Luca's pov
Dominic was glaring at me like I had massacred his prized rottweiler, Caos and left the carcass on the doorstep of his luxury condo. He was pissed at me because I'd made him deal with the rest of the dons much longer than our initial agreement. I ignored him, not giving a fuck. I also had something to be pissed about and it was having to sit through this torture of a meeting when I could've still been with Cara, in Cara, cocooned in her magical scent. Even now I still wanted her, my hands scorched with the imprint of her soft skin, my head plagued by the sounds of her enchanting moans.
She was now probably back at her dingy apartment, doing everything but looking for a new apartment like she had promised to do. Not that I cared if she did, I planned on manipulating her into moving in with me. And it was why I had pretended to give in to her demands.
I straightened my jacket, righted the cuff, and adjusted in my seat. I was restless and impatient. This meeting was taking ages.
"We are worried about the recent escalation of events and we need to know what you plan on doing about this situation." Don Torrio finally got to the point after saying a whole lot of dispensable shit.
I stared at him much longer than necessary, studying him for the tell signs of being a rat. His twitchy form wasn't helping his case.
Returning my attention to the matter at hand, I decided to leave the role of investigator to Grigori. "We plan on immobilizing the bratva by taking out one of their significant strengths."
"Could you please expand more on that?" A voice on my left asked.
"You'll get only what I tell you Rocco." I said through gritted teeth. Rocco was the only other young don aside me and was also the most bloodthirsty. He never failed to ask annoying questions or nitpick at my decisions and I knew he was waiting patiently for the first flicker of opportunity to take my place.
His bitterness worsened when I had beaten him to a pulp five years ago, the broken ribs I gave him solely on him for being stupid enough to hit on my teenage sister. He thought he deserved to be head don for some reason but a weak sleazebag like him didn't even deserve his current position as the don of the Amato family.
"The famiglia has to know." The bastard insisted.
The look I gave him was stony. "Only what is necessary. Don't interrupt me again."
Rocco's jaw flexed as he grated his teeth in anger but he wasn't dumb enough to keep pressing the matter.
I continued with my summarized report, the rest of them staying quiet all through. Leaving out mentions of rats, the new leverage on Alexei and even our surprise assassination of Yaroslav and eight other highly important members of the bratva.
I didn't want our little snitch running off to spill into the ear of Alexei when Satino was yet to finalize the job. I should be getting feedback on that in a few hours.
"So I trust that was comprehensive enough." I said rising to my feet to indicate that the meeting was over and that I wasn't taking any fucking questions. The men nodded, albeit grudgingly, then filed out of the conference room.
Dominic turned on me immediately. "You were twenty minutes and thirty-four seconds late."
I was friends with a compulsive psychopath.
"You do know you've never been late do you? Not until-"
"What's bizarre here is that you kept track of the time right down to the seconds." I cut into his predictably provoking tirade.
He shot me a look of exasperation before dropping to matter for a more important one. "Satino called. He changed his kill plan to a sniper range, saying it would be more acute and less messy."
I considered this for a minute. Satino might have never missed in his hitman career but he was one cocky bastard and in the world we lived in, that was a trait that led to fuckups in the end.
"Send some of our enforcers along just in case." I instructed. The dead shot was not going to like that one bit. He was very likely to finish the job without their help but I couldn't risk his overflowing ego. The asshole had just changed a well thought out plan at the last second for fuck sake.
"Noted." Dominic said, following me as I headed out of the room and towards the exit of the club's private area.
"One more thing."
"What other thing?" I asked in growing annoyance.
"Alesky."
"What about him?"
"There were reports of him causing a scene at one of our casinos."
I stopped in my tracks and faced him. "Go on."
Dominic's eyes were filled with a dark glint. "He claimed that the Cosa Nostra was done for and the casino was going to be his. He babbled quite a lot about the recent shootout and his version was very much exaggerated."
My bones rattled with boiling fury. The balls of that little shit. My own casino, his?
"Do you want Satino to take care of him as well?" Dominic asked.
Something sinister streamed through my blood, filling me with malefic intent. "And miss out on all the fun?" My smile was sardonic when I added. "Such blasphemy needs to be punished personally."
It's been a while since I had a guest in the basement. Not since the bratva dickheads that tried to set my warehouse ablaze. The darkness in me intensified at the prospect of properly getting to fuck a fucker up. The ones I'd dealt with in my father's mansion hadn't been that much of an excitement. I had been too pissed, too hasty and too distracted to enjoy it. But with Alesky, I would have the time of my life.
However, getting his ass hauled here wasn't just a simple, easy task. The bastard was still a mob boss albeit a stupid and vincible one. "Get the chopper squad to the bastard's domain. Tell them to shoot everything and anything that lives but spare the bastard. Instruct two of our finest arsonist enforcers to go torch up his main establishments. I want it to be so grand it'd make the news, let the rest of the pup mobs see for themselves what it meant to fuck around with me."
A smile appeared on Dominic's lips. "You're going to take out the Polish mob in a day."
"I'm going to take out the Polish mob in a day."
The smile morphed into a lopsided grin. "Classic Luca."
The last time I'd done something like this was two years ago with the Swedish and I'd completely wiped them off the face of America, forcing them to make new territories in Canada instead. They had been stupid like Alesky and had gotten their clock cleaned.
The Polish stood no chance against the Cosa Nostra. They might possess brute strength but they lacked ammo and numbers. The Cosa Nostra had all three and more. Taking them out in such a swift, spontaneous manner was sure to expunge the bastards once and for all. Alesky would be spared no time to run to the bratva for help.
I resumed my walk. "Ensure it happens all in one go."
"You got it don." Dominic replied.
I dialed Sergio's number the second I got into my car and ordered the driver to get going.
Cara had left work but wasn't home like I'd thought she'd be.
"Where is she?" I asked, a spark of panic flaring up in my chest.
"She's at school boss. We're right outside her class."
The spark died and a calm settled in its stead. She was safe.
I instructed my driver to take us there eager to see Cara in her element.
The traffic flow was conveniently light so we got there sooner than expected. The academy's building was a humble modern structure, shrouded by a considerable amount of trees.
The school was one of those easily accessible places that didn't have anyone breathing down my neck with questions about my purpose for visiting or double fact-checking my information. I only had to check in the visitors' ledger.
But it was a bad thing, a really bad thing. If I could get to Cara this effortlessly, then so would the bratva. The thought of them finding her here sent ice skittering down my spine.
I took the directions the security guard gave to me, walking past a line of classrooms before getting to Cara's. Sergio and the others hovered around, their stance alert.
"Boss," they all greeted, their heads bowed in respect.
I acknowledged them with a sharp nod. "How long has the class been?"
"Nearly two hours, it should be over any time now." Sergio replied and a few seconds later, students began filing out.
Great, the lectures were over. I just needed to pick Cara and cart her out of here.
It took a couple of minutes before her blonde head finally popped out of the door. My breathing spiked at seeing her and she looked so different with the books cradled to her chest and the blue suede bag slung behind her back. However, her outfit was as bold as always and my throat went dry at the sleeveless top that exposed her elegant shoulders and snatched waist, her jeans snug against her long legs.
Whatever greeting that was about leaving my lips died along with my smile when a preppy blond dude jogged over to her with a big grin on his face. But it was the smile Cara gave him that caused my skin to prickle. I nearly lost it when he reached out to pull a lock of hair away from her face.
"Cara."
She whirled around, her blue eyes going wide with shock. "Luca?"
Preppy boy was standing way too close to her.
"What are you doing here?"
I threw her a sour look. "I'm here to pick you up," I said like it wasn't already obvious.
My body simmered when she glanced at preppy boy then returned her gaze to me.
They had made plans.
"Kevin and I were supposed to work on our group project."
My reply was snappy. "You'd do that next time." I grabbed her arm and turned to leave.
"Wait, Luca-"
Preppy boy or Kevin, I didn't give a fuck what he was called, put a hand around mine to stop me. My men instantly circled around him.
I cocked my head at him and whatever he read on my expression had him dropping his hand like something had scalded it.
"I don't know who you are to Cara but she doesn't seem like she wants to leave with you." He said, his voice wavering as he eyed Sergio and the guys.
Cara tried to free herself from my grip and failed. She let out a huff of frustration. "The project is due in two weeks. Kevin said it was a lot of work and I'm too bad at PowerPoint to slack off for even a day."
I ignored her, my stare drilling into Kevin and from his bobbing Adam's apple and flickering gaze I knew he had lied to her.
It wasn't "a lot of work", the bastard had just manipulated her into spending time with him. If I hadn't been here, they'd have gone to some place where he'd try to get in her pants.
Would Cara let him?
The thought burned in my chest, stirring an emotion I couldn't place. Couldn't control.
It took all of my self control not to reach into my pants, pull out my gun and end his sleazy existence.
My gaze shot to Cara. "We're leaving. Now."
I turned for the exit and pulled her along, ignoring her growls of protest. My men stayed back for a few seconds, following after us after ensuring Kevin got the silent message to stay put.
He did and irritation bubbled inside me on what a spineless bastard he was. Not that I wanted him to challenge, he might die in the process, but I couldn't help but think that if it were to be the enemy, Cara would have been carted off just like that.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Cara yelled when we got to the car.
"You shouldn't be allowed in society with your zero awareness and inability to perceive dirtbags."
She scoffed. "The only dirtbag here is you, you're the one dragging me off against my will."
The stare I gave her was long and hard. "Get in."
"We are not done here."
I grabbed her once more and practically tossed her into the backseat, slipping in after her. She wriggled to right her unbecoming position, huffing and puffing as she adjusted.
"You brute!" She yelled again, raising her hand to hit me. I grabbed her hands and pushed into her, pinning her on her side of the door. Déjà vu filled me as I recalled the day I'd intercepted her on her way to that cursed tutoring job.
"Now you listen to me. Your dear Kevin lied to you, you weren't going to work on your stupid project, he was going to seduce you and get you naked."
Angry fire flared up in her eyes. "And how the hell do you know that?"
My lips turned up in a sardonic smile. "Because I'm a man and if you've lived even a fraction of the life I've lived, you will smell such a fucker from a mile away."
"Great, good to know kindreds recognize each other." The moment the words left her mouth, she blanched. Regret filling her blue gaze as she read whatever she saw in mine.
"I didn't mean-"
I pulled away from her.
"Luca-"
"It'd be best if you remained quiet for the rest of the ride." I said, my voice dark and low as I shot her a chilly look.
She opened her mouth to speak but thought better and clamped it shut, a heavy silence settling in the space.
I sat stock-still, trying not to think about her words but failing. It resounded viciously in my head, letting me know over and over again that Cara had the lowest opinion of me. She might let me sleep with her but she didn't see me as someone to be proud of. I was no different from 'the others.'
And it infuriated me how fucking bothered and bitter it made me.
The feeling was almost gut-wrenching.