“What did your father say about the whole thing?” I asked.
“By the time I told him, I’d gotten smart enough to realize he didn’t get a say.”
I must have looked confused because Luca continued without prompting.
“Even though my father was just a wannabe gangster, he’d managed to make a lot of enemies and the cops were constantly investigating him for things like fraud, racketeering, tax evasion, and money laundering. I couldn’t risk what had happened to my mother happening to Gio or V, so I kept their existence a secret. I didn’t get to be in Gio’s life full time and I had to take a lot of steps to cover up my connection to him. It meant secret meetings, no going to his school to watch him in recitals and stuff, no giving him my last name… nothing that would tell the world he was a Covello. But when he was five, I finally decided to tell my father about him. I guess deep down I was hoping Gio would change him like he’d changed me.”
Luca shook his head. “The old man looked at my son like he was a prize bull who’d bring in big money at an auction.” Luca was toying with the keychain as he spoke. Violet had finished eating and was nodding off in his gentle hold. Her eyes were fixated on the little soccer ball.
“It was so fucking easy,” Luca whispered. He sounded almost confused. “I’d spent years trying to find the guts to walk away, but the second the bastard gave my son the last name I’d been too afraid to for all those years, it was like I just woke up and took this deep breath. I took everything from him after that. The money, the businesses… he’d already put things in my name to protect them from the government investigations. He’d been that confident I’d always be under his thumb. I could have just liquidated it all, but maybe a little part of me was like him, because I wanted to make him pay for all those years he’d made us, Vaughn in particular, suffer. I made him watch me take his businesses legit and make more money with them than he ever could have. And I never once had to break the law to do it.”
Luca’s tone wasn’t one of arrogance, but rather, satisfaction. Like he hadn’t realized until that very moment that he’d managed to pull the whole thing off.
“And Gio and V?” I asked.
“I still couldn’t claim Gio,” Luca murmured. “I wanted to, more than anything… but my father had made way too many enemies and I couldn’t be sure how deep he’d managed to get his fingers into the organized crime world before I’d put a stop to all of it. I couldn’t risk my son. I did everything I could think of to protect him. And none of it made a fucking bit of difference,” Luca finished bitterly.
I still had a million questions, but when Luca gave Violet a little squeeze and said, “Let’s go get you cleaned up, honey,” I knew he was done talking. To me he said, “Our appointment is at ten and it will take about an hour to get to the therapist’s office.”
Right, Violet’s session with the counselor.
Reality was a cold slap in the face. “I’ll be ready,” I managed to say. I felt Luca’s eyes on me, but I kept mine downcast.
“I made you some pancakes. They’re in the microwave.”
I wasn’t sure if I told him thank you or not. By the time my mind cleared enough from all the newfound revelations I was having about the man, it didn’t matter if I thanked him or not because he’d already left the room.
Which, I needed to remind myself, was probably a good thing.
Chapter Twelve
Luca
“Sir, we’re being followed.”
The words tore me from the act of watching Remy without making it look like I was watching him from where he was sitting on the other side of Violet’s car seat. Violet had nodded off after her session with the psychologist, so Remy was staring out the window. He had it open like he usually did, but only a few inches.
I swung around in the SUV’s seat. “Which car?” I asked. The second set of bodyguards who were driving the SUV behind us were still there.
“Dark blue Impala,” Terrence responded. I glanced at the man as Stan, who was in the front passenger seat, checked his gun.
“We’re being followed?” Remy said, his voice tinged with fear.
“It’s probably nothing,” I said. “Evasive maneuvers,” I murmured to Terrence, since my only goal was to get us back to the hotel where we’d have more guys to cover us. Not to mention I didn’t want to risk any kind of gun play with Remy and Violet in the car. If we’d been in New York, I’d have directed my men to lead the tail we’d picked up on a bit of a chase before maneuvering them into a position where they’d become the hunted and I would have been able to find out who they were. But it wasn’t the same game out here. Especially with a child in the car… and Remy.