Page 56 of Luca

“You don’t have to tell her,” Finn offers. “If that’s what you decide, no one here will say a word to her.”

“Would you keep something like that from Alessia?”

Finn chuckles. “No. I value my dick where it is.”

Mario clears his throat and shoots Finn a look who doesn’t look the least bit contrite. “Sorry. But it’s not like you don’t know exactly what your daughter is capable of.”

“Oh, I know,” Mario replies. “I raised her that way.” A proud smile covers his face and Finn laughs.

“Come on. Let’s get you home,” Finn says, turning to me.

It’s still early afternoon when we emerge from the bar. A sense of dread fills me, thinking about telling Giada what I learned. When she came to my room the morning we got married with tears on her face, it gutted me. And that was before I married her and spent the night showing her how I felt about her. Now it’s different. This news might destroy her. We both know her father is a monster and I hate him for everything he put her through, but no one is prepared for news like this. But I also swore I wouldn't lie to her. And I’ll be damned if I break a single promise to her now.

Chapter sixteen

Giada

I’ve spent the last three hours worried about Luca coming home safely. There isn’t much else for me to do alone in the penthouse apartment. Alessia brought me a couple books yesterday in case I was a reader, which I am. Unfortunately, even those can’t keep my attention as the clock hanging on the wall ticks loudly through the silent penthouse. It’s maddening. I never cared when Carlo or my father had to leave the house for some meeting, but Luca is a different story. I actually want him to come back.

Instead of driving myself crazy with the silence, I move the couches to the side of the room and start warming up my deliciously sore muscles to run through some dance routines. I figure it will keep my body moving and hopefully focus my mind on something other than waiting for my husband to return.

I’m halfway through the routine I was working on before everything…well, blew up. When the front door opens and Luca walks in, I stop and face him, the relief visible on his face.

“Hey,” I greet. “How’d it go?” I’m not used to asking such questions considering any other man I know in this life would tell me it was none of my business.

He jerks his head. “Keep going. I want to watch.”

“You’re not going to talk to me about it?” I ask, slightly offended I’m getting the brush-off.

“I’ll tell you all about it, but right now, I want to watch you do something you love. The way your face lights up when you dance…I just need to watch, yeah?”

I nod and continue moving to the sultry beat of the music. Having Luca watch me adds something to the mix I don’t generally feel while I’m in class. Desire. Having his eyes on me while he stands just inside the doorway watching me is making my skin hot and tight everywhere. My breath is picking up and it’s not from exertion, though this particular routine has me bending my body in all kinds of interesting and strenuous ways.

When I finish, I’m panting hard and Luca claps. “Not exactly the drunk hip-shaking I saw at the bar, but I’ll take it.”

I laugh, remembering the day that feels like a lifetime ago. It was the first time I started opening myself to the man standing before me. The first time I shared my mother’s records with anyone. Though the day started like absolute shit, remembering he was the one who put me to bed and made sure I was taken care of warms me. Even then he was showing me how much he cared when he couldn’t say it.

Luca walks into the apartment and sits on the couch I’ve moved in front of the window, staring at the skyline outside. He holds out his arm in invitation for me to sit next to him. Naturally, I don’t deny him and curl myself into his side, his arm draping over me almost possessively even though we’re the only two in the room. He leans down and kisses me softly on the mouth, his lips lingering, simply tasting me.

He pulls away but keeps me in his hold, and I lean my head on his chest, listening to the thrum of his heartbeat.

“I came here so angry, ready to take down your father. I never thought in a million years I would stay in the organization for as long as I did, or that we’d find ourselves here. He took so much from me. Even before I was old enough to realize it. I knew Francesco was responsible for so much heartache and misery, but I never realized how close it was to his family. To you.”

I look into Luca’s eyes, my gaze questioning. He knows how I felt growing up, never being cared for by my father, shoved to the side and only being deemed useful once I was old enough to be married off. So I’m curious what’s bringing this up now. “What are you talking about?”

Luca lets out a breath. “At the meeting today. One of the capos there, Tomasso, he kind of took over Frank's role after he left. He knew Frank had run and your father needed someone else he trusted to do the same work. The hits that Francesco didn't want anyone to know about.”

“Okay…It makes sense my father would use someone else.”

“It’s what he used him for.”

“Spit it out, Luca. You don’t have to tiptoe around me.”

“Giada, your mother didn’t die in a car accident. Your father killed her, and Tomasso helped make it look like an accident so no one would question Francesco.”

The breath stalls in my chest. “Tomasso has to be lying. My mother died when she hit black ice and lost control of her car. The police report and medical examiner all said so.”

“Your father paid them to say that.”

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