4. Luca

"Lei è sull"aereo e noi stiamo arrivando." Bruno's words offer me relief and excitement. Aria is on the plane and they're on their way. I imagine any moment, I"ll be getting a call from Niko, but I have no concerns. Aria is coming to me of her own free will, and while Niko won"t like it, there"s very little he can do about it short of coming to Italy. If he does come, he won"t get anywhere near her if he intends on dragging her back.

I check my watch again and do the time calculations. They will land in Rome around eight a.m. and arrive here close to ten.

I close down my computer and head upstairs to get some rest before Aria arrives. I drop my lounge pants and robe at the end of the bed, climbing in naked as I usually sleep. I'm generally a good sleeper, and I drift off easily.

My phone wakes me from a deep sleep. I look over at it expecting to see Niko"s number, but I"m surprised to see Lucia's. I consider ignoring it, except that I like Lucia.

Her father in many ways was like Enzo Sabini, focused only on money and power at the expense of his daughters. Fortunately for Lucia, or Lucy, as everyone seems to call her now, when my father bought her from her father, he was looking for a nursemaid and companionship, not a wife. She was very good to my father, and for that reason I'm in her debt, but only to a point. After all, I repaid the debt by allowing her to stay in the United States to be with Donovan Ricci and take over her father"s business.

I pick up the phone. "Pronto."

"Luca, do you know where Aria might be?"

I suppose technically, I do. She's somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. "I am in Italy, Lucia." It"s not a lie, but not an answer, either.

"Have you heard from her?"

"I have not spoken to Aria for nearly two weeks." That"s true, too, isn"t it? Sure, we passed notes, but we didn"t speak in the normal sense of the word.

She"s quiet on the other line, and I wait for what she might say next. Lucia is a kind woman, but she"s not one to mince words and isn"t afraid of me or anyone, as far as I know.

"What the hell, Luca?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know you"re in love with her. The fact that you are not showing any concern about the fact that no one knows where she is tells me you know something."

Merda, I inwardly swear. Leave it to Lucia to be so astute. "You didn"t say she was missing. You asked me where she was."

"Why in hell do you think I"d be calling you asking if you knew where she was if she wasn't missing?"

"Have you contacted your Bratva friends? I know Aria is quite fond of his wife or girlfriend or whatever she is."

"If find out you have something to do with this?—"

"Careful of your next words, Lucia." I'm normally an easygoing, quiet sort of man, but I don't take threats well. "We are family. Do not make us enemies."

The line is silent for a moment. "If you do hear from her, tell her to call Niko. He"s a fucking basket case that he can"t find her."

"Buona notte, Lucia." I press the button to end the call.

I don"t like being in conflict with Lucia, but I must say there"s satisfaction in knowing that Niko is losing his mind over his sister. I suppose that"s mean because he could be imagining that she"s dead. But it won"t be long before that fear will be put to rest. Will he be grateful that she"s only here with me? I doubt it.

I settle back in my pillow and into a deep sleep.

I"m awakened by my phone again. Cursing, I reach for the phone to discover it"s 5:15 in the morning. Expecting Niko, I"m about to put the phone back down when I realize it"s one of my men.

"Pronto."

"We found what appears to be a bum skulking around the port. But Paolo recognizes him as one of Enzo"s men. He"s not speaking at the moment. We were going to kill him but were thinking you might want to talk to him. Maybe even just knowing you"re on the way will make him talk."

I get out of bed. "Hold on. I"m on my way." By the time I arrive at the port, the sun is rising. I make my way to the office building of our legitimate shipping business and then down into the basement where the more unsavory acts happen.

There I find Paolo and Matteo talking together as they stand next to a man tied in a chair, passed out.

"Is this him?"

Both men straighten as I enter. "Si."

"What"s wrong with him?"

Paolo shrugs. "Sometimes, I don"t know my own strength."

There are times when a line like that can be funny, but this isn"t one of those times. I need to find out who this guy is and why he's skulking around my business. I poke at him, but he doesn"t react.

I turn to my men. "What was he doing?"

"He was acting like a drunk and wandering around."

I study the man. He looks like a bum except that he doesn't smell bad or like alcohol, suggesting it's an act. "Did you check him for any sort of devices?"

"Yes."

"Any chance he"s just a bum that"s lost?"

"I"m pretty sure this is Antonio Cetta. He"s one of Enzo"s. Low level, but maybe he"s trying to work his way up," Paolo explains.

"Paolo, stay here and watch him. Matteo, I want you to show me everywhere you think he was. I also want the surveillance pulled."

Matteo guides me along to where they had found our little friend. I scan the area looking for how he might have entered and what he might have seen.

Next we go to the office, and I review the surveillance video, noting that I couldn"t see how he entered the area, which means there's a hole in the security, something I need to address right away.

"What are you doing here?" I ask rhetorically to the image on the screen.

Matteo and I return to the basement to find my intruder is awake. His eyes show the fear one might expect at seeing me, but he remains closed-lipped about his true purpose. He continues to tell me that he got lost, but now that he"s sober, he"ll be on his way.

"Interesting thing here, Antonio. I don"t smell any alcohol on you. Surely, Enzo told you that to pull off a little stunt like this, you need to dab some liquor behind the ears, maybe pour a little bit on the front of your shirt. Perhaps go without a shower for a day or two. You smell way too fresh to be a drunkard bum."

His eyes flash with fear, and I wonder if it"s of me or Enzo or both. Either way, this man is well and truly fucked. He decides to take his chance with me, staying loyal to Enzo by not revealing anything. I don't blame him. Enzo is a psychopath who will likely punish Antonio with torture, like ripping his fingernails out. Me? When a man needs to die, I find a shot to the head faster and easier.

I turn to Paolo and Matteo. "We need to check everything and get a sense of what he might have seen."

"If we kill him, he can"t bring any information back to Enzo," Matteo says.

"But we don"t know if he"s already transmitted information to Enzo. Just because you didn"t find anything on him doesn"t mean he didn"t dump it somewhere when he saw you two coming." Some might call me paranoid, but I like to think of it as careful and meticulous. I"ve already had one breach, so clearly, careful and meticulous are what I need to be, maybe even a little paranoid.

By the time I investigate all my offices, my shipping containers, and products, I don"t have a sense that anything is missing or has been planted. That's some relief.

I check my watch and note that Aria landed nearly two hours ago. She"ll be arriving at the villa any time, and I'm not there to greet her. That pisses me off.

"Load him up and take him to the prigione," I say of the medieval underground dungeon back at my estate.

Antonio's eyes widen. "Piacere, Don Conte?—"

"So, you know who I am?" I turn to my men. "Load him up." I walk out fully expecting my men to comply.

We make the trip home, and as much as I want to run in and see Aria, I have to deal with my intruder. We drive to the side of the house, exiting our vehicles and escorting my new prisoner along the path that will take us down to one of the buildings where we house what we call the dungeon.

On the way, our prisoner keeps stopping to look around the grounds. It's an odd thing for him to be doing. This isn't a vacation.

The next time he turns to face the main house, I reach my hand out and grab him in the throat. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He shakes his head. "Niente."

I don't buy that he's doing nothing. He's up to something. I look at Paolo and Matteo. "Are you sure you searched him for cameras or recording devices?"

"Absolutely."

I can't escape the idea that there is something on him recording what he"s seeing. Perhaps he's live streaming back to Enzo. Technology today has gotten smaller, easier to conceal. I can imagine Enzo thinking of himself as some sort of James Bond spy.

I pull out my gun and hold it to the center of his forehead. "What the fuck are you doing?"

For the first time, the man shows real fear, dropping to his knees. "I am at your mercy, Don Conte."

I lower the gun to keep it pointed at his head. "Then tell me what you are doing."

He brings his hands together in a pleading gesture. "Piacere, Don Conte. Don't kill me. I have a family."

"No, you don"t," Paolo says.

"I have a sick mother."

I roll my eyes at the cliché line, although I suppose it could be true. But I'm tired of this bullshit. I have a woman I've been pining after for months waiting for me.

I pull the trigger and watch as he crumples in a heap. "Wrap him in a tarp and take him into the dungeon. Search every millimeter of his body and his clothing. I want to know for sure that he hasn"t transmitted any information about our business or my home to Enzo. Got it?"

My men look a little green around the gills, not so much because I killed this man but because they know it"s possible they"ve messed up if Antonio was able to get information to Enzo.

I turn and stride back into the house, holstering my gun. I take the stairs up two by two and make a beeline toward the guest room. It"s time for me to make Aria Leone mine.