Chapter Sixteen
Tucker smirked when he felt Lucas’ arms circle his waist. He stopped what he was doing and turned in his arms. “Is Zoi asleep?”
“Finally, I think she’s worried you won’t be here when she wakes up tomorrow.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you two anymore. It killed me to be separated from you both this long.”
“Good, because we don’t want to be separated from you either.”
He cupped Lucas’ cheeks staring into his eyes. “I love you.”
Lucas’ eyes brightened. “I love you, too.”
They leaned in closer as their lips met into a passionate and loving kiss, two lovers reconnecting after being separated for so long. They separated, and Tucker pressed their foreheads together. He enjoyed moments like this where no words needed to be said between them, simply letting their emotions surround them. They stayed like that until Tucker felt another kick from one of the twins, making him chuckle, breaking the mood.
“Are they always this active?”
“Yeah, they are,” he answered looking down at his stomach. “So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
“Gianni is dead.”
“Who did it?”
Tucker took his hand and they walked over to the bed and sat down. He waited for Lucas to get comfortable before he explained what happened, including Gianni holding hostages in an abandoned warehouse, and how he wanted to talk to the shadow and no one else. He explained how Tyler pretended to be him and was surprised when Gianni didn’t ask to see his face. Nothing seemed right the more he talked it out with Lucas. Gianni was dead that was for sure, but to Tucker, there was still an air of mystery surrounding the whole thing.
“Then he’s definitely dead?”
“Yeah, saw his body with my own eyes.”
“So it’s over?”
“Yeah,” he said with a bit of a hesitation.
“You don’t sound so sure.”
“He died just as he was about to reveal something. It just doesn’t add up.”
Lucas was quiet for a few seconds. “Do you think the cop that took the shot was paid to kill Gianni at the right moment? I know that he had a lot of enemies that wanted him dead.”
“Maybe, or maybe I’m reading into something that’s not there,” he said then remembered there was something that Gianni said that he couldn’t get out of his mind. “Gianni kept referring to 'that night.' What was 'that night' about?”
Lucas sighed. “It was a crazy night, I think he was trying to show me how evil he could be or try to impress me. He was someone who valued loyalty above even his own family. I knew he had affection for me; it wasn’t a secret among us. He always had time for me whenever I would show up. Funny thing was I didn’t see him that way. I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve never been attracted to another man before you. When I looked at him, I saw a man that needed to be put behind bars or in the ground where he could rot for eternity. One night he was so drunk he tried coming on to me, but I laughed it off and simply used his attraction for me to my advantage and got what I needed."
"But that’s not the night he was talking about?”
“No,” Lucas answered then look away.
“What happened?”
“Like I said, I knew he was dangerous and as much as I wanted him locked away, I needed hard evidence. I wasn’t around when he abused his wife, but I saw the evidence on her body, hell everyone knew, but she wouldn’t go against him. I had to pretend that I didn’t notice what he was doing. Any information I collected would have sent him to prison, but not for long. He would have been out in five years. It wasn’t just because he had the best legal team known to man. We had to find a judge and jury that he couldn’t pay off, and witnesses who weren’t scared they’d be on his hit list. One night he found out that one of his men was stealing from him. Alphonso didn’t pay the people that worked for him well, but he expected their loyalty and for them to die for him no matter what. If you had a family forget about it, in his views, it wasn’t his fault. He called Roberto Menza into his office and, at first, everything was fine, but I should have known it was an act. Alfonso confronted Roberto and showed him proof that he knew he was stealing.”
Tucker watched Lucas stand and walk over to the window, leaning on the sill. He stayed where he was, realizing that Lucas needed the space between them.
“Of course, like an idiot, Roberto denied it no matter how many times he asked for the truth, I expected Alphonso to beat the shit out of the guy, scare the man into telling the truth, but instead he brought the man’s family into the room. They had three kids and one on the way. Before I could stop him, Alphonso killed the wife then the three kids, in front of everyone.You steal from me, so I take from you.Those were the last words Roberto heard before Alphonso killed him. Want to know what the fucked-up thing about it was? Roberto was his cousin, not in friendship but blood.”
“Damn,” was all Tucker could say.
“I couldn’t move, Tuck, I remember standing in the same spot thinking what I should do? How can I save them? But it was too late. My reaction was too late. I felt like I was an accomplice watching that man and his family die by Alphonso's hand. I didn’t do anything to stop Alphonso. He must have realized that sometime after that I didn’t like what he did and tried to justify his actions, but it was too late. I already knew the type of man he was, and it shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did. But this was also the hard evidence I needed to put him behind bars. I somehow convinced his wife and then his daughter to testify against him.”
