Page 31 of Checkmate

My mind starts moving at a million miles a second. I can’t hear what he’s saying. That can’t be possible. There’s no way. We were just two days away from being done with this whole crazy, messed-up situation. I jog into the bedroom, grab my purse while dropping a couple handguns inside and tucking one into the back waistband of my jeans before returning. I head for the drawer where I saw Luca stash his keys for his truck. “What are you doing?” Ratliff asks.

“What I have to. I’m going to see my father. You find Luca and get him home,” I tell him.

“It’s not that simple. He’s undercover.”

I spin around, my anger taking over. “I don’t give a damn!” I bellow. “You want my father taken down, I’ll do it for you, but you get Luca the hell home, alive and in one freaking piece or so help me as god is my witness, this whole town and everyone in it will burn.” I leave the apartment slamming the door as I leave. I don’t have time to wait for the elevator, so I take the stairs.

****

I pull up to the ominous iron gates of the estate, and to my surprise, I find them propped open just enough that Luca’s truck can fit through. I don’t know why I thought I could get one step ahead of my father, the devil himself. I shake my head at my own stupidity as I make my way up the drive. I park in front of the house and climb out of the truck, securing the gun tucked in my waistband, thankful for Luca’s denim jacket that was tossed inside the truck. It’s big, but it smells like him, and it gives me courage and a new set of determination while also concealing the gun.

I walk inside the house and find it empty. Another sign that something odd is going on. I’ve never seen the estate, the place I called home all my life, until I turned eighteen, empty. There’s always either been staff floating around or some of my father’s guys hanging about. Right now, there’s no one, but an unwelcoming silence that makes the hair on the back of my neck and arms stand on end.

I decide that if my father is here, he is more than likely in his office, so I decide to start there. My phone vibrates in my pocket as I reach the hallway. I step back into the shadows and answer it in a hurried whisper.

“Vivianna, I found the account that paid for the hit, but it’s a fake lead,” Foster tells me on the other end of the phone. His tone is laced with frustration.

“What do you mean?” I ask him, not sure what he’s saying.

He sighs heavily. “The account that paid Matteo to kill your brother was an offshore account under the name of Vivianna Bilotti.”

My heart sinks and it’s like the world has opened up and swallowed me whole. My lungs can’t find air. I don’t even have an offshore account and I’d never, ever hurt my brother let alone kill him. “I…I didn’t…”

“I know, Viv. It’s the only thing I can find. I’m trying to get the paperwork to see the signature on the account setup, but stepping outside American laws is tricky. It’ll take me a few days, maybe a week, to get my hands on it.”

I look down the hallway and I know in my gut who set up that account. It’s the sick dread that burrows into my stomach and every muscle in my body. I can’t even begin to understand it, but I just know. “I don’t have that much time. Luca is possibly in trouble, and I think I might already know the answer. Thank you for all your help, Foster. I hope your wedding and marriage is beautiful. You deserve it.”

I disconnect the call and stand in the shadows, drawing some deep breaths into my lungs, allowing Luca’s scent to fill my senses and give me that inner calm I so desperately need right now. I place my phone into the pocket of Luca’s jacket and step out of the shadows. I march toward my father’s office, my head held high, my emotions on lockdown. I step through the door to find my father sitting at his desk with a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose, reading a stack of paperwork on his desk in front of him. As I enter, he looks up, a look of annoyance on his face. “Vivianna. I was wondering when you would finally show your face around here after that little stunt you pulled last time. I’m surprised it took you a few days.”

I cross my arms and move toward him. “Well, it seems you sent someone either to retrieve me or Luca, but since one of your guys called Luca into work, I’m guessing it was for me.”

“Hmmm… yes. Where are my men?” he asks, slipping his glasses off.

I give him a smile. “Currently, they’re detained. You really should consider hiring some better men to keep around. I mean, look at the estate, it’s completely unguarded.”

“I have my enemies under control now, you should know that,” he says.

Luz steps through the door. He looks frazzled to say the least. “It’s done, Sir.”

“Thank you,Luz,” my father tells him, as he stands up and goes toward him. He stops and clasps Luz on his shoulder while opening a drawer of the table beside him. He pulls out a gun. “You’ve been somewhat faithful over the years. You’ve definitely proved your loyalty by fulfilling the hit on my wife, but I’m afraid our time is done.” My father raises his arm and aims the gun at Luz’s heart before pulling the trigger. I scream while scrambling for one of the guns stashed in my purse. In horror, I watch from my peripheral vision as Luz’s lifeless body falls to the floor with a sickening thud.

My heart is thundering and the tears slip down my cheek silently as I raise the gun on my father. I heard him wrong, surely. “Please, tell me I heard wrong.”

My father turns around and rolls his eyes at me. “Luz will always be somewhat of an enemy. Your whore of a mother and him had a long-term affair, even resulting in the birth of a child she allowed me to raise as my own. Luz was offered an ultimatum. His life or hers. She would have died either way.”

“Mom died in a car crash.” However, even as I say it, I know it’s a lie. I know what he’s saying is true.

“Vivianna, face the truth. Your mother was ran off the road. I know you already assumed that. You hated me and this family for that, but you just assumed it was another mafia family that caused it. I might have let it slide, but to pretend as if Leonardo was mine was something I could not forgive.”

The room becomes hot, my skin sticky and the air dense. Leo’s father was Luz. I shake my head. “Is that why you placed the hit on him?”

My father lays the gun down on the table. Clearly, he doesn’t believe I’ll pull the trigger, but if I’m being completely honest I’m not sure I will either. “No, I placed the hit on him because he betrayed me.”

I scoff, disgusted by his warped idea of loyalty that he holds those around him up to, but he seems to forget he has no loyalty to anyone. He just killed Luz without a second thought or flinching, so he has no loyalty to anyone. “Leo was nothing but loyal to you!” Tears continue to slip down my face. I can’t stop them; I don’t even try. I knew my father was a man of no remorse. I often referred to him as the devil, but to actually be hit with the harsh reality that he not only placed a hit on my brother, but my mother as well, it’s almost too much to bear. A part of me wants to run away from him because it disgusts me to be in the same room as him. I loathe him and I fear him at the same time, yet I can’t leave. Luca needs me. I have to be the Vivianna Giordano that I’ve always painted myself to be.

My father shakes his head. “First of all, why don’t you put down the gun? You and I both know you aren’t going to shoot me, Vivianna.”

I hold my gun steady as my eyes narrow into a glare. “I think you’re underestimating me.”

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