Luca pointed the gun and shot him clean between the eyes. Gus crumpled, knocking his chair over. The two men beside him stared at Luca with wide eyes, their hands reaching for their sides. Before they could even touch metal, Luca shot them in the head. Their bodies slid off their chairs and landed on top of Gus.
I flinched with each gunshot but wasn’t surprised. In the shower, Luca explained he was going to clean house and wanted me there to show us as a united force—the vicious wife and the Butcher. Glancing up at my husband, a shiver went down my spine. He was impossibly handsome and cold, something I’d only recently accepted I found terribly attractive.
I was fucked up, but I didn’t care anymore. This was who he was, and I loved him.
Luca calmly set the gun on the table. “Going forward, let there be no confusion—cross the family or me, and you die.” Luca gestured my way, his face softening for a fraction of a second as he looked at me. “Touch one hair on my wife’s head, and I’ll kill you if she doesn’t first. It’s not complicated, but in the interest of fairness, any questions?”
Tearing my eyes from Luca, I hazarded a glance down the table. The young guys were intrigued, excited even, by the bloodshed so casually on display, while the older men eyed the dead bodies with apprehension.
Luca waited for a beat and then carried on. “In the spirit of new beginnings, Tommy and Frankie, join me up here.”
Rosa and I stood, wordlessly leaving the room. A few minutes later, the young guns trickled out, high off the night and excitedly chatting about when it would be their turn.
Frankie and Tommy were being officially initiated into the family, and only other made men were allowed to witness the ceremony.
Half an hour later, the rest of the men left the dining room. Tommy was grinning from ear to ear, while Frankie looked as bored as always.
“He’s the youngest made man in the family,” Rosa whispered as she smiled at Tommy. “His father would be proud.”
“What about Frankie?”
“Maybe now he can take back his father’s territory from Carmine, but that’ll be tough.”
“You really know everything, don’t you?”
She bumped my shoulder and headed toward the bar to help make drinks.
Standing in the entryway, I watched a few of the young guys go back into the dining room and come out carrying the bodies rolled in plastic. They headed out the back, while Rosa played perfect hostess in the front of the house.
“You okay?” Luca wrapped his arms around me from behind.
My birth control alarm went off, and I fished it out of my purse and deleted it, making sure he saw it.
Luca muttered, “Don’t you need to take that?”
“My last pack ended a week ago.” I looked back at him and smiled. “Is that okay?”
His face split into a huge grin. “More than okay. Are you sure this is what you want?”
Leaning back into him, I kissed the underside of his jaw. “I am.”
He nodded, holding me tightly to his chest. “Do we really have to go to the club? I want to go home and—”
“Yes. Everyone wants to welcome you home, and I think the boys deserve a little celebration. Don’t you?”
“Fine. But we’re going home early.”