Deadly Vows - Chapter 45 (Patreon)

Luca

I sit in my office and set up the security feed. Nicolai and Romelo have already checked in, and everyone else is good to go. Now that we are all out of the spotlight, we need to take down the bastards that are after us.

Apparently, there is a government agency that wants us gone. A group that even the president knows nothing about. Like he could do something if he did. All I know is that that means things will go better for us. Who would miss something that they never even knew is there? So we can kill off every single one of them without having to worry about a big cleanup or any media pressure. This operation can take months to plan and pull off, but I want every possible threat out of the way before my son is born.

I hate it every time Elise speaks of me having to raise him by myself. She thinks that no matter what, she is going to die and not get to raise him. Everything I am doing now is to ensure that she will get that luxury. I won’t let her end up like my mother. My father was too trusting. He made mistakes that could have been avoided. And he drove a wedge in their marriage. I am nothing like him.

The thing about dropping off the map is that everything is ensured to you. You have no backup or anything; it is just you making the decisions or having to protect yourself.

After I get done, I walk past the room to check on Elise, and she is sound asleep. I walk around, ensuring that the escape routes are all still working and the security is in check before the sun goes down completely. I am not going to take any chances with Elise and Matteo being here.

I go in search of Matteo and find him fast asleep as well in the bedroom he chose. They must both be tired from the trip. I walk back down the stairs and into our bedroom to find Elise sitting up in bed. Her hair is wet, so she must have taken a shower in the time I’ve been gone checking the perimeter. She’s only in a bra and some shorts, her bare stomach out, and she is smiling while she rubs it. She is murmuring something to him.

She is so entranced with what she is doing that she doesn’t even notice me in the doorway. The sun is setting, and the bedside lamp is on, engulfing her in an orange glow. Damn, she is beautiful. She is so damn beautiful. I can’t help but admire her.

Women are a peculiar thing. They can nurture life within them, and once that life is born, they continue to nurture that life until the day they die.

The bulge of her stomach proves that there is a life growing inside of her. Something that we’ve together created. I shouldn’t have done what I did behind her back, but at this moment, as I watch her lovingly caress her stomach, I don’t regret it.

“I love you so much, my little Luciano,” she murmurs.

I let out a surprised breath, and she jumps, looking at me with wide eyes.

“Luca, you scared me! How long have you been—”

I cut her off as I make my way across the room, kicking the door close behind me and kissing her. I kiss her with everything I have in me. And I don’t even realize until the cool air hits my cheeks that there are tears running down my face. I pull back from her, looking into the brown depths of her eyes. When I look at her, true happiness radiates from my very core. I love her. I love her with all I have. Everything in me. I love this woman.

I don’t even give her a chance to say anything; I press another kiss to her lips, enjoying the soft feel of hers against mine.

“I love you, Elise. I love you so much,” I murmur.

I lean down, pressing kisses along her neck and collarbone, and take my hands to push down her underwear. I come back up and continue to kiss her with everything I have in me. And I show her. I show her how much I love her.

* * * * *

We both lie in bed naked and sated. Elise is on her side, curled up to me, fast asleep, her soft breathing keeping me calm. Occasionally, she will flinch and cry out in her sleep, but she hasn’t begun to scream yet.

My father always told me that no one woman will ever be enough. He told me I would get tired of the same thing and eventually move on to find mistresses. But for me, that will never be the case. I will never grow tired of Elise, and I will never let anything bad happen to her.

She told me she was thinking about it since we never had the discussion of names. I was always busy, and up until recently, she knew the subject is one that shouldn’t be broached. But when I heard her name choice, every wall I had came crashing down. She wants to name him after my mother. Lucia. How can one woman come into my life and change me so much?

I place my hand lightly over her stomach. I can feel the small movements he is making. I can’t hold back the smile that appears on my face.

Luciano. It is perfect. Just like my wife.

*****

Things, for the most part, have been running smoothly. Elise is getting better and better each day, and we have been growing closer. She opens up to me more and isn’t afraid to tell me things. With that being said, her fear of being alone hasn’t been deterred at all. So I haven’t been able to go into town for business or anything, because the last time I tried, she had a really bad panic attack. So I just have the maids that come to clean the house bring me the things I need.

I watch Elise now in the doorway. She is fast asleep, and it is the middle of the day. She is exhausted all the time; the baby keeps her up sometimes, and sometimes her nightmares keep her up. I have considered getting her a psychiatrist but decided against it because too much will be at stake if they figure out who she is.

I walk over to the desk, writing her a little note and putting it on my pillow. One time, I left the room without telling her where I was going, and when she woke up, she was on a rampage. She was screaming and crying, and quite honestly, I thought she was going to pass out from how frightened she was. So now I just put a note in the room if she is asleep, letting her know where I will be. I make a mental note to take her shopping for the nursery. The baby will be here any week now, and we need to be ready whether it is here or back home.

I move to my office and pull out the floor plans for the building our enemy is occupying. I have been studying these for two weeks now. The deadline is coming up fast. I have video calls with all my men and even more conference calls with Nicolai and Romelo. To do this, we will literally have to be perfect.

“Luca.”

I look up to find Matteo in the doorway. He’s been stalking around upset and angry because I am trying to make him normal for the sake of his sister. But he doesn’t want that. He wants to be a part of my world.

I motion for him to take a seat and go back to studying the plans.

“I assume you’re here to convince me to let you join me again,” I say, not even bothering to look at him.

He lets out a deep breath. “Luca, you’ve already exposed me to everything possible. I don’t see why you’re trying to make me settle down now of all times.”

“Because your sister is home and safe and she wants you to have nothing to do with this.”

“She’s my sister, not my mother. Which I don’t have anymore, thanks to—”

Before he can finish his sentence, I slam the prints on the table and look at him, letting all the anger I am feeling flourish.

“You’re right. It is thanks to me that conniving bitch is dead. And I would gladly do it again if I had the chance. But it is also thanks to me that you are alive. And as long as Elise wishes it, you will stay out of the business. Understand?” I glare down at him.

He nods slowly with wide eyes.

“If that’s all, you can go now.” I slowly take my seat. He stands to slowly leave my office. “If you want to do something, get stronger for your sister so you can help protect her if a problem arises.” Matteo stops and turns to look at me.

“Then why won’t you at least let me train with you? Please, Luca, you don’t even have to take me with you when you go do business. Just train me, and when I turn eighteen, let me make that decision for myself.”

I study him for a moment. He has come a long way from who he used to be. He has matured. And he is in bloodlust. I can see it in his eyes. He wants conflict. He wants bloodshed.

“Let me ask you a question, Matteo. Do you know the difference between family and business?”

He looks at me in confusion and chooses not to answer.

“There is no difference. The family is the business. You do what you must to protect your family, which is the business. You should go and check on the only family that you have left. Go talk to her. My answer will stay the same until hers changes. You are not my blood to control. You are hers.”

I go back to studying the blueprints, ending the discussion. And Matteo knows it too, because he leaves my office without another word.

By the time I finish with the blueprints, my phone rings just as I set them aside.

“Yeah.”

“Sixteen.”

“What?”

“There are sixteen agents total. Eighteen if you count the two that run it.”

For the first time in a long time, some good news is coming out of this.

“The two that run it are hardly at the office. There are eight there at a time, and eight out on cases. It will be easy to infiltrate, but getting the rest of them once the job is done is going to be the problem.”

I sit back in my seat and think long and hard about the plan that is now developing in my head.

“We’re going to infiltrate it.”

“We?”

“You, me, and Nicolai. Once we get in, we need to tell the others the current location of each of the agents. Send them in twos to take them out. And we will go to finish off the leaders.” I say it as if it were easy, but I know once we put the plan in motion, it is going to be a bitch to execute. Not only that, but planning for this will take a while, and time is a luxury I currently don’t have since Elise is going to have the baby in less than a month.

Romelo and I stay on the phone discussing the plan for another hour and a half when Elise steps in my office. She is wearing a long dress that hugs her body but grows loose at the bottom, showing off her lovely figure. She gives me a small smile and takes a seat at one of the chairs in front of me.

“Something just came up. I’ll call you back later, okay?” I hang up the phone before he can respond, and I stare at Elise. After a moment, a blush crawls its way up her neck, and she looks away sheepishly.

“You didn’t have to get off the phone,” she all but mumbles.

I can’t help the laugh that escapes my lips. She is so adorable.

“For you, yes, I did.”

She finally looks back up at me, a small smile pulling at her lips.

“How are you feeling?” I ask. It is a routine thing I do every time I see her. Her health mentally and physically is very important to me.

“I’m fine.”

My smile drops from my face as I pick up her patterns of movement. She is avoiding my gaze. There must be something she wants to say to me.

“Elise, if there’s something you need to say, say it.”

She seems to realize what she is doing and finally looks at me.

“Did you let Matteo tag along when I was missing?”

I let out an annoyed breath, leaning back in my chair. You’ve got to be kidding me. The punk went and snitched on me to his sister?

“Did he say something to you?” I ask, trying not to let anything on.

“No, it’s just that … he’s different now. He’s quiet, and he won’t talk to me, barely. And he has this … look in his eyes. Like he’s seen something he shouldn’t have.”

I cock my head to the side, trying to convince her that I don’t understand what she is talking about. But I know exactly what she sees. And now I am faced with the choice of lying to her or telling her the truth.

I’ve never had a problem in the past with lying to her, but now, for some reason, it is literally tearing me apart.

“Damn,” I mumble aloud. And I know she hears me, because she sits back in her seat with wide eyes and looks as though she is about to cry.

“Luca, you didn’t …,” she whispers. And it breaks my heart.

“I just couldn’t leave him alone. He was a nervous wreck! And he wanted to help in finding you!” I sound like an eight-year-old trying to defend myself.

She throws her hands in the air. “God, Luca, you could have just let him tag along, not let him participate in the killing! I asked you to keep him away from this, and you promised me you wouldn’t get him involved. You promised!” Tears are spilling over, and she is looking at me with such disappointment. She drops her face in her hands.

“Elise—”

“Just don’t!” Her tears stop immediately, and she looks at me in anger. I am actually shocked at her. She growls aloud and stands, forcing her chair to scrape loudly against the floor.

“I trusted you!”

I open my mouth to say something else, but she interrupts me yet again.

“No! You lied to me, you—” “Elise!” I shout.

She immediately shuts up, and that damn bottom lip begins to tremble before she takes off running out of the room. Damn. I have never felt so guilty before.

After I finish everything, I head to our room, but she isn’t in there.

I find Elise later in the living room, watching TV. Her legs are propped up on the ottoman, and there are the strangest food combinations around her. Peanut butter, pickles, mustard, bread, chocolate syrup, chips, baked chicken from the other night. And in her hands currently is ice cream. Which she is mixing with salt.

I step into the room silently, and as I get closer, I see she is crying. But when I look at the TV, The Smurfs is playing in French.

“Elise …”

She jumps but doesn’t acknowledge my presence. I let out a deep breath, trying very hard to fight the urges that are currently building up within me. I take a seat next to her, and she fidgets away from me. After a moment of silence and taking in The Smurfs, I look at her.

“Elise, do you even know what they’re saying?”

She doesn’t even spare me a glance. “Oui.” She turns her head and looks at me with an angry glare. “Vous pouves aller loin maintenant menteur.” You can go away now, liar.

I have to hide my shock. I had no idea she could speak French. Then I have to rein in my anger because of her choice of words.

“Look, Elise, I’m sorry, okay? But your being gone was a dark time for me, and I wasn’t thinking straight. He said he wanted to help and he wanted vengeance, so I gave it to him. I know how I felt when I was his age, so who am I to deny him that?”

She still doesn’t look at me. She reaches out and grabs the jar of peanut butter, dipping a pickle in it and shoving it in her mouth without even flinching. I turn my nose up in disgust. I guess it is the pregnancy hormones. I read something about cravings in a pamphlet.

“Elise, can you please come to bed?”

She still doesn’t respond to me, and my irritation is boiling up, about to spill over. She grabs a piece of chicken and is bringing it to her mouth, but I stop her, looking into her eyes.

“Elise, I am sorry. Please come to bed.”

She slowly brings the chicken down and stands from the couch, not responding to me, and heads toward the bedroom. Once she is out of the room, I pull out my knife and throw it at the wall, listening to the satisfying thud as it sticks. I have to rid myself of this anger somehow. Elise is playing with fire, and she doesn’t even realize it.

I take a deep breath and stand up to go to our bedroom.

It is the middle of the night when an earsplitting scream wakes me from my slumber. My eyes fly open, and I jump up, only to be punched in the nose, hard. I immediately reach for my gun and search for the threat when I realize it is Elise. She is still screaming and flailing her arms like a crazy person. I grab each of her wrists, trying to calm her.

“Elise! Elise, wake up! Wake up, baby, it’s just a dream!”

Tears are running freely down her face, and even though her eyes flutter open, she is frantically looking around, like I’m not even here.

“Elise!” I shout, but it is no use. Her screams only grow louder, and her movements more frantic. Even her legs are joining the party. Her breathing has become frantic pants, and she won’t listen to me, so I slap her across the face. Her screams stop, but her breathing is still frantic as she looks at me with wide eyes.

“Elise, I’m here. I’m right here.” I try to comfort her.

She reaches out and touches my face, her hands moving down to my torso. I can feel myself immediately getting aroused but try to push that aside because Elise needs comfort right now.

“Hey, hey, I’m right here, baby. I’m right here.”

Her eyes are still wide, and she nods frantically. I slowly pull her into me, and she sobs into my chest.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I can feel her head shaking no in my chest.

Dammit, if Alexander weren’t already dead, I’d kill him. I can’t imagine the torture Elise went through for her nightmares to have lasted this long. And her fears. She is still whimpering in my arms, and we both lie back in the bed, the light from the moon illuminating us.

I slowly push out of bed, and Elise cries out, grabbing onto me frantically.

“I’m just going to shut the curtains, okay?”

She nods slowly, and I walk over to the windows, closing the curtains and engulfing the room in darkness. I make my way back over to the bed and pull Elise close to me.

“Do you like it out here?” I try to start any kind of conversation so she can focus on something other than her fear.

“Y-yes.” Her voice is shaken and very light.

“Well, you haven’t been around much. How do you know if you like it?”

“As long as I’m with you, I’ll like it.” Her voice is still a small whisper.

I let out a soft chuckle. We have really come a long way from when we first got married. There was a point when she couldn’t stand being in the same room as me. You would never guess a time like that existed with the way she is now.

“Luca?” Her voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

“Hmmm?”

“Does Luciano have to be sworn in?” The room is deadly silent.

I don’t know how to respond to her in the state that she is in.

“Yes.”

“But why?” she responds almost immediately. I let out a deep breath. “He has to be, Elise. He’s a Pasquino.” “But I don’t want him to be,” she all but whispers.

“There is nothing I can do about that, Elise, you know that.

You know how things work with us.” Her sob pulls at my heartstrings.

“You’re going to take my baby and train him to be a monster.” She sobs into my chest.

I decide not to respond. Even if she wasn’t in the state that she is in, we both knew that one day we would have to have an heir. If it’s a boy, he is sworn in by blood. He is born into it. If it is a girl, she will be married off to someone of status, or since I am the capo, another capo, giving us more status. That is how we keep the crime families strong. That is how things always will be.

I can’t help it that Elise will see him as a monster. I will see him as a successor, just like my father, and his father. To train him to be strong and fearless is to groom him to be capo when it is time for me to retire. I became capo at a very young age because my father was murdered. But I was ready, because my father made sure I would be. And I will do the same with Luciano. It doesn’t mean I don’t love him; I am doing it because I love him. And Elise doesn’t understand that.

Her cries pull at my heartstrings. She sounds so sad and broken. But nothing I can say will be of any comfort, so I just let her cry on me until exhaustion takes over. She rolls away from me on her side, and I hear her mumble.

“You took my father, my mother, and my brother away from me, and now you’re going to take my son.”

* * * * *

“I like the yellow.” Elise points to a yellow quilt that is made of a very soft material. I point to it, and the employees grab it off the shelf and take it to the front. I have decided to take Elise shopping for the nursery today. She has been down lately and needs something to take her mind off things.

After her meltdown, she gave Matteo her permission to resume his work with me. She knew he wasn’t happy being normal. She said she was doing what was best for him, what will make him happy, but I could see her heart breaking the moment she told him the news. So I keep him on small things and haven’t let him in on our plans. He may be her brother, but he needs all kinds of training before he goes with us into the actual field.

So here I am in the nearest town, taking my wife shopping for the nursery. Matteo is even here with us, helping pick out some things for his nephew. If you watch us from far away, we look like a happy little family excited about a new arrival. But up close, we are a family of issues.

“What do you think, Luca?” Elise asks me, catching me completely off guard.

“I’m sorry, what?”

She rolls her eyes at me, showing her irritation at my not paying attention. “I said, which do you prefer? Baby blue or navy blue?”

Shit. I am not even paying attention to what she is saying, so I have no idea what she is talking about.

“Baby blue,” I say.

She watches me before finally turning away. As we walk to the next aisle, she starts talking to me.

“Luca, can you at least pretend to pay attention?”

I try, I really do, but I get distracted from the way those jeans are hugging her ass. She’s been wearing a lot of dresses lately, and today she is wearing “pregnancy pants,” so I can see every luscious curve. “Luca!” she shouts, and I look at her, startled. Tears well up in her eyes. “You don’t even care.”

If she weren’t so upset right now, I might’ve laughed. Lately, Elise has been crying about every little thing. The other day, there was a dog food commercial on, and she was literally crying while it was on. Just a random stream of tears when she saw the food.

Not only that, but she grows very angry over the strangest things. She was watching some soap opera, and the doctor ended up kissing his patient, and she threw popcorn at the TV, shouting all kinds of obscenities. She has been a very interesting person to be around, quite honestly, and I wonder how much of that is going to change once Luciano gets here.

Sometimes I catch her talking to him and apologizing about how she can’t save him or how she won’t be able to raise him. It really hurts me to see her so vulnerable. Not only that, but we have had two false alarms in the past three weeks. So I am literally on edge with everything. I have to execute this plan this week, or I will be screwed.

Once news hits that I have a boy, they will be all over us and we won’t stand a chance. There are just a few setbacks with the plan. If I am out of the country and Elise has the baby, I won’t be here. There are so many different things against me right now, but I need to get this done before he gets here so that while I raise him, there is no chance of him getting carelessly hurt.

Right on cue, my phone rings, and I look at the caller ID. Sure enough, Romelo is calling me. I give Elise an apologetic smile and step away from her to answer the phone.

“Yeah.”

“It’s now or never.”

“What?”

“It’s now or never, boss. When’s the soonest you can leave?” he asks.

I look over at Elise, and she is now looking at cribs. “The soonest I can leave would be tonight.”

“You gotta leave sooner than that. How long’s the flight?” he asks.

“Fuck. It’ll take me four hours to get to the nearest airport. And on top of that, the flight will take about nine hours.”

“Damn, when you said go into hiding, you weren’t bluffing. You need to leave now, or we won’t be able to pull this off.”

“Yeah, I got that. Just let me get Elise and Matteo home, and I’ll be heading out as soon as I can.”

“Okay, boss. Hurry.”

I hang up the phone, walking toward Elise. I hate to do what I am about to do to her, but this is for her safety. I touch her lightly on her back, so as not to startle her.

“Elise, baby, we got to go.”

She notices the look in my eyes and nods, not even bothering to argue with me. I look for Matteo and motion for him to come on. The drive to get home is an hour. Once I get there, I immediately begin putting the cottage in lockdown.

I’ve already explained everything to Matteo, so he begins to gather the necessary items and heads down to the bunker I have underground.

I walk Elise down into the bunker, and she doesn’t make a sound. It is spacious and has room for eight people. There are bedrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a living room, all for the comfortably wealthy to live in, well, comfortably. I take Elise to the room we have shared and set her on the bed. Her face is blank of any emotion. She has barely spoken a word to me since we left the town. I check my watch. I don’t have much time.

“Elise.”

She looks up at me, and her expression is filled with sadness. I take a deep breath because I know what is coming next.

“I have to leave for a few days.” Her breathing catches in her throat as she watches me and slowly begins to shake her head. “Listen to me, okay?”

I grab her head in between my hands and look at her dead-on.

“You will be safe here, okay? Matteo knows the codes in case of an emergency. No one is getting inside of this place unless it is me.

Okay?”

Her eyes fill with tears, and she shakes her head no. “No, Luca, you’re supposed to stay here. You’re supposed to protect us.” Her voice comes out filled with pain.

“Elise, this is what I have to do. To protect you, our son, our family. I have to do this. Matteo will protect you while I’m gone.”

I don’t give her time to respond; I pull her in for a long, hard kiss. I wish more than anything I could have more time with her to prepare. But this may very well be the last time I will be with her. What I am about to do could very well kill me. These people are highly trained agents. And one slip up, I will be done for. They aren’t trained to take prisoners; they are trained to kill on sight.

I pull away from the kiss, and Elise’s cheeks have a rosy blush on them. I take in each and every one of her features. Her perky nose, her flawless skin, her full lips, and her wide brown eyes. I lift her shirt and look at my son. I can see my name stretched across her skin from the bulge of her stomach. I trace it lightly and place my palm over her whole stomach. I can’t help the smile that crosses my face. I am a lucky man.

I trace my fingers over every inch of her skin, remembering the soft texture. I pull her in for one last kiss, reveling in the feel of her soft lips against mine.

“I love you,” I murmur. I place my hand on her stomach. “Both of you.”

“I love you too.”

My eyes shoot open, and I look at Elise in shock. She said she loves me. She just said it.

She reaches out, grabbing my arm. “Please, Luca, I love you too. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave us.”

What I do next is something I’ll never forgive myself for. I lean into her, pressing my lips against hers. And I take my hand and the small needle and bring it to her arm, injecting her with the fluid. She lets out a small cry before she falls limp in my arms. I lay her down on the bed and take in her sleeping form. She is so beautiful.

I walk out of the room, closing the door behind me, and walk to Matteo, who is waiting by the door. I hand him the keys to one of the cars.

“You know the code. You are only to leave if she goes into labor. Protect her, comfort her, be there for her,” I say seriously to him. “She’s going to be upset when she awakens. If I’m not back in a week and you haven’t heard from me, assume the worst. Call me only if it’s an emergency.”

Matteo takes in every one of my commands and nods. I place my hand on his shoulder and nod at him.

I head up the stairs and away from my future. I close the secret door and lock it, typing in the code and concealing the keypad. Once I am in the car, I take in everything that has just happened.

This will be at the top of my list for most dangerous things ever done in my life. We will literally have to be perfect to pull this off. If we aren’t, I may never get to see Elise or my son.

* * * * *

Two days later, we are sitting in front of their headquarters. The plan is foolproof, and everyone is in position. We’ve gone over it, had run-throughs, played out worst scenarios, and now we are ready. Romelo, Nicolai, and I will take down the eight agents inside. Everyone else is on standby to find the other eight once we figure their locations and end them. Then we will find the leaders of this organization and take them out too. All of us are ready to die for our families. If we fail at this, no one that is a part of the North Mafia will be safe.

I look over at Nicolai on my left, then to Romelo at my right. They both nod, signaling to me that they are ready.

Pure adrenaline is coursing through my veins, and I can feel chills running through my body as I anticipate what is to come. I take a deep, calming breath, clearing my mind of everything. Now is the time for the distractions to come to a halt. I take a step forward, and they follow close behind me.

I have left the beast caged up deep within me to control myself with Elise. And now he is clawing to get out. A smile comes onto my face in anticipation of the night ahead of me. This is going to be fucking fun.