stay out here. One of the nurses will come by with something for you to change into.”
“I need to be with my wife,” I growl at the man in my way.
“I need to be with your wife, and I can’t do that if I’m out here arguing with you,” the doctor tells me.
“Come on, Luca. He needs to get in there,” Finn says, grabbing my shoulder and tugging me back. The doctor spins and goes through the doors where they took Giada.
“It’s going to be okay. She’s in the best hands money can buy.”
I allow him to lead me to a couch set up just outside the doors. He has a seat next to me and Alessia sits on the couch opposite us. When I glance at her, I see the worried look on her face. That was a lot of blood, and Giada was so fucking pale, as though it all had leaked from her. Alessia tries to offer me a reassuring smile, but it’s useless. Everyone in this room knows how fragile life is, and Giada may not have one after tonight.
A nurse brings me a change of clothes and leads me into the bathroom. As I wash the blood from my hands and neck with a damp cloth, my eyes stay fixed on my reflection. Why wasn’t I faster? If I would have covered her faster, the bullet would have gone into me instead of her. I’m the one with the stains on my soul, not her. She doesn't deserve being shot and fighting for her life.
Staring at myself, rage like I’ve never known overtakes every cell in my body and explodes through my fist into the mirror. I keep punching until my knuckles are broken and bloody. Until Giada’s blood mixes with mine on my cut palms.
The pounding on the door breaks me from my violent haze. “Luca,” Finn says through the door.
I open the door and find him standing there. He looks from the mirror to my knuckles, then meets my gaze. “Come on. I’ll find someone to stitch your hand.”
The same nurse who handed me the change of clothes is now cleaning glass from my skin.
“I’m sorry about the mess,” I say robotically since that’s what a rational person would do in this situation, even though I feel like anything but.
She raises her shoulder, shrugging off my apology. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been working with the doc for nearly ten years. You’re not the first person to break something around here.” She smiles, but I don’t return it. The sum of everything that is good in my life is lying on an operating table, and I don’t have it in me to feel anything other than anger that she’s there at all.
When the nurse finishes cleaning the wound, she applies a few stitches to the deepest of the cuts then covers them with gauze. “I’ll see if I can get an update on your wife. It may be too soon right now, though. Okay?”
I nod and Finn shoves off the wall he was leaning against while the nurse patched me up.
“No speeches about how I should control my temper better than that?” I ask my cousin when he sits next to me, his expression giving nothing away.
Finn shakes his head and releases a huff of breath. “Are you serious? If I were in your shoes, I would’ve probably done the same thing. I think you forget the kind of man I am.”
“Yeah, what kind is that?”
“The kind who would move heaven and hell to protect his wife and cut through any motherfucker who stood in his way. If busting a mirror and your hands make the pain in your chest lessen for even a second, who the hell am I to judge?” Finn looks at me. “A guy I know once told me it changes when you have someone who carries your heart in their body.”
“It sure as fuck does.”
Finn smiles. “Yeah, that’s what I said, too.”
Three grueling hours later, the doctor meets me in the waiting room. “She’s going to be fine,” he says. “The bullet went straight through. It tore up some muscles but missed the major arteries, which is always a concern with gunshot wounds like this. She’s going into recovery now, and you can see her once she’s settled. She’s asleep and heavily medicated for pain, so when she wakes up, she won’t be fully cognitive.”
I nod and thank the doctor, apologizing again for the mirror.
“It’s fine. I’ll bill your cousin.”
When he walks away, Alessia looks in the direction he went then back to her husband. “Holy shit, did the doc just crack a joke?”
“Doubtful. I fully expect an invoice by morning,” Finn replies.
Alessia lets out a small laugh then turns to me and smiles.
This time, I return it.