“I’ve been worse,” he assured her.
“Where are you going that’s so important?”
He put on his black jacket to cover up the blood that was starting to stain the shirt again; it concealed the wound like it wasn’t even there. “I need to speak with Lucca.”
“Did you happen to see Lucca when you were chasing the shooter down?”
He shook his head, beginning to leave. “No, he must have been going a different way.”
Her heart raced yet again as she put out her hand, placing it on his good arm to stop him. She couldn’t believe she was saying the next words that came out of her mouth, but she did. “Do you trust Lucca?”
He looked down on her. The fire that had slightly burned out in his eyes returned but was flaming brighter. “Why the fuck would you ask me that?”
“I-I—” Seeing his defensive response, she wasn’t sure how to fix it, so instead of making something up, she decided to tell him the truth. She had seen something good in him tonight, and her opinion of him of not having a heart was slightly changing. She could only hope he showed her mercy for what she was about to say. “Because he scares the hell out of me.”
That ring of fire calmed as a smile touched his lips. Taking her chin with his hand, he positioned her face up to him. Making it obvious that he liked she didn’t care for Lucca.
She didn’t know why she didn’t move as he brought his face down closer to hers, but she stayed deathly still, finding herself anticipating the kiss.
Before his lips could touch hers, he stopped, his voice giving her lips the only caress they were about to get. “He should, Kat.”
When Drago pulled away and started to disappear, she didn’t know who she felt more betrayed by, herself... or him.
“Your things you packed are there,” he continued, pointing to the small pile of boxes by the door as he passed. “And in case you missed him, there’s a guard by the elevator.”
The warning he gave her, she understood loud and clear that he didn’t want her to leave the apartment. She went to open her mouth to protest, but he was already on the other side of the door, seconds away from closing it.
“Goodbye, Kat.”
Hearing him say that again, she realized it was the first time he used her nickname, and she started to really fucking hate that she liked the way it sounded when he said it.
Twenty-Two
Lucifer’s Mark
Katarina went through her boxes trying to find the ones that held what she needed for tonight. She supposed she could have started to unpack, but then that would have made all of this come true, that she was really living here now.
Grabbing fresh clothes and her toiletries, she used his bathroom and took a quick shower to remove the blood off her. When she came out freshly cleaned and clothed, she took her shambles of a wedding dress with her, not knowing how she was supposed to break the news to Maria that the couture wedding dress was ruined. She found the trash can and threw it in.
May she never know of the loss.
Knowing her, she’d be more upset over the dress than over Todd.
Not ready for bed just yet, she couldn’t help herself from doing a bit of snooping. She wanted to know more of the man she was up against. The stairs had been calling her name since the first time she’d been here. Heading to them, she placed one foot on the step when something caught her eye.
Taking her foot off, she went back, going to the one lonely picture that hung on his wall that she had missed.
It was a photo of the Caruso boss and his children, but in the back stood Drago crossing his arms. Except this Drago didn’t look quite like the one who had just left. The one in the photo had a much bigger presence.
That was when she was fully able to see what her father had done to him, besides the holes he’d left on his chest.
She could see the muscle mass he once had was gone. His beautiful Italian dark skin now had a gray tint, the deep bags he carried under his eyes didn’t use to be there, and the biggest change she could see was in his eyes. They used to hold less of a red color, being more brownish, but closing her eyes, she pictured them how they’d shone earlier, red rings of fire that were hellbound.
Lucifer hadn’t put him in a coma; he had sent him to hell, and those eyes had seen the abyss.
Her father had always left scars on his victims, but what he’d loved the most was the change he made in a person’s eyes after he had broken them. She called it… Lucifer’s mark.
Kat could always see it, like the way she had with Chloe, but she had missed it this time, like she had only one time before…
…Still crying behind the door, she heard it go deathly quiet until footsteps got closer and closer to the basement door. Spending most of her ten-year-old life behind this door, she had learned whose footsteps were whose, and the ones coming closer belonged to the devil.
Quickly, she ran down the steps, but the second she was three steps away from the bottom, a hand came out, shoving her to the concrete basement floor.
With everything going fuzzy, she tried to fight it, crawling on the cold ground in hopes to get away.
“No!” Dominic yelled. His young broken body had fallen down the steps, but being the strongest of the brothers and already withstanding the beating he and the twins had taken to protect her, he was the only one still capable as he righted himself trying to grab the man who was coming after her.
“You can’t fucking protect her from me this time,” Lucifer spat before he gave him the back of his hand across his face, sending him to the ground with his sister. It had been awhile since he had gotten ahold of her, and he was itching to do it again.
When Dom tried to get up to fight again, Lucifer kicked him repeatedly wherever he felt so fit.
Kat made it under the bed to a tiny space below the mattress being held up by an old rusty frame. She watched her brother get kicked over and over again through the tears in her eyes.
Their father finally stopped hitting Dominic at a brutal place in between no longer being able to move and right before losing consciousness. Whatever the devil was about to do, he wanted Dominic to witness it.
She looked at Dominic’s hazel eyes. They were still resilient, but with every step Lucifer took toward her, they got closer to the verge of breaking. Now watching the shoes get closer and closer, she screamed as a hand came down, snatching a handful of her hair.
The pain she felt at her scalp from being dragged out from under the bed was unbearable, but it wasn’t going to compare to what came next… If there was a devil, there must have been a god, because thankfully, she didn’t last through the pain, passing out after only a couple of blows.
One thing about their father was, he got no enjoyment if he couldn’t see their eyes, wanting to see the fear in them as he broke them.
What Kat missed, however, was that when Dominic could finally crawl his damaged body to her small unconscious one, he scooped her up, holding her like he had when she was a baby.
After twenty long years of Lucifer’s torture and being unbreakable… he had finally broken, and the devil wasn’t even there to see it…
…Like Drago, she didn’t find out her brother had broken till later, and when she did, she realized they were a very different type of broken. It was the kind of broken like when breaking a bone, except when a bone heals, the part where it broke becomes stronger.
Trying to hold back the tear that was threatening to fall, she felt something on the other side of the picture. Turning it over, she read the words on a piece of paper that had been taped on the back.
Happy Birthday, Drago. Love, Leo.
She smiled, able to see the full Drago. He had a heart after all. Turning the picture over, she was going to place it back on the wall when she noticed a face she hadn’t seen at first glance, because she’d focused solely on Drago.
The tear she had been holding in fell, splashing onto the photo over the face that held the blackish-blue eyes.
Sal.
Twenty-Three
I Hate You For This
Drago only knocked once before entering Lucca’s office hoping he was in here, expecting to find the boss or maybe the consigliere with him, but what he didn’t expect was Maria.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked.
She just raised a brow. “Todd was pretty much my personal bodyguard, or have you already forgotten?”
Not in the mood for her antics, he focused on what he came for and sat down in front of his underboss. “One-Shot tried to kill Katarina.”
Lucca, who had been eerily quiet dragging on his cigarette and was in his own little world thinking, suddenly snapped out of it. “What did you say?”
“He tried to kill Katarina.” The words came out harsher the second time. “He missed her heart by a second.”
Pulling the cigarette away from his lips, he furrowed his brows. “One-Shot doesn’t miss.”
Drago took of his jacket, revealing his bullet wound. “Technically, he didn’t.”
Lucca sat back in his chair now, taking a couple of hits just staring at the blood on the sleeve of the button-up shirt. “He didn’t go for the head,” he stated, seeming to already know the killer hadn’t.
“No, her heart.”
“Fitting,” Maria mumbled.
Looking over at her, he assumed the girls must be on the right track. “Kat used the words ‘poetic justice.’”
“Seems to me One-Shot is into the theatrics.” She couldn’t help but comment again, “Not only did he kill a Caruso, but he tried for a Luciano… just like last time when he killed one of ours, he went for a Luciano, only he was successful last time.”
The room went quiet as Lucca inhaled deeply. Something seemed to click for him. “He’s evening the score.”
Every instinct in Drago’s body went on high alert telling him of the danger to come. “Except this time it’s not even.”
The underboss nodded. “We will need to keep a close eye on Katarina and warn Angel to be careful. I will talk with Dominic, so he knows one of his men is next, but I’m sure he’s figured it out by now.”
All their heads turned when the office door opened, and a concerned Sal walked in. “I think we may have a problem.”
The room went eerily quiet. The smoke from Lucca’s cigarette moving through the space seemed to make the most noise.
“I have no visual of One-Shot entering or leaving the casino hotel.”
“How is that possible?” Drago was the one to ask.
Sal was a man who knew everything. He was the great Salvatore, for Christ’s sake. However, this day he didn’t, and you could see the frustration etched on his face. “I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, he didn’t appear out of fucking thin air.”
Deep in thought, Lucca seemed to snap out of it at Drago’s words. “Just keep looking.”
Sal nodded but didn’t leave the room. It was like a dark shadow casted over him, his voice becoming grave. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Lucca. And I got this eerie feeling that he’s….”
It was the boogieman who finished the sentence. “One of us.”
He knew what that meant. Everyone in the room did. It had been in the back of each one of their minds that One-Shot might not be a Luciano after all, but a Caruso. Which was the worst outcome of all, because not only would they have to put down a brother, but that meant none of them or their loved ones were safe. This wouldn’t have been such a problem for Drago a day ago, but now that he was married, it was becoming a bigger fucking problem by the second. He’d protected so many throughout his life, but the protectiveness he was beginning to feel was somehow different. So different it scared him, and he didn’t understand why he was feeling this way after only a few hours of being married to the little witch.
He stood up. The big man towered over them. “Katarina will need to be a priority.”
“Like I said, we will keep a close eye on her,” his underboss agreed. “But I need your help in finding One-Shot.”
“You will, and when I find him, I’m going to put a fucking bullet through his heart.” Staring down at Lucca intensely, he never wanted to wring his underboss’s neck until now. “You know I hate you for this, right?”
Maria slightly tilted her head.
Putting the butt of the stick to his mouth, he inhaled deeply, staring up at his man with the same intensity. “For what?”
“For choosing me to marry her.”
Lucca stood then, his cool-colored eyes burning into warm-colored ones. “I showed you her. I didn’t pick her, Drago. You did.”
And that he did.
Going for the door, he turned before he walked out, wanting to know one last thing. “But you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist her though, didn’t you?”
That twisted smile he always seemed to miss on Lucca appeared on his lips. “That I did.”
Fucker.
* * *
Looking at her nude nails to see if there were any imperfections, she spoke when the room was just theirs. “I thought he might have killed you there for a second, brother. You better be careful, or the little games you’ve been playing might get you killed.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He flicked his Zippo open over and over again. “I’m not playing games.”
She looked at Lucca. “Then what exactly are you doing?”
“Creating our future for when this city is mine.”
Maria stood, getting up from the leather couch that sat in his office to sit in the chair in front of his desk. “Nothing is set in stone, so what makes you so sure you get to have the throne?”
“There’re only two people smart enough to take it from me,” he began, rolling the Zippo through his fingers. “Dominic is the first, and if he’s not careful, I’ll have to take care of him.”
She crossed her legs, sitting up straighter at the confession before she cleared her throat. “And the other?”
He stopped the metal in his hands from moving, coming to a standstill. “Is sitting right in front of me.”
Seeing his eyes bore into hers, she gave him a smile. “Good thing for you, your men wouldn’t follow orders from a woman, let alone into hell like they would you.”
“And you’re sure Todd… didn’t?” he asked coldly.
That smile of hers slowly disappeared. She figured he would find out that Todd had taken her to get Katarina’s wedding dress, but she wondered if he knew that they had gone to the Lucianos’ house first. “Good thing I know killing someone with a bullet is no fun for you, or I’d be tempted into thinking you were One-Shot.”
“Todd was a dead man.” The boogieman confirmed that he would have killed him for his carelessness. “But I need Katarina alive. She serves a purpose for me.”
That smile that had disappeared from Maria’s lips returned. “You know
I’ve been thinking about what we should do with Amo… and I might just have an idea.”
Twenty-Four
Amo De Santis
Knock.
The single knock on the door had his blue-green gaze going to the wooden door. “Come in.” When the door opened and the young but large man came through to take a seat in front of him, he didn’t avert his eyes once, always showing him exactly what he truly felt about him. “I have a job for you, Amo.”
He sat there like a cold statue, not saying a word or making a movement. There was never any emotion on his face anymore, always showing the same stoic face Amo had ever since he’d lost Chloe to Lucca.
“An attempt on Drago’s wife, Katarina, was made tonight by One-Shot.” He waited to see Amo’s reaction to the news to see if there was any remorse or concern, but there was still nothing. “And I am requesting that you be her personal bodyguard whenever Drago is not around.”
Finally something, a little flash in his eyes of what appeared to be hatred before a simple nod was given.
Lucca flicked his Zippo open, revealing a flame to light the end of a cigarett
e he held between his lips. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“No, sir.” It was the first words he had spoken to him in a long time.
Unable to hold the words in any longer, the underboss whispered to him, revealing what he had known and what Amo thought he had gotten away with. “Does Angel know it was you?”
A hidden fear that was probably even hidden to Amo started to creep into his eyes. “What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Amo.” His voice became harsh and quick. “Does Angel know it was you who beat the shit out of him?”
Amo’s mouth opened before it snapped closed. He was clearly thinking about his next words before he spoke the truth simply with a word. “Yes.”
Good. So, he wants me to deal with him.
Placing his still lit cigarette in the glass ashtray, Lucca slowly stood, taking in right where he had Amo trapped as he walked to the other side of the desk and took a seat on the edge, so he could look down upon him. “I want you to know if I thought for one second you were One-Shot or had the ability to hurt a Luciano again, I would slit your throat right here and now and finally be fucking done with you… But I know you are not.” The boogieman started to rise with the cold words he spoke next. “Because you are weak. Too weak to carry a skill such as One-Shot’s and too weak to kill even if your life depended on it. You covered your face with a mask in hopes to hide your identity from a man you thought to be weaker than you even though it took three of you to take him down. When you hurt someone…”
Lucca stood once more, this time reaching out to grab Amo’s thick neck as he started to squeeze the life out of him. “You do so like this. Face to face. A Caruso never hides behind a mask. Those are for the weak.” Even though Amo was beginning to struggle for air and tried to fight him off, Lucca continued with his strong grip and words, “There is so much more joy to be had when there is nothing to hide behind as you watch life leave their eyes.”
Drago: Made Men, #6 Page 9
