Page 121 of Luca
In the grand scheme of things, I couldn’t even blame him for my father’s murder. He was just a boy, being used by a cruel parent. But I couldn’t move past him using our daughter to pay for his sins. That I couldn’t forgive.
My body, on the other hand, was an entirely different problem. It refused to heed the warning. It hummed thinking about my husband. It craved his hands on me. The pleasure he always delivered.
Penelope shifted in my arms, and I firmly pushed my husband out of my mind. If only it was as easy to push him out of my heart.
My lips curved into a small smile seeing my daughter’s face. It was so tranquil. She giggled in her sleep and my heart fluttered with warmth. She had happy dreams. She was a happy baby. She might have looked like me, but she had his smile.
Despite what Luca had done, I made sure she remembered her Pàpa. There was a framed photo sitting on the nightstand beside her bed, watching over her. She’d kiss it every night and every morning.
She knew who her daddy was. Just notwhathe was.
ChapterForty-Seven
LUCA
It took me three days to locate Guido.
Three days of no sleep.
The Tyrrhenian Sea stretched for miles around me, its crystal blue water attracting tourists and locals alike. Its beauty fell flat for me. I could be standing in paradise, and it would be lost on me. Nothing mattered. Nothing moved me any longer.
I was dressed in all black once more. Black hid blood the best. And today, there would be blood. Guido’s blood.
I stood by the sliding door of my office on the yacht that was anchored off the coast of Salerno. My fingers itched to start fighting. It was all I had come to live for. Hunting the men who cost me my happy life. I was robbed of my second chance.
A red mist blurred my vision.
It was always the same when I thought of my daughter and wife. The swift anger choked my throat. It suffocated. It tore at the seams of my sanity. I was falling apart.
I knew it. Nonno knew it. Cassio fucking knew it.
Please. God, please bring them back to me. I’m no good without them.
I couldn’t remember the last time I prayed. Ever since she left me, I prayed. Yet all my prayers continued to remain unanswered.
Cassio, Luciano, and Sasha, the latest fucker of our group to fall for a woman, crowded into my office. Fuck, I hated to see them all. It was a constant reminder of what I had and then lost.
It would eventually break me. I knew it would.
“Are you alright?” Cassio eyed me suspiciously.
“I’m fine.”
My voice was cold. I had gotten good at hiding it all. Excellent even. I straightened my sleeves.
“You look like shit,” Sasha grumbled. “When was the last time you slept?”
I didn’t answer. The last night I slept well was the night before my wife left me. Since then, it was only barely enough to get by.
“By my calculation, it’s been three days,” Cassio answered for me, ignoring my murderous glare.
“Man, you can’t do that,” Luciano said, shaking his head. “You can’t be sharp with lack of sleep. When Grace disappeared for those three years, I had to at least shove sleeping pills in my system and get some rest.”
“Are we going to reminisce or are we going to get to work?” I hissed annoyed. I didn’t care for anyone’s advice. It wouldn’t bring my wife back.
“We just have to find her, Luca,” Cassio reasoned. “For Christ’s sake, Luciano put a gun to his wife’s head and she forgave him. Eventually.”
“Thanks for that, fucker,” Luciano grumbled.
