8. Luca

8

LUCA

" S omething in the way …" The words of a Nirvana song I haven't heard in forever play in my mind, and I don't know why. I find myself singing the line repeatedly while we put our clothes back on. "Shit, that's going to be stuck in my head all day."

She giggles with a glance from my eyes to my crotch. "Which head?"

The revelation clicks, turning the corner of my mouth up slightly. "That's what you were humming?"

A similar grin forms on her face as she runs her fingers through her curls, adjusting her low ponytail. "Yeah, I had to drown out my thoughts of treating you like an object."

"Did you like it? The power of doing what you wanted?" I ask her. My eyes scan her face, looking for anything to show discomfort, or even worse, regret.

Her thin brows knit together, choosing her words carefully before she speaks. "It felt good in a bad way. Luca, are you sure you're okay? What if people see?"

"See what? This?" I touch the left side of my face. A soft thrum of pain pulsates across my skin. Jo doesn’t know how it sends pleasure skipping across my chest like a stone skims a lake. My shoulders raise slightly. "I'll tell them the truth. I got what I deserved."

Even with all our clothes on, the look on her face peeks at parts of me I never reveal to anyone. She sits beside me on the bed, touching the top of my hand. The pain in her eyes from the sincerity of my words doesn't sit well with me. I don't want her pity. Shrugging her hand away, I push myself to my feet as my phone rings again.

Good. I don't need her penetrating gaze tearing open wounds I've scabbed over long ago. I let out a deep exhale, answering my phone and turning my back to Jo. I don't have the heart to look at her.

"Devlin." My voice is harsh in the late morning quiet of my bedroom with the most amazing woman sitting on my bed. We have had this magical morning together, mind blowing sex, and I can't stand the idea of hurting her. But that's inevitable dealing with me. So, I do what I do best. I focus on the pain to drive away any fantasies I may have of this being anything more than building her confidence for a movie role.

"Luca, it's Sonny." My brother-in-law speaks with seriousness rippling through every word.

"What's wrong?"

He huffs out a breath. "It's Faith. I got the call from her agent. She's in the hospital and doesn't want to speak to anyone but us."

"She asked for you specifically, Sonny?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he says, voice grim because he must realize the same thing I do. If she wants to speak to Sonny, this is family business.

"Alright, I'll meet you there. Send me the information." After ending the call, I turn to Jo. She's already taking her cue that we're about to leave.

I don't have time to say anything before she turns to me. "Thank you for this Luca. I know you're busy. I'm not sure I’ll be right for the role of Cadence until..."

I drown out the sound of her voice. Hope has me wishing she doesn't see how jarring her words are to me. A pit forms in my stomach as my face heats from the rejection. It doesn't feel like she's simply turning down the part in her movie.

Fuck. Her movie.

"It's fine, Josephine."

"It's not fine, Luca. I know the vacant stare of someone not listening. I hate repeating myself. Are you really going to make me ask you for more sessions like this again?"

My head snaps toward her, confusion replacing the spiral of emotions I'm riding like a fucking rollercoaster. "I'm sorry, Jo. You're right. I wasn't listening. My head is all over the place. One of my girls is in the hospital."

"One of your girls?" Her face reels with disgust. "Shit, of course, there's more than one."

"No, not like this." I gesture between us. "One of my actresses. She needs to talk to me and Sonny."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I hope she's going to be okay. I can drive—" she starts and stops. "We flew here."

"Come with me. I can take you back to your car. You really want to do this again?"

Jo's soft brown eyes avoid mine as she nods timidly. "There's something therapeutic, cathartic even. I don't want to hurt you, but?—"

"You can tell how much I like it." I finish for her with a smile, taking a few steps closer. "I do like it and it's therapy of sorts for me, too."

"You don't have to tell me anything more than that, Luca." Her hand nudges mine like I did to her in the audition yesterday, bringing me to wrap my fingers around hers to lead her out of my room.

I take her to the garage, where an array of cars wait to be driven. She looks around. "No chopper?"

"I call for those like taxis. The one that brought us here is already gone. We get to drive, my siren. Pick one," I tell her.

There's a vintage 69 Pontiac Firebird, black, shined to perfection with chrome trim and whitewall tires. Beside the classic is my favorite, a black Ferrari Portofino convertible. There's a Land Rover meant for off roading in case the cliffs get too perilous for the pretty cars.

"This one," she smiles as she runs her hand along the frame of the Ferrari.

"Smart choice, you're driving," I tell her.

The shock in her eyes mixes with joy and pure giddiness as she hops into the car. "I can't drive this car. It's so, so, so new."

"Think of it like a test drive. This way, when your acting career takes off after these two projects, you'll know what to buy with your first million-dollar contract."

Josephine throws her head back with a laugh. "You are dreaming, not even Collin's lucky socks can swing that."

"Lucky socks?" I ask, sliding into the passenger seat.

"Yeah, Jett, my son, took my brother's lucky socks that he plays football in. The socks smell like they have had the entire football team's feet inside of them, but I can't deny how lucky they were for us yesterday."

"I agree. The socks are definitely lucky." I touch her hand as she familiarizes herself with the interior. I watch the slow rise and fall of her chest as she inhales the delicate scent of the leather seat. The smile on her face is like opening a brand-new phone, ready to push every button to see what this thing can do.

It doesn't take long before we're cruising down winding roads with the top down, sun beaming across the soon-to-be afternoon sky. Jo's brown curls fly out of her ponytail, making me regret not having my hands running through them while she fucked me on my bedroom floor.

More sessions.

These are not dates.

This is for the best to not dive in so quickly. We don't need romance. We only need endless instances for us to release some stress, bolster her confidence to enable her to sink her teeth into this opportunity, and every opportunity that will come her way after these movies finish shooting.

I'm torn between my excitement in discovering new talent and the worry that the depths of my depravity will scare her away. There are things I like, rough and extreme to some. Today didn't faze her in the slightest. I assume her willingness to do everything we did came from wanting to slug that shit stain, Duke, on the steps of the courthouse. I ended up making him pay for speaking to her, and that was enough for me. This right now? This is for Josephine.

The bulk of the ride to her car is quiet, a comfortable silence between us as we finally come to a stop behind a small blue hatchback near the courthouse. The grin spread across her face leaves me feeling like Santa Claus, happy to give her this experience. I want to give her so much more.

"This car is amazing. Thank you so much, Luca. I'll go over the script and make some notes. Maybe we can get together later, if you're free and your actress is alright?"

"That sounds like a plan." I tell her as we get out of the car. She walks to get inside her car when something worrying snags my attention. "I think there needs to be a change in plans."

The puzzled look on her face causes Jo to shift her gaze to her car. There's a piece of rebar sticking out of both a rear tire and front tire.

"Shit," Jo kneels down to touch it when I stop her.

"Leave it. Get back in the car, Jo. I'll take care of this," I tell her.

"What do you mean? I need to call my insurance company, a tow truck. I don't even know how this happened. Jett gets out of school at two. I still need to go over these papers Duke gave me, not to mention the errands I was supposed to run. I need to get food because Collin's going to move into the garage and?—"

"Josephine," I interrupt her, stopping her panic driven rant. She only stops once I'm standing in front of her so she can focus on me as I hold up the keys to my car. "Take it. I can grab a taxi to the hospital. It's my fault your car is here and someone vandalized it. I should have stuck to your original plan instead of trying to impress you with helicopter rides."

"Helicopter and Luca rides," she grins with a chuckle.

"Impressed?" I ask, a glutton for punishment because the chances of anyone answering that honestly are slim. There's something about Josephine punishing me that I crave.

"Very." She grins, taking the keys out of my hand. "You know, you're making it very hard for me to explain to Jett that socks aren't lucky if I pull up to the pickup line in this."

"Luck is in anything you believe is lucky," I tell her. "Children are lucky to have an imagination that isn't jaded by life. They have room to believe magic still exists. I have a little bit of room left, only because I work in film. But seeing the machines behind the magic dulls the senses. You, Josephine, have sparked something inside of me. Meeting you makes me feel like there's still some magic around me. Let me do this for you. Go over the contracts, and the script. We'll talk later."

I pull out my phone and the movement comes naturally for the both of us as I lean in to steal a quick kiss as if we've loved each other forever, and this is what's supposed to be.

She smiles, taking a step back. "I want you to know that normally, I'd reject this lavish gesture."

"We can skip the back and forth where you tell me this is too much and I convince you to take it. I want you to take the car and then you can tell me how excited your son gets when he hangs those lucky socks around the rearview mirror."

She snorts out a laugh before covering her mouth. "I would never allow those things inside of a car this beautiful. Jett's lucky I'm letting him get inside of it at all. Okay, you get to the hospital and I'll take care of everything I need. Call me when you're done. I can have Collin stay with Jett when I bring this beauty back to you."

"Beauty indeed, don't forget the car when you do."

She shoves me playfully, sliding back into the driver's seat, and merging into traffic.

"Ahem." The sound of someone clearing their throat behind me snags my attention. Julian Blackwell and his head of security, Edward, are standing on the sidewalk with hints of amusement on their faces.

"How much of that did you hear?" I ask, walking toward the men, shaking both of their hands.

"Enough to see you have been busy," Julian says with a grin. Edward says something only audible to him before tipping his head to me and walking off. Julian turns to me. "Wife? Girlfriend?"

"Why does she have to be either?" I ask him.

"Because you let her drive off in your favorite car. I also imagine she's the reason you used the helipad this morning. Is love in the air for one of my very first clients?" He grins.

Julian Blackwell is like a corporate doctor who goes into multimillion dollar corporations, diagnoses what's wrong, and puts them on a plan to fix it. Luca Brisco Studios was my brilliant idea. Sonny had some cash, my sister had her business degree, and I wrote movies. Julian helped me organize and suggested digital releases to cut costs. As a favor for his business foresight, I wash some of his uncle's mob money.

I need to change the subject, not wanting to overthink anything between me and Jo. She needs someone better than me. While I want to impress her, make her want me, all I can give her is a punching bag to fuck and then walk away.

Julian pats my shoulder. "Happiness looks good on you."

"Don't get too excited for me. She's going to be my lead actress on a new project. A project I'm supposed to be doing for your uncle."

He grunts. "Uncle Armande hasn't been himself these days. He's having trouble with my mother's willingness to have him killed."

"Seems par for the course considering the business we're in. I'm sorry your family's…" I'm struggling to find the words. Consoling a friend isn't one of my strong suits.

He finishes the statement for me. "Sorry for my family being murderous and willing to betray each other? It's fine. I'm just happy Claire's still by my side. She said she ran into you a while back, coming out of Nina's?"

I chuckle. "Yeah. That didn't work out. You know how things go. They get close. We scare the fuck out of them and then they disappear."

His head moves up and down, weighted with a solemn understanding. While I have him, I need to ask him what's on my mind, especially under the circumstances.

"Listen, Julian, I know you said Armande isn't himself, but do you think it's possible he might know if the Feds have him under investigation? I have this auditor, I think she's FBI, but working with the IRS or something. She's looking into my studio, specifically at the projects I've made to wash Armande's money."

"Armande's in Sicily and I don't know when or if he's coming back. If there is an investigation, he hasn't mentioned it to me. We've been dealing with the Scarpella family, trying to get to Carmine."

"And here I am worried about Vito Dacosta."

"Vito's causing you problems?" Julian's voice fills with concern.

"Yeah. He's been threatening my actresses. I actually need to get to the hospital. One of them was attacked last night."

"I'm sorry, bro. Is there anything I can do?"

"Actually, there is."