Fallen
Men of Mayhem: Book Four
Kristen Luciani
Fallen © 2020 by Kristen Luciani
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
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Contents
1. Aria
2. Vincenzo
3. Aria
4. Vincenzo
5. Aria
6. Vincenzo
7. Aria
8. Vincenzo
9. Aria
10. Vincenzo
11. Aria
12. Vincenzo
13. Aria
14. Vincenzo
15. Aria
16. Vincenzo
17. Aria
18. Aria
19. Vincenzo
20. Aria
21. Vincenzo
22. Aria
23. Vincenzo
24. Aria
25. Vincenzo
26. Aria
27. Vincenzo
28. Vincenzo
Epilogue
Ruthless Hearts Series
Severinov Bratva Series
Men of Mayhem Prequel
Men of Mayhem Series
Love Drunk Series
Standalone Romance Titles
About the Author
Chapter One
Aria
A single shot explodes into the air, shattering the stunned silence following Mama’s admission. I didn’t expect it — the shot or the bomb she’d just dropped on me. Mama did, though. She saw it coming, saw the devastation that her demons were about to unleash. That’s why she brought me here. She thought she was keeping me safe by telling the truth about my past, by giving me a place to hide and a path to freedom.
But you can’t escape the truth. It always finds you, no matter where you go or how fast you run.
After living in such hell for years, you’d think she’d already have learned that lesson.
Glass shatters around me as she tackles me to the floor, and I face-plant onto the scratched-up hardwood planks. Sobs quake my shoulders as I bring a hand up to my damp cheek to wipe away the tears streaming down my face.
But when I look down at my fingertips, I see that those aren’t tears I’m feeling.
It’s blood.
Mine and Mama’s.
A strangled cry lodges in my throat and I want so badly to scream for help that can’t possibly come in time. More shots ring out, reverberating between my ears like clashing cymbals. I turn my face upward toward Mama’s tear-streaked one.
Her lips quiver as she speaks, each word making my chest tighten more and more.
“Aria, you need to go. Now, before it’s too late!” Her body is pressed against me, shielding me from the horrors that wait for us just outside of this compound…the one that was supposed to be safe.
I realize in that moment that I’ll never be safe again, that the people searching for us won’t stop until they’ve found us and eliminated us.
I shake my head. “N-no, Mama! I won’t leave you! We go together, do you understand?”
“You know that’s impossible.” Her breath hitches. “He always told me he’d be back, that if he found me, he’d end me. B-but, I won’t let you suffer the same end, mi amore.”
“I won’t let that happen,” I whisper through my tears. “We can go right now, Mama. I know what to do. I can protect us.”
“I know you can,” she whispers, bringing a shaking hand up to my face. I press it to my skin, her familiar, floral scent wafting under my nose. “But it’s too late for me. You need to save yourself. Get to the address I gave you. They will protect you and keep you safe. You fight with everything inside of you, Aria. N-never stop f-fighting,” she whispers, sputtering slightly.
“I can fight for both of us!” I say. “Come on, let me get you up—”
“I-it’s too late,” she says again, coughing, a thin trickle of blood streaming from the side of her mouth. “Take the gun and go, far away from here. Please, mi amore, this is your chance. Go, and know I love you more than anything.” Another choked cough makes me shudder. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so—" She winces, bringing a hand down to her chest. My eyes widen as I see the crimson-colored patch seep into her long white sweater coat, spreading fast and furious over the soft fabric. Her arms give way and she falls against me, pushing me back into the puddle of blood on the floor.
Her blood.
“Mama,” I whisper. “Please stay with me. I need you! You’re all I have!”
But she doesn’t answer. Her eyes flutter, her face ghostly pale. I gently roll her under me so her back is on the floor. My head falls against her chest, right above the wound, and I pray to hear something. To feel something…anything.
A sign of life.
I grasp her fingers, lacing them with mine and bringing them to my lips. Her grip, once warm and comforting, is now cold and limp.
There is no sign of life.
Only death.
I scrub a hand down the front of my face and shove a fist into my mouth to muffle the scream that erupts from my lungs.
He’s just fulfilled his promise.
He ended her life, just as he said he would.
I lay Mama’s hand on her chest and smooth her dark hair away from her blood-splattered face. A deep ache settled into my chest as I stare down at my mother’s body. For years, she tried to keep me safe and away from the horrors she knew I’d suffer if she lost her focus for even a second.
I slide across the floor as more shots crack and fumble around in my handbag for the loaded gun. Footsteps thump along the creaky floorboards, heavy and foreboding. I grab the medal of St. Catherine that hangs around my neck and squeeze it tight, saying a silent prayer, pleading with a higher power to get me the hell out of this sinkhole that threatens to swallow me whole unless I make a move to save myself.
It may be my last, but dammit, I’ll never stop fighting.
For you, Mama.
For us.
My heart races, sweat pebbling across the back of my neck.
One breath, two breaths…
Get calm, Aria.
Find a way, Aria.
You were trained for this, Aria!
Everything I do right now…every step I take…will be a life or death decision.
My fingers wrap around the gun handle as I squat low, taking short, fast steps toward the hidden basement door. I hold out the weapon, poised to shoot as a lamp behind me cracks on impact. In my other hand, I grab a knife from the holster wrapped around my calf.
I’m plunged into darkness as the one source of light is extinguished by a stray bullet.
I have one chance, one lifeline left.
A shiver slithers down my spine as a stream of hot breath assaults my ear.
He’s here.
His blood.
Mama knew this day would come. She knew it would be her last.
I swivel around, driving the blade into my assailant’s hulking body.
Because there is no fucking way it’s going to be mine.
Unfortunately, the thought alone isn’t enough to give me the lifeline I desperately need.
A low, gravelly laugh rumbles through me, the stink of stale cigarette smoke assaulting my nostrils. My head jerks backward, beefy fingers tangled in my hair. I try to gasp for air, but the hand around my throat tightens until oxygen becomes all but impossible to suck into my lungs.
His voice slithers over my prickled skin.
Only hours ago, I’d thought I left it far behind in my toxic past, thought it had been extinguished along with his pathetic excuse for a life, but as Mama always said, evil never dies.
“Did you really think you could just steal everything from me and live to tell about it?” he hisses, yanking my hair harder. “You destroyed our business, our home, and our future!”
“And you destroyed my life!” I scream. “You killed my mother! You tried to kill me! And you ruined the lives of so many innocent girls for what? Greed and power! You’re a disease! A fucking cancer! And I may have missed the first time, but I won’t miss twice!” I swing my hand around, struggling to connect with his flesh, but he has his body protected by the unlucky thug I’ve just fileted.
“Your mother wasn’t smart enough to stay in her place,” he growls. “She knew better than to challenge me! And you’re just as stupid as she was! So now, you will pay!” His voice thunders, echoing in the still air.
With a throbbing pulse, I grip my knife tighter, still slashing to no avail.
I can’t let him get away with what he’s done…what I know he will do again.
The torture, the anguish, the blood on his hands.
It may as well be on mine, too.
I cough and sputter as darkness consumes me, my lungs struggling for breath. I see the tear-streaked faces of the tortured girls, hearing their shrieks of gratitude as they run past me, back into the world from where they were selfishly yanked.
I did it. I saved them.
But I couldn’t save the most important person to me.
Mama.
Just as my eyelids droop closed, an image of Mama’s smiling face looping through my cloudy mind, his grasp loosens and my hands fly up to my throat. I choke down as much air as I can for fear I may never take another breath, listening as he laughs once again.
He lets me go and my head slams against the hardwood floor as he rises to his feet, hovering over me with a menacing look on his deranged face.
“You defied me!” he seethes. “You tried to kill me!”
“I hate myself for failing!” I yell, my vision a little blurred from the blow to the back of my head. I can already feel a lump forming at the base of my skull where he cracked it against the floor. “And I fucking hate you!”
“You’re going to regret those words, Aria,” he says.
I close my fingers tight around the knife handle still in my hand. “I would only regret one thing, Father,” I say through clenched teeth, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I use every ounce of strength in me to leap to my feet. “Not taking a second chance to finish the fucking job!”
Chapter Two
Vincenzo
“You’ve got a very big problem right now, Vince.”
The knot at the base of my neck is so goddamn tight right now that I can barely move my head. It’s like an imaginary noose holding me in place, only it’s not cutting off my breathing. No, this noose threatens to paralyze me, to completely cut off my ability to think, move, or speak.
It’s threatening enough to render me completely powerless.
“Tell me everything,” I hiss at Paolo Villani, a long-time associate of my father’s.
He looks at me, his dark eyes scouting the near-empty room. The blinds are drawn, doors locked. “Come in through the back entrance,” he’d said when I picked up the phone an hour earlier. “And for Christ’s sake, don’t drive the Bugatti. Try to fly under the radar with a car that won’t raise any red flags.”
So I did what he asked. I drove my Range Rover. I came in through the back entrance. And I made sure the guns strapped to my waist were locked and loaded.
“Juan Salazar approached me,” Paolo says, pausing to take a long gulp of his chianti. It’s always chianti, never anything else. Paolo is a creature of habit, which makes him so very predictable.
And in our business, predictable is fucking dangerous.
My gut twists as he swallows his wine. He takes his time savoring the flavor while I clutch the sides of the wooden chair, my fingertips numbing from the pressure. He called me down here to tell me something serious.
Something destructive and potentially deadly since Juan Salazar is the kingpin of the most vicious Mexican drug cartel in the world.
As well as one of my business partners.
“Can you please swallow the wine and talk, Paolo?” I grunt through clenched teeth. Being here at his restaurant alone is a risk, and Paolo keeps scouring the place like he’s expecting someone.
Exactly the someone I’m trying to avoid.
“Vincenzo, you know your father and I were very close for years. He was a good friend who always took care of me when we were growing up and I always promised him and your mother, God rest their souls, that I’d always look after you, your brothers, and your sister.”
“Yes, and we appreciate it.” I tap the tip of my shoe against the tile floor, struggling to keep my impatience under wraps since I didn’t come here for a trip down Memory Lane. I came to make sure my family has a future, and right now, that’s very questionable.
“So of course, when Juan Salazar approached me, I knew I had to tell you right away, especially since he’s involved with your brother’s restaurant business.”
I rake a hand through my hair. Fucked. Exactly what I was afraid of. Juan took our agreement and fucked me raw with it.
“Paolo,” I say, struggling to keep my voice even. “Get to the point, please!”
He smooths his slicked-back, silvery gray hair and lets out a deep sigh. “He made me an offer.”
“One you couldn’t refuse, right?” I say with a roll of my eyes.
Paolo snickers. “Yes, that’s very good.”
“Did you ask him any details?”
“Of course.” His face takes on a serious expression. “He made it very clear that he wants to build allies in Italy and in Sicily, and he needs new opportunities because his current investments…his restaurant investments…” He clears his throat, tapping his fingers on the table. “Haven’t, ah, been as lucrative as he’d hoped.”
I knew it. That scumbag! I’ve been working with the guy for over a year now, and it was only a matter of time before he started screwing with our arrangement because he’s a greedy sonofabitch. “How do you fit into this whole thing, Paolo?”
“Juan sells you the drugs, collects your money, then has his guys steal a portion of the drugs back from your mules. Those are the drugs he offered to sell me in exchange for my distribution routes through Italy.”
“So he’s making money on both ends while we take the loss, and he’s getting access to both of our territories in the process. Paving the way to take over our interests.” I slam my fist on the wooden table. “The bastard needs to be stopped.”
“Yes,” Paolo says, taking another sip of his wine. “And fast.”
“I appreciate you letting me know,” I say, clenching and unclenching my fists. “I need some time to figure out how to deal with this shit and how to take his ass down once and for all.”
“What about Tommaso’s new restaurant? Juan is a big investor. Are you just gonna tell him that his business partner is stealing from him? From your whole family?”
Jesus Christ. We’re not only in bed with this asshole
, we’re tied up together in the goddamn sheets.
“Not yet,” I say. “I need a plan first. Tommy will go off the deep end if he finds out and I can’t risk Salazar getting his dick in a twist if he thinks we’re working against him. Besides, Tommy is getting ready for the opening of Il Gioiello in a few weeks. He needs to focus on that and not get sidetracked by any of this crap. That’s my job to handle. Salazar can destroy everything, Paolo. We all have to be careful. Really careful.”
“He’s polluting this country with his dirty deals and tainted drugs,” Paolo says, his eyes narrowing. “And his cartel isn’t the only one moving into the area. There will be a war, and we don’t want to be in the middle of it. It’s time to eliminate the cartels and take back our territories before those bastards crush us.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I seethe, clenching my fists tight. “Just make sure this whole thing stays between the two of us, because if it leaks and Salazar finds out we’re working together, we’re both fucked.”
Paolo nods, and now it’s his turn to rub the back of his neck. His eyes are troubled, and for good reason. Taking down the biggest Mexican drug cartel in the world can really weigh on a guy.
“What’s wrong?” I ask. “You having second thoughts about this whole thing with Salazar?” The hairs on the back of my neck prickle. I need Paolo to bring Salazar down. Working together is the only way for me to know how to track Salazar and his crew.
“No, no,” he says quickly, and I let out a breath. “It’s just…I, ah, got a call yesterday,” he continues.
Fallen: A Dark Italian Mafia Romance (Men of Mayhem Book 4) Page 1
