Mafia Heir

Chapter 25

Luca

Once we got home, I got Charlotte settled and then it was showtime. Tonight would be a cakewalk, but I was still a little on edge. Drops like this were routine for us, and most of the time, we dealt with much high stakes and much bigger players than Santos. That didn't mean I was going to underestimate him, though. Everything had to be clean and tight, and that's why I was going to oversee it myself. Unlike Antonio, I liked getting my hands dirty when it came to the business and didn't want to miss out on the action.

Angelo and I drove toward the warehouse, with Carlo and Marco following in a car close behind us. Behind them, we had three more pairs of me who would be waiting nearby just in case the exchange went south. With a new partner, you could never be too careful, and I trusted Santos about as far as I could throw the bastard.

It wasn't just him that was making me anxious, though. In the last few weeks, cops had been swarming our sites and warehouses, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with the scrawny, rat-faced, frat boy that Charlotte used to date. Grant Fallon was a jealous prick, and he wasn't man enough to confront me himself, so he was trying to interfere in my business. For months, we'd been on his radar, but finding out about Charlotte and I must have added fuel to his pathetic fire.

In case they were around tonight, we created a plan to deter them long enough to take care of our business with Santos and move on. If everything went smoothly, the actual exchange would only take a three to five minutes, and we could get our guys offsite like it never even happened. Angelo and I were heading to our Northern warehouse, expecting to draw the attention of Detective Cullen, who was Grant's errand boy. Two more cars of our men would go to another warehouse, while Carlo and Marco went to the actual exchange site.

It was always amusing to me how little the police force actually knew about our processes. All meetings like this happened offsite, especially when we were dealing with new clients. You could never be too careful, and I didn't bring many people inside without extensive vetting. Most of our products were run through stockyards and meat packing facilities. The stench made it nearly impossible for dogs to ever catch the scent of our product, and we were scoff free. Santos' guns were coming through a stockyard out by the railroad tracks, miles away from any of my warehouses.

I left Charlotte sleeping in my bed, the events of the day having thoroughly exhausted her. I felt the same, and wanted more than to curl up next to her. I knew she wasn't satisfied with my answers tonight, and her mind was still wild with questions. She wanted to know and to understand everything but she never could.

Charlotte was becoming a safe place for me, a calming force that I craved in every sense of the word. She was the calm in my storm, a peaceful solace in the chaos that was my life. Strong and steady and pure in a way that made me want to protect her sweet soul at all costs. Protect her innocence and keep her far away from the darkness that consumed me. She grounded me, and I so desperately needed that. The more she knew, the more she got used to my lifestyle and accepted it, the more I was corrupting her. And that wasn't the person I wanted to be.

"How did it go with Elena?" Angelo asked as he bobbed in and out of traffic.

"About as well as I expected." I said flatly. I wasn't in the mood to relive the afternoon just yet.

"She wants you to stop seeing Charlotte?"Angelo continued. He either hadn't picked up on my hint, or was completely ignoring it.

"She thinks I'm being selfish." I shoved my fingers through my hair in frustration. "Can we drop this shit? I don't want anything to interfere with the exchange."

"Fine." Angelo said, continuing to whip the car along the curves of the highway. We would be at the warehouse in just a few minutes.

As hard as I tried, my mind kept traveling back to my conversation with Charlotte earlier, and one particular question she asked me. Would I have chosen this life? My knee jerk reaction would be yes, but now that I had a few hours to stew over it, I wasn't so sure. It wasn't something I ever really thought about. It was never an option, so I almost was in denial that any other life even existed. Charlotte was about the only person in the world who could make me question my position here, and that was dangerous. For her and for me.