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.”