Keeping Winter

Chapter 16

Luciano's POV:

My face drains of it's color and my heart races in my chest at his words at the mention of Winter. What could he need to talk about her for? The entire family decided to not ever speak of her again, so why now? Not that I don't miss her, or love her anymore, but after years of radio silence and cold trails, I just want to move on with me life.

I throw clothes on quickly, ignoring Sophia's glare that is burning a hold through my back. I really don't have time for her bullshit right now, not tonight.

"What the fuck, Luciano? Your brother barges in and you just jump to whatever the the fuck he wants?" She shouts at me, a frustrated sigh leaving my lips

"Listen babe, He's my brother, so if he says it's important , then it is important. Just go back to sleep and I'll be back. He probably just needs a listening ear or something. He misses her a lot, as we all do and he's been there for me all my life. I have to do this for him. " I say kissing her and turning to leave.

She mumbles something under her breath about me still chasing a ghost, and if I wasn't already on edge about hearing Winter's name I would have cursed her ass out. I just simply don't have the patience for her nonsense, so I ignore the comment and leave the room. Most of our disagreements stem from her jealousy of Winter and it bothers me to no end but I don't have time to pacify her right now.

I make my way to the office and spot Lucian pacing the floor.

"Listen man, I am really tired and now I'll have to deal with a very angry Sophia later on and a pending argument because you're an asshole. So please tell me what's going on so I can go back and kiss her ass to rectify your bullshit." I say, flopping into the chair in front of the desk.

"Valentin called" he states simply, glaring daggers at me.

my face pales at the mention of his name, we are partnered with him running several chains of sex clubs and prostitution rings from Russia to Africa, so instantly my heart nearly stops beating in my chest. Surely she can't be in one of the houses, especially since we only deal with willing women. She was taken, so there's no way she would willing stay there and not try to find us.

"Ok, what does this have to do with Winter though?" I ask at almost a whisper, afraid of what his answer is.

"That's the thing, he didn't say. He just called and said it's about our girl and I didn't know who the fuck he meant, but really who else could he mean? I don't date, who else could he be talking about?" I lean forward in my chair, in deep thought.

This doesn't make any sense, she's been gone for so long and it's basically like she never existed. We checked anywhere she could possibly be and there is literally nothing. Not a single hospital record or anything.

"Do you think she's in one of the houses?" I ask carefully, not really wanting the answer to that question either. I hate this shit so much, the unknown is the worst part for me.

If she's there I can't imagine what she's been through. And what about Andrea?

"I don't know, he said he couldn't talk over the phone and wants to meet in a week. I don't think she is though, he would have told me that a long time ago." Lucian says. He stops pacing and takes a seat in his chair before sighing.

"This doesn't make any sense, she is assumed to be dead. And what about Andrea? Did he mention him?" My mind is running a mile a minute and I can barely gather enough of my thoughts and I have a nasty headache creeping up on me.

"He will be here in a week's time, we can ask him all of this when that time comes. In the meantime, we don't breathe a word of this to Carmelo or Kathy. We can't get their hopes up, shit we can't risk it being exposed to anyone really. I don't trust anyone with this information." He says standing from his seat and stepping out of the room.

This is all too much, it's been too long and we've all grieved and moved on. Well not necessarily moved on, but we're not sad about it anymore. It took too long to come to terms with the loss of her and Andrea, and despite the body not being hers or Andrea's, it's like they're dead anyway.