Luciano | Book I ✓

Chapter Twenty-Five

A/N: I want to thank those who were patient! I know it's been about a month since I last updated but the college semester is winding down and you know how all the teachers love to throw 7 page papers at you all at the same time. Just a few important notes...

If anytime during any chapter in this book, the words cut off or chapter oddly ends in the middle of the sentence; delete the book from your library, and re-add it.

Also, if this chapter isn't the best, I apologize. It's been a minute since I've wrote anything!

- - - -

Liam Luciano and Federico De Santis were nowhere to be found.

And that scared me.

The large house was eerie silent the next morning when I roll out of bed. My eyes can't help but drift to the portion of the bed where Liam had laid his head, just hours before; but now, the place where his body used to lay, was replaced with wrinkled sheets.

The room appeared cleaner then I had ever seen it before; normally the clothes Liam had scattered around the room while he changed, were nowhere to be found. The bathroom was pristine; no unnecessary water droplets on the granite counter, or toothpaste globs in the sink. Even the tiny baby hairs that I had become used to seeing every morning when Luciano shaved were nowhere to be found. I took advantage of the cleanliness and rushed through my morning routine swiftly, before heading out and searching for any signs of life.

I search Melanie and Michael's master bedroom first. It was huge, bigger than Liam's. It supported a balcony with two white, French doors. The bed had a white canopy over top and the beautiful designed duvet that rested peacefully over the top of their California queen sized bed look more expensive than most of the clothes I owned. Frame photos hung from a few places around the room in a decorative manner and their dresser drawers all stayed perfectly closed. The bedroom was dead quiet.

Next came Rico's guestroom; the one that Liam had thrown Federico in once we had thoroughly searched his run-down, temporary apartment. I treaded into the room carefully, but I had only taken two or three steps inside when I stopped. Slowly I turned left, then right; only relaxing slightly when I saw no sign of life. I kept my guard up, my walls high, as I back up, slowly and cautiously. There was no way I could admit this out loud, but I was 85 percent certain that Rico had bugged, hotwired, and placed explosives somewhere in that room.

It was obvious my distrust in Rico was beginning to bother Liam. He had subtly mentioned it last night, as we crawled in bed and kept our distance. And even though I've lied to Liam, telling him, "I do trust him, don't worry." I didn't, nor could I. Federico was a charmer, a professional actor, and a cold-blooded, partially emotionless, semi-psychotic murderer. I couldn't bring myself to put trust in that. But I try; I try and communicate with him in a civilized manner when he was around; but that didn't stop me from glancing at him longer than usual, making sure he made no sudden moves. That didn't stop me from feeling tense and anxious whenever he was around, knowing somewhere under his clothing he was storing a switchblade, a gun, and a number of other dangerous weapons.

We could even stop and make the argument that if I was afraid of Rico, I should be afraid of Liam to; but I wasn't. Although Liam and I's relationship didn't sky rocket at first, it had leveled out now. He had apologized for his previous behavior and since his apologies; he had yet to lay a hand on me. I trusted Liam, just not his friend.

I could tell I was getting rather desperate in my search when I stepped into Rosie's room, quietly hoping and praying that the bubbly, little girl would be sitting on her bed coloring. Obviously, she wasn't there. So I end up leaving and heading down the steps, feeling awfully alone.