Page 77 of Luca

My palms rub up and down her back in a calming caress until Giada quiets and looks up at me. I move my hands to the side of her face and wipe the tears from under her eyes.

“What are you doing out here?” she asks, her anger replaced with concern.

“I was thinking about what life is going to look like for us now without the threat of your brother hanging over our heads. We’re free. You’re free.”

“And?”

“And you can go anywhere you want. You don’t have to stay in Boston. You can move to Italy like you wanted and live with your family. You’re finally free from this life.” It would kill me to let her go, but I promised her on our wedding day she could leave when this was over. She doesn’t have to be tied to the violence she grew up with. She finally has a choice.

Her eyes narrow, and I get the distinct impression I said the wrong thing.

“Are you stupid? Did you get hit over the head tonight or something?” The way she’s looking at me tells me she could very well be the one with a blunt object in her hand if I don’t tread lightly. “The only place I want to go is home with you. Wherever we decide that is. In case you’re too dense to realize, I love you, Luca. Though I’m questioning your common fucking sense right now.”

A choked laugh leaves my throat before my mouth crashes to hers. Though she’s angry with me, she opens and allows me to deepen the kiss. When I pull away, we’re both panting hard.

My forehead presses to hers. “I love you too, Giada. That’s why I want you to have whatever you want. If that was moving to Italy and getting away from here, I wouldn’t have stopped you. It would have torn me apart, but I wouldn’t have gotten in your way. I wouldn’t have broken my promise.”

Giada tilts her head back so she can look me straight in the eyes. “Listen, we have a lot to figure out, but there’s no chance in hell I'm leaving you. My decision was made the first time I kissed you, the first time you held me in your arms and promised to always protect me. There is no future I want that doesn’t include you.”

“Thank fuck, because to be honest, I may have shown up in Italy and begged you to stay with me. I can’t imagine not seeing you dance or listening to those old records with you ever again. God, I love you.”

I dive in for another breath-stealing kiss. Giada falls into me and I slide my hands around her thighs, picking her up so she can wrap her legs around my waist.

“I need a shower and to sink deep inside you before we fall asleep tonight. Then, tomorrow, we can go home and figure out what the hell we’re going to do with the rest of our lives. Sound good, Mrs. Bennetti?”

“It’s the smartest idea you’ve had all night, husband.”

Epilogue

Luca

One Week Later

The last week since coming home from Shine has been busy as hell. Giada and I have decided to take a proper honeymoon now that we aren’t hiding from her psychotic brother. We’re going to Italy to meet her family and travel to all of her favorite places. I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, but apparently, Finn has been setting aside money for me for the time I worked undercover in the Cataldi organization. After over seven years, I have a more than decent nest egg to live off until we figure out where we want to settle. Giada brought up possibly going back to California, but I think I would miss my family that I’m finally able to get to know here. Maybe we can figure out a way to be bicoastal, but we have plenty of time to decide. Right now, the only thing I care about is spending as much time enjoying my wife as humanly possible.

That’s why this meeting at the prison needs to happen today so I can finally put everything I came to Boston to do to bed. Jude’s brother apparently has some pull with some political bigwigs and as a favor to Jude, his brother made a couple phone calls. Without having to wait to go through the normal channels, I’m standing inside the state penitentiary where Francesco Cataldi will be living out the rest of his days.

Francesco is led into a room normally reserved for meetings with attorneys, his eyes narrowing in confusion when he spots me leaning against the wall.

“Hello, Francesco,” I greet as the guard attaches the handcuffs Francesco is wearing to the table in front of him.

When the guard leaves, Francesco is silent as he studies me. The man looks worse than the last time I laid eyes on him, his skin a pale shade of gray and practically hanging from his bones.

“You’re not looking too well,” I comment, taking a seat across from him.

“What the hell are you doing here, Luca? They told me I had a meeting with my attorney.”

I shake my head from side to side. “Nope. Just me. I wanted to reintroduce myself to you.”

His head rears back and he looks around the cement-walled room as though he doesn’t understand what the hell is going on. That’s fair. No one other than Giada and the capos, who are now under Finn’s control, know who I am.

“I’ve always gone by Luca Bennetti, but my real last name is Romano.”

Francesco’s eyes widen. The look on his face is similar to the one his son wore before I killed him. “You had my parents murdered. Wanted me dead alongside them.”

He’s too stunned to speak and looks at me as though he’s seeing a ghost, or maybe he’s recognizing my father in me for the first time.

“You little fucking prick. When Carlo finds out you betrayed our family for all these years, you’re fucking dead. He won’t stop until he finds you.”

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