I felt my edge start to slip as I saw her standing against the wall, her chest heaving. “Lucas,” she breathed, fear flushing on her face.
“What was that? Oh my God, you are bleeding!”
I couldn’t answer her, and clenched my fists tightly at my sides. There was only one thing that I could control, and that was being buried in Leda right fucking now. Fuck the Mafia.
Fuck Adrian.
I neededher.
Chapter 11
Adrian
Manhattan
I clicked off the video and sent the drone away. Watching the bomb go off was like music to my ears, though I wished I had been able to use more power than just the ball bearings. If nothing else, they had gotten Lucas’s attention that I wasn’t fucking playing. They had gotten away from me in the yacht attack, he and his bitch, but I wasn’t about to let up on my assault.
I wanted to destroy Lucas. He had taken what I wanted most, somehow manipulated the old man into making him don over me, and everyone knew that the bastard wasn’t capable of running a Mafia.
Only I could do that, and I was showing him up left and right on how to properly get rid of one’s enemy. I had wiped out many of his men in the yacht attack, including his beloved second-in-command. Sure, he had taken out a few of mine, but the difference between us was that I had more waiting in the wings, wanting to follow the true don and not the imposter that had been put there. I had tried everything before resorting to drastic measures, but Lucas had refused to bend.
So, I was bending him. I was making him hurt, making him pay for not handing over what had been rightfully mine.
Glancing at my bandaged hand, I thought about the time I had had with the D’Agostino princess and how she had been primed to submit to me before Lucas had stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. He stole what belonged to metwicenow.
I had every right to do this.
It didn’t matter what people thought about it, really. I was taking my rightful place, and he was on his way out. It was only a matter of time before I killed him anyway. He had no allies, no one to call upon, and the longer he stayed out there, the more likely people would accept that he was dead.
I didn’t expect the bomb to kill him. It was just enough to keep him on edge – just enough so that he would be slowly worn down until he came to me for terms.
Then he’d hand me Leda D’Agostino as his token of seeking forgiveness from his Don.
I would kill him, of course; there was no doubt about it. Lucas was full of “I’m not going to bow to you” mentality. Well, two could play that game.
Not that it mattered. He should have been dead a long time ago.
Pushing away from my desk, I stood and stretched my body, working out the kinks in my back as I did so. Lucas had never truly appreciated what he had in my uncle’s shoes. But this Mafia belonged to me, not to him.
And I needed to remind him of that.
Chapter 12
Leda
Moments Before
I watched the proceedings below, the sole occupant outside the car allowing himself to be patted down by one of Lucas’s men. I doubted it was anyone looking for me—well, anyone that wanted to take me back to my normal life, that is. My money was on it being someone in Adrian’s employ, either looking to see if Lucas was still alive or if he could make a deal.
A deal for me.
The fear was there. There was nothing that Lucas had told me that made me feel like I was going to be here with him permanently.
Did I want that? Before he had taken me back to the auction club, I would have said that there was a good chance I might be interested in it.
But now, I wasn’t sure.
Lucas proved to me that he didn’t know how to care for anyone save himself. I thought he had learned to care about me, even to love me. But that illusion evaporated when he put me up on that block, and subjected me to all the horrors that happened after.