Chapter 14

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

IN THE REFLECTION of the glass, Luca watched the scene play out between Dom and his father. They’d seemed to be arguing about something Luca couldn’t hear, but by the end Dom seemed to come around to whatever it was the older man said. A sinking feeling in Luca’s gut told him that the conversation had to do with him, and suddenly he wasn’t hungry anymore.

As Dom’s father left and the door shut behind him, Dom put his hand on the frame and dropped his head. For a moment, it looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, but Luca didn’t have time to wonder why, because then Dom turned around. Luca quickly averted his eyes, focusing on a building in the distance.

He had so many questions. The more he learned, the more nothing made sense, but if he’d expected Dom to start talking to him as soon as his father left, he was wrong.

The room was so silent that Luca could hear Dom’s slow, measured footsteps as he moved from the front door, and a moment later he began to speak—but not to Luca.

“Good evening, Gloria. Could you send up two of the usual, please, and I’ll also need you to connect with the shops downstairs for some clothes… Yes… Bring me an assortment a size smaller… Thank you.”

Luca turned to face Dom, who was sliding his cell into his pant pockets.

“I have questions,” Luca said.

Dom smirked and began to roll up one of his sleeves as he crossed the room. He grabbed his empty glass and said, “I’ll bet you do,” before heading to the kitchen for a refill.

Luca followed him. “That was your father, right? What did he mean about feuding families?”

Dom rolled up his other sleeve and shook his head. “Give me a minute.”

“And then you’ll answer my questions?”

With a sigh, Dom poured himself a glass of liquor and held it up in question to Luca, who shook his head. He needed to be thinking clearly, and alcohol wouldn’t help right now.

“Yes,” Dom said finally. “My father seems to think it’s time to talk, so…” He swallowed some of the liquor.

Holy shit. Luca was finally going to get some answers? It was strange the relief he felt already. There was nothing worse than not knowing, even if whatever Dom said was something Luca didn’t want to hear.

He waited by the kitchen island as patiently as he could before the growl of his stomach broke the silence.

Heat crept into his cheeks, and he nodded toward the refrigerator. “I’m just gonna grab something to eat, if that’s okay.”

“Don’t,” Dom said, topping off his glass again. “Dinner’s on its way up. Come with me.”

Dinner’s on the way up? As in, he’d ordered it for them? Well, that made sense, Luca thought, since he now knew he was being held in a casino. But still, the thought of Dom going out of his way to do something nice for him seemed a little far-fetched. Banking the impulse to thank his abductor for feeding him, Luca followed Dom into the dining room.

“Sit,” Dom said, pointing at a chair.

“I’d rather stand.”

“And I don’t give a fuck. Now sit.”

Luca chewed on his lower lip, trying to decide whether to push the issue, but in the end followed Dom’s order. He wanted answers, and if doing what this guy told him to do was the way to get them, then he would do it.

As he moved to take the seat, Dom walked over to the windows that made up the wall of their prison tower and took another sip of his drink. The air in the room grew heavy as Luca waited for whatever was next. But when minutes passed and Dom had said nothing, the anticipation became too much and Luca blurted out, “Well? Are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?”

He wasn’t sure what possessed him to be so damn bold with this guy, but Luca was done being intimidated, done being the scared little rabbit that wanted to flee from this nightmare he’d been dragged into.

Dom walked over to Luca’s chair and placed a hand on the back. “Is it your hunger that’s making you so brave and disrespectful? Maybe I should have Joe come back in here and keep you company until you remember your manners?”

Luca clenched his teeth together in an effort not to speak, but really, the last thing he wanted was for Mr. Strangle Hands to return.

“Smart answer.”

“It was a non-answer,” Luca said before he realized he was even going to.

This close, the sharp, wicked angles of Dom’s face made his features even more arresting. He had thick, dark lashes surrounding those coal-black eyes, and a trimmed beard that made his jet-black hair and that outfit all come together, and as fucked up as it was, Luca found things other than his heart throbbing.

“Be careful.”

Luca swallowed and angled his chin up a fraction. “Why? Your father seems to want to keep me alive. I hardly think you’re going to kill me.”

Dom’s lips curled to one side. “One thing you should know about me, I live to break the rules. Why do you think he was so mad tonight? Your life would merely require some knee bending. So be careful.”

Luca sighed and was about speak when there was a knock at the door. Dom straightened. “Don’t move.”

Where the hell would I go?Luca thought as Dom disappeared to, hopefully, collect their food. Not that he was really thinking about that anymore. His mind was too busy trying to put two and two together. He would happily skip the meal if Dom would just tell him what the hell was going on.

A minute later, Dom reappeared with two dome-covered plates and placed one down on the table in front of Luca. Dom handed him a fork and nothing else, and Luca raised a brow. “What, no knife? Scared I’m going to attack you?”

Dom took the chair to his left and eyed him. “A fork is a deadly enough weapon when you know how to use it. But in this case”—he removed the dome to reveal a simple but beautiful pasta dish—“you won’t need one.”

Luca’s stomach growled at the familiar aromas wafting off the plate, but before he dug in, he looked at Dom. “How do I know this isn’t poisoned?”

“You don’t.”

Luca looked at his meal then back to Dom.

“I’m not testing it for you.” Dom dug into his own pasta. “If you want to eat, eat.”

Well, shit, Luca wasn’t dead yet, and the food did smell amazing. Harnessing a little more of that bravery, he twirled some of the pasta around the tines and shoveled it into his mouth. When he was still alive after several hearty forkfuls, Luca glanced at Dom to see him remove an envelope from his pocket.

Dom placed the envelope on the table in front of Luca’s plate and gestured to it. Luca’s breath caught and his hand stilled halfway to his mouth.

“You want answers? Your first one is in there.” Dom picked his fork back up and scooped up another serving of pasta. “Still feeling brave?”

While part of Luca was desperate to see what was inside, another part knew that whatever it was, it was going to change his life forever. Then again, everything had changed the moment he’d been abducted, so why not just go all in?

Food forgotten, Luca moved his plate aside and reached for the envelope. It was small and thin, not nearly big enough to give him the who, what, when, why, and where.

It’s okay. Just open it. Nothing has to really change if you don’t want it to.

He pulled out the contents, a single photograph, and looked up at Dom in confusion. “What is this?”

“It helps if you look at it.”

“But I don’t know any of these—” Luca’s words cut off as he zeroed in on a woman in the center of the photograph. His heart skipped a beat as he looked at her. Her medium brown hair covered her shoulders in waves, but it was the same dark eyes he looked at in the mirror every day that had him barely able to breathe. And on her cheek…

Luca reached up to feel the freckle that matched hers and found himself shaking his head.

“I-I don’t understand,” he said.

“You’ve never seen those people before?”

He shook his head, still staring down at the picture. There was a broad older man with silver hair and jowls that sagged standing beside the woman. Flanking the two of them were two younger guys, maybe in their early thirties? They had the same sunken eyes as the older man, but there was a fierceness in all the men’s expressions. Luca didn’t get the feeling they were good guys, or ones he’d want to meet face to face.

“She looks like me,” Luca said.

“No. You look like her,” Dom said. “Gabriella. And lucky for you. The other two looked like they were beaten in the face with a meat tenderizer.”

“Who is she?”

“You know who she is.”

“I don’t. I’ve never seen her before…” Luca’s words trailed off as he felt a sting behind his eyes. No, this wasn’t right. She couldn’t be…

“I thought everyone recognized their mama.”

Luca’s head shot up. Dom wasn’t bluffing. The smirk that always seemed to be on his lips was gone, replaced with a thin line of pure loathing.

Oh God. Luca’s heart pounded as realization set in. He’d never looked like his parents, but that hadn’t seemed so unusual. He still had their darker coloring, but seeing the woman in the photo blew everything he knew out of the water.

That was his mom. His mom.

How was this possible?

He looked at the men beside her again, not recognizing himself in any of them. “I’m related to them too?”

“An unlucky roll of the dice, I’m afraid.”

Luca dropped the photo and put his head in his hands, rubbing at his temples. “But…how? Why? This makes no sense.”

Dom put his fork down and sat back in his seat. “If I have to tell you the how of it all, I think you should probably get a refund on that fancy school of yours. As for the why, let’s just say you are the Fiores’ insurance policy.”

Luca blinked at him. None of that made any sense. “The Fiores? Is that their name?”

Dom slapped his palm down on the table and leaned over. “I’m about done with this deer-in-headlights routine.”

“It’s not a routine. I…I don’t know who these people are.”

“Well, let me give you a quick rundown. They are the scourge of this earth. They’re vile, detestable, horrible human beings, and you, Luca Davis, are related to each and every one of them.”

Luca shook his head and dropped the photo. “No. You’re wrong.”

“I’m never wrong.”

“Well, you’re wrong about this!” Luca shouted, and shoved back from the table.

This couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t be real, because if it was that would mean his parents—or the people he’d thought were his parents—had lied to him his entire life. “You’re lying. You’re trying to play some…some fucked-up mind game with me.”

“Trust me, that’s not my style.” Dom got to his feet, and Luca did the same. It felt imperative to keep some kind of level playing ground here, some kind of grip on reality. Not that he even knew what that was anymore.

As Dom began to move, Luca automatically backed up. “Stay away from me.”

“Or what?”

Good question. Luca looked at the fork he’d left on the table, and Dom smirked.

“I dare you.”

When his back hit the wall, Luca flattened his palms against it and felt his pulse fluttering at the base of his throat. His mind was spinning with everything he’d just learned, and with the threat of Dom closing in, he felt his knees grow weak.

It was clear Dom hated these Fiores, whoever the hell they were, and considering he thought Luca was related, what did that mean for him? He had no idea, but the sooner he could convince Dom he was not related in any way, the better.

“Look, I don’t know what you think you know, or who you think I’m related to. But you’re wrong. I don’t know these people. I’ve never even seen them before. I mean, you’re talking a mob family, right?” Luca almost choked on the words. “I’m from New Haven, Connecticut. I go to Yale, for God’s sake—”

“Shut. Up.” Dom punctuated his words with a hand by Luca’s head, and Luca bit down on his cheek. “DNA doesn’t lie, and we have yours.”

“So? Maybe they’re wrong.”

“So now everyone’s wrong except you?”

“No—I just mean that things can get messed up. I’m in the medical field and know that, and besides, I’ve spent years studying to be a surgeon. Whether I’m related to these people or not, what do you care? I don’t want anything to do with them. I don’t want to be a…be a…”

“Mobster?” Dom chuckled. “Not one of your top three job choices?”

A shiver of dread raced up Luca’s spine. “No, I want to help people, and you’re telling me I have to stop my life and—”

“No, I’m what’s supposed to stop your life. Because you see, you’re not just part of the family, you’re the heir. And we can’t let that happen.”