Page 34 of Luciano

I glanced at Massimo, telling him silently to check the tracker.

Grace’s eyes focused on her phone. I couldn’t tell whether she just had good news or bad news. She carefully masked her feelings. Her only betrayal was her lower lip between her teeth. She used to do that when she was nervous.

Her soft, full lips were torture to gaze upon. I could still remember how they felt wrapped around my cock, how expertly she sucked and took all of me deep down into her throat.

Great, now I’d have to jerk off before heading for my morning meeting with the Columbians. My phone beeped, and in slow motion, so I didn’t wake up Matteo, I took it and read the message.

Firewalls on the device.

Need to hack.

If Massimo told me the sky was falling, I would have been less shocked. Why in the hell would Grace have firewalls on her phone? What was she hiding?

Do it.

“Everything okay, Gracy?” My father asked her in a concerned tone.

Her smile was forced as she locked her phone. “Yes, of course,” she assured him, lying expertly.

I watched her get up from her seat and opened the tray of the highchair.

“Hold him up,” she spoke softly. Placing the tray on the table, she leaned over and gently picked the boy up, wrapping him into her embrace. He stirred, but she murmured something softly and he went right back to sleep, with his head on her chest.

Without a backward glance, she left the room.

“Umm, is it okay if I take my coffee cup into my room?” Ella asked.

I nodded and watched her rush out after her friend.

“How long will it take you to penetrate those firewalls?” Massimo was one of the best when it came to technology. I had no doubt he would get it done.

“An hour, maybe two,” he muttered. “They are good.”

“What’s going on?” My father inquired.

“Nothing to worry about, Pa.” And that was the truth. There was nothing to worry about because Massimo would have their code broken in no time.

* * *

The morning meetingwith the Columbians was longer than I wanted to. Truthfully, I didn’t even want to be here, although I was the one that started the entire thing in my efforts to bring the Romano family down once and for all.

“Alphonso expects the shipment within four days,” Raphael continued. He was pissed and wanted to go into attack mode against Alphonso and Cassio’s father. We had to calm him down, assure him to let the cards play out. “Of course, nothing will come.”

Once it was revealed that Romano wanted to set Raphael up and get him killed, the latter had a hard time pretending he could work with Alphonso Romano. He hated his guts to start with, knowing he tried to have his half-sister drugged. This just tipped the iceberg. He’d have to play along, pretend he didn’t know that Alphonso planned on taking goods from Raphael and then double crossing him. It wasn’t as if we were going to deliver women to Alphonso, even if he wasn’t planning on double crossing him.

“And you and your men will not be there,” I added. He pressed his lips into a thin line, showing his displeasure. “Before we kill him, Raphael, we need to let the cards play out. Let him fall. Don’t doubt me when I say, he will die.”

“I want that motherfucker dead now,” he gritted. “For sending men after Isabella. If Vasili didn’t intervene, they would have drugged her… kidnapped her for one of their fucking trafficking containers. Benito King too.”

“My father won’t be far behind him,” Cassio assured him.

Raphael nodded, not exactly happy but satisfied enough to let it go. Cassio was a man of his word, so he knew we could depend on him not to break it.

“Also, there is something I heard,” Raphael grumbled. “It is probably useless information.”

“What is it?” It was important we don’t discount any information. No matter how unmeaningful it might seem.

“I overheard Alphonso discuss the delivery of a woman,” he started explaining. “To Benito. It didn’t sound like his usual trafficking; something was off with it. Kept referring to her as the belle of the season.”