“No … it can’t be. Kayne loved me.” That she believed wholeheartedly. The way he treated her, talked to her were all things out of love. She had been around men her whole life, and they’d only wanted her for two things—sex or power. Maria was beautiful, but it didn’t compare to her last name. To marry the boss’s daughter could grant money, a job, security, and respect from the man who held the city in the palm of his hands. Kayne had been the opposite of those men. She felt it in her bones.
“I’m sure he did,” Lucca told her truthfully, looking at her. “But you wouldn’t have.”
It’s true. Even her own conscience told her what she was trying to fight. Maria would have never given Kayne the time of day if she had known he was a cop, let alone try to take her family down. Therefore, Lucca was right.
It had all been a lie.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” she hissed.
“I wanted to see who you would choose.” Lucca showed her his utter disappointment. “I hoped you knew better.”
Maria’s hand burned with wanting to slap the so-called boogieman again, but even she wasn’t stupid enough to try it for the third time.
“Why?” she demanded. “What was so fucking important to know that you risked him getting any information out of me … and our bond?”
“To see where you fit,” Lucca stated with glowing eyes that matched the city lights that still danced upon his skin. “Or where you once fit in the family.”
Maria shook her head angrily, knowing he wasn’t talking about their blood. “And now I don’t?”
“Nope.” Lucca’s cold voice ended her dreams with a harsh slap of reality. “Not when you were prepared to throw your life away and everything you stood for, for a man your brain couldn’t decipher was love or lust. And especially not when there was another man who could have given you everything your little black heart could ever desire.” His eyes whispered the unspoken word, the one thing she wanted—power—before he continued, “And, somehow, on top of all that, he was the one who truly loved you.”
“Dominic loves me for my last name and what you could give hi—”
“He fell in love with you the moment he fucking met you,” Lucca snapped, losing control of his voice before he coolly evened it back out. “And if you believe anything other than that, then I’m glad you chose wrong.”
“How do you even know …?” She trailed off, watching her brother take out a much-needed cigarette.
Flipping open his Zippo, he lit the end of the stick that he held between his lips. “He didn’t take his fucking eyes off you at our mother’s funeral, but when I picked you up from the bridal shop, he tried too hard not to look at you.”
Her brows drew together in thought, being reminded of their mother’s funeral. That certain point in time kept being brought up. She had still to learn why Dom—
Making herself shut down those curious thoughts, she looked back out the full-length window. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Drawing a long hit off his cigarette, Lucca narrowed his blue-green gaze on her. “You don’t fucking deserve him,” he brutally told her, blowing out a puff of smoke that rolled over her body slowly. “Picking Kayne Evans over Dominic Luciano is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make, Maria. I only hope, when you learn to regret it, it won’t be too late for you.”
Maria wasn’t the type to walk away, but her heels started gliding her across the room, unable to respond to Lucca’s harsh reality. She didn’t know how to act, feel, or think after the events of the week. First Leo and now Kayne … She could only process one feeling.
Numbness.
Grabbing the silver knob, she wanted to give the boogieman a reminder that he wasn’t all he thought he was. “You don’t know everything, Lucca.”
Twenty-Five
Poor Leo
“You get to go home soon,” Maria’s soft words filled the white, sterile space, hoping he would finally talk to her.
Looking at her perfect baby brother, she saw the white gauze that covered his left eye concealed his only imperfection. It hid the gruesome hole that would never be filled again, but it wasn’t the only thing that wouldn’t be the same.
Before the explosion, Leo was everything that she and the rest of the Caruso siblings weren’t—funny, charming, sweet, and kind were only the beginning of his appeal. He was the only one to take after their mother, and that was why he was the only person left on this earth who Maria felt any love for. He gave her hope that not all men were bad. Just 99.9 percent of them.
However, staring at Leo’s single blank stare, she could no longer find the baby brother she had once known. He hadn’t spoken a single word to her since she entered his hospital room and had barely spoken to her at all after telling him what had happened.