Chapter 496: I Need To Do Something
The pride in her voice made his lips curve. He was happy, quite happy but he was not calm. Even as she relaxed against him, soft and trusting, his mind was already calculating again.
Luca lowered his mouth to Vee’s hair and closed his eyes for one brief second.
Let me have this, he thought.
Just this one moment.
*****
Marco walked into Don’s office in the morning. He was tired of sitting in one place. His head was doing perfectly fine despite what Ma thought. He wasn’t dying. He had healed. He was beginning to suspect Carol simply did not want him to step back out into danger. Which was touching. Sweet even.
That was why he had snuck out of the house.
Massimo was seated behind his desk when Marco entered, pen in hand. In front of him lay papers, and a cheque he was issuing for more weapons. He looked up. His eyes moved over Marco once then his brow lifted. "Marco... Does Carol know you are out of bed?"
"I hope I will be done before she finds me missing," Marco said with a chuckle.
Massimo leaned back in his chair, the pen still resting between his fingers. "She is never going to change."
There was affection in his voice, buried deep beneath the gravel and arrogance, but it was there.
Marco smiled faintly. "No. We shouldn’t try to make her."
Massimo chuckled. "What brings you by?" Massimo asked.
Marco stepped farther into the room, shutting the door behind him. "I wanted to know if there was any way I could get my hands on Bianca’s financials."
Massimo’s brows lifted slightly. "Oh... why?"
"We know someone was working with her instructions," Marco said. "I would like to know who."
Massimo set the pen down. "You think the threat isn’t over even with her death?"
"I just want to make sure."
Bianca was dead, yes, but Bianca had not been everywhere. She had not pulled every string with her own hands. There had been movement behind her, money behind her and Marco hated loose ends, loose ends grew teeth.
"Don, I need to do something. Sitting in bed while everyone else bleeds is not in my skill set."
Massimo’s gaze softened by a fraction. Marco was not his blood, but he was Luca’s brother in every way that mattered. Men like that were rare. "Well," Massimo said at last, "a few threats here and there and we should be able to get it from her bank."
Marco moved closer to the desk. "Something else is nagging at me...Something Enzo said when he came by."
Massimo’s attention sharpened. "Hmmm?"
"He said you weren’t the only one with the devil for a son," Marco said.
"Yeah, I thought you knew."
Marco’s brows drew together. "Know what?"
"Oh, yeah," Massimo murmured. "You and Luca were quite young back then, I suppose. Enzo has a son...His first son. Crazy boy with dead eyes," Massimo continued. "He had to be banished from the Vitale famiglia."
For Enzo Vitale to cast out his first son meant the boy had done something even his own blood could not stomach.
"Is he still in Italy?" Marco asked.
"I believe so." Massimo’s fingers tapped once against the desk. "Stays somewhere in the slums. Last I heard, he cannot even leave the country by legal means. He is wanted by the polizia. He has been in hiding for years."
A banished Vitale son.
"Is there any way to get a picture of him?" Marco asked.
"Sheesh..." Massimo sighed. "I’ll see what I can do. Its been so long ago. I’ll get my men to work immediately on Bianca’s financials. And if you need something to do to get you out of the house, let me know."
"Naaah," Marco said. "I’d rather not annoy Ma further."
"Do you know when you can return to New York?" Massimo asked.
"Luca hasn’t said anything yet." He sat forward. "Do you need me to go there?"
Massimo looked down at the papers on his desk, then back up. "Luca made my capo. I need someone on ground to keep him out of trouble...He said some things the last time I didn’t like. Like he is about to play the martyr or something."
"He has always been that way," Marco said.
Massimo’s expression tightened. "What do you mean?"
"Sometimes I wonder if you know your own son. I’m sorry." he quickly said as Massiomo raised a brow. Marco rubbed a hand over his face. "When Ma wanted to leave, he pledged his life to you in exchange for her life. He was barely ten."
Luca had always stood too straight for his age. Massimo had seen strength in it then. Perhaps he should have seen damage too.
Marco’s voice softened. "He will always stand in the line of fire for people he loves. And if he thinks there is a way to save his family even if it will cost him his own life," Marco continued, "he will do whatever it takes. That’s who he is. When Vittoria was abusing him, he kept it from you."
Vittoria, Julian’s mother. Massimo’s lips tightened. A woman he had once allowed too close to his son. A woman Luca had endured in silence with the discipline Massimo had once mistaken for strength. Now, sitting in the quiet of his office, he wondered how many times he had praised the boy for being hard when he should have asked why a child had needed to become stone.
"He thought a whining son was not good for your image as a Don," Marco continued. "He is who he is," Marco added softly. "It makes him quite lovable."
A faint smile touched Massimo’s mouth.
Lovable.
Luca would probably shoot someone for using that word near him. And yet, Marco was right. Luca’s brutality had never been empty. It was love forced to grow teeth too early.
"I really should stop doubting your loyalties, Marco," Massimo said after a long silence. "But I am used to doubting everyone. If my own son can betray me, who can’t?"
(100 power stones!!!)
