Unlike their father, who had hated it whenever she’d snuck into his office when she’d been a child, Lucca never mentioned it bothering him, even though he knew she did so without permission. As she got older, she had stopped sneaking into her father’s office and found herself in her brother’s.
She weirdly felt welcomed here, not only by Lucca but by the very room itself. The four walls and the things it held had a presence. It all brought her a peacefulness she didn’t get anywhere else.
The office door opening behind her reminded her that she could only borrow the room for the small moments in time that she needed it, that it would never belong to her, and would always be the owner’s, who now stood quietly beside her.
Taking her eyes away from the view, she looked over to her brother, watching him stare out into the night.
“You’re working with him, aren’t you?” Maria might have asked the question, but she only did so to make him to speak the words out loud. She already knew its validity, though he had never told her.
It was unlike him. Yes, Lucca kept secrets from her, but he also spilled a lot of them to her whenever he needed to think out loud or bend her ear. This particular information, she thought he would have told her. Made men business wasn’t her business, thanks to being born a woman, but Lucca had always given her a little piece of a dream, making her a part of it. Lately, however, he looked at her no differently than how her father looked at her.
Lucca didn’t even look away from the city when he answered, “Yes.”
“And you’re going to continue to work with Dominic, aren’t you?” she asked, again already knowing the answer.
“Yes.”
“He killed Kayne!” Maria lashed out, wanting him to look at her. “He fucking murdered the man I love, and you couldn’t care le—”
“No, he didn’t,” Lucca’s controlled voice cut through her scream. Turning, with his blue-green eyes locked on her, he stared at her unrelentingly.
The next two words out of his mouth would change her life forever …
“I did.”
Maria thought her knees were going to give out from sheer shock as she watched the city lights dance upon his face. Not a single thought came to her brain, only the action of swinging her hand to harshly slap his face.
Lucca’s face turned back toward the city from the hard slap that his sister had landed.
“How could you?” she demanded, watching his cheek turn red before the scratch from her manicured fingernail began to draw blood.
Lifting a finger to his cheek, he touched the cut, sweeping up a drop of red liquid. He stared at his stained fingertip, then simply rubbed the blood away between two fingers. “I did it for your own good.”
This time, when she tried to slap him, he caught her hand.
Lucca held her manicured hand firmly in his. “I let you have one, Maria.” Giving her flesh a slight squeeze, he made himself clear. “And that was the only one you’re ever going to fucking get.”
She couldn’t believe she had ever respected Lucca and, like Dominic, she had one thought. He’s no different than our father.
Maria snatched her hand back from his grasp. “You had no fucking right to decide what’s good for me. I loved hi—”
“What you had with him wasn’t love, Maria,” Lucca spat cynically in her face. “That was infatuation with the first man you fucking laid your eyes on who could never be controlled by our father or me.”
“And how did that make you feel”—snidely, she snickered at him—“when a high school teacher didn’t bow down to you in fear?” She had to look away from the brother who she had once trusted. “No wonder you killed him.”
“That’s not why he died …” Lucca’s dark voice ricocheted in the room. The second truth she was about to hear would be harder than the first revelation. “Kayne was a…”
Years ago…
Dominic drove down the dark road, the pavement made even darker with the rain pelting down. About to turn the corner, Dom flicked his lights off before pulling to the side to park. Cutting his engine, he unzipped his coat, putting his gun within easy reach in case the person he was meeting had something else on his agenda instead of the information he wanted to impart.
A cold rush of air filtered inside the warm car as the door opened. The darkness enveloped the silhouetted figure.
Dominic stared at the hooded man as he turned to face him after shutting the door. “Your father, Carlos, won’t be happy to find you sneaking out to meet me at this time of night.”
“I waited until he was asleep.”
Warily, Dom kept his eyes on the Marco’s hands as he slunk farther down in his seat.