Page 105 of Luciano

She smiled. Not sweet. Not sharp. Just... neutral. That wasn't her smile.

“Okay,” she said.

We went upstairs without another word.

She stripped off her robe and climbed into bed like nothing had happened.

I watched her get under the covers, then turned off the lights.

As I slid into bed beside her, she poked my chest lightly. “You’re in your head again.”

I didn’t answer right away.

She smiled wider. “I can hear the gears turning.”

“What are you up to, Ava?” I asked—flat-out.

She laughed. Rolled onto her side and pulled the blanket over her shoulder. “Nothing. I just want to understand the man I married.”

My jaw tightened.

She kissed my shoulder. “Go to sleep, Luciano. It’s late.”

I lay back. Eyes open.

Something wasn’t right.

Chapter 48

Luciano

“We’re leaving,” I said to my father.

My father didn’t look up from his glass. Brandy at seven in the morning. But he looked like he hadn’t slept so I guess it was okay.

He exhaled once through his nose. “I need you here. You’ve proven yourself with the Russo sweep. It’s time we start the transition to you taking over.”

“Ava doesn’t need to be here, and everything is still as it was.” I knew her strange behavior had something to do with my father and being in that house again. “I’m ready to step up. I just won’t live here.”

“No,” he growled.

“I’m not asking.”

I had left Ava upstairs packing. Telling him was a simple courtesy.

His head snapped up, eyes like flint.

“You never used to talk to me like this. Hell, you never used to talk at all. Now you’re telling me what you are and aren’t doing?”

His knuckles whitened around his glass.

“She’s got your head twisted. Don’t forget who raised you to be who you are.”

Before I could respond and tell him he hadn't raised me. and explosion shook the house.

BOOM.

The sound split through the estate like thunder.

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