There was only one fucking problem …
He was starting to like exactly that.
She might be really, really, really stupid, but she had balls, and he could tell her word meant something to her. It was going to suck when he had to get rid of her, but she knows too much.
He wondered if that glint would still be in her eyes if she saw the real Lucca, the boogieman. If that glint would be in her eyes the moment before he slid the knife in her back. It would be a shame if it was; if she appreciated the true darkness and the fucked-up bits of a man.
It was a trait hard to come by, since men like him had only two choices. They either hid that part of themselves, or they were lucky enough to find someone just as fucked up as them.
Ding.
Angel pulled out his phone, looking at the text he had received.
It was a shame about Adalyn, but the fact remained that they both were already taken. The sick part about it was, they both wanted people who didn’t want them. Adalyn’s heart wanted the boogieman, and he wanted a girl who was in love with his twin brother. A girl he had to hide his true self from.
Still looking down at his phone, he read the message again.
Where are you? I miss you.
Twelve
How Does It Feel to Know Your Days Are Numbered?
The dead body on the ground stared sightlessly up at the sky as Lucca and Sal stared down at their fallen soldier. Lucca held a cigarette between his lips as he squatted, needing to check the body for any other signs of death. Unfortunately, the bullet in his skull told them all they needed to know.
Dante took a deep breath, sucking in the frigid air and trying to calm the blood that was beginning to boil inside himself. Then he cut the silence between them with his cold tone. “Sal, go see what you can find on the cameras.”.
Sal gave a nod before he disappeared.
“Could Angel have done this?” Dante asked once Sal was gone, not wanting to speak about it in front of him.
The fact was: Sal’s biological father was Lucifer. And even though Dante had taken him off the streets, Angel was still his brother. A brotherly bond had never formed between him and Lucifer’s other children, yet blood was blood.
Lucca took a hard hit off the stick in his mouth, still squatting, carefully examining the body. “I don’t know yet.”
“Even if it wasn’t Angel”—he stared at the body that had been brought to the back alley of his casino hotel, a message—“the possibility it was a Luciano is fucking high, especially since we just took out Lucifer.”
Standing back up, Lucca started to leave, needing to figure out what had happened.
“I hope she’s worth it,” Dante told him quietly, unable to hold back any longer.
Lucca stopped instantly as he turned his head back. “What did you just say?”
“That after Drago”—he looked down at the body of one of his best men—“and now Tom, I hope she’s worth it.”
Turning around, Lucca began to stalk his father, growing closer and closer until he was mere inches away. Then he took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke right into his father’s face while putting the butt out right on the chest of Dante’s suit jacket. “I’ll fucking kill you if you ever speak to me that way again. And we both know I won’t hesitate.”
The blue-green eyes that stared back at Dante were just as icy and promising as his son’s voice. There wasn’t a question of whether he would do it. He knew firsthand what Lucca was capable of.
“Understand that, no matter what, Chloe will always be worth it. Even if I have to put a fucking bullet through my own father’s brain and bury you six feet under, I will.” Dropping the butt to the ground, he dusted off the ashes from his father’s jacket, revealing the burnt hole in the expensive Italian suit. “I can take everything from you. Your family, your men, this city. I could take it all tomorrow if I wanted, and no one would question me. They’d follow me because they know what this family could be if I led it.”
Dante’s jaw flexed as he stared at his creation, what he had brought into this world.
“You’re getting old, Father …” Lucca slightly smiled. “Tell me, how does it feel to know your days are numbered? To know that I could end your reign at any second?”
While he watched his son walk away, he could feel it. The crown he had worn on his head for what felt like most of his life was beginning to slip.
Angel was awoken in the middle of the night by a pair of evil blue-green eyes. He waited for the blade to slit his throat, knowing this had to be the end.