For Luca (Chicago Syndicate Book 2) (19 page)

“What?” He rubs a hand over his head.

I throw out my arm, motioning in the direction of the street and whisper, “He needs to leave.”

His eyes thin, and he points at himself. “Want me to scare him away?”

That actually gets a small smile from me. Seriously? He thinks he can scare Luca away? Wade is a well-built man, and he obviously works out a lot, but he’s no match for Luca.

While I go blank and just stand there in the hopes that Luca will leave, a key turns in the lock.

My eyes widen as Wade comments, “Smarty pants, he still has your keys.” And he sits up just as the door opens.

I’m standing next to the couch in my thin nightgown with my nipples peeking through, Wade is in his boxers sitting on my couch, and Luca enters with a look that could incinerate both of us. None of us speak as Wade and Luca glare at each other.

Luca kicks the door shut and lets the key dangle from his finger. “I still have a key.” His scowl is focused on Wade, but he speaks to me, and then he pockets it casually. “Well, well, well, I wasn’t invited to this party.” His piercing stare turns to me while he clenches his jaw. Arrows of pure jealousy fly from his eyes.

I hug my arms around my chest. “Why are you here this early?”

He leans back against the door. “To talk to you, to help
you,
” he calmly answers.

“I needed the help yesterday when you were on a date apparently.” I immediately berate myself for throwing that in his face.

The lines of his profile harden instantly. He jerks his head to the bedroom, and without saying a word, expects me to follow him. I look back at Wade.

“Tell him,” he urges softly.

Luca holds my bedroom door open and closes it after I cross the threshold. “Please tell me there’s nothing going on between the two of you?”

I shake my head while sitting on my bed.

“Apparently you’re all clear, and Wade”—he gestures to the next room—“is your alibi. Are you fucking him?”

I lift a hand to my brow and push against it while expelling a pained breath. “No. Why are you here?”

Luca inches toward me. “What happened last night?”

“You already know.”

“I don’t.” He undoes the button of his maroon suit jacket and sinks down on his haunches in front of me.

We lock eyes, and so many memories rush to the surface. “Why didn’t you come for me last night?”

Luca places his hands beside my hips on the bed. “I did come for you. I told you that.”

A rock lodges in my throat, and I swallow back my anguish. “You were out, at an event.”

He breaks eye contact to stare outside before answering in a tormented tone. “Is this about the woman? Yes, I was out, but it was business, and as soon as I could, I left. We hadn’t spoken in months before I saw you Friday, Fallon. You can’t act like I was cheating.”

He’s completely clueless, and I can’t blame him, but I can’t get myself to say it, so I do what’s easiest for me now; I push him away. “
You
can’t act like
I
am cheating here either.”

“Why did Wade come back? Why is he sleeping on your couch? You wanted protection apparently. From whom?”

“Maybe from you,” I snap, fed up with answering questions.

His mocking laugh stuns me. “Are you really going to do this? Again?” he whisper-shouts and rises quickly.

His eyes flash a warning, but I ignore it. “Just leave.”

Luca twists his mouth to one side and shoves his hands in his pockets while his penetrating glare is on me. “I can’t believe I let you back in. For two days, I allow you back into my life and you already fuck with my head, and now you have the nerve to shut me out again because I wasn’t at the hospital on time?” He pauses as his chest heaves in growing annoyance. “What the fuck is between you and Wade?”

The searing torment I’m in keeps me from ending both our misery. “Nothing.” I don’t want to punish Luca. I just desperately need to cope with the events of last night alone. The corded muscles in his neck betray his menacing mood, and his severe stance intimidates me, but I’m not strong enough at this moment to confide in him.

“If I walk out that door, I’m not coming back. This is your last chance to talk.”

My stare is fixed on the wooden floor, and tears drip on my thighs while Luca waits for an answer he will never get.

Turning, he opens the door and without looking back, he snarls, “Don’t ever ask for my help again.” And he slams the door shut.

Scooting back on my bed, I curl into myself when Wade comes in and covers me with the blanket.

“Try to sleep. I’ll be here.”

Rolling onto my back, I face him as my tears fall uncontrollably. “Why are you so nice and helpful to me, Wade?” He’s kind of the big brother I’ve always wished for, but we really barely even know each other.

His fingers trace the wrinkles of the sheet. “You remind me of my little sister. She was a timid girl with a wild side. And there’s also a physical resemblance.”

I grimace at his comparison because I don’t think I’m very wild, just plain boring lately.

He laughs, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “She got caught up with the wrong people, which ultimately got her killed before she turned twenty.”

I cover his hand with mine in a show of compassion. All I can give him is empathy for his loss by sharing his grief silently. Just as he shares my grief from last night.

Suddenly, a thought arises. “Don’t you have to go home?”

“No.”

“No girlfriend, wife? I don’t know anything about you,” I say, more to myself than to him.

“No significant other. Don’t worry about my life. I want to help you because you desperately need it. Sleep a little. You’re exhausted, and then we have to talk.”

“Maybe my parents will call or they’ll want to come over.” I tuck my bangs behind my ear.

“I’ll take care of it when they call. Sleep,” he persists and exits my room.

I close my eyes, but I can’t find the safe haven of sleep.

CHAPTER 21

Luca

My vicious reflection stares back at me as I stand before the mirror in my bedroom. The fury pulsates through my tightly-wound body. My heart is hammering in my chest from disbelief of how I allowed her to dismiss me, yet again. Grunting, I punch the mirror so hard it shatters, tinkling to the floor in little sharp pieces. Blood follows, dripping from my lacerated knuckles onto the tiles.

What the fuck happened in that hospital or at the police station last night?

As I stare at the blood on my skin, my shallow breath eases, and I grab the first aid kit from the cabinet under the sink.

After I’m finished sterilizing and bandaging the cuts, Adriano shows up.

“I’m guessing it went well?” he states sarcastically as the elevator doors whoosh closed, and he pointedly looks at my bandaged knuckles.

Sitting on my sofa with my hand clutched in my hair, I barely acknowledge him, so he joins me. “I’m completely in the dark about what happened. She just pushed me away for no apparent reason, and Wade was at her house. He stayed over.”

His eyes snap to mine. “Stayed?”

“Yes. There’s something between those two, something they’re not sharing with me.”

“You mean, she’s
with
him?” Cynical wrinkles line his forehead.

I shake my head in denial because I don’t believe that there was anything sexual between them. “I don’t think so. This time I’m truly done. I can’t let her suck me in and push me away whenever she wants.”

Adriano agrees, “Just keep your distance. You were doing well before you saw her again on Friday. You didn’t drink, did you?”

“No.” The thought to have breakfast with Jack Daniels did arise, but I won’t take that risk. If I start drinking, I won’t be able to stop because she’s right at the front of my mind. And I will not put myself or the Syndicate at risk – drinking clouds my judgment, makes me not care about controlling a situation. And I need to hold on to the control; the underboss has to always be in control.

We need to find Ashton and end this. Then I’ll never have to see her again. I tell myself I only want Ashton because I want vengeance for him capturing and waterboarding me. But deep down I know I’m doing it for Fallon too because I found out he has been after her. However, it’s time I let her go for good; she’s definitely not mine to protect anymore.

“Want to work out?”

Clenching and unclenching my fists, I grimace slightly, but I can still hit the weights. “Yeah, let’s go downstairs to the gym. I need to release my frustration about her, and I desperately need some relief.”

My last confession brings out a smirk in Adriano. “We’re going to the house to have some fun tonight. We got new girls you haven’t seen yet.
Bentornato, amico mio
.” Welcome back, my friend.

I snort and have to let him down. “We need to revisit Club 7 tonight and get information on Ashton, maybe even find him there.”

His lips thin. “I hate that place. And on another note, even if we find Ashton, we can’t get into that hellhole packing our guns. The hostess won’t let us in.”

“I guess we have to be a little creative and find another way into the fight club.”

He’s still not convinced. “What about James? Do we tell him?”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I wonder what the hell is going on with James. “I’m not waiting for clearance from him. He wanted me to take care of it; this is how I’m handling it. I still barely speak to James.”

“Me either. He called me once asking about Camilla, and that’s the most I’ve spoken to him in weeks.” Adriano crosses his ankle over his knee. “Should we be worried?”

“For our lives, you mean? No.” I release a short laugh. “He’s too dependent on us. You and I ensure that business is good. Money is pouring in, and that cash solidifies our rank in the Syndicate. Without us, where would he launder his money? Security Simplicity is the largest company where he can easily invest his drug money. If he was preoccupied with Syndicate business, I would know. Salvatore told me he never speaks to him either. I’ll reach out to James when Ashton is out of my way. Then I’m calling off David and cutting all ties with Fallon. It’s time I move on, and the beginning of a new year is as good a time as any. This fucking year has had too many lows for me.”

Adriano lets his head fall back on the couch. “At least we got the drug routes set up in the East quickly, and it’s running smoothly.” Hesitating, he adds, “How do you suppose we get into the fight club
with
our gun?”

I slip my phone out of my pocket. “Henry, Adriano and I need access to Club 7; specifically the fight club, but is there any way we can get in with our weapons? Maybe through the main dance club or the sex club?”

Henry’s throaty voice is a clear sign that I’ve woken him up. “I’ll have to check, but there’s only a small chance that I can help you with this. That place is better secured than the J. Edgar Hoover Building.”

***

Unfortunately, Henry couldn’t find another way inside the fight club of Club 7, so Adriano and I are walking through the same long corridor to be greeted by the same blonde beauty in her tight midnight black suit dress. Again, we hand over our guns and step inside the elevator to start our descent, directly to the fight club this time. We’re not going through the upscale sex club first since we’ve been in the fight club with Sal, and therefore we are now granted access immediately.

The smell of dried blood, sex, and sweat permeates the air in the elevator before it even opens into the rounded arena of the fight club where only the center cage is brightly illuminated. A big group of standing people surround the cage and cheer two fighters on. However, one is about to be knocked out. Blood sprays from his nose as he receives an upper cut to the face, and a knife is sliced against the bare flesh right above his navel. The fighting style is primitive and brutal, reminiscent of the Middle Ages.

Since it’s our second visit, no one welcomes us, and we are free to roam around. As we walk through the crowd of hundreds and search the faces, I bend my head to Adriano’s ear. “We stay together. Look for Ashton. I have a hunch he’s hiding here because a man as careless as him – who captured me without planning things through – can’t disappear this easily unless he has connections. And our only lead is that silver cross pendant. Let’s do one round quickly and get out. If we run into trouble, you stick to what we discussed.” We start our route alongside the outer wall, but the walls are disturbingly decorated with women.

Adriano grimaces while we pass a woman, who’s strung up on a cross, being flogged by a leather-masked, muscled man. “This shit is so weird and random,” he comments with wide eyes.

“I know. I wonder if Sal couldn’t make a choice among a fight club, a BDSM club, and an upscale sex club, so he just opened them all and decided it might be a good idea to combine the BDSM and fight club. What do they even do here? They fight and fuck, then fight and fuck some more?” I’m not judging, to each his own, but this place is something else.