Luca

Once we got home, I got Charlotte settled and then it was showtime. Tonight would be a cakewalk, but I was still a little on edge. Drops like this were routine for us, and most of the time, we dealt with much high stakes and much bigger players than Santos. That didn't mean I was going to underestimate him, though. Everything had to be clean and tight, and that's why I was going to oversee it myself. Unlike Antonio, I liked getting my hands dirty when it came to the business and didn't want to miss out on the action.

Angelo and I drove toward the warehouse, with Carlo and Marco following in a car close behind us. Behind them, we had three more pairs of me who would be waiting nearby just in case the exchange went south. With a new partner, you could never be too careful, and I trusted Santos about as far as I could throw the bastard.

It wasn't just him that was making me anxious, though. In the last few weeks, cops had been swarming our sites and warehouses, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with the scrawny, rat-faced, frat boy that Charlotte used to date. Grant Fallon was a jealous prick, and he wasn't man enough to confront me himself, so he was trying to interfere in my business. For months, we'd been on his radar, but finding out about Charlotte and I must have added fuel to his pathetic fire.

In case they were around tonight, we created a plan to deter them long enough to take care of our business with Santos and move on. If everything went smoothly, the actual exchange would only take a three to five minutes, and we could get our guys offsite like it never even happened. Angelo and I were heading to our Northern warehouse, expecting to draw the attention of Detective Cullen, who was Grant's errand boy. Two more cars of our men would go to another warehouse, while Carlo and Marco went to the actual exchange site.

It was always amusing to me how little the police force actually knew about our processes. All meetings like this happened offsite, especially when we were dealing with new clients. You could never be too careful, and I didn't bring many people inside without extensive vetting. Most of our products were run through stockyards and meat packing facilities. The stench made it nearly impossible for dogs to ever catch the scent of our product, and we were scoff free. Santos' guns were coming through a stockyard out by the railroad tracks, miles away from any of my warehouses.

I left Charlotte sleeping in my bed, the events of the day having thoroughly exhausted her. I felt the same, and wanted more than to curl up next to her. I knew she wasn't satisfied with my answers tonight, and her mind was still wild with questions. She wanted to know and to understand everything but she never could.

Charlotte was becoming a safe place for me, a calming force that I craved in every sense of the word. She was the calm in my storm, a peaceful solace in the chaos that was my life. Strong and steady and pure in a way that made me want to protect her sweet soul at all costs. Protect her innocence and keep her far away from the darkness that consumed me. She grounded me, and I so desperately needed that. The more she knew, the more she got used to my lifestyle and accepted it, the more I was corrupting her. And that wasn't the person I wanted to be.

"How did it go with Elena?" Angelo asked as he bobbed in and out of traffic.

"About as well as I expected." I said flatly. I wasn't in the mood to relive the afternoon just yet.

"She wants you to stop seeing Charlotte?"Angelo continued. He either hadn't picked up on my hint, or was completely ignoring it.

"She thinks I'm being selfish." I shoved my fingers through my hair in frustration. "Can we drop this shit? I don't want anything to interfere with the exchange."

"Fine." Angelo said, continuing to whip the car along the curves of the highway. We would be at the warehouse in just a few minutes.

As hard as I tried, my mind kept traveling back to my conversation with Charlotte earlier, and one particular question she asked me. Would I have chosen this life? My knee jerk reaction would be yes, but now that I had a few hours to stew over it, I wasn't so sure. It wasn't something I ever really thought about. It was never an option, so I almost was in denial that any other life even existed. Charlotte was about the only person in the world who could make me question my position here, and that was dangerous. For her and for me.

"So Santos is bringing two trucks. Two men on each truck, three more in his car following behind."

I nodded. I had heard this plan a thousand times--I came up with the it myself.

"They're hanging out in a parking lot until I give them word that the stockyard is clear. We'll let them get their first just in case we might have missed something."

"We better not have missed a damn thing." I growled, staring out the window into the darkness. I couldn't control the things I was feeling toward Charlotte, so I put all of my attention onto what I could control.

"We didn't. But with the amount of raids we've had lately, we can never be too careful." Angelo said. We had taken extra precautions tonight, so I expected all of our bases to be covered. I had a driver and armed guard on each delivery truck, and Santos had his own team of security as well. If the police were planning something, they would be in for a rude awakening.

We were about to pull into the first site and I could already feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as I settled in. This was the shit that excited me. I had been out of my element the past few weeks and it was high time I got back into it. All of my doubts about the choice I would have made disappeared. I was right where I needed to be.

"Shit." Angelo hissed, whipping the car into the back entrance of the parking lot. There were two undercover cop cars sitting up the road from us. "We've got company."

"Drive up next to them." I Instructed, feeling more calm and collected than I had in weeks.

Angelo did as I said, and I rolled my window down as we came to a stop next to the first car. Just as I had suspected, Detective Cullen was sitting in the front seat.

"Evening Gentlemen." I smirked giving a small wave. Angelo sent a text to the rest of the group as I spoke, letting them know the situation.

"Luca," He nodded. "Odd time of night to be visiting your warehouse, no?"

"I could say the same for you, Detective." My voiced hinged on the last word. This guy was pathetic, I almost felt sorry for him. He had no clue what he was dealing with by making an enemy of the Romano family. My boys would eat him alive. "Angelo and I were alerted to some trespassers on the property and decided we'd come down and check it out. I think we've got it covered, but appreciate you coming by."

"Trespassers, huh?" He unbuckled his seat belt. "Well then, we better check it out."

I clenched my jaw. That was the last thing I wanted. The more time we wasted with these goons, the more of the actual drop Angelo and I would miss.

"I think we're more than capable of handling our own trespassers, Cullen." Angelo retorted.

"Oh, we know how you handle things, Angelo. That's why we better stick around to make sure everything is taken care of quickly. And legally." Cullen slammed the door shut behind him as he and his partner climbed out of the car.

"Always appreciate your concern, Cullen. We'll just park up here." I nodded and Angelo lurched the car forward.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" He hissed.

"Relax." I ordered. "The busier they are here, the less time they have to go bust the actual drop. We'll humor them, and then head over to the stockyard. Carlo and Marco will be just fine until we get there."

Angelo snorted and shook his head. "You better be right."

He unclicked his seat belt and we both climbed out.

"So how exactly were you alerted to these trespassers?" Cullen interrogated as we walked along the gravel path to the warehouse.

"Security system," Angelo answered, clearly not in the mood for chit chat.

"And where were these supposed trespassers?" Cullen's partner asked. My god, the kid barely looked old enough to drive. Where were they recruiting these days, the middle school? He was even greener than Cullen.

"Back fence, right over here." I gestured to a spot a few feet away where I knew the fence had been cut months ago.

Cullen bent down, inspecting the slash in the fencing. "Looks like it was cut with wire cutters, did you see anything else as you were driving through?"

"Nothing. They must have seen you guys and scared them off. Who knew you actually were good for something?" Angelo smirked, chuckling a little bit.

"Now, now Angelo. Our police friends here are just doing their jobs." I smiled. "Thank you for clearing everything for us, we'll be on our way now."

"Not so fast. We've only walked a short distance of the fence. We better walk the whole perimeter just to be safe." Cullen smirked, knowing full well it was an inconvenience for us to be here any longer.

Angelo rolled his eyes dramatically and pulled his phone out, rapidly typing out another text to let Carlo and Marco know we were being held up.

"How's that girlfriend of yours, Luca? She okay with your late night warehouse runs? She know what you're really up to out here?" Cullen walked at a painfully slow pace along the fence as he spoke.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to by what we're really up to out here, but Charlotte is fine, thank you. She knows I'm a busy man." I said flatly, wanting to avoid this discussion all together. I wanted Charlotte as far away from anything to do with this business as possible. It felt like even mentioning her name in the presence of the crime world would taint her innocence.

Cullen snorted as we continued walking. When he had dragged this walk out as long as humanly possible, we finally were back to the cars.

"Well, no trespassers." Cullen reported, as if we hadn't been with him the entire time.

"Thank you for your help this evening. We'll be in touch if we have any more problems." I said, urging this farewell along.

"I'm sure. We'll be watching, Catalano..." His voice heeded a warning he had no idea how to carry out.

Angelo and I loaded back up into the car quickly. "You know we could have just put a bullet between his eyes right now and buried him somewhere. Woulda saved us a lot of trouble."

"I like where your head's at, but we don't have time to be disposing of bodies tonight." I said only halfway joking. That guy was becoming a serious thorn in my side and eliminating that threat--if you could even call it that--was becoming more and more attractive. "Take the highway, make it look like we're heading home in case they're trailing us."

"Got it." Angelo said.

Once we were sure we had lost them, we pulled into the stockyard parking lot. It seemed eerily quiet. Did Santos not show up? Had he already come and gone? Something was off, I could feel it in my bones.

Angelo could too, and he flipped into a parking spot quickly. We both jumped out of the car and rushed into the building.

"What are we supposed to tell Luca?" Carlo said pacing in front a group of my men. Marco was at his side with his arms crossed, a disconcerting look on his face. Something was definitely off.

"About what?" I growled, approaching the group. Everyone darted their eyes away, afraid to look me in the eye. My patience was growing thin and no one was stepping up to give me answers.

"Somebody better start talking fast." Angelo warned.

"Carlo and I were pulled over on our way here. Santos and his men got spooked and they called the entire thing off." Marco said quietly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Angelo spat.

I rubbed my jaw, processing what he had just said. This deal was worth fucking millions and it was just called off? I cocked my arm and slammed my fist into the wall. Immediately I felt knuckles shattering and blood poured out of a few small gashes. Everyone was silent, eyes glued to me.

"Damnit!" I hissed, running my fingers through my hair.

"Luca, Grant is becoming a real problem. You know sent both Cullen and those pigs who pulled Carlo and Marco over." Angelo glared. "I don't care if this is just about Charlotte, he's interfering in our business now and we can't have it."

"I got that, Angelo. Thanks." I rolled my eyes.

Angelo shook his head and turned back towards the car.

"Get the guns back to storage, and we'll figure out what to do with them in the morning." I didn't like keeping this amount of product on hand, but what choice did we have? I dismissed the rest of the men and we all headed back towards the estate, returning with more issues than when we left.