Chapter 45
Luca stepped out of the sleek black car, the soles of his shoes clicking sharply against the concrete floor of the underground parking structure. He adjusted the cuffs of his black leather gloves as he made his way toward the back entrance of the abandoned meat processing plant they used as a front. To outsiders, it looked like a shut-down facility, but behind its rusting gates and cracked windows was one of Raffaele’s key mafia centers where money, drugs, and secrets passed like shadows in the dark.
The building buzzed with activity when Luca walked in. The air was thick with tension. Two men were already tied to steel chairs, blood dripping from split lips and fresh bruises blooming on their faces. They looked up as Luca approached, their expressions tightening with fear.
"Report," Luca said coldly to the man standing nearby.
“We found evidence they’ve been skimming money from the club accounts,” the man said. “They were rerouting the cash and using fake employee records. At least seventy grand missing.”
Luca cracked his neck and stepped forward. “Who else is involved?”
Neither of the two spoke.
He turned to the first man and punched him in the gut with the force of a sledgehammer. The man let out a painful grunt, curling forward, but Luca grabbed his hair and yanked his head back up.
“Speak, or you’ll forget what your teeth feel like.”
Still, silence.
Luca nodded at one of his men, who handed him a pair of pliers. He gripped the man’s chin tightly and yanked out one of his teeth with little hesitation. The scream that echoed through the room bounced off the walls like a siren.
“Ready to talk now?” Luca asked, calm as ice.
Before the man could respond, another one of Luca’s men—a wiry guy named Matteo—burst through the door, panting.
“Boss,” Matteo said. “We caught the maid. The one from the mansion.”
Luca's brow furrowed. “What about her?”
“She was sneaking burner phones into the mansion. She’s the reason we couldn’t trace the last two leaks. She had them hidden under her clothes, between laundry bins. One of the guards noticed something off during the morning search and followed her.”
Luca dropped the pliers. He still had everywhere on search and lock down despite the fact that Raffaele was out of the house.
“Where is she?”
“At the old warehouse.”
Without a word, Luca turned and left the room, his coat flaring behind him. His car roared to life and he sped off, tires screeching as he cut through the backroads toward the outskirts of the city.
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The warehouse was colder, darker. A single bulb hung from the ceiling, flickering weakly above the bound woman sitting in the center of the room. Her hands were tied to a wooden chair. Her lip was bleeding, and her hair clung to her damp face. Her maid’s uniform was torn, dirtied by the struggle.
Luca walked in slowly and stood in front of her.
“You worked in Raffaele’s house. You cleaned where his foot stepped. You served his meals, smiling, lying the whole time.”
The woman, shaky and pale, looked up with tears in her eyes. “Please… I didn’t mean to—”
He slapped her hard. “You didn’t mean to?” he repeated mockingly. “You brought burner phones into the home of the most dangerous man in the city and thought there’d be no consequence? When there is a fucking crisis going on? And you didn't mean to? Are you hearing yourself?”
He crouched in front of her, eyes gleaming with fury but it was strangely controlled.
“Who were you talking to? Who paid you?”
She shook her head frantically. “I can’t say. I’ll die if I do.”
“You’ll die if you don’t.”
He picked up a small blade from the table nearby and pressed it lightly against her cheek. Blood trickled down.
The woman whimpered.
“Let’s start small,” Luca whispered. He made a clean slice across her upper arm—not deep enough to kill, just to hurt.
Her screams echoed through the warehouse.
Luca took his time. He lived up to his name. He didn’t believe in mercy. When people betrayed their oath, they deserved to feel the weight of their decisions. He dipped a cloth in cold water and pressed it against the open wound, causing her to jolt.
“Next time, I won’t use water.”
She gasped for air, chest heaving. “Please… I didn’t want to do it. They threatened my family.”
Luca raised an eyebrow. “Who is ‘they’?”
She looked around as if the shadows could protect her. “I… I don’t know their names. It was all through text. They’d leave instructions. Cash in my locker. I just—”
Luca backhanded her. “You’re wasting my time.”
She cried out in pain again, her lip now swollen.
He nodded at the guard beside her. The man brought a taser and pressed it against her thigh. She convulsed violently, sobbing afterward.
“I’m going to ask one more time,” Luca said, stepping closer. “And if you don’t tell me what I need, I will start with your fingers and work my way up to your face.”
The maid trembled, her whole body shaking as the reality of her situation crashed down.
She swallowed hard.
“I’ll talk,” she whispered, voice barely audible.
Luca leaned in.
“Spare me,” she said, voice hoarse and trembling. “Spare me… and I’ll tell you everything.”