Gabriel

Chapter 2

Gabriel

I'm looking down at Avia, her eyes empty. There's nothing left of the 17 year old girl that I used to know that was always laughing and cracking a joke. She's gone. Now I'm just met with a broken woman who's looking right through me.

She turns to walk away but I grab her by the arm again, I can't let her go, not again, "Tell me what happened." I demand.

But instead of giving me an explanation, she escapes my grip and begins to walk off when looking over her shoulder, "11 months."

That's it? What the fuck does 11 months mean? When he died? This time I let her walk off but I keep my eyes on her making sure she gets into the cab safely. I know I'll be able to track her down again, she can't live that far away since she was in the club that I owned, which is something I doubt she realised as I go by a different name in the mafia world: Lucas. Just Lucas.

It was 4 years ago when I had to leave, learn and train to take over my father's mafia. He got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer meaning he had a short period of time to get things in check before he died, one of those being me filling his shoes in being the don for his mafia. It wasn't something I ever expected I would have to do as I always thought my father would want his right hand man Carl to take over but he chose me instead, which is why I had to leave Luke and Avia.

It killed me to leave them both without a goodbye or an explanation but it was for the best; I had to be a man and live up to my father's expectations. But seeing Avia tonight and how broken she looked has me rethinking my decision. My best friend is dead and I had no idea. How could I be so fucking stupid? We've been best friends since we were 3 years old and Avia just tagged along whenever we hung out but I liked it because it was always just us three.

We first met through our families negotiating on a business deal as we were and still are two of the most powerful families in New York. We always use to sneak out to meet each other to do dumb shit and whenever we were forced to attend our parents public events it would always just be us three causing havoc around the place; we didn't need or want anyone else in the world to join our group. Now everything has changed for the worse and it's all my fault.

I get into my car and head back to my house while making a quick phone call to my right hand man, Jason, "I need you to do some digging on Luke Sterling".

"Your childhood best friend? Sure, but why?" He questions.

"He's dead and it has been kept a secret. I want to know why." I reply.

There's a pause on the other side of the line, "Shit. Are you okay?"

I huff, "Fine, just get to work."

"On it boss." The line cuts off.

30 minutes later I arrive at my house and Jason is already there with a file in his hand, "This is everything I could find so far." He says while giving me the file as I make my way to the kitchen.

I take it off of him and skim through the information; he died 11 months ago which is what Avia must of meant when she walked away. His cause of death is what shocks me though, "He drowned?" I ask Jason.

"Yeah. At the beach, witnesses say he didn't look like a strong swimmer."

I exhale a large breath, rubbing the stubble on my face, "Fuck."