Lucien (The Marchesi Family 1)

“I’m fine. I can take care of myself, and you’re welcome. Whatever you do with the information, be careful.”

“I will.”

16

Lucien

When I stepped out of the shower, I heard Peter’s voice. I leaned out the bathroom door and saw he was still sitting in bed, talking on the phone. When I heard him mention Jimmy, I tensed. I dried off quickly, put on a robe, and stepped back into the bedroom as he was ending his call. “Who was that?”

“My Uncle Mac. I need to talk to you.”

He looked terrified, so I sat down next to him. “What’s wrong, Peter?”

“I have some information about my cousin Jimmy. I think it might relate to what’s going on with your family right now.”

I shifted to lean against the headboard and pulled him into my arms, relieved he wasn’t planning to keep anything from me. “Have you seen him since the day he first sent you to me?”

Peter nodded against my shoulder. “Once. A few nights ago when you were out of town. I guess I should have told you. Jimmy’s my cousin, but he hasn’t shown any loyalty to me or my uncle.”

I hadn’t told him he had to report seeing Jimmy to me, though I wished he had. “I don’t think Jimmy knows the meaning of the word loyalty.”

“I don’t think so either.”

“But you do.”

He looked up at me then. “Understand loyalty? Yes, I do.”

“Good. Now tell me what your uncle said.”

“Jimmy tried to rob my uncle’s bar last night, and…”

“I need to hear it all. I understand you not wanting to tell me you’d seen him the other night, but I won’t allow you to hold back information that might affect my family.”

Peter nodded. It took a moment, but eventually, he looked up and held my gaze. “I won’t. I owe you a lot more than I owe Jimmy.”

I hadn’t realized how tense I was until Peter said those words. I relaxed and pulled him tighter against me. He was exactly who I thought he was—an innocent man who’d gotten mixed up with me because of his asshole cousin. At least Jimmy had done one thing right by sending Peter to me. “You’re a good boy, Peter. Now tell me what you learned.”

“My uncle found a note that Jimmy dropped. It said DiGiulio’s and then eight o’clock.”

Fucking bastard thought he was going to fuck with my restaurant. We’d put a stop to that. “Hold on. I think we might need to have this conversation with Angelo and Devil.” Peter looked apprehensive. “What’s wrong?”

“I overheard you talking with them the other day. I was standing by Carla’s desk. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you were loud because you were angry, and—”

“It’s okay. You do understand that I trust you, right?”

He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. And you do remember that I promised to protect you?”

“But they’re your family.”

“And because of that they would never hurt you unless you went after me.”

“But if they don’t belie—”

I snarled. “They will believe what I tell them. You’re mine, and I won’t let anyone harm you.”

“I—”

“Are you contradicting me?”

“No, sir.”

“Good.” I picked up my phone, called Lola, and asked her to bring coffee and pastries to the sunroom. Then I called my brother and told him to get himself and Devil downstairs in fifteen minutes.

They scowled when Peter and I entered the sunroom. We’d taken a lot more than fifteen minutes because I’d decided to reward Peter’s honesty with a quick, hard fuck before sending him to the shower.

“What’s going on that you needed to drag us out of bed?” Angelo asked.

I led Peter to the couch. Once we were seated, I said, “Peter has some information for us.”

“How do we know—”

I glared at my brother. “We’re all going to listen, and then if you have questions, you can ask them.”

Angelo knew better than to argue with me, so I turned to Peter.

“I’m not sure where to start.” Peter was sitting on the edge of his seat, back rigid.

“Relax, kid,” Devil said. “I won’t bite unless you ask me to.”

A growl emanated from me, but Devil just laughed.

“Peter is off-limits.”

“I’m just tryin’ to put him at ease.”

“Enough.” Everyone seemed startled by the harshness of my tone, but I’d run out of patience. “Peter, I’m waiting. Start from the day you saw Jimmy.”

“Where did you—”

Devil smacked my brother. “Shut up, Angel. Lucien’s not in the mood.”

Angelo huffed, but he stayed quiet.

“I went to visit my uncle at his bar three days ago and Jimmy was there. He didn’t tell me anything specific about who he was working for. He just kept implying that something big was coming, and he was going to be rolling in it once he pulled it off. Later, after he left, my uncle told me he’d overheard a phone call where Jimmy had said a name he was pretty sure was Marco.”