Luca's Dilemma (17 page)

“Seriously!” Drago stated, catching Luca by surprise. “What century do you think you live in, bro? You’re lucky she left your balls intact. Damn, man!” His cousin shook his head.

“Drago,” Nathan said in his calmest voice, placing a hand on Drago’s massive shoulder.

Drago obediently relaxed in his chair, propping his head on his forefinger and thumb, thus giving the floor up to his uncle.

“Son. If you really love this girl, you’ll do right by her. You should know by now you can’t make a woman do anything she doesn’t want to.”

“But, Pop, you know it would be easier for me to look after her if she’d just
stay–her ass– home
,” Luca bit out, jabbing a finger at the floor with each emphasized word.

Nathan smiled. “That may be true, son. But look at where your approach got you. You can’t tell me you’re happy with the fact that someone else is watching over her. Claim her, if you want. Tell the world she’s yours, and you might even be able to get away with declaring yourself man of the house.

“However, you have to be respectful of her wishes if you want
both
of you to be happy. That’s going to be very important now that you’re her primary protector.” Nathan stepped in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Word will get out that you didn’t complete the assignment. You need to be ready for what and or who’s to come.”

Luca averted his eyes. His pops spoke the truth.

Nathan seemed not to notice. “Running her off is only going to make your job more difficult, not to mention more dangerous. If she’s truly the one, and you believe without a doubt she’s innocent, I’ll do everything in my power to help you two through this. Just make sure this is what you really want.”

Luca looked at his pop with new eyes. Though he hadn’t missed the slight undercurrent of doubt toward Sheila, his pop was miraculously giving them his blessing. “So, you’re not mad?”

Nathan shook his head. “Trust me, I understand. But you’re going to have to change that attitude, boy. That line of reasoning you’ve adopted from God knows where can be detrimental to a healthy relationship and, in this case, might get one of you killed.”

Overcome with emotion, Luca wrapped his pop in a bear hug. Unlike Luca and his mom, he and his father had never really been overtly affectionate toward one another, but ever since the night of his study, his whole character had become off kilter. At that moment, he couldn’t have cared less that Dre would undoubtedly tease him for breaking like a little bitch as soon as they were alone. The tranquil moment was interrupted by a quick knock before the door to the study opened.

“
Bello
, it would appear we have a visitor,” his moms said to his pop from the door.

Luca observed that her usual calm demeanor was intact, but her expressive eyes gave heed to the urgency of the situation. Whoever was upsetting his mother better be toting some serious backup.

Chapter 14

“Stand down.”

At Nathan’s command, Rie deftly slid the daggers she held crossed against each other, the metallic sound of metal biting metal resonating throughout the large living room. The old man flinched as the blades came within a hairsbreadth of his bobbing Adam’s apple, yet maintained the captive position on his knees, facing away from her, without passing out. Rie then brought the daggers to rest on either side of the old, white–haired man’s head. Luca wasn’t the king of fashion sense or anything, but he sure wished Rie had cut off that ubiquitous, god–awful bow tie the old man wore.

Nathan gave a subtle nod.

With a twist of her dainty wrists, Rie spun the weapons once before dexterously returning them to their respective holsters on either side of her thighs. She stepped back, lowering the flaps over the holsters hidden in the denim pants she wore, and stood akimbo, awaiting her next order.

For the first time since Luca had met her, she wasn’t wearing the tacky suede boots she usually hid her weapons in, but had opted for simple blue and white flats instead. The off–white, crisscross sweater she wore complemented by the loose curls of her long mane encircling her face almost made her Afro–Asian features appear angelic. Luca wasn’t fooled. He knew firsthand just how dangerous the tiny woman was and had the scar above his eye to prove it.

Luca’s attention went to the man on his knees before them. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“I invited him,” Nathan replied as he strode farther into the room.

All eyes went to his father, undoubtedly expressing the same curiosity and shock. The man on the floor chose this opportunity to cautiously rise to his six–foot height, towering over the woman who’d literally just had him by the neck a few minutes ago. The contrast was unnerving, him tall as a tree with ultra–pale skin and Rie barely five–feet with a rich pecan hue. A stranger looking on would never believe such a small woman could overpower such a well–built man, who just so happened to be a former police detective.

But overpower many a man she had on numerous occasions. The small woman moved like lightning, and what she didn’t accomplish with speed she made up for with use of her exotic beauty and spellbinding green eyes.

“You could have warned me that the cavalry would be here,” the man spit out sarcastically.

“Where else would they be? It’s the day before Thanksgiving. That’s what real fathers do. Bring their families together,” Nathan responded, a hint of bitterness in his tone.

“But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Steven?” Drago added.

The tension in the room showed no signs of dissipating. There were way too many alphas present, three of which possessed the ability to kill with their bare hands. And, with all the grief this man had brought on the Moriatti family, it was a wonder he hadn’t been killed on sight. Something told Luca his dear old moms had a lot to do with that.

“I’m well aware of your disdain for me,” Steven said in his nasally British accent while brushing imaginary dust off his knees. It had actually been quite a charming accent before his nose had been broken, compliments of Drago. “Fortunately, I’m not wasting my holiday on you. I came to meet my son.”

Out of his periphery, Luca could see the slight tightening of his cousin’s jaw. Drago rarely lost his temper and had mastered hiding his anger from most. “Oh, did you now? What makes you think he wants to see you?”

“It’s okay, Dre.”

Luca and Drago turned to the sound of Tyler’s voice as he entered the room from behind them. A glint of disquiet lit Drago’s eyes.

“I asked Uncle Nathan to set this up.”

Drago’s darkened eyes darted in Nathan’s direction briefly before refocusing straight ahead. “Excuse us. I’d like to have a moment in private with my brother.” Turning on his heel, he sauntered out of the room.

Tyler scanned the room, giving an apologetic nod before following Drago.

Nathan gestured for Steven to sit on one of the large cream Victorian sofas while seating himself in one of the red fleur–de–lis–patterned chairs adjacent to it. Standing diligent with her hands clasped in front of her, Rie was ready to take action if necessary. Without a thought, Luca assumed the same stance, a habit ingrained from his training.

An occasional popping from the wood–burning fireplace was the only sound heard while the four of them awaited the brothers’ return. A few minutes seemed like an eternity as Luca’s curiosity began to grow, and he wondered how the confrontation was going. He hadn’t spent enough time with Tyler to truly gauge his temperament, but something told him his cousin wasn’t the type to take orders from anyone. He was a Moriatti.

Finally, Tyler reentered the room alone. His expression was neutral. With the confidence of a Moriatti, he strutted to where Nathan now stood, stopping in front of the man who had sired him. But they all knew Steven had been anything but a father to Tyler, and the tension associated with that knowledge hung in the air like tenacious phlegm.

At that moment, Rie chose to relinquish her post and made her way over to Luca. “Hey,” she began in her customarily quiet voice.

“Hey,” Luca responded. After years of being around Rie, her soft Japanese accent no longer surprised him, nor did it stimulate him the way it once had.

“I think it would be best if you go to him. Something tells me if you stay you’ll end up killing someone before all’s said and done.” She gestured toward Steven, her waist–length hair swinging freely. “I’ll hang out here just in case the so–called copper decides to start any trouble.”

***

The–thud, the–thud, the–thud, the–thud
…

“That bad, huh?”

Drago seemed not to hear Luca as he continued hammering away at the punching bag.

“Looks like Tyler’s boxing lessons are serving you well.”

Luca straddled one of the three workout benches facing his cousin. The boxing gear was new, but the rest of the equipment in the large dojo was pretty much the same as the last time he had visited home. There were enough swords, spears, stars, and daggers to arm a small country. His gaze went to the empty shooting range, which was separated from the dojo by a large bulletproof window. That too, held enough weapons to do some serious damage. Perhaps a little shooting would clear his head.

“Ain’t gonna work, bro,” Drago grunted out, slamming two final face–shattering punches to the bag. Reaching out, he steadied the bag threatening to fly off its hook before turning to face Luca. “There’s not much you can do about the crazy shit clouding your mind when you first fall in love. Trust me. Shooting it out will only provide temporary relief,” he continued, gesturing with his head toward the range.

“You think you know everything,” Luca joked, beaming.

“Pretty much.”

The two men laughed.

Grabbing two bottles of water from the fridge, Drago tossed one to Luca before taking a seat on one of the other benches next to him. “I know I don’t have to meet this woman to know it’s real this time. Got you mugging on Uncle Nate like a little bitch and all.” Drago raised the bottle to his lips, but the act didn’t conceal his grin.

“Yeah, it is,” Luca replied with a smile he couldn’t quite tame. “Could’ve warned me how seriously this love stuff could fuck a brother up.” And there it was, country boy to ghetto in less than sixty seconds of being around his cousin. Drago always was a good influence. “But I didn’t come down here to talk about that.”

Drago grunted.

“Come on, Dre. Imagine what your life would’ve been like if you hadn’t known Uncle Lucius.”

“Oh, no you don’t. Don’t even try to compare my pops to that son–of–a–bitch upstairs. My pop was an honorable man and still wanted Nadia, even after she stepped out on him with that candy–ass Brit. They’d probably both be alive, and together, if he hadn’t died trying to protect her, all because of that dick–wad.” Tilting the water bottle, Drago gulped madly, undoubtedly to cool his rising ire. “What the fuck kind of father doesn’t even
try
to help find his own homeless son?”

Luca sighed. It was sad Drago hadn’t, nor ever would refer to Nadia as his mom, but he understood Drago’s reasons for not doing so. She hadn’t been much of a mom, leaving Dre’s pop to raise him while she ran the streets. Then the shallow woman had the nerve to hook up with Steven, knowing that the son–of–a–bitch was working double time to bring down her brother’s empire. Drago was preaching to the choir when it came to harboring distain toward Tyler’s sorry excuses for parents. However, Luca still had a point to make.

“Okay. Look at it this way,” he started in a low voice, trying to vanquish his best friend’s ire. He turned to face his cousin’s profile. Placing an elbow on each knee and interlacing his fingers between them, he continued. “Remember how my moms graciously ripped Uncle Lucius a new one after he took us on that run?”

Drago laughed. “How could I forget? That run was our indoctrination into the family business.”

“Well, she wasn’t too upset about you going. Even though you were Nadia’s son, your pops had no qualms stressing that, above everything, you were the son of a hit man. No one expected you’d want to do anything different.”

“Again, if that piece of shit upstairs had acted even half his part as a father, it wouldn’t have gone down like that. Betraying us was one thing. But turning his back on his son…” Drago shook his head as though he could truly never fathom the depth of Steven’s callousness. He took a deep breath and then exhaled, allowing it to whistle sharply out his narrow nose.

Then he chuckled and his entire demeanor appeared to shift. “Aunt Hilde still protested to Uncle Nate that sixteen was too young for my first hit,” he said, seeming to relinquish some of his anger. “But Uncle Nate defended me. Given that the hit was on one of Nadia’s fuckers and after finding out what he’d done to by brother, it was a no brainer that I should’ve been given the assignment. I just wish I’d done it sooner.” The blue of Drago’s eyes deepened as they took on a distant look.

“Hey!” Luca gave Drago’s bench a slight kick with his booted toe. “Uncle Nate would have killed you and your pop if he’d known how much time you spent looking for them. Nadia obviously wanted out of this family. You did what you could for Tyler. Thanks to you, he turned out much better than we originally thought he would. Not only that, you looked after his future wife before he even knew her, even though Pop told you to mind your own business and leave that alone.”

A chuckle escaped from Drago. “That was Rie’s idea. Despite what you think, my baby has a heart of pure gold. She thought of Evy as a sister before they even knew each other, probably because she thought they were both orphans.”

“Yeah… okay,” Luca stated hesitantly.

“Man, get over it. Your ass deserved to be stabbed.”

“Well, if only she’d stabbed my ass. Then no one could see it.”

Drago let out a hardy chortle.

“Getting back to what I was saying,” Luca continued. “Moms was mad as hell about that run because that was the day I decided to follow in your footsteps. She’d wanted me to become a lawyer or an accountant like Cyndi and Maria eventually did. The idea of having an assassin as a son shattered her poor heart to pieces. I thought she was gonna chain my ass to the bed to keep me from going to Japan.”