Luca

18 - Like talking to a brick wall!

Luca

“Luca, please, calm down.” My mother implores, standing to the side of me.

“Calm down?!” I stop pacing Dad’s office floor and look at her. “Mom, how am I supposed to calm down after what your precious son did?”

“Luca,” Dad sighs.

I shake my head at him. “Don’t even bother, Dad. You told Dray to torture Sofia!”

“What?” Mom gasps. “Draven, tell me you didn’t.”

Dad groans and moves away from the wall. “It wasn’t like that.” Dray chuckles. “Shut up!” Dad yells at him.

“What?” Dray moves away from the wall. “You told me to take Sofia to the warehouse and test her. I did what you asked me to do, Dad.”

“Why, you little bastard! I didn’t tell you to try drowning her, nor did I tell you to cut the girl!”

I roll my eyes when Dray laughs.

Why is he like this?

What the hell happened to make him so uncaring?

My brother is a certified psychopath. There is no denying that. But to do what he did to Sofia was sadistic. Yes, my father can be just as bad, and so can his brother, too. But neither of them would have gone as far as Dray did to hurt an innocent woman.

Dray forever bangs on about Sofia being a Romano and about how she deserves everything she gets. But I don’t agree. The sins of the father are not the sins of the daughter.

“Do not roll your eyes at me!” Dad yells. “You went too far, and you know it!”

“Is she dead?” Dray hisses. “Because she wasn’t when I walked out of that warehouse! She had her head underwater for seconds, not minutes. I cut her, but not deep. It was nothing more than a couple of scratches. I asked her the questions that you told me to ask her.” He points at Dad. “I told her to choose her life or her brother, and just like we thought, she chose to die for her brother! So, tell me, Daddy, dearest, what did I do wrong?”

Dad growls.

Mom sighs.

And me?

I want to smack the sarcastic bastard in the face!

I look at my dad. “You told him to do that to Sofia?”

“I asked him to test her, yes. I didn’t expect him to hurt her, though, Luca. But I should have realized Dray would take matters into his own hands.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Is that supposed to make it okay? You know what Dray is like, Dad. Sofia was a terrified mess when I got to the warehouse. I get it. You wanted to test her loyalty. But it wasn’t the time. Sofia has been here for a couple of days. We hadn’t even had the chance to get to know one another. Why the hell would she choose me over her brother?”

“That’s why Dray wasn’t meant to take Sofia today.” Dad snarls, looking at Dray. “Were you?” Dray shrugs. “I told you to wait until next week. I gave you strict orders to wait until Luca had taken Sofia out a couple of times before doing what you did.”

“I was bored.” That's all Dray offers up in a way of explanation.

“What is wrong with you, Dray?” Mom snaps. “Do you enjoy hurting young women? Do you take pleasure in it?”

“More than you could ever understand.” The smirk on Dray’s face makes my stomach turn over.

“You monster!” Mom screams. “Where the hell did I go wrong with you? I thought I’d taught you better than that. Sofia is nineteen years old, Dray. She has spent her whole life with Romano. She had no friends and no one to trust but Marchello. Of course, she was going to choose to die in his place! Why the hell would you think Sofia would choose to be loyal to Luca so soon?”

“Mom,” I take her shoulder in my hand. She’s vibrating with anger! “Calm down.”

“I won’t calm down, Luca.” I blink and let go of Mom’s shoulder. She is not playing right now. She turns back to Dray. “I am so ashamed of you right now. I understand that you have a disorder that you can’t always control. But you know right from wrong, Dray. Your dad and I didn’t raise you to hurt women. I don’t even know what to say to you anymore because I know nothing I say will matter to you.”

“Marnie,” Dad sighs.

Mom shakes her head. “Don’t even bother, Draven. You allowed your son to hurt Sofia. I don’t care that you didn’t know what Dray would do; the point is that you should have. No,” she shakes her head. “What you should have done is not let Dray take Sofia anywhere. You should have asked Antonio to take her. At least he wouldn’t have gone to the extremes that your son went to.

“That poor girl has been through so much. I promised her that she’d be safe here. But Sofia is right to believe that she’ll never be safe anywhere because there is no one she can trust.

“When those men dragged me to that warehouse and did all of those awful things to me,” she blows out a breath. “You destroyed them for hurting me, Draven. You would kill anyone who so much as looked at me the wrong way. And you do that because you love me, right?”

Dad nods. “I do love you, Marnie, more than anything in this world. No one would ever get away with hurting you. But Luca doesn’t love Sofia. He might respect her, and that’s a good thing. But this marriage is not meant to last. Every Romano will be dead within the next few months. Sofia included.”

I close my eyes and shake my head. There is no way I’ll let Sofia die. I don’t care what I have to do to protect her, I’ll do it.

I open my eyes when I sense Mom’s breathing becoming erratic.

“Mom?” I call.

But she doesn’t look at me. Her eyes are locked on Dad’s, wide and angry. “Listen to me, Draven Vidal. If you lay a hand on that girl’s head, you or your men, and you and I are done.”

“What the hell?!” Dad yells while moving closer to Mom. “Marnie, you can’t just say something like that to me. Sofia is a Romano, Marnie. You know how I deal with enemies.”

“Yeah,” she nods. “You wipe out their entire families. We’ve been here many times before, Draven. But this time is different. You allowed Antonio to fall in love with Romano’s son. You then, to con Romano into thinking you were on his side, arranged to marry his youngest daughter to my little boy. I disagreed, but you managed to convince me. I spoke to Sofia and realized that she deserves better than the life she was handed.”

Mom moves closer to Dad.

“Not one ounce of evil or deceit did I sense in that girl. Putting her through loyalty tests? Fine. But not to the point that she could die. That’s more than she deserves. Hell, Sofia hadn’t even had the chance to heal from the beating Romano put her through, and now this? She was already covered in bruises, Draven.

“As for Luca not loving Sofia.” She shakes her head. “They don’t even know each other yet. But tonight, Luca was taking Sofia on a date so they could get to know each other. But where is she now?”

“In bed.” I huff. “Knocked out on painkillers, Keaton gave her because she was in agony.”

“For f***s sake.” Dray mumbles.

“Shut the hell up!” I yell at him. “I haven’t forgotten about you.”

My brother bares his teeth at me. “What are you gonna do? Cry me to death?”

“I swear to God!”

“Shut up!” Mom screams. “I’m still talking here. Now, have some respect for your parents and shut up until we’re done!”

Dray huffs and turns away.

Dad’s trying not to smirk. He always finds it amusing when Mom gets angry. I don’t even want to imagine what else it makes him feel, but I can tell from the look in his eyes that it’s not something a child should know about their father.

“Listen to me, Draven. Please.” Mom takes his hands in her own. “I know you don’t understand why I would stand up for Sofia so much. But when I look at her, I see Brooke when she was a young girl. I see the girl who was abused, beaten, and terrified for her life every day. I cannot bear the thought of Sofia going through more pain just because of who he father is. She’s done nothing wrong, Draven. Please, don’t kill her because of Romano.”

“Marnie, we can talk about this later.”

“No!” She pushes Dad away from her. “We’ll talk about this now! I will not sit back and watch you end that girl’s life because of her father.”

“And if she turns around and betrays us? Does something that would cause harm to Luca?” Dad fires back.

“Then I’ll kill her myself!”

My eyes lock with Dray’s. He’s as stunned as I am by what Mom just said. She’s never said anything like that before. Well, not in front of us, at least.

“No one will ever hurt my children and get away with it,” Mom continues. “You know that, Draven. But Sofia deserves the chance to prove herself before we condemn her.”

Dad looks at me. “And what do you have to say for yourself?”

“Me?” I shake my head. “Shouldn’t you be asking the psycho you created?”

“Don’t start with me, Luca!” Dray yells.

I chuckle under my breath. “I didn’t start this, Dray. But I’ll finish it. I can promise you that.”

“Enough!” Dad yells. “You see what that girl has caused?” He looks at Mom. “She’s already got out sons fighting because of her!”

“Not because of Sofia!” I yell back. “Because your insane son took it upon himself to torture her like she was nothing. I won’t stand for this, Dad. I don’t care about your rules. I have abided by them my whole life. But I stepped in for Dray and agreed to marry Sofia, so he didn’t have to. I did not agree to you allowing him to harm my fiancé!”

“I get it, Luca.” Dad sighs. “I’m not happy about this either. I’ll admit that it was a stupid idea to trust your brother with this. However, I thought I could trust him. But evidently, I couldn’t.”

I don’t know why my father thinks he can trust Dray with anything. My brother is loyal to the family, but he’s not right in the damn head! Sometimes, I wonder if I should take over the family when the time comes. Yes, a Don needs to instill fear in everyone around him. But what we don’t need is a man who can’t – no, won’t control himself. Dray’s smart, but he’ll need more than that to run an empire like Dad’s.

“Why don’t you all just talk about me like I’m not here?” Dray huffs.

I’m done!

I march toward him and grab him by the lapels of his suit jacket. Dray smirks, unbothered by what I’m doing.

“You listen to me, Dray. I am sick and tired of this shi.t! I love you, but I won’t let you hurt Sofia and get away with it. I don’t give a damn that you don’t like her. I like her! She will be my wife, and you need to accept that. Forget that she’s a Romano and get it through your thick skull that she’s mine! Ask yourself what you’d do if someone took Mom and hurt her the way you hurt Sofia.”

Dray’s eyes widen.

Dray might hide his feelings from the outside world. But mention Mom, and he’s ready to kill. Mentioning anyone hurting Mom is the magic word. Sometimes, it’s the only way to get through to him.

I nod. “Exactly. You wouldn’t put up with it, even if that man were me. So, tell me, why should I let you get away with what you did to Sofia?”

Dray grabs my wrists. “She ain’t your wife yet, Luca.” With that, he pushes me away from him and storms out of the room.

I drop my head back and breathe deeply.

“Luca,” I look at my dad. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. Dray shouldn’t have done what he did, and I won’t let him get away with it. But you know how this is going to end. Don’t fall for her, Luca.”

Mom opens her mouth to protest, but I don’t want to hear any more. Mom and Dad can hash it out between themselves. I need to let off some steam before I kill my brother!