Lucca (Made Men #4) Read online

  The priest went silent for a minute. “Then what kind of salvation are you looking for?”

  Now, in his mind, his fingers traced the scar following the path from her eyebrow down to her cheek before travelling down to trace the scar over her pouty lips.

  “My salvation comes in a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  “The rules, Lucca.”

  “You know very well I’m aware we’re not to touch anyone underage.”

  “Have you …?” The priest wasn’t able to finish his sentence, afraid of the answer he might hear.

  “I am guilty of the worst sins, Father, but I’m not here to repent any sins I’ve committed. I’m here to ask for forgiveness of what I might do.” Will do. It was a question of when, not if.

  “You ask for forgiveness for your future but not your past?” Even though there was a wall separating them, the old man’s perplexity was evident through his voice.

  “The things I’m going to do to her, for her … I’m afraid will be the worst crimes I’ll ever commit.”

  “If salvation is what you seek, violence is not the answer.”

  Violence is always the answer.

  “Like I said, I’m not looking for God’s type of salvation. My salvation will come as I lay my hands upon her, the very hands that have taken the life from the bodies of those who have touched her.”

  Lucca went to leave the room, but the priest’s voice halted him.

  “I’ve seen you sitting in my church every once in a while since after your mother’s passing when you think no one is here to see you. God has seen you, too. I think you want forgiveness for all of your sins, my son.”

  “Maybe you’re right, Father. Maybe a part of me hoped to find a path to my mother again, but the path I’m on now will only lead me straight to Hell.”

  As he walked out of the room, he could hear the helpless prayers of the Father and the beads tightening as he gripped the rosary around his neck.

  The prayers weren’t for Lucca, but for the souls the boogieman was about to claim.

  Three

  The Being Behind the Door

  Present Time

  The cold metal table underneath her was a stark contrast to her burning face from what seemed like pointless crying.

  “Please! Stop!” No amount of kicking and fighting was a match for what felt like millions of hands holding her down.

  The laughter from the evil man who held a knife rang through her ears mockingly.

  “Stay still, little girl”—he drew the knife closer to her face—“or it’ll just hurt worse.”

  Looking at his abnormally large, black eyes, she was sure she was looking into the eyes of the devil.

  The silver blade inched closer and closer to her right eye until it was mere centimeters from her pupil.

  “Don’t blink.”

  A tear welled up in her eye, making it even harder to keep her eye open. Her body began to tremble. She was going to blink.

  “Don’t blink, little girl,” he warned her again.

  The tear fell, and her eye started to close …

  “Chloe!” Amo’s voice boomed.

  A flicker of light entered her mind.

  “This way, Chloe!” Amo pleaded.

  Another flicker of light had her eyes shooting open.

  Sitting up so abruptly made her feel lightheaded. The bed, along with the big room, was one she didn’t recognize, which made her heart pound like a drum in her ears. The last thing she remembered was pulling up to the airport, so close to her freedom. And then someone came up behind her, and she blacked out …

  No! He’s got me, and no one knows I’m even here.

  Chloe shakily stood from the bed, going over to the nightstand. She reached her hand out …

  The devil will kill me this time. He promised he would.

  Once she opened the expensive gold music box, the familiar lullaby began to play. It was then she realized that it couldn’t be hers.

  Chloe stepped toward the huge window with a hitch in her breath. She slowly reached out to pull back the curtain.

  No one will save me this time.

  Pulling back the curtain, she held her breath as she was greeted with a beautiful garden, along with the white gazebo she had found herself under before with …

  The door creaked open, and Chloe turned to meet the being behind the door.

  “Hey, darlin’.”

  The dark voice made her gasp for air. The blood in her veins slowly turned to ice, freezing her in place. Goose bumps began to trickle down her body from one look of those blue-green eyes. She tried to form a thought, her mouth even tried to form a word she wasn’t even capable of thinking, yet nothing came out. The only thing she was left with was simply watching Lucca enter the room, closing the door behind him.

  Going over to the bedside table, she watched as Lucca ran his finger over the ornate box that was still playing the lullaby she had been only able to hear in her memories. He then slowly closed the lid, bringing silence to the room.

  When he moved again, Chloe found herself still gasping for air as he took a seat in a chair that sat in the corner.

  Moments seemed to pass under his unwavering gaze. He didn’t speak, seeming content to just sit there and watch her.

  With the distance between them and the deafening silence getting to her, she tried again to find words. “H-How did I-I …?” Her voice trailed off, losing confidence when his eyes seemed to trail down her body.

  “How did you get here?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  She slowly nodded.

  “I brought you here.”

  If he hadn’t said it so matter-of-factly, she would have thought she misheard him.

  “W-Why?”

  A matter-of-fact answer didn’t come out. Instead, you could see him thinking carefully about his next words. His eyes seemed to turn green while his words began to envelope her, his voice almost warm. “I brought you here … to save you.”

  Chloe unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep the warmth from his voice, as she took one step toward him. “S-Save me from w-what?”

  With one blink, Lucca’s eyes turned back to his strange shade of blue-green, making her feel like she imagined them turning green. The warmth in his voice seemed to have been in her imagination as well.

  “To save you from making the mistake of leaving.”

  What!

  “Why would you do that? Why would you care?” Anger coursed through her. She had barely tasted freedom from this city, only for it to have been taken from her.

  A smile touched his lips. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, darlin’.”

  Her eyes went wide at his cynical tone. She quickly lost any confidence she had gained from her anger.

  For a moment, she thought she had seen something different in him, but now she saw only the darkness in him. The smile on his face brought back the memory of the night he revealed his true self …

  Crack.

  The sound of broken bones greeted her ears as a baseball bat slammed down onto a limp body.

  Snap.

  Another flash of the bat making contact with the man’s leg, the man who lay practically lifeless on the floor.

  He raised the bat once more, pausing only to look her in the eyes. An evil pair of blue-green eyes stared back at her, making her blood run cold. She watched his hands grip the neck of the bat with a force so intense she was positive it was going to shatter before the bat was brought down for its final time.

  Crunch.

  As she watched the man inhale the air around him, he looked crazed, his appearance disheveled. Then he slicked his overgrown hair back in place, and you could see the slight smile come to his lips …

  Taking the small step back she had taken forward, she realized the true danger she was in.

  “A-Are you going to h-hurt m-me?”

  She saw something flash in his eyes, his smile disappearing.

  As he got up from the chair,
Chloe held her breath once more. Then, as he stalked toward her, she backed up as far as she could with each step he took toward her until her back met the wall.

  Lucca stopped when his body was mere inches from hers, leaning down ever so slightly to bring his tall stature closer to hers. “Have I ever hurt you, Chloe?” His voice was an octave deeper, coming out darker than she had ever heard him speak before.

  She slowly shook her head, afraid not to answer the demon who had her in his grasp.

  His gaze trailed down the scar that ran from her eyebrow to her cheek, making her swear she could almost feel his light caress.

  “P-Please, can I-I go?” she pleaded, fearing what her future might hold from this moment forward.

  Lucca stared down at her, bringing his hand up close to her face. “I don’t think you understand.”

  Chloe’s breath caught in her throat. She desperately wanted to close her eyes, but his wouldn’t let her, forcing her to remain looking up at him.

  “There is no leaving,” he continued, careful not to touch her, though he twirled a strand of her silky black hair around his finger. “You’re mine now, Chloe.” He dropped the strand, and it fell upon her chest that was now rising and falling heavily.

  Watching the demon back up toward the nightstand, she started to realize that the devil was never her worst nightmare.

  Lucca opened the music box once more, letting her lullaby fill the room, before disappearing and closing her inside her new prison.

  He is. The Boogieman.

  Her legs gave out, and she slowly sunk to the floor. She grasped her legs close to her chest as the beautiful melody started to trail off, almost coming to an end.

  You’re mine now, Chloe.

  Four

  If I Catch You, I Won’t Be Able to Stop Myself

  The devil had been the one to always haunt her, but he never came. In his place was the boogieman, promising her his kidnapping was going to be so much worse than her first by the devil.

  Chloe stayed unmoving on the floor for what seemed like hours, now completely numb as she stared at the wall in front of her. It wasn’t until the sun rose, shining through the room and warming her skin, that her eyes moved to her luggage that Lucca must have brought in with her.

  My cell phone! Quickly going to her bags, she desperately began looking for her phone. It’s gone … It was then that Lucca’s words hit her. “There is no leaving.”

  With her bag open, she caught a glimpse of her gold music box. Reaching in, she pulled out the fragile broken piece, taking it to the nightstand and setting it beside the polished unbroken one.

  Seeing them side by side, she realized how much damage the one she’d had since childhood had taken. It had been severely cracked, leaving it unable to play the lullaby she had once heard every night before falling asleep.

  Turning the key on the polished one, she began listening to the tune.

  How did he get this? How did he know?

  As the song played, realization hit, taking her back to seven months ago when she went into a little shop that had the old music box for sale.

  Every now and then, she would check the Internet for the piece, seeing if she could somehow find it again, allowing her to hear the tune once more. Finally, her dream had come true when a shop close to where she lived posted it for sale on their website. She had gone the next day, able to hear the tune for just a moment before the owner had told her the price for the piece was three thousand dollars. It was just a little later when she …

  Chloe opened the door to the shop, heading straight to the spot where she had seen the beautiful box just a week before. However, looking at the display table, she saw it was gone.

  Figuring it might have been moved, she scanned the shop.

  “Hello,” the familiar older woman’s voice greeted her. She could tell by the woman’s features that she seemed worried.

  “H-Hi.”

  “I’m so sorry to tell you, but if you’re looking for the music box, I sold it just yesterday.”

  Wringing her hands, Chloe looked down at the floor, covering her face in a veil of hair. “Oh.”

  “I tried waiting for you, but a man came in right after you left, wanting it. I refused to sell it to him, but then he came back yesterday, offering me more money and explaining why he had to have it. I’m really sorry.”

  “I-It’s okay. I wasn’t able to afford it, anyway … I just wanted to hear it one more time.”

  Closing the music box Lucca had left open, she silenced the room once more as she tried to grasp the fact that Lucca had this in his possession for seven months now. Why? Never did she see this coming from Lucca of all people. He was the brother to her best friend’s boyfriend, Nero.

  He couldn’t just kidnap me without anyone knowing, right?

  Glancing around the room, she suddenly realized what she hadn’t before. She was in their family home, so someone would have to come by … Maria! Lucca and Nero’s sister lived here. She will help me.

  Going to the door, she put her hand on the doorknob, taking a deep breath before she slowly turned it, easily pulling the door open. Peeking out into the hall to see if the coast was clear, she tried her best to navigate to Maria’s room, which she had only been in once before when she had come over with Elle.

  Believing she found the correct room, she quietly knocked on the door. When there was no response, she carefully opened it to find that she had indeed found the correct room, but there was no Maria.

  “Come with me,” a deep, unfamiliar voice came from behind her, scaring her in place. “Now!” he boomed when she didn’t move to turn around.

  Slowly turning, she saw a huge man in a suit before he turned himself around and walked down the hall and toward the stairs.

  Her feet reluctantly began to move, afraid that the big man would find other means to get her to come with him if she didn’t do it herself.

  Following him down the steps, through the foyer, and then to the big, open floorplan of the main living room with kitchen, that was when she saw him.

  “I caught her going into your sister’s room,” the big, suited man told him before he stood against the wall, crossing his arms.

  She watched Lucca give a slight smile as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “Come sit down, darlin’,” Lucca said, motioning to the stool at the big kitchen island.

  With the two men staring her down, she felt like she had no choice. Therefore, she cautiously made her way toward Lucca, taking a seat while he watched her every move.

  Letting her hair fall around her face, she stared down at her wringing hands, no longer able to see him looking at her. It didn’t help much. She could still feel his eyes studying her.

  Taking a sip of his coffee, he spoke, “You look tired today.”

  Her nails began to dig into her palms.

  Setting down his cup, he went to a kitchen cabinet and pulled out another mug. Then he filled it up with the dark liquid before putting it in front of her.

  Staring at the cup of coffee, she didn’t make a move for it, still digging her nails into her palms. “I-I’m no—”

  “Drink,” Lucca commanded.

  Her lids lifted to meet his eyes that were just as commanding as his demand. When she found herself reaching for the coffee, she couldn’t understand why she easily did what he ordered.

  After taking a big enough gulp to satiate him, she set the cup back down, finding the warm liquid was much needed to her chilled body.

  “Now”—Lucca took another sip of his own—“my family is staying at my father’s casino … for a while. I’ve told them the house is no longer safe, so no one will come here until I give them word that it’s safe again.”

  “H-How long is for a while?” she quietly spoke, once again wringing her hands at his cold words.

  “That’s going to depend on you.”

  She raised her head and looked up at him. Me?

  Reading her confusion, he continued, “When I can
trust that you won’t run from me.”

  Chloe blinked at him several times. “Y-You’re not going to kill me?”

  He smiled down at her; it was obvious he had different plans for her. “No, darlin’.”

  What does he want from me?

  She took another drink from her mug to warm her chilled body, while she thought about her next few words. “So, I’m your p-prisoner?”

  A predatory look came upon him, liking the way she had claimed herself as his prisoner. “Only for as long as you make it.”

  Now her nails pierced her skin.

  “I have to leave,” Lucca told her. With a final drink of his coffee, he nodded his head toward the suited man with his back against the wall. “Drago will be your shadow from now on. He will be watching you for me.”

  Her blood ran cold. She became motionless at the thought of being alone with the unknown stranger all day.

  Sensing her distress, Lucca’s voice rang through her ears, “Chloe, he will not touch you unless you give him no option. Do you understand?”

  The nails in her palms went deeper as she nodded, unable to vocalize an answer.

  Lucca took a step to leave but stopped. “If you try to make a run for it, you’ll be lucky if he catches you.” He paused for a brief instant before his voice turned so dark that it sent every hair on her body straight up. “If I catch you, I won’t be able to stop myself from taking what I want the moment I saw you.”

  Blood trickled in her palms. It wasn’t a threat he was making. It was a promise.

  Five

  This Is Going to End in War

  “Do you think you can tell me now why the fuck my men rushed me and my family out of my home yesterday?” Dante spat at him the moment Lucca sat down in his office in the casino hotel.

  Lucca lit the end of his cigarette, desperately needing it for the conversation he was about to have with his father.

  “It’s no longer safe there.”

  “What do you mean, it’s no longer safe? My home has always been safe.”