Mafia Legacy

Chapter Twenty Five-Charlotte

"Where exactly did you find this?" Marco arched his eyebrow, staring down at the box in front of him. It was full of guns and videotapes and photos and all kinds of things I couldn't make any sense of.

Once all the kids have gone to bed and I was on my own again, I had gone back into Luca's office and lifted up the carpet to find a safe. It took me only a few tries to guess Luca's password and, once inside, I pulled out this box. It was the only thing in there. I had a rummage through everything inside, hoping to find something useful. The only thing that remotely made sense to me was a tape that said LA on it. My first thought had been Los Angeles, but then I realized it also stood for Louisiana. We didn't even have a tape player for me to see what was on it, so I called Marco immediately.

"It was in a safe and Luca's office. I didn't have any idea it was even there."

"And apparently the police didn't either." Marco sifted through everything.

"It was underneath the carpet underneath his desk. It would be impossible to find if the area hadn't ripped when I was picking up the glass."

Marco was silent. He pulled a few of the guns out, looking at each of them carefully, and glancing at the pictures as well. Each tape had a set of initials on it that all looked like states, or even countries, to me.

"So you don't know what it all is, either?" I finally asked, desperate to know what was going through his mind.

"Oh, I know what it is. I just don't know why he was stupid enough to keep it here."

"What do you mean?"

"All this shit." Marco tossed some of the pictures onto the counter. "It's all stuff that incriminates guys in our group for all kinds of different crimes. It's evidence Luca has made disappear for people over the years."

I frowned. "Why would he keep it?"

Marco chuckled. "Because he's good at his job, Char. He kept this shit as blackmail. He kept it for this exact situation. In case someone threw him under the bus and he needed evidence to prove it wasn't him."

"Then why the fuck didn't he send us here to begin with, Marco? Is he really just playing games?" I was fuming. If the evidence to clear him and been here all along, and he was sitting in jail while his family was being destroyed, what the hell was he thinking?

Marco ran his fingers through his hair. "Because he didn't want us to find it. I'm betting you somewhere in here is the key to all of this, and he doesn't want it to come out."

I honestly couldn't remember the last time I had been this angry with Luca. This was absolutely absurd. We were fighting tooth and nail to try to help him, and he was sitting in there deliberately hiding the truth from us.

"Does he not want to get out? Does he want to spend the rest of his life in jail?" I threw my arms in the air.

"Char..." Marco sighed heavily.

"No, I'm serious. Why are you and I fighting so hard for this when both he and Angelo know the truth? He could literally end this in a second. Is he just trying to test me? Or hurt me? This is a fucking ridiculous." I paced back-and-forth furiously in front of him.

Marco grabbed my shoulders. "Charlotte, breathe. Let's think about what we know about Luca for a second. First of all, he loves you more than anything in the world and would literally give up his last breath for you. Even though it feels like it, I know he's not trying to hurt you or text you or anything like that. He is fiercely loyal, and fiercely protective. I'm willing to bet whatever the truth is, is not only going to hurt someone he feels loyal too, but it's going to hurt you and I. And our families."