Closing that door on his nephew was hard, but closing that door on a soldier was easy.
Thirty-Five
One Day
Hearing the door close, Kat woke up to find Drago was finally home. She dreaded this moment of having to tell him about what she had said to Chloe. She didn’t regret saying the words, and that was exactly why she needed to tell him. Wanting to be upfront and honest about how she felt about Lucca, seeing that Drago saw the boogieman differently than she did. It wasn’t the bond she wanted to break between the two; she just wanted him to know she saw Lucca no differently than she saw her father.
“Drago I—”
“Oh good.” He came over to the couch. “You’re awake.”
Taking a breath, she needed to go ahead and get it off her chest. “Yeah I—”
“I have a surprise for you, Kat.” He smiled as he held out a hand for her to take.
Huh? She was confused but decided to take his hand, letting him lead her to the new dining room table.
He made her sit in front of a thick folder he had placed at the head of the table.
Staring down at the blank folder filled with papers, she grew even more confused, till she flipped it open revealing a bunch of numbers.
“Lucca has asked me to offer you the job of being the Carusos’ bookkeeper.” He took the empty seat beside her to look in her eyes. “And if you want to accept, then you will have your own office down the hall.”
Blinking for a minute straight, she didn’t know what to say at first, knowing the importance of the offer she was just given. Women were not given jobs in the mafia, especially when it involved their money. She stared down at the first page, seeing big numbers. “A-Are we talking on or off the books?”
“Whatever you are comfortable with,” he told her, not wanting to put any pressure on her. “You can strictly do the books that are legal, if you want.”
“Are you serious?” Kat asked, disbelieving of the words she was still hearing. She was a fucking Luciano, for Christ’s sake, and what she was staring at right now could bring the entire Caruso family down.
He nodded, in this moment looking at her as if she were a soldier. “Yes.”
They might not know what you’re capable of, but one day they will. The words had spoken to her before he’d walked her down the aisle echoed in her head.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Kat licked her dry lips. “Drago?”
“Yeah?” He sounded as if he expected to hear her accept or decline the offer, honestly anything but what she was about to say next.
“I need you…”—she could only hope that she wasn’t about to make another mistake—“to take me to Lucca.”
* * *
Asking to speak with him alone, she was unaccompanied as she crossed the threshold into Lucca’s office. One thing was for sure; it was much different standing in front of the boogieman when you were the one to seek him out.
She didn’t know how she’d pictured meeting with him, but seeing him behind the big wooden desk made it that much more daunting. Taking the seat in front of him, she watched him flip a silver lighter, turning it on and off as he curiously stared at her and waited for what she had to say.
“I told Chloe that you were powerful like my father.” Kat stared into those cold blue-green eyes finally seeing something different in them. “But the truth is, you are much more powerful than he ever was.”
The flame was left steady this time as he let it burn the end of a cigarette he had placed in his mouth. That flame illuminated his face with an orange glow, making him much more attractive than she had seen him before.
“My father kept me hidden in a basement for seventeen years, only letting me come out when he needed his money counted. My brothers were the only ones allowed to know I did that, because Lucifer would rather slit his own daughter’s throat than let anyone in the family know that I touched their money before he could disperse it.”
Smoke slowly trailed in and out of his mouth as he sat there listening to her.
“I was wrong about you, Lucca Caruso, but you were wrong about yourself too.” Kat’s lip turned up in one corner. “Deep, deep, deep down, there is a kindness in you that you only show people you respect. It is not lightly given, only to those who you feel can withstand what may come. Only to those who can serve a purpose for you down the road,” she told him, seeming to know exactly what he was preparing for. “But unlike my father, you give your respect not only to a man but to a woman.”