Chapter Thirty-Six
Stefano
“DO WE HAVE EVERYTHING ready for the meeting with Forsyth on Monday?”
“Yeah,” Gio mutters, keeping his attention out the window. “Just need to give the final contract another comb-through. Make sure they didn’t sneak anything in.”
“Be sure to have your sulking face revised by then, too,” I tell him. “I need a shark in that meeting with me, not a pouting pussy.”
He sniffs. Sulkily. Like a little bitch. Still miffed over Raya’s confinement. And the fact that he’s still pouting tells me he’s yet to visit her. Or he’d know where her head’s at on the situation.
It’s almost four in the damn morning and we’re just getting back from an impromptu trip to downtown L.A. for a last-minute meet with a business partner to handle a fatal fuckup. A shit day I didn’t plan for, but it is what it is. That’s the business.
Right now, I’m worn out, brain fogged, and in desperate need of some shut-eye. But my desire to see her is greater. Fucking itching under my skin to be near her. To touch her. Smell her.
There’s so much shit going on right now. So much crumbling and imploding in my carefully constructed empire. So many thorns to rip out and cracks to patch up. But all I can think about every goddamn second of every goddamn minute is her. It’s like a goddamn curse.
Thoughts of that sneaky little liar permeates every crevice of my mind, flood every vein, every vessel, taking up space like they own it.
She looms so damn large in my head that everything else, no matter how grave or pressing, feels small and insignificant.
As if nothing matters more than her. As if she’s the empire.
It’s...new. Nothing I’ve ever felt before. A rush. A crave. A pathetic fucking desperation to be near another human being. A raging need to haul her up against me and inhale her bit by bit until she dissolves, fills my pores, my bloodstream, and becomes one with me. Mine in every way.
Is this what addiction feels like?
Something feels off the moment we return to the villa. The dogs are going nuts, and the garden park on the east side is pitch black.
“Find out Lo’s whereabouts,” I tell Gio as I get out my phone and ring up the head Upperman.
Sanders answers on the first ring. “Boss?”
“You all goddamn sleeping or what?” I bite out. “What’s going on with the dogs? And why the hell is there a blackout at the garden park?”
“Sorry, boss. I alerted maintenance about the park and the team’s on their way to check the poles now,” he rushes out.
“I tried to send someone to check on the dogs, but comms suddenly went out and I didn’t want to leave my post in case it’s another attack and the dogs are a diversion. But I can go now, boss.”
“No. Go check on the others, see what’s going on. If they’re not dead, I’ll kill them myself.”
I hang up and head straight into the house. Shrug off my jacket and toss it aside, then beeline for the arms room.
Gio’s waiting when I come back out, adjusting the battle torch on my rifle.
“Lo says he’s three minutes out. Coming in from Black Gold.” He eyes me with a frown. “What’s going on?”
“No idea. You stay here.” I head for the door. “I’ll go meet Lo at the front.”
Outside, I jump into my cart and tear off toward the parking lot. A few minutes later, Lorenzo comes jogging over the bridge from the main lot and gets in beside me.
“Something’s going on,” he says.
“No shit,” I mutter, hitting the pedal.
“I sped here because surveillance alerted me the villa feed got hacked. It was looping for over an hour before they caught it.” He looks at me, grim. “No doubt something went down during that time.”
“According to Sanders, comms are down and there’s been radio silence. Either they’re all dead, or they switched sides and walked out.” I shake my head. “I’m hoping it’s the latter. Otherwise, I’ll have to accept that I’ve been surrounded by incompetents this whole time.”
On the east side, we park across the straight from the garden park, and I pass Lorenzo my Glock mounted with a tactical pistol light. We take the rear path behind the Diner Hall then cross over to the garden park. Once we’re in a tactically solid position, we switch on our lights.
From the sound of it, all the dogs have gathered here for some reason. Snarling and losing their shit. But the area’s pitch fucking black.
We move cautiously, covering each other’s backs as we follow the barks. Until we close in on them. They’re clustered around one of the lightposts, growling, barking up at it. Some even trying to scale it.
To see what has them in such a feral fit, I angle my battle torch upward and…
Fucking hell.
“Wait, is that…” Lorenzo trails off and moves closer, sweeping his light up along the pole.
But I don’t need better lighting to be sure. My dreams already told me this was coming.
“Luca,” I confirm. “It’s Luca.”
~
THE MAINTENANCE TEAM arrives with floodlights, flooding the scene in harsh white clarity. All the light posts are smashed out. Sturdily affixed to one of them is a wooden cross, and shackled to it, arms spread, head slumped to the side, is Luca. A barbed wire crown pressed into his scalp.
Taped to his chest is a piece of cardboard with words scratched out in block letters:
ALL HAIL, THE NEW KING OF VEGAS.
Scribbled beneath that in smaller letters…
You know what you’ve done,
and you will not be forgiven.
Lorenzo leans close and mutters, “I’m starting to think this isn’t an attack, but an assist.”
“If you’re right,” I reply, “then I bet there’s a gift for us in that fanny pack around his waist.”
Voice tight with disappointment, Lorenzo shakes his head at the scene before us. “Luca, you fucking idiot. What the hell did you do?”
Sanders arrives just then and reports that the Uppermen on duty were found unconscious at their posts, but alive. Everyone accounted for.
Definitely not an attack.
A wave of exhaustion rolls over me.
Sanders is still rambling, apologizing profusely, but I’ve got nothing left in me right now to deal with his inept ass. “Get the fuck away from me, Sanders.”
He’s gone before I’ve taken my next breath.
“If I stay in this state, I’ll start shooting people. And that’s not conducive,” I say to Lorenzo. “I need to go get some shut eye before I make any decisions.”
He claps me on the shoulder. “Go rest up. I’ve got this.”
As I’m heading off, a hair-raising sensation coasts across the back of my neck. A familiar sensation. Familiar with one person in particular. The same sensation that swept over me the first time our eyes met.
She’s near. She’s here. Watching me.
I stop and glance around. But all eyes are locked in horror on Luca. None on me.
“Lo?” I call out.
Lorenzo glances back over his shoulder.
“When you’re done here, check that our girl is still where we left her.”
He frowns in thought, but nods.
I’d bet every strand of hair on my head she’s not there. My little liar is here. And for some inexplicable reason, that makes me smile.
~
CORA SHOVES A steaming mug of coffee into my hands when I make it downstairs after three hours of sleep.
With a huff, she jabs a finger toward the sliding glass doors, where Lorenzo and Gio are sitting out on the patio.
“Morning to you, too, Cora.”
She skewers me with a glare and spins away.
“Don’t forget I’m the one providing you this life of luxury, not your precious Raya,” I call after her. “Keep this shit up and I’ll ship your ass back to Sicily.”
From somewhere down the hall, she fires back a colorful string of words, but I ignore it and head outside.
Gio stands as I walk out, stretching his arms over his head. “Now that you’re up, I’m taking a nap. Something tells me things are about to get real interesting, and I’d like to be properly rested for the chaos.”
As he strolls inside, I take his seat.
Lorenzo eyes me over the rim of his coffee. “Raya was with you last weekend, wasn’t she?”
I take a long sip. “If you’re asking me, you already know the answer.”
His jaw hardens, and he glances away, then back. “When did we start keeping things from each other?”
“Don’t know about you, brother, but I keep a lot of things from you.”
He lifts a brow at me, calling bullshit.
“Okay…” I scratch my jaw. “Remember that Venezuelan nurse you used to be gaga for? She didn’t ‘ghost’ you and move back home like you were led to believe. I caught her cleaning out your safe, so I turned her into a ghost before you could find out and forgive her.”
Nothing. Not even a blink to this revelation. Most likely because he’s twice as infatuated over someone else now.
“Why’d you sit back and let me confine Raya?” he asks.
“Because there were still too many question marks around her.” I shrug. “I knew she wasn’t involved in the attack, but I also knew she was hiding things. And I wanted to see what she would do when caged. Who she would become.”
“Well, she isn’t caged now.” He leans back, fingers laced behind his head, and lets out a long breath.
“According to the Soldatis on her rotation, Luca told them he had orders to bring her back here. Of course, they deferred to him since he’s an Upperman.
She was last seen on surveillance leaving with Luca and Rochi Ascani. ”
“And where’s Rochi now?”
“His body was dumped outside his house.” He drags both hands down his face, unusually agitated. “Fuck, Stefano… Is her body gonna turn up next? I’ll never forgive myself if—”
“She’s not dead.”
He looks at me. “How do you know that?”
Hesitant, I take a drink of my coffee. “There’s no way to explain it without sounding weird, but...I felt her here last night. That’s why I told you to check on her. Somehow, I just knew she wouldn’t be there. Because she was here.”
He eyes me skeptically. “Is this some new creepy weird shit with you? Like your harbinger dreams?”
“No goddamn idea.” I flick a piece of dried leaf from off the table. “What was in the fanny pack left on Luca? A gift, or a threat?”