The Devil I Love (Devil's Knights 3)

Luca

My cell phone buzzed across my desk, lighting up with Aiden Wellington’s name. With an annoyed groan, I tapped the button to send him to voicemail. Our newly minted Knight only called to complain about an issue with a job, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shit. I thought we had broken him over the past nine months. When I’d admitted him into our organization, after enduring the nine circles of Hell during his Initiation, I had expected him to stop being a thorn in my side.

No such luck.

He left a voicemail, then called again, grating on my last fucking nerve.

What the fuck does he want?

I opened my desk drawer and dropped the phone inside. The phone vibrated again. His insistence piqued my interest, but I had more important business to deal with—like saving his sister’s life.

I leaned back in my chair, resting my dress shoe on my knee as the vein in my neck pulsed. The men on the other line were grinding my ass into the pavement for one fucking favor. Now that everyone in the criminal underworld knew I had a weakness, those motherfuckers were out for blood.

Bastian and Damian sat in leather armchairs across from my desk, listening to the heads of each crime family offer suggestions about our issue with the Albanians. We were on a secure line, one the FBI could not touch. I never made a habit of speaking over the phone, but these were desperate times.

“I will pay ten million dollars to whoever brings me the heads of the fucking Albanians,” I shouted into the speakerphone on my desk.

“Ten plus a free shipment, no questions asked,” Vince Alteri said in a stern tone.

No questions. Exactly what I tried to avoid to limit my liability.

Vince was the boss of the Alteri crime family in New York. The Mafia Don had given me the best deal of the bunch. While everyone else was content on raking my ass over hot coals, I respected him for throwing me a bone.

“Done.” I loosened my tie, already feeling ten million dollars lighter. “As for the bounty on my fiancée’s head, I will pay triple to make it go away.”

Alex hadn’t accepted my proposal yet, but word had already spread that we were getting married. Money ruled my world, and my family had tons of it. A few million here and there meant nothing if it kept my girl safe.

“You know the rules, Luca,” Stefano Marchese said.

He was an old friend of my father who ran a small operation from his mansion on the Long Island Sound.

“The man who set the bounty has to lift it,” I growled. “Yes, I know. And if I could locate the motherfucker, I would force him to cancel the contract.”

“Let us handle the Albanians,” Vince Alteri said.

“I need assurances,” I countered.

“I will tell my men to ignore the bounty for Alexandrea,” Vince promised. “You have my word.”

I tapped my platinum and onyx serpent ring on the desk to steady my nerves. “Stefano?”

“Agreed.”

Three of the other four men on the phone muttered similar responses.

“The Basiles are in town,” Enzo Conte boomed. “I expect Arlo and our Sicilian friends to grace us with their presence this weekend.”

Enzo had influence and power over the men on the phone.

“All of my family will be there,” I told Enzo.

My father had insisted I handle this matter without his intervention. Not like I needed his help. But an old school Mafioso like Enzo would only speak to the head of the family, even though I was about to assume the position.

In my father’s eyes, my marriage to Alex was a step in the right direction. The plans he had laid out for me were falling into place. But until I held the title, men like Enzo would not consider me on the same level. And I needed his help.

“There’s one more matter of concern,” I told them. “We received a call from Conor O’Shea. Someone kidnapped his daughter Rhiannon after adding her to the Il Circo auction.”

Rhiannon O’Shea was the only daughter of an Irish Mob boss and Sonny’s cousin. Marcello had a love-hate relationship with the girl and saw her occasionally. Because of his friendship with Sonny and our relationship with the Irish, Marcello wouldn’t tell anyone about her. I was the only person who knew about his side piece.

With all the shit we had going on, I hadn’t had the chance to tell Marcello about Rhiannon. I wasn’t even sure if he would care. That bitch and her father had blackmailed my family for something Marcello had done in the past. Rhiannon could be the fuck toy of a sick motherfucker at the auction for all I cared.

She was my brother’s fuck buddy, but I could tell there was something more between them. Marcello hadn’t spoken a word to her after Alex came back to Devil’s Creek. That was how I knew he was falling for Alex. Other than Rhiannon, Alex was the only woman Marcello had kept around for more than a night.