Chapter 2

The sound of cars honking their horns, delivery trucks chugging away, and large steels clattering over on the new skyscraper was quickly silenced as Luca Sorrento shut the balcony door of his grand penthouse apartment.

‘Fuck that noise,' Luca said, his gravelly voice in full effect. ‘I need some peace and quiet right now.'

Luca locked his balcony door behind him and walked into the apartment's main living area. It was an old building, one of the classic grand old apartment blocks in the entire city.

Apartments rarely changed hands in No.33 Rockway Avenue, and when they did it was usually for figures of at least twenty million. The ongoing gentrification of New York had seen prices skyrocket even higher, and given that Luca was in possession of one of the three penthouses, there was no telling what his place was worth.

Not that Luca was thinking about selling. Far from it, in fact. Luca was more than happy to have his own private kingdom. The penthouse was extra secure, super-private, and allowed Luca the time and space to plot out his moves and business projects.

Except, when it came to business, Luca wasn't exactly involved in a traditional industry. Nor was Luca a tech bro. Or some kind of investment banker.

The truth was that Luca Sorrento was one hundred percent unfiltered and unrepentant member of the Mafia. Not that the word Mafia was spoken much. It was silently acknowledged by those who knew, and for the most part it was the unspoken truth between Luca and his close associates. They were tied in to this way of living for life, and it was very much a case of survival of the fittest.

Luca was forty-five years old and one of the best bank robbers in Mafia history, East or West coast. Despite everything in the world around him becoming more and more based in technology and the online world, Luca was old school.

For Luca, robbing a bank wasn't about stealing online security codes and accessing private trust funds or crypto assets. No, a bank heist was still very much a bank heist in all of its real-life guts and glory.

And why should Luca have considered changing his approach?

In over twenty years of being involved in bank jobs, he hadn't been caught or identified once. It was a record that Luca was proud of, but one that he always assumed would come to an end one day. And when that day came, Luca had always sworn to go out all guns blazing rather than face up to spending the rest of his days rotting behind bars.

Alongside his brothers Damian and Antonio, Luca was proud to be par of the Sorrento family. Crime was part of their DNA. But they weren't like street hoodlums or punks. The Sorrento men were rooted in the old ways. True gangsters, Luca and his brothers had reputations that were forged in cast iron.

But while the Sorrento men were known for their honor and traditional approach to the criminal world, that wasn't to say that they weren't as ruthless and blood-soaked as any other career criminal.

Luca had seen and partaken in more bloodshed than he could ever have possibly remembered. It was natural to him that some men he came across would have to die. It was the business. And Luca knew that one day he might have his own lights turned out by an assassin or rival gangster.

But for as long as he was alive, Luca was determined to help keep the Sorrento name on the map.

Luca wandered over toward the bar area in the corner of the room and poured himself a small whiskey. As he dropped the ice in alongside the finely aged liquor, Luca caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

Luca may have been forty-five, but he still retained a youthful look. With his soulfully dark eyes and dark brown hair, Luca was as handsome as they came. The unusual blonde streaks in his hair may have made Luca stand out from the crowd, but so too did his impeccably muscular upper body and torso.

‘Not bad for an old dude,' Luca said, a wry smile on his face as his mind turned to far more important matters. ‘Now for the Goldstone Corp. job…'

Luca walked barefoot over the polished, perfectly maintained oak floor and into his study. Just like the rest of the apartment, the study was just about the quintessential old money New York as you could imagine. With its high ceilings and dark brown furnishings, it was the definition of old school.

But rather than spending his time admiring the fine etchings and craftmanship in the study, Luca had to get down to some serious planning. Well, that was the plan anyway…

DAMIAN: Luca, we need to talk. Isn't it about time you found a boy? We need to do some double dates and that isn't happening with you still single…

No sooner than Luca had finished reading Damian's message, Luca's other Mafia friend Antonio decided that he needed to throw his opinion into the mix too…

ANTONIO: Yo! Make that triple-dates. Finding Lyle was the best thing that happened to me. Just imagine, we could all take the boys camping upstate? Tell me that ain't fun times.

Luca wasn't in the mood for getting into another conversation about why he still hadn't found his Forever boy yet. While he appreciated that Antonio and Damian had his best intentions at heart, Luca wasn't in the mood for pondering the truth as to why he hadn't been able to let a sub into his life on a serious, long-term basis.

No, what Luca wanted in that moment was to shut the conversation down and get back to the real business of plotting the Goldstone Corp. robbery…

LUCA: Brothers… relax. I'm too fucking busy for this shit. Some of us have… business… to plan. Got it? Talk later.

Luca had known he was a Dom for a long time. It was normal to him, and he was glad to have other close friends who had the same feelings as he did. But despite loving nothing more than giving a boy a paddling, Luca had never even come close to allowing a real relationship to truly flourish.

It wasn't that Luca didn't want to have a boy to call his own, but he just didn't seem capable of making himself vulnerable enough to let someone in all the way.

Maybe it was down to the nature of his work. Looking over his shoulder and trying to predict where danger might lie 24/7 took its toll. With his whole life playing out as a cat and mouse game, Luca had lost the ability to make himself an open book.

This closed approach to his romantic feelings made dating hard. Even if the spark was there with a boy, Luca would find himself keeping a distance. Understandably, this wasn't exactly appealing to the other party, and Luca rarely got beyond the first three or four dates.

Still, Luca was happy with his life for the most part.

Romance, if it was ever going to come, would have to find its own way through his defenses. Luca was determined that his way of living was the only way he was going to ensure that he never lost his edge and got caught out by the cops or a rival gang.

Luca took a sip of his whiskey as he sat down at his desk.

But… if every day could be my last…

Shouldn't I just loosen up and let it all hang out?

Nope. Can't do it. I'm Luca Sorrento.

Luca clicked out of his computer's main screen and sent it into a high-security lockdown mode. Given the nature of the details on there, it would have been crazy to not have the absolute highest level of security.

According to the Mafia hacker who had set the computer up, it would take the best FBI and CIA hackers at least five years to break into it. Fifteen or twenty years would have been better, but five years wasn't too bad all things considered.

That being said, Luca always made a habit of not putting every detail of a heist down on his computer. The real, super-vital details were always committed to one place and one place only, and that was Luca's head.

Satisfied that he was making good progress on the plot, Luca leaned back in his chair and then opened up the drawer to his side.

‘Damn… looking good,' Luca said. ‘And feeling even better…'

Luca was running his hands over several pairs of lacey, super-silky panties. There was something about lingerie and intricate, delicate panties that had always driven Luca wild.

Specifically, Luca liked to wear lingerie. It was his kink, and something that he was comfortable enough about. He wouldn't have shouted it from the rooftops, especially given how macho and brutal the world he operated in was.

But Luca didn't feel ashamed about it either.

If I had a boy, maybe we could share this kink?

Make it fun.

Maybe both wear our panties at home…

As Luca fantasized about life with a boy who loved panties as much as he did, he ran his fingers through a particularly smooth and high cut pair of black panties and felt his long, thick manhood come to life inside his suit pants.

‘Grrrrrr, I don't have time,' Luca said, his cock twitching and hardening at double-speed. ‘Maybe later. Definitely maybe later…'

With Luca's phone alarm bleeping as loudly and irritatingly as anyone could imagine, Luca realized that it was time to get out of his apartment and hit the gym.

But this wasn't a gym where people lifted weights and cycled on stationary bikes. No, this was an MMA, or mixed martial arts, gym.

It was time for Luca to get panties out of his mind and focus instead on kicking, wrestling and striking his opponents into submission…

The MMA gym was a world away from the luxury confines of Luca's penthouse. There wasn't a hardwood floor or piece of expensive artwork in sight.

But this was just how Luca liked it.

Living in a luxurious home was all well and good, but Luca had worked his way up from the very bottom and he enjoyed the no-frills, salt of the earth atmosphere at the gym.

As he walked into the main combat gym from the locker room, Luca was hit with the distinctive sight and sound of men grappling, talking smack, and generally pushing themselves to their limits.

‘Hell yeah,' Luca said, eyeing up the roster of usual faces who he had come to know and love in the world of mixed martial arts. ‘Let's get to fucking work.'

The session passed quickly. It was an intense one-hour workout that was focused on kicks, both from an offensive and defensive perspective. Luca enjoyed it immensely and was glad to work on an aspect of his fighting style that needed some improvement.

When it came to his bank heists, violence was always a last resort – and it normally involved guns too. But Luca was a genuine expert in one on one, unarmed combat, and working on his kicking skills was only going to be of benefit. After all, Luca could never predict when his gun might not be to hand on a bank job.

But not everything was so sweet at the gym.

‘Hey, old man, you look like you might have a heart attack?' came the shout from over on the other side of the training area.

Luca knew exactly who it was shouting and calling him out. It was Olex Ivanov. To say that Luca and Olex weren't the best of friends would have been something of an understatement.

Olex was younger, taller, and in many ways he was the more naturally gifted of the two of them when it came to combat sport. The fact that Olex was cocky as hell and not afraid of talking trash to Luca was just the icing on this particularly unpleasant cake as far as Luca was concerned.

Luca threw Olex a hard stare.

Olex Ivanov was a physical specimen, that was for sure. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, Olex towered over most opponents, and he knew how to make his height advantage count too.

While Olex may have had a bald, shaved head he was certainly not plain looking as the back of his head was covered with a large, Russian gang tattoo. In fact, Olex's whole body was a shrine to classic Russian mob art.

Olex was cocky, wild and a little bit unstable.

But Luca wasn't afraid of Olex. Far from it…

‘Go screw yourself, kid,' Luca called back, wiping his face with a hand towel. ‘It's you and me in the tournament. We'll see who comes out on top then, fool.'

‘Yeah, we will,' Olex replied, a sneer on his face. ‘You'll tap out for me, don't think I won't make you. Well, unless I choose to knock you out cold. Either way, it's a big W for me and an L for you. Got it?'

Luca shook his head. He felt angry. Olex was starting to push things too far. Smack talk in the gym was one thing, and Luca even enjoyed it on occasion. But Olex didn't know when to stop. In fact, Olex was in danger of going beyond the point of no return.

Olex was Russian Mafia. This meant that him and Luca were never likely to be the best of friends. In fact, had they bumped into one another on the streets, the whole situation could have turned sour very quickly indeed.

However, the rule of the MMA gym was that whatever happened in the gym, stayed in the gym. Luca was happy to play along with this, and it was a rule that made sense too. Things could get very heated during training, and it was only right that conflict in the gym didn't spill out into the real world outside.

Luca however had always doubted whether Olex felt the same.

There were rumors that Olex was getting wilder and wilder in his behavior outside of the gym. Of course, a rumor was far from guaranteed to be the truth, but it was being said that Olex was beginning to ignore orders from his higher-ups and taking rivals out without permission.

Still, this was none of Luca's business. If the rumors about Olex were true, then that was up to the Russian kings to sort out. All that Luca wanted was to face Olex in the gym tournament and come out victorious.

As Olex returned to working the heavy bag, Luca watched on. There was no doubting that Olex would be tough to beat, but Luca was determined to give it absolutely everything.

That cocky sonofabitch will fall.

I may be older, but I have the IQ.

I'll put that asshole on his ass and have him tapping out if it's the last thing I do…

The drive over from the MMA gym to Luca's favorite whiskey bar was easier than Luca had anticipated. Maybe it was just one of those days, but all of the lights seemed to be on green and the traffic was uncharacteristically light.

Luca gripped the wheel and weaved around a delivery truck, the handling on his Maserati feeling light and supple. But this wasn't just any old Maserati. This was a one-of-a-kind model that had come straight from the manufacturer, and at an exorbitant extra cost too…

I ain't complaining.

I just need whiskey and some good company.

And the sooner, the better…

As he got nearer to the whiskey bar, Luca found his mind drifting back to Olex. It was one thing to say that what went on in the gym should stay there, but that didn't stop Luca from feeling uneasy about the prospect of taking Olex on in a fight.

Luca felt good after his workout, but he knew that no matter how hard he trained it was always going to be a difficult task to beat Olex.

Defeat wasn't an option. But even if he did lose, Luca knew that he would pull himself up and get on with his life.

Overcoming brutal losses was something that Luca had known in his life ever since the day he witnessed his parents getting murdered as a child. Luca's father was a Mafia man himself, and it was a risk that anyone in the business took.

Luca's father had often told Luca that he might one day go out for work and never return. It had been difficult for Luca to fully get this as a child, but growing up around so many other Mafia kids, it was something that they all had to grasp as best they could.

Luca though had always assumed that his father would be one of the lucky ones who would make it to old age and then be rewarded with a dignified retirement in the suburbs, or maybe even back in the old country.

Still, when it happened, Luca felt like his whole world had been turned upside down. It was horrible.

To witness the death of both of your parents was something that no child needed to see. Luca knew the events of that fateful day in his childhood would likely stay with him forever. There was no way that anyone could see both their mother and father ruthlessly shot and not come away from that with some form of psychological damage.

No one ever got to the bottom of who killed Luca's parents. It was most likely a rival family, albeit none of them owned up to it. Luca's father had hidden Luca in the bedroom closet, so Luca never got a decent look at the masked assassin's eyes either.

For a long time, Luca became wild and out of control. As he moved into his teen years, Luca became violent and at times unstable. He hated acting out of control but saw no other way.

Fortunately for Luca, he was taken under the wing of a kind, calm senior Mafia man who schooled him on how to control his overriding desire for vengeance. Had Luca not met Gio Rosa, he likely wouldn't have made it to his eighteenth birthday, let alone had the career he'd had so far.

However, Luca had always sworn to put his desire for revenge against his parents' killer to good use. Luca knew he worked in a ruthless, emotionless world that saw death and destruction as a day-to-day occupational hazard.

So as far as Luca was concerned, the feelings of anger and hate he felt toward his parent's killer would always remind him to keep a cool head and take enemies out with an emotionless accuracy.

Luca resolved to not let Olex's taunts get into his head any longer.

From now on, Olex could talk as much shit as he wanted. Luca was going to focus on the one thing he could control, and that was himself.

But training was done for the day.

With the whiskey bar in his sights, it was time for Luca to refocus his mind. It was time to down some shots with some of the best god damned mobster men in town.