Mafia Betrayal

Chapter Twelve

Luca

I couldn't stay in that house any longer. Just being around Charlotte was driving me fucking insane. It was ripping my heart out.

One minute, I was so fucking pissed at what she did, keeping my daughter from me, lying to me for all these years. And the next minute, I was pining over her, realizing how deeply I still loved her.

There was no denying it and part of me even understood why she did what she did. I lied to her and hurt her in a very similar way. She thought she was doing what was best, but it still hurt so fucking much.

Charlotte was remorseful, and I could clearly see that, but as soon as she opened her damn mouth, I remembered why I was so pissed. She was constantly antagonizing me and undermining everything I did. I didn't like what I was becoming when she was around, and I didn't want to cross a line I couldn't come back from.

I stalked into the warehouse and felt the eyes of every single one of my men on me. By now, I was sure they had heard, but I didn't feel like explaining anything to anyone right now.

Being at work was like being back in my element. I could throw myself into something other than obsessing over Charlotte and Layla, and pretend like everything was normal.

Angelo, Carlo, and Marco were already waiting in my office by the time I got there.

Marco and I made amends. When I had asked him to protect Charlotte, I never expected that he would be protecting her from me. His deceit hurt at first, but once I knew Antonio was involved, I realized he had no choice. He was following orders, something he had vowed to do years ago. And even though I didn't agree with it, I had to respect it. And it made me feel slightly better that he had been looking out for the two of them over the years that I couldn't. Marco wasn't just one of my best guys, he was one of my best friends. A brother to me. I was pissed, but I wasn't going to let it ruin our relationship.

I slammed the door behind me, nearly sending it off its hinges.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in." Carlo smirked. "Get tired of playing family man and came back to join us?"

"I am not in the fucking mood for this." I growled, throwing my body into the chair. "Tell me what I've missed."

Angelo scratched his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary. We had three drops, everything went smoothly. Chaplin wants to up his order for next month, but we're going to need to either cut someone else's or come into more product in a short amount of time."

"How many does he want?" Chaplin was one of our best weapons clients and we needed to make sure he was happy.

"30%." Carlo chimed in.

I rubbed my chin, trying to determine what we could do. That was a lot of fucking guns that I had no idea where I was going to get them.

"The new group out of China is behind on their payments." Marco interjected. "Maybe we could restrict their supply until they settle up. With interest."

"That's not a bad idea. How behind are we talking?" I asked, leaning back in the chair.

"Three months." Carlo mumbled.

My eyes bulged. "You want to tell me how we let an account get three fucking months behind on their payments?" I barked, livid that I was having to deal with this shit. I hired people to keep our accounts current. Somebody was slacking.

"It's not so simple. They have ties to an old enemy. We've been treating them with kid gloves until we know exactly what is going on." Angelo tried to smooth over.

I wasn't understanding. No one out there posed a big enough threat that we should lose money, so something fishy was going on. "Care to elaborate?"

"It's Silvano, Luca." Angelo said flatly.