A Baccano Love Story

Confession

"He what?" Luck said when he heard of Joe's proposal from Firo over the phone. "I'll be right over." He hung up and wasted no time in grabbing his coat and heading for the door.

"Whoa, Luck. Where you going?"

Berga wondered why he would be in such a hurry.

"Joe just proposed to Charlie. He's offering to pay off her debt."

"Well, get over there then!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

Luck made that parting shot as he disappeared through the door.

Luck had just one thing on his mind as he hurried over from Coraggioso to Alveare. He would not let Joe take Charlie from him. He didn't know what he would do if she actually accepted his proposal, but he had to do something. He couldn't let her go without a fight.

He shouldn't have dragged his feet. He saw that now. She had seemed comfortable with their relationship the way it was, and he didn't want to rush her and ruin everything. But he should've taken his chances. He should've told her how he felt about her before someone else came to snatch her away.

—∞—

Charlie was surprised to see Luck when he walked into the speakeasy. He may have looked calm to others, but she could tell he was tense about something. She saw it in his smile when she gave him one and he returned it. She wondered what was going on.

Did it have something to do with Joe offering to pay off her debts? She didn't think so. She had already finished repaying the Gandors. So why was he there?

Luck stood there for a moment listening to her song, watching her play. She was as beautiful as ever. Had he ever told her that—that he thought she was beautiful? He couldn't recall. He kept telling himself what an idiot he had been as he moved on to meet Firo and the others.

When Luck entered the basement, he looked calm, but something dangerous stirred in him when he saw Joe's face. He wanted to do him harm. Serious harm. He was threatening something precious to him after all. He wanted to take Charlie away from him. Luck couldn't stand the thought of him—of any man other than himself—touching her.

"I can't believe I thanked you for 'looking after her'," Joe said when he saw Luck, glaring at him. "What have you been making her do?"

"Nothing inappropriate, if that's what you're thinking. You must have a low opinion of her if you think she'd stoop to that."

"Of course she wouldn't. But you could've forced her. How do I know you didn't?"

Luck was enraged. He would never do something so disgusting.

Firo, Maiza, Ronny, Randy, and Pezzo had to hold him back when he lunged at Joe.

"Charlie asked us not to hurt him!" Randy said. "Maiza promised we wouldn't."

"I never made that promise."

"Luck, you need to calm down. It isn't like you to lose your cool like this. What if Charlie saw you like this?"

Firo tried to reason with him.

"I think she'd understand, if she knew what kind of accusations he was throwing around."

But Luck knew that Firo was right. He couldn't actually harm Joe, or he'd look like the bad guy. Whatever their differences might be, Joe was Charlie's childhood friend. She cared about him.

Luck stopped struggling and forced himself to calm down enough so that he wouldn't snap and kick Joe in the face. The others let go of him.

Just in time.