by J. S. Cooper
“I guess I need to go and call Enzo then,” I said softly. “We should go back upstairs to the apartment. I can use Matteo’s phone. He has a burner that he got.”
“Wait a second, Luca.” She grinned. “Can we do something real quick before?” She winked at me and I just laughed.
“No, my darling, I wasn’t joking before. I know you’re horny for me and want me. I want you too. But like I said, the next time we do it, it’s going to be right. The next time we fuck, it’s going to be lovemaking. And I’m going to make sure you know that for the rest of our lives, when I’m inside of you, it’s coming from a place of love and not just trying to get off. I’m going to treat you right.”
Chapter 24
Anabel
“What are you guys doing back here?” Matteo rushed to the door as we knocked on it, he was frowning and pissed. He looked past me and at Luca, “I thought you were going to take care of Enzo?”
“We’re not going anywhere,” I spoke up before Luca could answer. “I’m not letting him go and get shot, and killed.”
Matteo sighed and let us in, closing the door behind us quickly. “Okay, so then what’s the plan, Luca?”
Once again, he talked past me. Luca shrugged. “I guess I’m going to have to give Enzo Fabiano’s body.”
“That’s not going to stop him, you know that, right?” Matteo got louder. “You giving him his body, is not going to stop him right now. You have made him a fool; you have made a mockery of him. Once he realizes that he fell for your lie about Sergio, you’re done. He doesn’t care about Fabiano.”
“He will want the body, he will,” I said. “He wants it so he can get his daughter back. He loves his daughter, won’t that be enough?”
Matteo looked at me and frowned. “Anabel, you don’t know our world. You don’t know what it’s like to be in the mafiosa. Pride is everything. Everything. Luca is as good as dead, you’re as good as dead, I’m as good as dead, Charlotte is as good as dead, Emily is as good as dead. You don’t get it.”
He stopped and then looked around. “Sorry, guys. I’m just sorry.” He walked over to Emily and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t mean to shout. This is why I got out of the mafia in the first place. What I’m saying is, you giving Enzo Fabiano’s body is not going to be enough, you know this, Luca.”
“I know.” Luca nodded. “But what can I do? My woman came to me, and she begged me, and when my woman begs me, I’ve got to listen to her, because you know what, Matteo? I know you know this better than anyone right now, but when you’re in love, when someone’s got your heart, you have to honor them, and you have to respect them. I am honoring and I’m respecting Anabel, so we’ve got to figure out another way. We’ve got to figure out something else to do.”
I looked at Luca and I realized this man really loved me, more than I was even capable of understanding. Yes, he had his issues; I had my issues, but they were issues we could work on together, if only we could both survive. “So what do we do?” I was nervous that Luca and Matteo were going to start fighting; that was the last thing we needed. I looked at Emily and at Charlotte. “Girls, do you have any ideas? Any thoughts?”
Charlotte shook her head, and Emily looked thoughtful. “I might have one idea.”
“What?” I rushed over to her side. “Anything, just tell us.”
“I don’t know if it would work, but…” She looked over at Matteo, and Matteo frowned.
“What is it, Emily? I don’t want you getting involved.”
“Well, you know my dad,” Emily started and sighed. The room went quiet; Emily’s dad had been involved with the mafia, and with Luca, just this last year, and things hadn’t gone so well. In fact, Luca and his family members had actually threatened Emily’s parents. I knew it was a spot of contention; I knew Emily hadn’t brought it up, because she wanted to respect my feelings for Luca, but I knew she hadn’t forgotten, and I knew she most probably hated Luca.
“What about your dad?” Luca said, finally.
“Well, my dad has other connections. Yes, he was involved with you guys, but I know he has other connections.”
“What other connections?” I asked her softly. “What are you talking about?”
“So, there’s the mafia here in the United States, right? They’re run by Italians, mainly, and then we’ve got the Latino gangs, and then we’ve also got the Japanese, and we’ve got the Russian mobsters. But there’s someone else you guys haven’t thought about.”
“Who haven’t we thought about?”
“There’s the Mexican cartel,” she said, softly.
“What do you know about the Mexican cartel?” I asked her.
“I don’t know anything,” she said. “But I know my dad knows some people, and I got to thinking that maybe they’re part of the Mexican cartel, so maybe if we—”
“No,” Matteo spoke up, shouting. “No, Emily. You’re not getting involved, you’re not going to your dad, you’re not getting the Mexican cartel involved in this, do you hear me? We are already in deep enough, we are not getting any deeper. You do not play with the Mexican cartel.” He walked over to the wall and he slammed his fist into it. “Fuck this shit, why does it always have to follow me around?” He turned around, and he looked at Luca. “Okay, I’ve got an idea.”
“What is it?” Luca said wearily.
“So, the biggest problem... we’ve got three problems, right? We got Enzo, we got Giuliani, and we got Giorgio, who I knew was a big fuck ever since he was a little kid, but what can I say? You didn’t want to listen to me.”
“Okay, Matteo. I get it. You know everything, you’re the best.” Luca sounded resigned. “What’s your idea?”
Matteo looked over at me and frowned. “So, Anabel, what’s the deal? You just don’t want more people to die, is that it?”
“I don’t want anyone else to die. I don’t want anyone to have this on their conscience.” I nodded. “I don’t want Luca to have to do that.”
Emily spoke up quickly, “And I don’t want you to do it, Matteo, you hear me? You’re not killing anyone.”
Matteo smiled at her. “Honey, those days are behind me.”
“So, we do have one bargaining chip. We have Fabiano’s body, right, Matteo? Right, Luca?” I spoke up.
“Uh huh.”
“The biggest problem we have, from what I can see, is Giorgio. Giorgio doesn’t care about Fabiano’s body one way or another; Giorgio wants to hurt you.” Matteo was thinking out loud.
Luca just nodded.
Matteo continued. “So if we get some dirt on Giorgio, and we get some dirt on Enzo, we can make it all go away. Because both of these guys care more about image.”
“But where will we manage to get dirt on them?” I could feel myself close to tears. “I don’t understand, what are we meant to do from here? How do we find out anything?”
A light suddenly dawned in Matteo’s eyes. “I think I have it.” He shook his head, slowly. “Oh my god, how could I be so stupid? How could I be so fucking stupid?”
“What is it, Matteo? What is it?” Luca said. “What do you know?”
“Have you ever heard those rumors about Enzo, Luca?”
“What rumors?”
“How he liked to prowl the street for women?”
“Yeah, everyone knows Enzo’s a ladies’ man. He cheats on his wife with every hooker in Brooklyn.”
“You ever wonder why so many people know that Enzo likes to fuck around with all the ladies?”
Luca shook his head. “He likes to brag, right? It’s his machismo, isn’t that what most men have?”
Matteo just smiled wildly. “And you, when you fuck a woman, do you go around and tell everyone you fucked her?” Luca looked over at me and kept quiet. Matteo spoke up louder, “Do you tell everyone when you fucked a woman, Luca? Answer me.”
“No, I fucking don’t, Matteo. Do you tell everyone when you’ve fucked a woman?” Luca shouted back at him.
Matteo looked at Emily,
and I could see she was upset. Matteo shook his head, “Okay, Luca, calm down. I had a point to make; there’s no need taking it so personally. Anabel knows you fucked other women, you haven’t seen her in years, okay? Me and Emily, we got something; there’s no need to bring up my past.”
“Well, there was no need for you to bring up my past, either,” Luca said obstinately. “What’s the fucking point, Matteo?”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Matteo laughed. “You’re the boss, and you’re smart, and you observe people, but you still don’t know.”
“I still don’t know what?”
“Have you ever thought about Giorgio, Luca?”
“Thought what about Giorgio?”
“Have you ever thought about why he never has a girlfriend? Why was he so upset that you wanted Anabel back? Why does he always want you to himself?”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Matteo? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then you’ve got to come with me. Everyone, get your stuff.” Matteo looked around. “We’re leaving here.”
“But we can’t leave,” I cried out. “Where are we going to go? What if Enzo finds us? What are we going to do? No!”
“Enzo isn’t going to do shit to us,” Matteo said. He looked at Luca and he patted him on the back, “You’re fucking lucky I’m your cousin. You’re fucking lucky I’m smarter than you, because I fixed this problem for all of us.”
Luca looked at him out of the side of his eyes. “And are you going to tell us exactly how you’re going to do that?”
Matteo laughed. “No, bro. If you haven’t figured it out yet, then I’m just going to surprise you, the way you had us all surprised tonight.”
Chapter 25
Luca
I looked over at Matteo furiously. He was making me look like a punk in front of Anabel, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I couldn’t understand or process what he was trying to tell me. What did he know that could get us out of all of this? I always prided myself on being astute, on being observant, on knowing everything about everyone around me. And yet, somehow, he felt like he knew something that I didn’t. I walked over to him and I lowered my voice.
“What is it you know, Matteo. I need you to tell me now.” He looked at me. His eyes narrowed.
“No, Luca, you got us into this mess and I’m going to get us out of it. And the less you know right now, the better, you hear me?”
“Matteo. I don’t think that—”
“No, Luca. I don’t care what you think right now. You might be the boss, but I’m your older cousin and I’m taking charge. You had to come to me for help. Don’t you forget that you endangered my girl! You endangered her best friend! You did this! You! I’m helping because I love Emily and she loves her friends, but I swear to God if you do something like this again, I am done with you and I will not help you another time.”
“Okay, I got you Matteo.”
“Yeah, you do get me now, so let’s go.”
Matteo looked around at Emily, Charlotte and Anabel who were staring at us nervously.
“Girls, if you’ve got your stuff together. We need to leave now, okay?” he snapped.
“We’re coming, Matteo.” Emily glared at him. “There’s no need to speak to us like that, okay?”
“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “This is just a stressful situation and I just want to take care of it, okay? Let’s go guys.”
I looked over at Matteo and he was handing me his burner phone.
“I need you to make two calls for me, ya hear?”
“Who do you want me to call?”
“I need you to call Giorgio and I need you to call Enzo. I need you to tell them both to meet you at your house.”
“What? Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
“Do I look like I’m joking right now?”
“Okay, so what’s the reason I’m going to tell them?”
“You need to call Enzo and you need to tell him you have the body waiting for him. He’ll come. Yes, he wants to kill you, but he’d love to get the body first.”
“Okay yeah, that makes sense. And Giorgio?”
“You need to tell Giorgio that Enzo tried to kill you.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“There’s one other thing you need to say.”
“And what’s that?”
“You need to tell him. I know about you and Enzo.”
“Well fuck yeah, I do know about him and Enzo, that fucking rat. How could he rat me out? I’m going to ask him that as well.”
“No, listen to me very carefully, Luca. I don’t want you to add anything. I don’t want you to add that. Yes, you know that he’s a rat. I don’t want you to add on anything. You just need to say, meet me at my house. Enzo tried to kill me. I know about everything.”
“So do you want me to say, I know about everything or I know about you and Enzo.” I got a little attitude with him, at the way he was talking to me.
“Okay Luca, I’m going to tell you this one last time. You call Giorgio and you say, ‘Enzo tried to kill me. I know about the two of you.’ That’s it. Capiche?”
“Fine. Well, that seems like a third thing that you’ve said to me. So I just want to make sure I’m saying exactly what you want me to say. Cause you told me that you don’t want me to tell him that I know he’s a rat, which I do know he’s a rat. So yeah. I do know everything.”
“Luca. You’re so fucking dense sometimes. You know literally nothing. Right under your bloody nose and you still don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
Matteo lowered his voice. “Not right now. Luca. Okay, girls let’s go. I don’t care if you’ve got everything or not. We’ve got no time to lose.”
He handed me the phone and told me to call. I called Giorgio first as I know his number by heart.
“Hello?”
He sounded sleepy as he picked up the phone. “Giorgio. It’s me. It’s Luca.”
“Luca, where are you? I’ve been looking all over for ya. What number is this? I don’t recognize it.”
“Giorgio, Enzo tried to kill me.”
“What! He did what?! No way! Oh my god! I told you that bitch is going to get you into trouble. I told—”
“Giorgio. I spoke to Enzo. I know everything.”
The line went quiet, Giorgio gasped, “Oh my god. Luca, you do?”
“Just meet me at the house in an hour. Okay?”
“Luca, I swear to God it’s not true. I’m not that sort of guy. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I got to go.” I hung up.
“Okay. That’s one down.” Matteo nodded as we all walked down the stairs.
“When you call Enzo, you need to keep your voice down,” he said. “I’m going to get us a car, but we’re going to have to be quick.”
“What do you mean you’re going to get us a car and we’re going to have to be quick?” Emily frowned.
“I’m going to steal us a car. Understand?”
Emily looked upset. “Why would you steal the car, Matteo? You have access to so many cars.”
“And Enzo knows that. He’s going to be tracking all the cars I own. I need to get a car that he doesn’t know about, so that we can be covert.”
“How are we being covert?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “We just told Giorgio to meet me at my house. And I’m about to tell Enzo to meet me at my house too.”
“Yeah. We told them to meet you at the house. I didn’t say we were going to be in the house when they got there. Did I?”
I looked at him through narrowed eyes. “What’s the plan here, Matteo? I don’t understand.”
“All will be revealed soon. Call Enzo now.”
“I don’t know his number by heart.”
“You’re lucky you’ve got me. I have it.” He gave me the number and I punched it in.
“Hello?”
“Enzo, it’s Luca.”
“Well, well, well Luca Cattan
eo. I’m surprised to hear you calling. I spoke to Sergio Moretti. Fabiano was not one of his guys, but I’m guessing you knew that.”
“I knew that.”
“So you lied to me and you escaped, yet you’re calling me.”
“I’m going to give you Fabiano’s body, Enzo. Just come to my house in an hour.”
“You’re going to give me Fabiano’s body? Do I really believe that?”
“I don’t care if you believe it or not. That’s up to you, but if you want it, come and get it. I’ve decided that I love Anabel too much to keep this going. Take his body. Do what you will.”
“I’m going to come. You better not be playing tricks on me. You hear me, Luca? ‘Cause I’ll blow your bloody brains out and then I’ll bomb your house so everyone thinks it was an accident.”
“Don’t worry, Enzo. I’m not playing any tricks on you.”
Chapter 26
Anabel
I was amazed at how quickly Matteo was able to get into a parked Lincoln. It seemed like it was an older car, but he was able to open the doors quickly and start the engine. Luca sat in the front seat with him and the three of us girls sat in the back. Matteo drove over to Luca’s house and parked about two blocks away. We sat there for what must’ve been thirty minutes in silence, and then he turned to Luca and he said, “You need to call Enzo and you need to call Giorgio again.”
“And what do you want me to say?” Luca was absolutely pissed, and I could understand why. Matteo obviously knew something about Giorgio, but wasn’t saying, and I could see how frustrated Luca was. Matteo was acting like some sort of god, and while I understood that he was angry with Luca for jeopardizing Emily’s safety, it annoyed me as well. I didn’t like to see Luca upset or hurt. He was an alpha male and for him to be brought down a little bit, well, I could see that it really hurt his pride.
“You need to tell them that you’re going to be delayed for about an hour or two.”
