Flicking his lighter open, Lucca lit the end of his cigarette while staring across his desk at Amo. Neither of them spoke, both simply silently killing the other in their minds as Lucca continued filling the room up with smoke.
“How’d you do it?” Amo was the one to speak first, unable to stand the silence any longer.
Understanding what he was asking, Lucca told him, “I grabbed her before she could get on the plane. Then Sal handled everything else, making it appear like she got on and has been in California.” Taking a long hit, he finished with a smile, “Then she woke up here, where she’s been well taken care of.”
“So, you fucking kidnapped her,” Amo stated matter-of-factly.
Exactly. He hit his ashes into the ashtray. “Yes, for her own good.”
Amo stared at him like he was deranged. “I thought you were fucked-up, Lucca, but I didn’t know you were this fucking psychotic.”
“There are reasons for what I did, Amo.”
“Oh, I’m sure your fucked-up self has come up with a whole list of reasons to justify what you did.” He laughed mockingly. “Let’s be honest, though; we both know that you’re delusional, a stalker, and now a kidnapper.”
“I am well aware of what I am,” Lucca told him darkly, taking a final hit before he crushed the butt out in the ashtray. “But do you know why I would go to those lengths? To have Drago stay here just to watch her? You know what he’s capable of; the things he provides to the family.”
You could see it start to turn in Amo’s head; the things he had been missing from the second he had walked in the door. However, he quickly made them disappear, unable to face the facts.
“No!” His booming voice rose. “You wanted her all to yourself, to fill that sick obsession you have with her.”
“I would have taken her the moment she turned eighteen if that was it, and you know it.” He decided to reveal how fucked-up he really was, letting Amo begin to understand how important she was to him. “I thought about taking her before she was eighteen. Then, when she turned eighteen, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do not to take her then and there. I almost did it, too, but I had to wait. I waited seven fucking months for her.”
Amo knew his words were true. And even though she might have been there for a reason, he couldn’t take it.
“You know I’m not leaving here without her, and if you let me walk out that door, I won’t stop till she is free.”
“Did she look like she wanted to leave?” Lucca reminded him.
Standing up abruptly from the chair, Amo clearly wasn’t able to handle what Lucca was telling him.
A part of Lucca enjoyed it, reveled in it. He’d had to watch him from afar with Chloe almost every fucking day for far too long, wishing he had been in Amo’s shoes many nights. The other part of him felt pity for Amo for losing her, knowing she was the most beautiful creature on this earth, but she’s mine.
“She has been freer here with me than she ever was outside these walls.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Lucca stared him down. “You know exactly what I am saying.”
The rage and adrenaline that came from Amo had him squeezing his broken hand into a fist. “Those seven months you stalked her, just watching her, I actually spent with her, talked with her, got to know her. I was her protector and her friend. She was free with me. Then you fucking stole her from me before I had the chance to make her more than that.” Amo’s face twisted evilly, a snarl coming into his voice. “You couldn’t handle it, could you? Couldn’t handle that I was with her and you weren’t. How does it feel to know you had to kidnap her to get her to spend time with you?”
Lucca slowly stood, having reached his limit. He had been generous enough to speak to Amo man-to-man instead of underboss to soldier. That time, however, was over.
Coming out from behind his desk, he got face-to-face with Amo. “You need to remember who you are talking to.” His voice was dark, forceful, and commanding. “Leave, and if anyone asks why you came here, you came to talk to me about your position at work. Someone finding out she’s here will only put her life at risk.”
Amo didn’t make a move to leave.
“The only reason I’m still giving you the option to walk out of here alive is because I know you care about her enough not to risk her safety. I would have killed you the second you got here, but I need Chloe to want to look at me for the rest of her life,” he threatened.
“You think you’re going to get her to fall in love with you?” Amo went to the door, agreeing to leave, but clearly not giving up on her. Then, deciding to part with final words, he delivered his final blow. “You are a psychopath who’s incapable of love or ever being loved. She belongs with me, and you know it; that’s why you took her. You will never love her the way I do. You just want to fuck her.”
Before Amo could even open the door, Lucca struck out, shoving him against the door swiftly while pulling a blade from his pocket and holding it to Amo’s throat. It was a blur for Amo, but a calculated move for Lucca, showcasing the difference in the positions they held in the family, and why he was the underboss, while Amo was only a soldier.
Seething with the rage he felt on Chloe’s behalf, Lucca pressed the knife bitterly against Amo’s throat, spewing, “You looked at her every goddamn day at school for three and a half years, and not once did you ever give her the fucking time of day. You claim to love her, but where the fuck were you!” he yelled, digging the edge of the blade in deeper, his harsh words lashing at Amo like a thousand whips. “When she and Elle were bullied, when Elle was taking beatings to keep her from being touched, when she was called a freak, where were you, Amo? How could you pass her in the halls with those scars and not do something? Not protect her?”
Amo’s face fell at each harsh question. His anger slowly dissolved into pain as everything Lucca said hit him like a ton of bricks, making him feel like the trash he was.
Taking the same cynical tone Amo had just given him, Lucca continued, “Let’s be honest; she wasn’t going to spread her legs for you, so there was no need to, was there? You were too busy calling her a freak with the rest of them.”
A paling Amo quickly realized Lucca had found out his deepest, darkest secret.
He wanted to leave now, but he couldn’t with Lucca pinning him, forcing him to listen to what he had to say, forcing him to face the truth and accusations of those words.
“You had to be told to look in her fucking direction and give her your precious time. I didn’t,” Lucca growled, never letting up on the knife. “It took me one look to fall in love with her. One look to want to know everything and anything about her. One look to feel protective of her, like my life depended on it. One look to want to kill whoever gave her those scars.”