With the two men staring her down, she felt like she had no choice. Therefore, she cautiously made her way toward Lucca, taking a seat while he watched her every move.
Letting her hair fall around her face, she stared down at her wringing hands, no longer able to see him looking at her. It didn’t help much. She could still feel his eyes studying her.
Taking a sip of his coffee, he spoke, “You look tired today.”
Her nails began to dig into her palms.
Setting down his cup, he went to a kitchen cabinet and pulled out another mug. Then he filled it up with the dark liquid before putting it in front of her.
Staring at the cup of coffee, she didn’t make a move for it, still digging her nails into her palms. “I-I’m no—”
“Drink,” Lucca commanded.
Her lids lifted to meet his eyes that were just as commanding as his demand. When she found herself reaching for the coffee, she couldn’t understand why she easily did what he ordered.
After taking a big enough gulp to satiate him, she set the cup back down, finding the warm liquid was much needed to her chilled body.
“Now”—Lucca took another sip of his own—“my family is staying at my father’s casino … for a while. I’ve told them the house is no longer safe, so no one will come here until I give them word that it’s safe again.”
“H-How long is for a while?” she quietly spoke, once again wringing her hands at his cold words.
“That’s going to depend on you.”
She raised her head and looked up at him. Me?
Reading her confusion, he continued, “When I can trust that you won’t run from me.”
Chloe blinked at him several times. “Y-You’re not going to kill me?”
He smiled down at her; it was obvious he had different plans for her. “No, darlin’.”
What does he want from me?
She took another drink from her mug to warm her chilled body, while she thought about her next few words. “So, I’m your p-prisoner?”
A predatory look came upon him, liking the way she had claimed herself as his prisoner. “Only for as long as you make it.”
Now her nails pierced her skin.
“I have to leave,” Lucca told her. With a final drink of his coffee, he nodded his head toward the suited man with his back against the wall. “Drago will be your shadow from now on. He will be watching you for me.”
Her blood ran cold. She became motionless at the thought of being alone with the unknown stranger all day.
Sensing her distress, Lucca’s voice rang through her ears, “Chloe, he will not touch you unless you give him no option. Do you understand?”
The nails in her palms went deeper as she nodded, unable to vocalize an answer.
Lucca took a step to leave but stopped. “If you try to make a run for it, you’ll be lucky if he catches you.” He paused for a brief instant before his voice turned so dark that it sent every hair on her body straight up. “If I catch you, I won’t be able to stop myself from taking what I want the moment I saw you.”
Blood trickled in her palms. It wasn’t a threat he was making. It was a promise.
Five
This Is Going to End in War
“Do you think you can tell me now why the fuck my men rushed me and my family out of my home yesterday?” Dante spat at him the moment Lucca sat down in his office in the casino hotel.
Lucca lit the end of his cigarette, desperately needing it for the conversation he was about to have with his father.
“It’s no longer safe there.”
“What do you mean, it’s no longer safe? My home has always been safe.”
That’s exactly why I need it. However, the details couldn’t be given to Dante just yet.
“When the threat is gone, you, Maria, and Leo may come back.”
Dante slammed his hand down on his desk. “Fuck’s sake, Lucca! Threat? What fucking threat?”
Hitting his ashes out in the ashtray, he figured he was going to have to give up something for now. “I got Luciano’s man to talk.”
“Shit.” Picking up his liquor glass, his father drained the contents, knowing exactly who Lucca was talking about.
The Lucianos were another family who owned a small portion of Kansas City, and up until seven months ago, the two families had been at peace. Recently, one of the casino hotel’s penthouses had been under attack when Luciano’s man broke in. He thankfully had been unsuccessful in targeting Lucca’s sister, Maria.
They couldn’t taint the Luciano name by throwing out accusations without any evidence. What they needed was a rat that squealed.
“As your underboss, I’m telling you that the less I tell you, the better. The penthouses are now the safest place for everyone. Stay here until it’s over.”
Rubbing his temples, Dante finally nodded in agreement. “Does anyone in the family know about this?”
“Two do. Sal”—Lucca took a hit off his cigarette, knowing his father wouldn’t be surprised with Sal’s name but would likely with the next—“and Drago.”
His father’s icy blue eyes flashed at him. “Goddammit, Lucca, you’re taking him from me, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he gave the grave answer his father didn’t want to hear. “You will have all the rest of your men protecting you, Maria, and Leo here. I’m asking for just him. I need his help and his protection elsewhere.”
He could see his father contemplating on whether he was going to allow his most skilled and deadliest man to leave his side to join Lucca’s. Dante, as the boss, and Lucca, as the underboss, both had to have men by their sides at all times; men they needed to command and ask things of they themselves couldn’t fulfill.
Lucca’s right hand was Sal. Not only was Sal his best friend who was like a brother to him, but he was skilled in different ways than Lucca. Lucca never needed protection, being deadly enough of his own accord. What he did need was information, and Sal was gifted with a brain that didn’t work like any others in the Caruso family. He was a highly intelligent individual, able to hack into any computer in under a minute. To put it simply, Sal was irreplaceable. However, Drago was something completely different.
Dante was the highest target on the family tree. He didn’t need a man; he needed a tank. A tank that could take several bullets without flinching and still move forward to kill the men who stood in his way. Drago was a skilled killer of the deadliest kind. The kind who had no weaknesses. The kind who would never greet death because … he was Death.
Lucca sat somewhere between those two men, having the skills and intellect, but it was his sadistic, twisted, demented mind that made him the worst of all. With him commanding the two men under him, there wasn’t going to be anything or anyone to stand in his way. The three together could desolate all of Kansas City if that was what he wished.
Dante nodded once more, agreeing to let his right hand go until the job was done.
It didn’t matter much to Lucca if he had agreed to it or not. Drago was only going to be under his command. And Lucca would have done whatever it took to make it so. Even if he had to put a bullet in his own father’s skull, he would have … to protect her.
Putting his cigarette out in the ashtray, he got up to leave.