Luca eyed the dark wooded shelves that lined the walls with books he’d actually read and enjoyed while being locked away in prison. He took another slow sip of tea just as his office doors flew open.
Lucille marched in like she owned the air inside.
“What the fuck is going on, Di Luca?” she demanded, heels striking the floor with purpose. “Why am I hearing whispers about a new table? New men sitting where my husband’s blood built seats?”
She stopped in front of his desk, eyes blazing.
“Why don’t I know what’s happening in my fucking family? The one I bled to help keep secure and build along with your father?!” Her voice unexpectedly cracked.
Luca had no reaction, his face remained calm. He set the cup of tea down carefully and folded his hands in front of him.
“The table needed cleansing,” he whispered.
Lucille’s nostrils flared. She took her son in, and frowned. If she wasn’t so angry she’d be delighted to see him looking fully relaxed. Luca looked like a different man. No dreads, shirtless, and unbothered. Luca looked like a man who finally stepped fully into himself.
“You don’t make moves like that without me!” She snapped. “Those men been loyal for decades. They bled with me and your father.”
“And they watched him die… they had no answers like you didn’t when I got out of jail,” Luca replied.
His words shot through her like a bullet being lodged through her chest. Lucille’s mouth tightened. Her hand brushed the side of her suit jacket where her weapon rested. She circled the desk slowly, heels clicking, eyes sharp as razors.
“You think I haven’t been handling things?” She asked coldly. “Bodies been dropping since before your father was properly placed into the dirt. I decided against answering your questionthe day you got out, because I had no fuckin’ answers. You know how bad it hurts me to not be able to figure out what happened to my fucking soul mate?” She placed her hand over her heart.
Bullshit… all you had to do was tell me what the fuck all happened that day leading up to his death.Luca thought.
“Things are different…” Luca paused, looking Lucille squarely in the eyes. “You. Are. No. Longer. The Head Bitch In Charge.” His whispered raspy voice emphasized each word for her to understand clearly.
“It’s why I moved from your estate… into my own.” Luca opened both of his hands counterclockwise before clasping them both together.
Lucille’s head jerked back like she’d been struck. Her chin lifted sharp and defiantly, tendons in her neck stood out as anger flooded her face. The practiced poise she’d worn for decades, cool eyes, measured breathing, and the unshakable certainty of her command and power was fractured in and instant. Rage rushed up from her chest and bloomed across her angelic facial features.
She stared at her son in disbelief. Her heart cracked, allowing all the coldness to seep out. Luca saw how throwed he had her. He took no pleasure in it but couldn’t allow an ounce of softness or the love he had for his mother to overshadow who he was.
Lucille’s lips parted as if to speak, but pride choked the sound before it could form. Luca’s huge luxurious office suddenly felt small. A familiar bitter taste rose on her taste buds. A feeling she hadn’t felt since she was a young girl getting pimped out and sold to any man that found her young body attractive.
Irrelevance.
The power she’d wielded with beautiful, manicured hands was slipping, fast, and all she could do in the moment was lift her head higher, pretending that her crown still remained.
“Luca,” she started, licking her stained red lips.
“Lucille,” he answered with raised brows.
Silence slammed between them. This was not the boy that she thought she knew so well and raised. Luca’s eyes dropped to Lucille’s hand squeezing the top of her Desert Eagle and smiled as unwanted memories that he forced himself to forget slammed back into him full force, causing him to reach for his throat.
“This isn’t the correct way to go about things. Dontrell loved on you and Kentrell hard… Granted, he was the best father a woman like me could ever dream for her children…but… I constantly stressed to him to teach you and Kentrell more. He hardly let you shadow him when you were younger. By the time you became an adult you became Donnie’s shadow! All you were good for then was killing anyone who defied! You need me!” She stressed, taking a step forward until she stopped directly across from him.
Luca met her stare, unblinking. His jaw flexed once as darker thoughts swirled in his mind.
“I don’t need you?—”
“You do!” Lucille slammed her hand down hard at the edge of Luca’s desk, ignoring the sting that traveled up her arm.
“You froze business! Replaced blooded men, like the original table of men your father and I picked out was disposable!” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Now…” She looked him directly in the eyes. “You’re acting like I’m on the outside looking in! I let you take my assistant; I saw the look in your eyes when you first saw her…” Lucille’s words trailed.
She decided to take a more dangerous approach. If anybody knew how to press Luca’s buttons, it was Lucille.
