23
LUCA
I wake before Katerina, watching her sleep with her head resting on my chest.
We returned to her cottage with Luca and fresh cookies last night. We played a game and when Luca was tucked into bed, I made love to Katerina again.
Now in the morning, with her nestled against me, the world feels right.
Of course, that doesn’t stop Victorio's face from haunting me. I can still vividly see him spitting blood, begging for mercy as I extracted every last secret from his traitorous mouth.
My oldest friend.
The only one who welcomed me home.
I swear my hands still smell like his blood despite scrubbing them raw in the shower last night.
"You good?" Alessandro had asked after we disposed of the body. I think he was truly concerned.
I'd nodded, stone-faced. "Just business."
But it wasn't just business. Victorio was my brother when my own flesh and blood wanted nothing to do with me. And in the end, he was feeding information to our enemies.
I ease out from under Katerina, careful not to wake her. I pull on pants and make my way to the kitchen to make coffee.
My phone beeps with a text. Adriano.
Family meeting. Twenty minutes.
I hesitate.
My re-inclusion into the family was temporary until I found the mole.
My job is done.
My family membership is now revoked.
Maybe they need an official decree for that as well. I swear, my brothers are more into pomp and circumstance than my father was.
I grab my coffee, leave a quick note for Katerina and Enzo, and then head up to the house.
“You can just hand me my walking papers,” I say as I enter.
My brothers frown, like they don’t know what I’m talking about.
“We need to discuss the fallout and ramifications of Pyotr and Victorio’s elimination,” Allesandro says.
"Good work with Victorio,” Adriano says in a way that suggests he rarely hands out praise.
"You're not still thinking I'm the leak?"
"If you were working with the Russians, you wouldn't have exposed your own inside man." He shrugs. "And no one fakes that kind of rage. What you did to him… that was personal."
"It was."
Valentina sips from her mug of coffee. “With the problem solved?—”
"We think you plugged the leak," Alessandro interrupts, "but we need to be sure."
