Neither of them turned to look at Lucca when he left with the recipe. Maxwell had already started struggling to get the tie off his free hand. When he did, he quickly lunged toward the phone, still zip-tied at the ankles.
Grabbing the phone, he dialed Chloe then held it shakily up to his ear. He heard one ring after another, wondering if she would ever pick up. Fucking answer!
Finally, when the phone was answered, they both screamed her name, “Chloe!”
A deadly voice came through the line, making Maxwell lose control of all his bodily functions. “Sorry, Chloe’s busy.”
His eyes went to the suitcase as flames engulfed his skin.
Maxwell had sold his daughter’s soul to the devil to escape Hell, only for the boogieman to send him straight to Hell in a ball of flames.
The naked man in the corner of the room sat up slowly, using the pipe he was chained to and grimacing as he did.
Lucca stepped closer to the bloodied man, his eyes scanning the hundreds of knife cuts that had been given to him.
Every single mark he had given to Chloe meant fifty for him.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Lucifer’s black eyes took in his attire. “You killed her parents.”
Lucca nodded. “You were right; they did give her to you.”
Lucifer’s maniacal laugh had blood spitting out his mouth before his ominous gaze went back to his. “Did it help?”
“Some,” Lucca admitted. “But we both know it never gets satiated.”
“No, it doesn’t. Not for men like us.” Lucifer smiled evilly, clearly remembering a fond memory.
Looking at the scar that had almost taken out the devil’s eye, Lucca admired how he had gotten closer than he thought he could without actually taking it.
“I still remember it like it was just yesterday—the day you proved yourself and became a made man. It was the first time I saw you in a suit.” Lucifer smiled, wiping the blood away from his mouth and causing it to smear across his lips. “At first, I thought Dante was crazy to let you try to get the information out of that rat who had stolen our money. But then, when I looked into your eyes, I could see it … The darkness lurking behind them. You put on quite a show for only being seventeen.”
“Imagine how fast I could get him to speak now,” Lucca said.
Seeing this was going to take longer than expected, he pulled out a cigarette, lighting the end.
“Do you know what I thought when you were done with him?” Lucifer asked.
He exhaled deeply, smoke filling the room as he asked, “What?”
“I wish he were my son,” the devil revealed. “We could have ruled this city together.”
Lucca smiled as he squatted down, stopping at eye level with the crazed black orbs. “I do … with your son.”
“Ah, the great Salvatore!” The devil raised his hand like the name was on a billboard. “The son your father stole from me.”
“You mean, the son who would have fucking starved to death if he had waited for you to realize he’s a genius.”
Lucifer shrugged. “He doesn’t have our trait, though. Me and you, we could have done some great things together if you had just been born on the opposite side of the tracks.”
The burn from the cigarette glowed off his face when he inhaled harshly.
Black eyes blazed back at him. “How does it feel to know you could be me someday?”
“You know that’s not true. Not anymore.” Lucca stared at the demented man before him, knowing it could have very well been a mirror between them, showing him what he would have looked like many years down the road if I hadn’t met Chloe. “I met her before I walked down that path alone for too long … Unlike you.”
Lucifer’s maniac face changed into one of jealousy. “I made her beautiful!”
“No, you just framed her beauty for me to see.”
The jealousy grew worse in his eyes. “I still touched her fir—”
Grabbing his face, Lucca held the devil’s mouth open as he shoved his smoking cigarette down his throat, making him swallow it.
Lucifer coughed, puffing out smoke while the hot, burning stick slid down the inside of his body. Then the maniacal laughter came back.
“When will you do it? When will I serve the boogieman’s purpose so you can finally send me to Hell?”
Lucca was now the one to throw his head back in maniacal laughter as he stood up from the ground.
“Take a look around, Lucifer.” He spanned his arms out. “You’re in Hell, and this is your final purpose.”
For the first time since coming here, the black, soulless eyes finally showed an ounce of fear as he watched the boogieman walk away.
Pulling back the huge sliding metal door, Lucca walked through it, putting himself on the other side. When he then spoke, it made the devil himself turn cold as the metal door started sliding back into place.
“And we are just getting fucking started.”
Forty-Nine
Off into the Beautiful, Dark Abyss
When Lucca came up the stairs, Chloe’s heart jumped at seeing him in his all-black suit. So much so that he literally took her breath away.
“Y-You’re back early,” she said, holding the music box securely in her hand.
“I finished early.” Closing the distance, he kneeled in front of her, staring at the cracked gold box. “You’ve never showed me this, darlin’.”
Chloe opened the delicate box, showing him that it no longer played. “It belonged to my aunt. She birthed me for my mother, but … she died in the process.” She remembered the words she had once heard her mother say to her father: You can thank your daughter for killing her.
“I’m sorry you were never able to meet her, darlin’.” He pushed her hair back so he could see her face better. He seemed like he had already known what she was telling him.
Me, too. “I think she must have been really sweet. I think my father was in love with her.”
“I’m sure she was.” He smoothed his hand over the crack in the box like he always did to her scars. “How did it break?”
Taking a deep breath, she told him the truth. “My father broke it one night after he had too much to drink. I used to listen to it every night, over and over and over, letting the lullaby sing me to sleep, like a mother would her baby.”
Lucca stayed silent, still rubbing the box with his fingers as he let her finish the story.
“I searched forever, trying to find another one so I could hear the tune again. Then one day, I finally did. So, I went to the little shop and was able to hear it once more.” Chloe put the box in his hands. “Now I’m happy he broke it, because it led me to you.”
Leaning in, Lucca gave her a hard kiss, swiping his tongue along her bottom lip before he pulled back.
“I want you to have it now.” She told him the reasoning behind why she had pulled it out.
“Are you sure, darlin’?” he asked, already holding the box like he cherished it, like how he cherished her.
“Yes.” She pressed her forehead against his. “Besides, I have the one you gave me.”
“I missed having the box sitting on my desk.” He revealed where it had sat for those seven months as he carefully placed the box on the bed before he picked her up.