Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“No, I can understand.” Her gaze went back to look at the beautiful view, knowing Lucca would do anything to ensure Chloe’s safety.
Well … “What do you say, Maria?” Lucca slowly stretched his hand out. “Do we have a deal?”
Done looking at the city, she faced her brother head-on. “I want two things before I do.”
Lucca dropped his hand, waiting to hear her conditions, knowing whatever she was going to ask for was certainly going to be interesting.
“No guards, but I will take a driver of my choosing to watch my back.”
This first request was not surprising but also surprising. Maria had been guarded by Caruso soldiers and had been duping them her entire life. It was her version of a compromise that Lucca had no problem agreeing to, other than he felt sorry for the poor sucker who would be doing her bidding. It was going to take one hell of a man to not only protect his sister but to stand by her. The good news was he wasn’t going to have to bribe one of his men to do it.
Lucca feared he wasn’t going to get so lucky with the second request.
“And I want you to buy me a car,” she said, smiling brightly.
His brow rose again, this time amused. “What kind?” But Lucca should have known it was a dumb fucking question …
“Whatever one I want.”
He knew it was going to cost him a small fortune with his sister’s taste, but there was no price he wouldn’t pay for Chloe’s safety. “Deal.”
“Deal.” Maria shook his hand.
Making two deals in one chapter of his life made one thing for certain—the throne was running out of room to sit.
“Oh, and Lucca”—Maria, who was heading out the door, had stopped—“I know you’ve been secretly helping Cassius.”
He couldn’t help but smile. Maria would know what he had been doing better than anyone. Neither of them had anyone like them around when they were younger and, like Lucca, Maria had grown fond over the youngest Luciano since spending time in Blue Park herself.
“Unfortunately, in the process, you taught him to smoke.” Her voice took on a rather threatening tone. “Now fucking undo it.”
Well—All Lucca could hear now were Maria’s expensive heels clicking goodbye—shit.
EIGHT
WHY THEY CALLED HIM ONE-SHOT
One-Shot, he whispered the name that had been bestowed upon him. He liked it, thought it was fitting.
I’m gonna get you … so pray to our Father … for if I miss … I will only take one shot.
He had held true to that promise, taking many lives so far. Lately, though, God had had other plans, while his Glock … well, some people just called for different measures to be made, and Maria Caruso had been one of them.
The bomb he had set had been meant for her, while it had taken the soul of another. Her bodyguard, Jerry, hadn’t been the only casualty.
It hadn’t been in his plan for Leo Caruso to be touched. He took no pleasuring in taking a child’s eye. Children were not to be touched, because … he was a Caruso after all.
And if there was anything he stood for, it was to ensure the rules and to keep the old ways.
Hell, it was why they called him One-Shot.
NINE
THE DAY HE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR
LUCCA, 27
“Lucca, I’d like to talk to you alone for a moment.”
When Lucca first walked into his father’s office for the family meeting that his father had called, he had to admit he hadn’t expected it to go that way. He had noticed his father was beginning to soften, but even he hadn’t expected Dante could fall in love again. One thing Lucca never doubted was how much he had cared for Melissa, so much so he had never been the same after her death. He had forgotten what he had been like, just how much more palatable his father had been until he’d met Nadia. Thankfully, Lucca liked her, but it was going to make it harder for him to force his father to give up the crown.
Dante Caruso’s time as the head of the family had come and gone, and everyone fucking knew it but Dante himself. Their family grew more at risk every day he sat on the throne, and it had already cost many good Caruso men’s lives. Worst of all, it had cost Leo’s eye.
One-Shot had taken too much from them, which had put a big bullseye on them, letting any enemy within a hundred-mile radius know the Caruso family wasn’t what it had once been.
Lucca shut the door behind a pregnant Maria. He could barely hide his smile when she had told them she and Dominic were expecting. The bargain he had made with Dominic Luciano had already paid off, as now their futures intertwined and no longer because of war but due to love. Soon, their blood would mix, and once Lucca took the throne, the two families of Kansas City would be unstoppable.