“You’re looking at the marker that the assassin you hired to take out Ace left in the coffin of the man who drove into her,” I explain, then explode, “The marker with your fucking initials on it!”
I’ve seen what it looks like when someone lies. I’ve stared dozens of men in their faces as they’ve sat in front of me and sworn up and down that they didn’t steal from us, that they didn’t cheat in our casinos, that they didn’t do whatever it was that I knew they did.
But as I stare at Luciano, his entire world is crumbling before his very eyes as my words sink in, I know he didn’t order the hit on Ace. He’s not the one responsible for hurting my girl. And that’s more of a relief to me than I expected.
Ace would be devastated if Luciano had betrayed her. I might not like Luciano, but we’re going to have to learn to get along since I plan on making Ace mine forever. This little situationmight set us back a bit, though. He’ll get over it. Mob guys are always super understanding.
“Kian,” he starts quietly as he stares at the coin, his hand trembling, “tell me what I’m not understanding. Are you telling me Lacey’s accident was a hit to kill her? To kill…” Luciano shakes his head like he can’t believe it, his voice breaking. “To kill Lacey?”
I look at Xander, who is watching Luciano closely, and I know he’s thinking the same thing. Luciano isn’t responsible for this. Lowering my gaze to his gun, I nod. Xander lowers his rifle, everyone else following his lead except for Cassian, who keeps his rifle pressed between Luciano’s shoulder blades.
“Yes,” I answer.
“Where is she?” he says, looking around in sudden panic.
“She’s at work. Surrounded by security.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Why are your initials on that coin?”
Luciano finally looks up and meets my gaze, his ice-blue eyes those of a man who’s struggling between anger and heartbreak. “I have no fucking idea,” he snaps and looks around at everyone else in the room, scowling. “Who the fuck are these assholes?”
“My brothers, Cash, Xander, and Beckett,” I say, pointing toward them.
“Cage Black,” one of Cassian’s brothers answers, then gestures to another. “Ghost Black. Cassian Black is behind you.”
“Fuck,” Luciano murmurs.
Cassian and his brothers are the kind of men who are excellent to have on your side. The thing about them is that while the mafia and families like mine handle business in our own violent ways, guys like Cassian, Ghost, and Cage are virtually non-existent in the world. People never know when they’re coming. They have skills the average person doesn’t. It’s how we met. Cassian was counting cards and stealing millions from our casino. He would’ve gotten away with it, too, except his markwas acting strange at the table to tip us off that something was wrong.
Using the barrel of his rifle, Cassian presses it to Luciano’s back, pushing him deeper into the living room. Luciano tosses the bouquet of flowers onto the table and holds up his hands, the coin held between his fingers.
“Lacey is all I have,” he says to me, his voice raw. “I have my men, and they are my family and loyal as it gets, but Lacey is a piece of me. Of my heart. I had to look her in the eye when her father died as her entire world fell apart. I had to sit back and let her mother keep her from seeing me because I was a Ricci. I sat in her hospital room every day after the accident, praying for her to live. I’ve just got her back in my life. I’d never do anything to hurt her. I’d kill myself before I let anything happen to Lacey. Her mother hated us. Hated that Lacey continued going by the name Ricci after her father died.”
The man is practically breaking before me. Although I don’t know Luciano, he’s in my girl’s corner, and whether I like it or not, that’s a good thing.
I still don’t fucking like him.
Leveling him with a glare, I raise a brow. “She’s going to be a Savage eventually, and you’re not going to cause any fucking issues between us.”
Luciano stares back at me, his stone-cold mask back on. “She’s going to be whoever the fuck she wants to be. If she chooses to be a Savage, I’ll support her. She spent enough time being told who to be and how to be; it’s Lacey’s world now. She decides. Not either of us.”
Maybe the fucker is growing on me a tiny bit.
“And if you so much as cause my cousin any harm or pain, I will find you myself and skin you alive, then wear you as a fucking coat to your own funeral.”
Fuck. I’m going to have to start being nice to him.
I glance at Cassian and slowly blink, letting him know he can lower his weapon.
As soon as he does, Luciano swings at me and cracks me right in the jaw. “Motherfucker. Don’t ever ambush me like that again.”
Palming my chin, I smile at him. “That all you have, Ricci? Let’s fucking go.”
I probably deserved it, but fuck him.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ace stands in the entrance to the living room, her hands on her hips, glaring at us. It’s kind of hard to take her seriously because she has her hair in two puffy buns that look like ears, and she’s, of course, covered in glitter like the adorable little angel she is. “Why does everyone have guns? Who the hell are you?” She is staring at Ghost Black, who is literally wearing a ghost mask. Then she reaches up and smacks the mask, making Ghost chuckle and pull it off.
When she sees him, she gasps and takes a step back, then looks at me. “What the hell?”
Glaring back at her, I open my mouth to ask why the fuck she’s here. I wasn’t alerted, but then I pull out my phone and see multiple missed calls from my security, all while we were confronting Luciano.
