Merciless Vows by Faith Summers
6
Lucca
The wind picks up my hair, and the slight moisture in the air suggests it might rain again, although it poured not even an hour ago.
I left the princess to her thoughts and decided to make sure ‘daddy dearest’ hadn’t decided to start gathering forces to try and fix this little problem of his.
So far, I’m satisfied with what I see. It looks like Raphael is doing everything I told him to do.
I’m stationed on the rooftop of the Fine Arts building on West 7th Street.
A hundred feet below me, the man getting into Judge Baxter’s Ferrari parked in the alleyway of the community college is what you call desperate.
Raphael slips into the passenger seat, looking like he’s gained a hundred years on his fifty-eight. He already looked haggard this morning, so I’m not surprised Hell had stolen more years from him before the sun went down.
The motherfucker is so unaware he’s being watched that he doesn’t bother to roll the window up. Or maybe he does know and no longer cares.
Either works well for me because now I get to witness his defeat as he speaks to his crooked judge friend, who is another one of his lackeys.
I look through my binoculars and zoom in closer so I can see him better.
I want to remember this moment of triumph when I win, and he loses miserably like the fucking dog he is.
I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I can imagine it because he looks pissed as fuck. Judge Baxter is the judge who initiated Raphael’s legal guardianship over Aria.
He’s also the person Raphael went to to try and revoke his late wife’s decision to give her daughter the company.
Idiot. He didn’t realize that not even Judge Baxter could help him with that.
There are just some things in the law even criminals have to adhere to. It’s usually in situations like these when you’re fucked.
And fucked he is. I smile as I watch him throw a fist into the dashboard then hold his head down while his friend rests a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.
I don’t bother to wonder if the judge knows what kind of man his friend is. I’m sure he does. I’m sure Judge Baxter has his fair share of dirty secrets and has done the same type of shit as Raphael.
“Hey, Lucca,” Jon says, coming up behind me.
I lower my binoculars to give him my attention. “Hey.”
“Damien just checked in. Raphael has signed the contracts and faxed them over. This looks like the last part.” Jon motions with his chin toward our dear friend Raphael.
Yes, this is the last part—ownership of Aria.
I’m a bastard for being this excited over owning a person. Maybe it’s more the pleasure I’m taking in owning the one thing Raphael told me I couldn’t have.
“I think we’re done here. Everything looks like it’s in order but keep watching him,” I say and study my friend’s face.
“You don’t have to ask. I’m already on it.” Jon bows his sandy blond head.
“Good, let’s do this and get it done once and for all. This motherfucker will try and pull everything out of his ass to save himself.”
“I know, Boss. We’re prepared for that. Alexei is checking over Raphael’s allies in his political circle and the underground.”
“Alright, I don’t have anything more for us to do yet.”
We spoke earlier about the next steps. Jon will keep watching, and Alexei will keep digging with the other men in my crew.
I have all bases covered so I can focus on the places where I’m needed.
“Everything okay at home with the girl?”
I chuckle. “Don’t worry, I can handle her.”
I say that, but I’m not exactly sure how I’m goingto deal with Aria.
The last time we saw each other, I knew I wasn’t going to be in her life for very long. After discovering Aria’s mother transferred the company to her, I posed the new plan to Damien with marriage in the cards. That’s when the countdown began. Of course, with setbacks such as her accident and her mother’s death.
Now I have her. A woman who will be my wife for business purposes, but I’d be a damn liar if I said I wasn’t going to make good on my word to fuck her.
“See you later, Jon. Call me if anything changes.”
He nods and takes my place. I make my way down and jump on my bike. I have one more place I have to go to before I head home.
Today I took the Kawasaki Ninja 400 Timothy, and I had been working on before he died. I modified it recently to go faster. I’m riding it today for him.
I speed to Pacific View Memorial Park, the cemetery where he and his family are buried. When I get to the gravesite, I pull out Raphael’s ring from my back pocket, and I stare at the three grave tablets made from marble. The gold writing on each shimmers in the descending sunlight. It’s beautiful, and the little waterfall just behind them, breathtaking. To me, though, when I come here, I’ll always be in that morgue looking at the remains of my best friend and the beautiful family he had.
All these years have passed, and I still don’t know why he died.
I hold up the ring and show it to him.
“My friend, the plan is in motion to bring the devil down,” I say with a determined nod. “Vengeance will be done soon. I promise you.”
With that, I place the devil’s ring to my heart and leave with the vow that the next time I come here, I’ll be able to tell my friend and his family that I avenged their deaths.
It’s nighttime when I get home.
Marylin is in the living room. I don’t expect her to still be here, but she stays behind when she thinks I might need her.
She’s been doing that since I was a boy. That’s how long I’ve known her.
She lived in the cottage by the lake on the grounds of the estate and has continued to do so all these years so she could look after the house.
She tended to my mother’s roses and my father’s birds.
She continued to work like my family were still alive because of the sense of loyalty she’s always had to them. I think she was the only person who was happy to see me come back.
She stands when she sees me, and I school my thoughts so I don’t look worse than I might in her eyes.
Without saying too much, Marylin was briefed with enough information on my vendetta against Raphael. I told her he was a threat to the Bratva, and I was doing my job to eliminate him. She doesn’t know the fine print details, but what she will know is that taking a woman against her will and pulling all sorts of strings of shit to sign her life away is always going to be wrong.
Needless to say, Marylin is not overly fond of what I’m doing with Aria. In her years of service, I’m sure she would have seen my father do some unsavory things too, but not like me.
My father was a family man. I am not.
“Anything happen while I was away?” I ask.
“No. Aria has stayed in the bedroom. At least she’s eating, though.”
“Anything else?”
She straightens and sets her shoulders back. “Anything else would be me expressing my opinion, so it’s best I say nothing.”
“I have you on board, right, Marylin?” I shouldn’t have to ask, but I need to make sure there are no chinks in this iron-clad plan I’ve concocted.
Most people who work for men like me are well versed in keeping their silence and not expressing any form of opinion one way or the other.
It’s only because she’s like a mother to me is why she thinks she can talk like that.
“Of course, moya kroshka,” she answers with the Russian pet name she gave me when we first met—my little one. I haven’t been anybody’s little one in so long it feels like she’s talking about somebody else. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
I dip my head and allow her to leave. I could have insisted she tell me what she thought, but I don’t want to hear it.
I make my way up to my bedroom, preparing to see the girl from my childhood once more.
It’s later now.
She’s not there when I walk into the room, but I can see the door leading to the terrace slightly open.
I walk up to it and find her sitting on the porch in the corner by the fan palm trees.
She has her knees hugged to her chest and her head resting on top of her knees.
I’m not sure if she’s crying. I can’t hear her like I did earlier, and she’s not moving. She’s just sitting there in that defeated position like she’s accepted death.
Like her father, Aria is unaware she’s being watched and hasn’t sensed my presence.
I know she was putting on a brave face earlier. I know she’s fucking terrified of me when I’m the guy she used to run to when she was afraid.
She must be frightened of what I might do to her.
The ghosts whisper to me to let her be, let her process what happened today. So I’ll give her tonight for old times sake.
