Chapter Nine

~ Luca ~

It had been a long ten hour flight, but I hadn't minded. Nico and I had spent most of our time holed up in the bedroom talking and learning all that we had missed with each other over the last ten years.

It had been all I could do not to take our love making to the next level, but I truly wanted to wait until we got home where I could spend hours discovering each sweet sound he'd make as I took him to the moon.

That didn't mean we didn't play around, but if the sheets on the bed needed to be changed more than once, only us and the cleaning crew knew about it.

I kept a firm hold around Nico's waist as we climbed out of the airplane. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. My instincts had been fine honed during my time behind bars and they were screaming at me right now that something was wrong.

When we reached the SUV, I helped Nico get inside and then turned to Franco. "Call the house and have some guys head this way and meet up with us. I want them fully armed. I also want the security at the villa doubled."

Franco frowned. "Problems, Boss?"

I shook my head as I glanced around trying to pick out anything that might be out of place. "Something's not right."

Franco stiffened instantly. He was well aware of my instincts and how accurate they were. It had saved our lives more than once.

"Get the immigration and customs papers done and get back here. I want to get on the road and get Nico back to the villa."

"I'll take care of it right away, sir." Franco pulled out his cell phone as he walked away.

I glanced toward the open door of the car, wincing when I saw his pale face. He must have heard me and Franco talking.

I started to move to reassure him, but my cell phone rang. I pulled it out and glanced at the screen to see who was calling. I almost didn't answer it, but if Vinnie was calling, it was probably important.

"Yeah, Vinnie," I said as I answered the phone.

"Have you landed?"

"Yeah, we just got here."

"Get to the villa now."

If I didn't know the man better, I'd say there was panic in his voice.

"Vinnie, what's going on?" I asked.

"My grandfather just called. Someone just took out the D'Angelo family."

"Which ones?" I assumed there was more than one family member that had died considering how he had phrased his words.

"All of them."

My breath caught. "What?"

"Apparently everyone got together for a wedding. Someone placed a bomb at the venue. It took out every member of the D'Angelo family plus another thirty guards."

"Who would do this?" Family members fell under the family veil. Spouses and children of mafia families were off limits in disputes because of that veil.

It was a sacred rule that no one violated because they wanted their own spouses and children to fall into that category as well and if they didn't respect it with others then they couldn't expect others to respect it for them.

Unfortunately, not everyone followed that rule, but most did. It also meant that there was a high probability if someone violated that rule, the other families would get involved.

"Who did this?" I asked again. "Was it one of the other families?"

There were four major families based in Italy, my family being one of them. Borelli's family was another one, with D'Angelo being the third, and the fourth being the Romano family.

I knew it wasn't my family that had done this and I doubted that it had been Vinnie's. That left the Romano family. "Could it be the Romanos?"

"This isn't like them," Vinnie replied. "I could see them taking out the old man, but not the entire family."

"Well, it wasn't me. I wasn't even in the country."

Not that that I couldn't have ordered it done from Canada. I just wouldn't. Like Vinnie, I refused to cross that line because I wanted my own family to fall under the veil.

"It may not have been one of the families," Vinnie stated. "We won't know until there is an investigation."

"Police or...?"

"Oh, this will be investigated by the police. I have no doubt about that. Children were involved and the body count is over eighty people. I just think there will be another investigation behind the scenes that they won't know anything about."

"Is anyone in charge now?"

"Vito Antonelli is still in charge."

My eyebrows lifted. "He's alive?"

He was a good man, even if he wasn't from the main bloodline. I'd worked with the underboss on a few occasions and he had a sense of honor that went bone deep.

"His Uncle Carmine was flying back from a business meeting so he could attend the wedding. Vito went to the airport to pick him up. The bomb went off before they got back."

"You don't think—"

"No, no, everything about Vito going to get Carmine checked out. My grandfather already looked into that. Vito is going to need some help with all of this and my grandfather wanted to clear him before we agreed to work with him."

Good idea.

"I'll put in a call to Vito and offer him my services if he needs them." This was a good chance to forge some peace between our two organizations.

"Just get Nico back to the villa," Vinnie said. "We don't know who did this or if they plan on going after any of the other families. Better to be safe than sorry. I've already doubled the security here and at my grandfather's place."

I let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, well, I'd already done that before you called. Something felt off since we landed. I'm not taking any chances with Nico's life."

"You always were on top of things, Luca."

"I try to be." Sometimes it was a matter of life or death, or in this case, Nico's life. "Look, I need to go. I'll call you if there are any problems."

"Why don't you give me a call tomorrow and we can talk?" Vinnie suggested. "I got the marriage license you faxed me. We have to decide what to do now."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

I had a wedding night to enjoy first.

"Call me around noon," Vinnie said. "That should give you enough to get some rest."

I doubted there would be a lot of resting. I'd been fantasizing about Nico for ten long and lonely years.

"I will."

I hung up with Vinnie and climbed into the vehicle next to Nico. I made sure we were both buckled safely because we were going to hit some serious high rates of speed as soon as everyone was ready to go.

This was not the homecoming I had expected to have. I had just wanted to take Nico home, introduce him to my grandparents, and then take him to bed.

Didn't look like that was going to happen now.

As soon as we got home, I'd need to meet with my grandfather. I'm sure he already knew what had happened to the D'Angelo family, but we still needed to talk about the situation, especially increasing our security measures.

When Franco climbed into the front of the car, he twisted in his seat so he could look back at me. "Two units of guards are on their way toward us right now and security has been doubled at the house. Your grandfather would like to talk to you when you arrive home."

Yep, nailed that one.

"Let's go."

We were only thirty minutes from home, but that was a lot of distance to cover before the extra guards reached us. Under the circumstances, my concern could be understood by just about anyone.

When Nico scooted closer to me, I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and held him close. I knew he was worried, but there was only so much I was willing to tell him since I really didn't want him involved in this world.

"I've increased security because there was a problem with one of the other families here in Italy," I told him. "Someone killed members of the D'Angelo family, who are located in Genoa. That's over six hundred and fifty miles away, so don't worry about this. It's just a precautionary measure until I have more information on what happened."

"I guess your life can be pretty dangerous," Nico said.

Nico had asked that question before, but I guess he needed reassurance that he'd be safe. Considering the hell he had grown up in, I had no problem doing that.

"I'm not going to lie to you and say that it isn't, but it's probably less precarious than you think. The normal day to day living is pretty uneventful. It's just when situations like this happen that it seems so dangerous."

"But that's why we have so many guards?" Nico asked. "You even called in more."

I nodded. "Yes, that is why we have so many guards. We'll always have guards following us around in some manner. Just sometimes, we have a little more than usual."

"But they won't touch me, right?"

I clenched my jaw as my anger from before ignited. I swear, I was going to find that Steve guy and skin him alive. "No, Nico, unless they are moving you out of harm's way, they will not touch you. I'll kill anyone that does."

Nico's eyes rounded. "I don't want you to kill them. I just don't want them touching me."

Yeah, Steve was dead.

"They won't, Nico." I'd make sure of it. "No one gets to touch you but me."

I thoroughly enjoyed the soft flush that filled Nico's cheeks at my words. I pulled him closer so I could press a kiss to the top of his head. "Ah, cuore mio , we're going to have so much fun together."

And I couldn't wait until we got home and could start having that fun. I'd been waiting a very long time to have Nico.

I gratefully noted when the other guards joined our little convey headed to the villa. The two black SUVs passed us, swung around, and fell into line behind us.

Even though we were driving fast, I still pointed out several landmarks to Nico as we passed them. Once we had dealt with his family and I knew it was safe, I planned to take him to each and every one of them.

When the vehicles started to slow, I made a quick scan of the area. Nothing seemed out of place and my gut wasn't twisted, or at least not anymore twisted than it had been since I stepped off the airplane.

The gate opened and we rolled up the driveway.

I smiled at Nico's soft gasp.

"That's where we're going to live?"

"It is," I replied. "This villa has been in my family since the sixteen hundreds. My family owned the land before then, but that's when the main house was built."

"It's beautiful."

I'd always thought so.

"You think you'll like living here?"

Nico glanced up at me. "I'd live at the bottom of the ocean if it meant we got to be together."

God, that was a fucking fantastic answer.

It always amazed me how honest and free Nico was with his feelings when it came to me. I think that was one of the things that had drawn me to him in the very beginning.

My parents weren't bad people, but we were not close. They wanted nothing to do with the mafia life and I had idolized my grandfather when I was a child. I knew they loved me in their own way, but I doubted they understood me.

All of that had created a lot of distance between us. Because of that distance, I had become closed off to people until a perky little blond haired boy had come into my life. When he stared up at me with those mesmerizing crystal clear blue eyes and fluttering eyelashes, I knew I was sunk. Two years later I handed him my whole heart.

I had never regretted that decision.

I still didn't.