22. Luca
Luca
Chapter twenty-two
Leaving Giada in the bed is no small feat. She isn’t asleep. I doubt she'll be getting any until we all make it back from the lake house. And we will all make it back. Too many times in both of our lives, the monsters have walked away free from having to answer for their crimes. Not tonight.
My wife watches me silently from the bed while I dress in a dark pair of jeans and a black Henley top.
“I would make a decent-looking biker, don’t you think?” This seems to be the staple uniform for most of the men around here.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I think I prefer you in suits. But if you want to trade the Mafia for the MC, I suppose I wouldn’t make a terrible old lady,” she replies with a smile, trying to play along and let me lighten the heavy mood in the room. It doesn’t last for more than a second before the tension on her face returns and worry swims through her tired amber eyes.
Once I’m dressed and have my shoulder holsters in place, I walk to the edge of the bed, bending to kiss Giada. My hand cups the side of her face and I press my forehead to hers, staring into her fearful eyes. Trying to come up with something to reassure her is useless. There's nothing I can say that will make her believe that all of this will be over soon. But I will be walking back through that door in a few hours, ready to start our lives free from the chains of worry, whatever that future looks like.
The sound of a knock on the door breaks our connection. “Yeah,” I call to whoever is on the other side.
Finn pokes his head in. “We’re about ready, just need to load up.” His gaze turns to Giada. “The ladies are in the main room if you want some company.”
I nod. “Thanks. We’ll be out in a minute.”
Finn shuts the door and Giada gets out of the bed in just my T-shirt and pulls on a pair of jeans before slipping her feet into a pair of sandals.
“Come on,” I say, holding out my hand. Her warm palm slides into mine, and I have the strongest sensation of never wanting to let it go.
Walking out into the main area of the clubhouse, I notice the bar covered in all types of weapons, from guns to knives, a rolled-up rope, and a few pairs of handcuffs.
I kiss Giada on her temple and tilt my head to Alessia and the group of women sitting at a table with coffee cups in front of them.
She walks over and has a seat next to Lucy, who offers her a reassuring smile and hands her a cup. “There’s a little whiskey in it,” Lucy tells her as Giada takes a sip. “Helps calm the nerves.” Giada nods in thanks.
Turning toward the bar, I spot Jude strapping several knives to his vest, and he gives me a wink.
“Jude has a certain affinity for knives,” Linc says, walking up next to me.
“What about you?” I ask.
He pats the double holster strapped across his chest. “I prefer guns, but I’m not a showboat like some people,” he says loud enough for Jude to take notice.
“Fuck off,” Jude tells his friend. “There’s a certain creativity involved in using knives that you, my friend, simply don’t possess.”
Linc chuckles. “I’ll take the quick kill any day.”
Jude shrugs. “That’s exactly what I'm talking about. No imagination.”
I have a feeling in another life, Jude could have been a serial killer. Good thing he’s on our side.
After strapping myself with four 9mms courtesy of the Black Roses and loading up on magazines, it’s time to head out. Five of us walk to the table where our women are sitting. I bend to taste Giada’s coffee and whiskey-flavored lips and feel the small hiccup in her throat. When I meet her gaze, there are tears gathering there.
“I’ll see you in a couple hours. Do me a favor?”
“What?” she whispers, trying so hard not to let the tears fall from her eyes.
“Be wearing my shirt when I get back. I fucking love seeing you in my clothes.”
Her small smile doesn’t reach her eyes, but I can’t expect it to. I wish I had more time to reassure her. Hell, I wish I had more time with her period.
I stand and follow the rest of the men outside.
“Let’s finish this,” Finn says to me, clasping me on the shoulder.
It all comes to an end tonight.
The truck we’re in is quiet as Ozzy drives us to the lake house. Knox and Cash stop at the entrance and wave us off as we continue into the dark neighborhood. It’s just after one o’clock in the morning. Anyone who lives here is most likely fast asleep, safely tucked into their bed. There’s a narrow access road to reach a dock at the lake between two properties that we pull the truck into to keep it out of sight. The back of the house is visible from where we park, and thankfully, there are no lights on, signaling that Carlo and anyone else he happens to have inside are sleeping.
As silently as possible, we make our way through the large backyard and when we get to the back door of the house, Eoghan pulls out a lock-picking set from his pocket. Handy to have in situations where breaking down the door isn’t a viable option.
When he opens the door, we all stand still, waiting silently for any sign of an alarm. None are heard and the seven of us make our way into the house. Finn and I are at the front, Eoghan and Cillian right behind us, followed by Ozzy, Linc and Jude.
From the plans, we know there are four bedrooms. One downstairs off the side of the kitchen and three large bedrooms on the second level. Finn checks the one downstairs first and comes out a moment later, shaking his head. We didn’t have time to set up any surveillance of the house before we made our way here, so we don’t know how many guys, if any, Carlo has with him.
Ozzy points to Linc and Jude, then signals with his hands to have them wait down here as the five of us advance up the stairs to the top three bedrooms. There are four doors, two on the right and two on the left. The first door on the right leads to the bathroom.
When Cillian opens the second door on the right, he nods inside. There’s a man sleeping on his back, but it isn’t Carlo. At least he wasn’t stupid enough to be here by himself. Cillian creeps in, pulls a .22 with a suppressor attached from his holster and shoots the man in the head where he sleeps. We wait for any noise indicating the small pop from the weapon roused anyone from sleep. Cillian walks out of the room and quietly pulls the door closed. One down, and who knows how many more to go.
Opening the door of the first room on the left, Ozzy shakes his head. One bedroom left. With Finn on one side of the doorframe and me on the other, I carefully turn the doorknob and allow the door to silently swing open. From the opening, I find Carlo sleeping on his back, not realizing there are seven men in the house waiting for the life to drain from him. Finn and I step in, me walking quietly to one side of the bed as Finn walks to the other. I raise my gun and train it on the man in front of me, the man responsible for nearly ending my wife’s life.
Before I have a chance to fire, his eyes shoot open and lock with mine. “Hello, Carlo.”
In a flash of movement, he spins to his side to grab the gun from his nightstand, but he’s too late. He’s staring down the suppressor of Finn’s 9mm. “Not so fast, asshole,” Finn growls at the man.
Carlo slowly rolls back over to his back and sits up with his hands on either side of him.
“You think this is over, Luca? You really think with me out of the way, you’ve won? You’re nothing more than a street punk who married my half sister. You think the Irish are your saving grace? That what, you were going to be the new head of the Cataldi empire with my slut sister by your side? These Irish assholes aren’t going to allow that.” Carlo laughs. “You played right into their hands. They aren’t going to protect you now that they’ve captured the big bad wolf.”
“Jesus Christ, Carlo. You’re fucking delusional,” Finn says to the man. “The big bad wolf? You’re nothing more than a sniveling asshole who was riding daddy’s coattails. You could have walked away with your life, but you decided you wanted to play Mafia don. Too bad for you no one wanted to play with you. You really should have left well enough alone, but you made a grave error in judgment when you decided targeting women was going to give you the upper hand. All it did was make me and my cousin hungrier for your blood.”
Carlo’s eyes widen when he hears the word cousin and he turns to me. “You fucking rat.”
I smile. “Surprise, motherfucker.”
Rage takes over Carlo’s features before his hand dives under the pillow next to him and he raises a .38 Special in my direction, firing off a shot. I duck to the side and he misses before I hear the familiar sound of a muffled pop coming from Finn’s gun. Carlo howls in pain, bleeding profusely from his right arm that he was holding the gun with. It drops from his grasp and Finn swipes it from the bed. Carlo grabs his shoulder, his breath coming out in harsh pants between clenched teeth.
“You think killing me is going to somehow save your sorry ass?” I ask, raising my gun to his forehead.
“No. But if I’m going to hell, I’m taking you with me, you fucking rat bastard.” The defiant sneer on his face makes me want to laugh.
“Actually, no. You’re not.”
Ozzy steps into the room, and Carlo’s head tilts back, a pained fuck falling from his lips.
“Now, now, boys. Don’t kill him too fast,” Ozzy says, walking up to the bed with an eerie smile on his face. “I haven’t had my fun with him yet.” The MC president digs his gloved finger into the bullet wound Finn gave Carlo, and it takes every bit of strength in the soon-to-be-dead man to not scream out in agony.
“You fucked up, Carlo. You went after what’s mine. Twice.”
Before Carlo can utter a word, Ozzy pulls a mean-as-hell-looking knife from the sheath at his waist and plunges it into Carlo’s stomach, staring into his eyes as he twists it.
“Hurts like a bitch, don’t it? Funny thing about stab wounds to the stomach. It takes a few minutes for them to kill you, but it’ll be the most painful last minutes of your life. I bet if I keep the knife inside you, it’ll buy me and my friends some extra time.”
“You all have no idea what’s coming for you,” Carlo says, his wild eyes darting between the three of us as sweat pours down his face. “You think you’ve won? I’ll see you all in hell before long.”
“Maybe, but it won’t be today,” I tell him, raising my gun to his forehead once again.
I fire the shot, and he falls back on the pillow, brain matter and blood scattered across the headboard behind him.
My eyes stay fixed on his prone body, lying lifeless on the bed. He was the sum of all of our nightmares, all of Giada’s fear and pain. There isn’t a living man in this house who his evil hasn’t touched. And it’s over. We’re free from the nightmare he held us all in. We’re free. And so is my wife.
“You okay, cousin?” Finn asks.
“Yeah,” I say, thoughts running through my head about what this means for my future with Giada. She’s free to live however she wants. Wherever she wants. “Let’s get this cleaned up.”
Ozzy calls Cash and Knox and instructs the men to park behind our truck on the side of the property. The nine of us load everything that could contain any blood evidence in the back of Ozzy and Knox’s trucks, including two dead bodies.
“What about Carlo and the other guy?” I ask Ozzy.
“We know a farmer who likes to keep his pigs well fed. For a certain fee, the bodies will be gone by daybreak.”
That leaves me with disgusted images running through my mind as we drive back to the clubhouse. Knox, Cash, Cillian and Eoghan drive past the turnoff, heading to the farm Ozzy mentioned while we continue on the road that leads back to my wife. Apparently, Cillian is keen to meet this pig farmer to see if he’d be interested in potentially working with the family if the need were to arise.
Finn and the rest of the Black Roses head into the clubhouse, but I stand outside and stare into the night sky. Dawn will be breaking soon and with it, the start of a new life for Giada and me. We’re truly free now. There is no more Cataldi organization. There is no more looking over our shoulders, wondering when Carlo is going to make his next move and if we’ll be in time to stop him. He can’t hunt Giada down if she decides to leave. She's free to do anything she wants, and I’m free to do the same.
Neither of us has ever been faced with a choice to live however we like. I’ve spent the last seven years trapped in a role I hated to the depths of my soul, but I did it to bring down the man responsible for my parents’ death and his entire organization. I finished what I set out to do. Francesco is sitting alone in prison with mere months left to live, his empire in ruins. He holds no power, putting all of it in the hands of his son, who is on his way to being pig food. My purpose for being in Boston is over. I can start a life with my family out from behind the shadows of my time with the Cataldis. It’s a heady feeling, one that I’ve never really let myself think about, and now I’m not sure what the hell to do.
“Luca Bennetti,” I hear Giada call from behind me. “You scared the absolute shit out of me.”
I turn and find my wife stomping toward me with her hands clutched into tight fists and an angry scowl across her mouth. When she gets closer, I see that she’s been crying.
“Why are you crying, sweetheart?” I ask when she stops less than a foot from me. I want to reach out and touch her beautiful face, to pull her into me and feel her pressed against me. However, the look on her face tells me I may not want to let her that close to any vulnerable appendages.
“Well,” she says, cocking her head to the side. “Finn thought you were right behind him when he walked through the door. He beelined straight for Alessia and started making out with her like a damn teenager.” I chuckle at her indignant tone but quickly school my expression, noting the fire in her eyes and not the good kind. “Everyone was inside, too wrapped up in their women to realize you hadn’t come in. When I didn’t see you, I thought you were fucking dead!” she yells. “I stood there crying for a solid minute before Finn realized what was going on and told me you must be outside. You scared me half to death, Luca.” Tears of anger and relief spill from her eyes and I close the gap between us, not being able to hold myself back.
“Shh. I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I coo into her ear as sobs rack her body. “I’m here. I’m safe. We’re safe.”
My palms rub up and down her back in a calming caress until Giada quiets and looks up at me. I move my hands to the side of her face and wipe the tears from under her eyes.
“What are you doing out here?” she asks, her anger replaced with concern.
“I was thinking about what life is going to look like for us now without the threat of your brother hanging over our heads. We’re free. You’re free.”
“And?”
“And you can go anywhere you want. You don’t have to stay in Boston. You can move to Italy like you wanted and live with your family. You’re finally free from this life.” It would kill me to let her go, but I promised her on our wedding day she could leave when this was over. She doesn’t have to be tied to the violence she grew up with. She finally has a choice.
Her eyes narrow, and I get the distinct impression I said the wrong thing.
“Are you stupid? Did you get hit over the head tonight or something?” The way she’s looking at me tells me she could very well be the one with a blunt object in her hand if I don’t tread lightly. “The only place I want to go is home with you. Wherever we decide that is. In case you’re too dense to realize, I love you, Luca. Though I’m questioning your common fucking sense right now.”
A choked laugh leaves my throat before my mouth crashes to hers. Though she’s angry with me, she opens and allows me to deepen the kiss. When I pull away, we’re both panting hard.
My forehead presses to hers. “I love you too, Giada. That’s why I want you to have whatever you want. If that was moving to Italy and getting away from here, I wouldn’t have stopped you. It would have torn me apart, but I wouldn’t have gotten in your way. I wouldn’t have broken my promise.”
Giada tilts her head back so she can look me straight in the eyes. “Listen, we have a lot to figure out, but there’s no chance in hell I'm leaving you. My decision was made the first time I kissed you, the first time you held me in your arms and promised to always protect me. There is no future I want that doesn’t include you.”
“Thank fuck, because to be honest, I may have shown up in Italy and begged you to stay with me. I can’t imagine not seeing you dance or listening to those old records with you ever again. God, I love you.”
I dive in for another breath-stealing kiss. Giada falls into me and I slide my hands around her thighs, picking her up so she can wrap her legs around my waist.
“I need a shower and to sink deep inside you before we fall asleep tonight. Then, tomorrow, we can go home and figure out what the hell we’re going to do with the rest of our lives. Sound good, Mrs. Bennetti?”
“It’s the smartest idea you’ve had all night, husband.”