Mafia Queen

Chapter Twenty Two

Luca

By the time I made it to the warehouse, I was trembling I was so furious. How did we let this happen? Forty people were dead, and I had let Niko lead us on a wild goose chase. Was it Serena? Axel? How the fuck had he gotten our information? I could have lost both Angelo and Marco and countless of my other men in those explosions. Something was off, and I needed to figure out what it was before anybody else got hurt.

I knew Charlotte and the kids were safe at the house, but being away from them made me anxious. In the last few weeks, I'd asked so much of Charlotte, and this was just the icing on the cake. I knew she would put her own fears aside and be strong for our kids, but who would be strong for her? That was my job, and here I was chasing down this motherfucker who had no business being in the same category as me. He was young and immature and eager to prove himself, and those were the most dangerous gang leaders of all.

The shit he pulled tonight was only further proof of that. This wasn't only about me or my family anymore, this was about the innocent people he had gotten killed tonight. It might've been my bomb that killed them, but Niko led them there like lambs to slaughter. Took the coward's way out, running like a little sissy instead of facing us.

The whole warehouse was lit up when I got there. Everything was chaotic as we tried to re-organize, and I pushed through the crowd of men to find Angelo. He was staring at our info board trying to make any kind of connection, Marco at his side with his arm in a sling. Their body language was a dead giveaway, even with their backs to me. We were fucked.

"Why aren't you at a hospital?" I asked Marco, glancing at his arm.

"I'm fine, Luca. You need me more here." He insisted.

"I need you alive." I arched an eyebrow at him. Marco was right. I desperately needed him here, but not at risk of further hurting himself. He needed to rest up and let himself heal.

"With all due respect, Luca, I'm not going anywhere. This is personal, and I'm not letting you two go at this alone." He turned his attention back to the board.

I didn't argue with him. How could I? I respected the hell out of him for wanting to stay. I would have done the same thing.

"How bad is it?"

"Bad." Angelo said flatly, not even looking at me.. "Niko is in the wind. So are his top shot callers. Serena's car was hijacked on the way to the airport, shot our driver dead. No sign of Serena. They've already pulled twenty-four bodies out of the warehouse, nine still unaccounted for."

"Jesus Christ." I let out a harsh sigh of disbelief. Things were getting worse by the second. "How did this happen?"

Angelo scoffed. "Your guess is as good as mine. I went over this three times myself. I have no fucking idea where he got the information."

"I might have an idea." Parker glared, throwing a terrified man to the floor in front of us. "This is Xavier Barko. We used his shop to line the truck. Said a guy was in a day or so ago asking a lot of questions."

"What kind of questions?" I hissed.

"I swear, I had no idea this was going to..." Angelo kicked him swiftly in the ribs and the man doubled over in pain. "We're not playing games, old man. Luca asked you a question. What did the guy want to know?"

"He saw the truck, asked what we were doing with it. I didn't give him much information, but he said his boss might be interested in something like that." Barko shrugged. "He didn't know specifics, but he knew what the truck looked like."

"Get him out of here. I'll deal with him later." Angelo glared. He looked like he was ready to beat this guy to a bloody pulp if he looked at him any longer. I was used to Angelo being my voice of reason, so it was extremely unnerving to see him like this.