Luca's pov
I freed yet another button on my satin dress shirt, cursing hard in Italian as I ordered more ice for my half drunk glass of whiskey. The air was growing stiffer than usual now we were approaching July and even the insulation of Salato's wasn't proving ineffective against the irrepressible humidity.
The bartender ran over to me at once with a classic steel ice bucket, dropping two more perfectly cut tiny ice cubes to my glass. His hands were as shaky as they'd been the first time he served me, signs of someone who just newly started and still had that annoying fear of messing up and getting fired.
"One more," I said when he stopped and stared at me in silence, waiting for direction.
"Do you need me to refill the decanter as well?" He asked in a tentative voice.
I stared at the nearly finished cut crystal decanter, immediately realizing how much whiskey I'd had. I didn't feel tipsy much less drunk and maybe it was why I just kept going.
I was left to my drink right after, the young fellow not making it subtle that he feared my presence which was natural because I was his boss. But I was also sporting a growing dark mood. One that might even be the reason for my boiling temperature and the poor dude probably didn't want to be anywhere that.
I took a swig of the dark brown liquid, relishing in the cold, burning aftertaste, my mind overworking as it has been doing since my last encounter with that fucker, McKell.
Hyper fixating on that so-called advice of his has become my new obsession and my time ever since was spent on thinking, predicting, my enemy's next move.
Silence was as deadly as action and Alexei Mikhalov's days long silence was just foreboding as a crow circling overhead. It was disturbing, and downright ticking me the fuck off.
I could tell the bastard was up to no good, that he wasn't just busy with trying to appease his father and secure his seat as pakhan. Wherever he was, he was plotting and it irked me to not know what.
I'd lost tabs on his movements when he returned to Russia and my spies in the country were doing a terrible job of keeping an eye on him. The fucker was as slippery and wily as they come.
But so was I.
Bribing people in the Russian government hadn't been easy- finding someone reliable and trusted had been an almost impossible fit but I'd made it possible. Now privy to news of the Mikhalovs, I could plan my attacks accordingly and with the way I see it, I might just end up getting the pompous prick sniped in the head and call it a day.
We were playing a sick game of chess after all. And the best strategy was never to prolong the game and end up in a stalemate. I was going to see it through that the Bratva is completely defeated and whatever Alexei's next move was, I was going to protect the most important thing, my queen.
I took another sip of my whiskey to that.
There's also the case of Danilo Torello's accomplice and the buyers. The bastard was elusive and proving difficult to find. All the transactions and interactions with his customers had been under different profiles. Whoever he was sure made it hard for things to be traced back to him.
Every transaction of his was done on an illegal messaging website that leaves no chat records. And since he never interacted with his buyers with the same profile, compilation of buyer data seemed almost impossible. Just what the scumbag had hoped for.
If he was this careful, it meant he had a lot to lose if he ever got caught. Or maybe he was just one thorough fucker. Whatever it was, I was going to find him, perhaps through his buyers, and I was going to make him pay dearly.
There was a slight scraping sound of metal against marble as the stool next to me was pulled back and drawn out.
I didn't need to look to know that the man robbing me of my solitude was Dominic. I wasn't mad, just resigned. I knew he was going to find me sooner than later.
He signaled for a glass of sparkling water, leaving me momentarily surprised. I'd expected him to need a drink more now than ever.
"What the fuck, Luca!" He said after downing the entire glass in one go.
I finished up the last of my whiskey and proceeded to help myself to another. "I see you ran into Cara."
"Move her to somewhere else." He deadpanned.
I threw him a side eye but said nothing.
"You own the building you live in, you could get her any one of the fifty apartments it holds. Why next to mine?"
Adjusting in my seat, I faced him halfway. "Correct, but that would defeat the purpose of her "moving out", wouldn't it? Cara made that stupid promise to my father and moving her to a floor or two below would piss off the old man."
Not that I cared but Cara did and that left me as the only one pissed off. I'd reached for her when I woke up this morning and when I made breakfast, I took out two plates. Suffice to say, I was not taking her absence too well.
Dominic wasn't moved by my answer. "I don't care. Get her out."
I shot him a pissed look. "You have a new duty."
His eyes flared. "Which is?"
"Protecting her."
I could go to bed, rest assured I had someone as capable as me living a door across from Cara, someone who slept as lightly as I did and was always ready for danger. Dominic was that person.
He went silent, if only for a split second, then a string of motherland curses began to spew out of his clenched teeth. "Why me? I thought that was Santino's job?"
I returned my attention to my drink. "It's yours now as well."
"Fuck you, Salvatore."
Ignoring him, I asked. "Why do you dislike Cara so much?"
Dominic scoffed. "You want me to tell you so you can beat the shit out of me?"
I threw him a dark look. "I might, but why?"
A drawn breath left him. "Aside from thinking that she's not worth the trouble and is useless to the affairs of the Cosa Nostra-"
Yeah, I had to reel in the urge to utterly pummel his pretty face.
"-She also is friends with…" He swallowed tightly.
That caused me to frown in confusion. "Friends with who?"
Dominic was giving me a tight look and whatever he was going to say next was lost in transit as his gaze froze over and grew darker. He looked just like he had when some soldier, who had it out for me, had hit me too hard during our earlier sparring lessons. A look that preceded the complete destruction of the fucker. We'd celebrated after with stolen vodka from my dad's cellar like the foolish fifteen year olds we were.
Following his gaze, I looked over my shoulder.
Diana stood a couple of feet away, smiling and laughing softly at whatever the boring looking customer she was attending to was saying.
"What's she doing here?" Dominic growled.
I returned my gaze to him. "Diana? Had to give her employment since I indefinitely closed down the one she had."
He leaned back a notch, looking at me like I've been cloned by aliens. "You had to… since when did you give a fuck about shit like that?"
Since Cara made me promise while fucking my brains out. It was also how she got me to not cancel my father's birthday party, along with a sentimental talk on how she wanted to use the opportunity to get in his good graces and make him accept us, all the while giving me a teary eye look, her naked body pressed against me. I folded immediately and rather unashamedly.
I gave Dominic a nonchalant shrug.
A heavy sigh left him, followed by another Italian curse as he rubbed his thick brow. He was hardly ever this worked up about anything that wasn't work related. It was a sight to see.
I instantly forgot about my own worries. "How do you know Diana?"
"Doesn't matter."
Interesting. "Well you obviously seem…" I looked for the word. "bothered by her."
I got a dirty look. "Drop it, Salvatore. And if you're that curious to know how I know her, she's just one of the rest– pretentious and on the prowl."
Diana? My nose scrunched. She doesn't seem like the type. "So she's the friend of Cara's you were talking about."
Dominic's reply was a stiff glance in Diana's direction. His eyes hardened when they returned to me and met the amused expression I knew I had.
"Don't."
"So you hate her?" I drawled.
"Hate would mean I care, which I don't. I perceive her like I would perceive a gum on my shoe, a mere annoyance."
A soft noise rumbled in my chest as I mused about his words. "That was how Cara and I started."
Dominic rose to his feet. "I'd leave now to avoid breaking your nose. I hope you really get your girlfriend out of my building."
"Keep her safe, Dominic." I said with an indifferent sigh.
"Man, fuck you." He said before he disappeared out of the restaurant like being here any longer would do him bodily harm.