by Lisa Daniels
Yet, there he was again, sitting in another parking lot, trying to strike the entire day from his mind as he stared at the building.
Go take care of business with Carlo and have a drink. You can use one today.
It really had been an impossibly long day and the notion of drowning his sorrows was growing on him.
He really didn’t have much of a choice anyway; Carlo was expecting his drop off and the last thing Luca wanted was to hear more crap from one of his bosses. He’d already heard more than enough from Giovanni.
I’ll be home in an hour, he thought, trying to motivate himself with a pep talk. Locking the Saab, he made his way inside the restaurant, which was busy as always, but Luca had no issue finding Carlo and Andrea, seated in their usual booth, demanding the wrong kind of attention as always.
He strode toward them, double-checking his breast pocket for the money. Of course, it was exactly where he’d left it.
As he approached, Andrea lifted her pig-like head and offered him what she believed to be an alluring smile.
“Ah, Luca!” she squealed in her high-pitched voice. “I haven’t seen you in ages. Come and sit, caro.”
She patted the booth beside her overweight frame suggestively, her painted mouth curling into an open leer. Carlo glanced up from his steak, barely acknowledging him except to grunt his approval as Luca squeezed in beside his boulder-shaped wife.
“How are you, caro? I need to visit your mama. I just get so busy, you know?” Andrea cooed.
“I’ll tell her I saw you, Mrs. Suzzi. She’ll be happy to know you’re doing good,” Luca replied, almost an automatic response.
Andrea wasn’t going to visit his mother any more than any of the other wives were.
Katrina Gallo was a reminder of what they could lose in an instant and no one wanted to deal with that. It was easier to ignore her existence than face the music.
You wouldn’t want to face the fact that a rival family could put a bullet in your husband’s brain the way they did my father. It’s much easier to ignore the reality by stuffing your face with overpriced lobster and French champagne. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, right Andi?
Of course, Luca said none of that. He wasn’t there to start with Carlo’s wife or anyone else, for that matter.
She patted his knee and the action was anything but endearing, her fat form pressing against him suggestively despite her mothering words.
Andrea Suzzi had never been a great beauty and age had certainly done her no favors. Still, that did not stop her from blatantly hitting on every male she managed to pin into a corner.
Her husband’s infidelity only fueled her perversion to bed anyone she could and the pair sickened Luca for more reasons than he could count.
Just one more reason I despise this world and everything in it, he thought grimly.
“Carlo, can you hand me a menu?” Luca asked, gently removing Andrea’s hand from his leg.
The underboss put his fork down and tossed a leather-bound book at him.
Casually looking about to ensure he wasn’t being seen, Luca slipped the envelope out of his inside pocket and placed it inside, sliding the menu away.
“On second thought, maybe I’ll just have a snack at the bar,” he said, rising from the table.
“Oh, stay for supper, caro!” Andrea cooed but Luca was already turning away.
“Another night. Grazie.”
Her husband had not said one word but that was more his way.
Others thought it a way for him to exercise intimidation but Luca secretly wondered if it was because Carlo had a hard time formulating full sentences.
The underboss had been a boxer in his youth, taking more blows to the brain than anyone could count.
Still, he was a permanent fixture in the Menotti family and had been for two generations and Giovanni loved the man like a brother.
It was none of Luca’s business anyway. He had enough of his own problems to worry about without speculating on the fungus growing inside Carlo Suzzi’s brain.
My business for tonight is concluded. Tomorrow I’ve gotta find another way to move the shipments without getting seized since someone keeps blowing our cover.
Luca had an idea but he didn’t know how Giovanni would feel about it.
It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission sometimes, he reasoned.
But that was a matter for the next day.
Tonight, he was done with all the unpleasant tasks he had been faced with and all he wanted was a scotch and soda.
Luca entered the lounge, cringing slightly when he saw two of his soldiers fooling around at the bar.
Tanya was tending bar but she seemed distracted, her eyes darting toward the back hallway.
He took a seat and called out to his boys.
“Can you stronzos keep it the hell down? This is supposed to be a classy place.”
“Luca!” Tommy yelled, raising his glass. “There you are.”
“It’s a Tuesday night, paesano. Are you drunk?” Luca demanded, his eyes narrowing in disgust.
And this is the help. No wonder everything is going to shit.
Frank shrugged nonchalantly.
“Auggie’s idea,” he chuckled as Tanya approached him.
“Scotch and soda?” she asked tersely and Luca nodded.
And of course August is here. If Curly and Moe are here, so is the biggest stooge. One drink it is and then I’m out of here. I can’t get caught up in their bull tonight.
The thought of hearing August’s voice for even a few minutes made his guts twist.
“Where is that asshole?” Luca asked, his jaw locking. It was no surprise that Tanya was tense. August’s presence put everyone on edge. The soldier was unpredictable, unstable—and that was when he was in a good mood.
Luca had been forced to clean up enough of his messes over the years and he had begged Giovanni to move him somewhere else. August was Luca’s least favorite person, possibly in the entire world.
He could safely say he loathed his underling.
But August did his job and followed orders, even if he was prone to going off the deep end.
“Uh…” Tommy giggled and glanced at Frank covertly. “He’s in the washroom.”
Luca’s eyebrow raised as he studied the two men, their tittering annoying him.
“Is that funny for some reason?”
“Nah,” Frank insisted. “It’s nothing.”
Tanya set his drink down forcefully, causing him to look up at her, and she subtly lifted her chin toward the back hallway.
A frisson of alarm slid through him.
Tanya dropped her eyes back toward the glasses and pretended to busy herself.
Oh August, you dumb bastard. What are you doing now?
Luca rose from the stool and the soldiers looked at him uncertainly, the smirks falling from their faces in unison.
“Uh, where you going, boss?” Tommy asked nervously.
“What? Now I gotta announce it every time I take a leak?” Luca snapped. “Mind your goddamn business.”
He made his way toward the washrooms, his pulse quickening.
What is that prick up to now? he wondered. If he’s shooting up again, I swear to God, I’m going to hotshot him myself.
He didn’t need this bullshit, not today.
Pushing his way into the washroom, he looked around.
A middle-aged man flashed him a phony smile as he dried his hands. Luca walked by the stalls, checking underneath them for other occupants, but as far as he could see, August wasn’t there.
Luca opened the door to the hallway, listening, and suddenly he heard a thud.
It was coming from the women’s washroom.
A sick, tickling sensation slithered through Luca’s body as he stood, waiting. A woman’s voice yelled out and he knew instinctively what was happening.
Oh Christ, not again, he thought, rage coursing through his veins as he instantly understood what Tanya had been trying to
tell him.
Of course she would not come right out and tell him what August was doing, not if she valued her life. Tanya had been inside the operation long enough to know that snitches did not meet with happy endings, especially not when she would be snitching on someone as insane as August.
Luca shoved at the door but it was locked from the inside.
I am going to end your life if you’re doing what I think you’re doing, Luca thought, fury causing him to shift. The prod of his fangs bled through his gumline and just before his entire form morphed, he kicked the door with brute force.
The first did not fully open it, but the second kick splintered the door inward at the deadbolt and August was knocked sideways as the wood hit him.
A terrified girl with jet-black hair backed up against the sinks, her lipstick smeared as she gasped for breath.
It was clear she was not there of her own accord, her hourglass frame trembling as she struggled to compose herself.
Their eyes met and she held up her hands to ward him off, the sight of a dragon advancing on them terrifying her more.
Luca barely had time to scan her for injuries as August stumbled to his feet. The soldier’s face twisted in shock.
“Luca! What the—”
Luca didn’t allow him to finish his sentence.
With the silver of his teeth, he yanked the soldier to his feet, pummeling his face with his fist as he dragged him into the hallway toward the emergency exit, his tail knocking against the wall. Pictures fell, crashing in his wake as he moved.
When they landed outside the back entrance, he shifted back, determined to have his fists free to pound the perverted prick on the pavement.
August tried to fight off the blows but Luca was enraged, each punch more intense than the last.
“Please!” August begged as Luca tossed him into the alleyway. “Gio is going to kill you!”
“There will be no one to tell him if I kill you first,” Luca growled, delivering a kick to his ribs as August’s skinny frame collapsed onto the ground.
August sobbed and curled into a fetal position but there was no stopping Luca in his rage.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Luca rasped. “You’re a sick bastard! How many women’s lives are you going to ruin?”
“This is the last time, I swear—”
Luca’s foot met his stomach, silencing him as blood spurted out of his mouth.
“Shit! Luca!” Tommy screamed, bursting out of the door. “You’re going to kill him!”
Luca backed up, choking on his venom, red streaking his hands as he stared at the pile of limbs unconscious on the ground. He hadn’t realized that August had blacked out, but even so, it didn’t feel like he’d been beaten enough, not to Luca.
“Get him cleaned up and lock him up at the Magna warehouse,” Luca said. “If he gets away, I am coming after you next. Capisce?”
Tommy gaped at him.
“Do you understand?” Luca growled and Tommy regained his composure.
“Yeah, I got it,” Tommy mumbled. “He was only having fun, boss—”
A new wave of fury washed over Luca and he lunged at Tommy, who fell back, whimpering in fear.
“You think abusing women is fun?” he hissed, his hand encircling Tommy’s throat. “I’ll keep that in mind the next time I see Christina… or Sara.”
Tommy’s face turned pale.
“You wouldn’t…”
“Oh? It’s different when it’s your family?” he spat. “What the hell is wrong with you stronzos?”
Luca didn’t wait for a response, stalking back into the restaurant where a crowd had gathered around the women’s washroom.
He pushed through the group, looking for the girl, but she wasn’t there anymore.
“Where is she?” he asked Tanya, retracing his steps to the bar. “Which way did she go?”
Tanya shook her head.
“I offered to take her to the hospital but she swore nothing happened. She didn’t look roughed up or nothing.”
“Dammit, Tanya!” Luca roared. “You should have kept her here.”
“I don’t think she’s going to say anything, Luca,” Tanya mumbled. “She was pretty scared.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Luca sighed. “I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Tanya eyed him, slipping his drink closer toward him and he looked at her.
“Drink this. After the day you’ve had…”
“What do you know about my goddamned day?” he snapped, his anger suddenly having a new target.
Another one who knows so much about me, he thought bitterly.
“I know it’s the anniversary of your dad’s death,” she said quietly. “I just saw Andrea Suzzi groping you, and you just had to stop that piece of shit from attacking yet another woman. I think you’ve earned this drink. It’s on me. You’re a superhero today.”
The words affected him more than he cared to admit. Unexpectedly, Luca chuckled and Tanya eyed him with surprise.
Yeah. If the Joker was a superhero.
“Hey, look at that,” he laughed, raising the tumbler to his lips. “Someone does pay attention to my shit after all.”
He took a long sip and sighed.
“Sorry for being such an asshole. I want to find that girl, though. Do you know who she is?”
Tanya shrugged indifferently and Luca knew that she hadn’t taken his words personally.
She’s heard worse from worse than me, he thought, the realization saddening him slightly.
“I got her name before the stronzos showed,” Tanya admitted.
“That’s something,” Luca said with interest. “I can have Carmello track her.”
Tanya eyed him warily and for a moment, he wondered if she was deciding whether to trust him or not with the information.
“I just saved her from God only knows what, Tanya. I’m not going to hurt her.”
The bartender nodded and sighed.
“Her name is Teresa Milano. She just moved here from Virginia.”
The announcement made him cringe.
Welcome to Miami, where you can’t even go for a drink without being accosted in a bathroom, he thought bitterly.
Luca reached for his phone to message Carmello, their go-to tech guy. If anyone could locate this girl, it was Carm.
“Luca…” Tanya said hesitatingly.
“What?”
“Did you see her?”
“Who? The girl?”
“Yeah,” Tanya replied slowly. “Did you look at her?”
“For a second. I wasn’t really paying attention to her. Why?”
Tanya inhaled sharply.
“She reminds me of someone,” she mumbled slowly. He waited, eyeing her expectantly, his fingers poised over the keypad.
“Who?” he demanded impatiently when she didn’t immediately finish her train of thought.
Tanya inhaled sharply and blurted out the answer.
“Mara. She reminds me of Mara.”
And just like that, Luca’s night got even worse.
Chapter Four
An Emotional Twist
Too close, too close, that was way too close!
Angela fumbled with her keys, trying to remember which one was which as her hands shook violently.
She knew that she had been seconds away from employing desperate tactics in the bathroom at La Perla when Luca Gallo had burst in, his emerald eyes on fire, his dragon form shocking her to her core. She hadn’t been warned that he was a shifter too.
How did he know I was in there? Does he know who I am? Can he sense that I’m a dragon too?
A thousand hysterical questions floated through her brain as she finally managed to open the door to her unit and slam it behind her.
She had not been damaged physically but Angela knew her emotional state was going to need some time to recoup.
I have to call Duggan and tell him what happened, she thought, flipping on every light in her path.
The apartment was small, sparsely decorated in Teresa Milano’s tastes—whatever the hell that was.
An eclectic mix of Mexican artwork and music paraphernalia littered the walls but Angela saw nothing but the freezer calling her name as she rushed to claim the bottle of vodka from its depths.
The liquid slopped into a water glass and she didn’t bother with mixing, taking a swig.
She felt the burn warming her throat and blissfully, she stopped quivering.
Okay, she told herself. Okay, you got this. You’re unscathed. Your cover isn’t blown. Just breathe now.
Slowly, she made her way to the couch, kicking off the heels on her feet and sinking into the cushions.
At that second, she longed for the overstuffed pillows in her real condo, not the post-modern leather crap the FBI had supplied.
She looked around the wired apartment slowly, wondering if anyone was bothering to monitor on her first night, but something in the back of her mind told her she had been thrown to the wolves without a second thought.
They should have responded to what happened in La Perla, she thought. The minute August cornered me in that bathroom, they should have busted in to save me… right?
There had been protocols put in place, things the agent had walked her through before sending her out undercover, but nothing had prepared her for something like that.
If Luca hadn’t shown up, would they have come or would they have just let it happen? Was anyone even paying attention? Maybe they were and they just didn’t think it was important enough to blow her cover over.
A sick feeling of dread washed over Angela as she considered how close she had come to being hurt.
I’m unarmed out there. Even if I managed to overpower him, I still would have been in mob territory. They weren’t going to let me walk away. I would have been just like August’s other victims—vanished without a trace.
Angela took another swig of her drink and willed herself to think rationally.
You’re being melodramatic. You could have taken August yourself and you would have. Even before Luca Gallo arrived, you would have shifted and been fine. I’m not calling Duggan. He might pull me out.
But she realized that she was worried about something worse than that.
