Page 54 of Mine Again (Mafia Bride #2)

Chapter Fifty-Three

Luca

“ T he Jackal sent Sebastian,” Isa repeats, stunned. Her tone is flat, her eyes flicking upward like she’s running a mental search query.

Then her gaze meets mine again. “But our meeting… it seemed so natural.”

“Did it really, though?” I counter. Her gaze shifts, recalling her last birthday. So am I.

“I was watching the restaurant CCTV feed. I saw him. At the time, I didn’t know who he was, but something about him was off. Enough to make me pause.”

Isa’s brow climbs toward her hairline. “Wait. You were watching me in the restaurant? Are you serious?” Her voice sharpens. “Luca, you realize that’s not normal.”

I shrug, unapologetic. “You keep forgetting I’m not normal. Extraordinary is a better fit.”

She doesn’t laugh or blink. Just levels me with a look. Right. Not the time.

I refocus. “His behavior raised red flags,” I say, angry all over again that he could get that close to Isa.

“He and his friends arrived just after you did. The hostess was escorting him to a different corner of the restaurant, nowhere near your table. But he pointed across the room, to the one opposite yours, and slipped her a bribe to get seated there.”

Her head tilts, brows drawn. She’s trying to replay it, to stitch together a moment she thought was spontaneous.

“So me bumping into him on the way back from the restrooms… that wasn’t an accident?” she asks, though it lands more like a realization than a question.

“No, he timed it… made sure you’d cross paths.”

I watch the truth settle in her eyes. First disbelief, then the twist of betrayal. Her body goes still as it sinks in that she was being played from the start.

She rubs her neck, fingers pressing into the same sore spot she touched yesterday at the lookout. The movement is small, but she flinches.

I’m sorry, farfalla. But also, I’m not.

I have no remorse for cutting Isa’s night short. They had finished dinner anyway. Even if Sebastian hadn’t come across as too calculated, I’d have intervened. I’d be damned if I let any man get close to my butterfly.

Her eyes lift back to mine, wounded and questioning.

“Then why didn’t you stop him when he came back into my life a few weeks later?”

“Because I couldn’t.” I drag a hand through my hair. “I was on a job in Brazil. Remote location. Spotty connection. No way to monitor you the way I normally would. If I had known how limited I was going to be, I wouldn’t have taken the job.”

The more I think about it, the more it burns.

I had given my client a firm list of requirements to get the job done. He assured me that I would have everything I needed. When I got there, I found barely enough to make it work.

The timing wasn’t a coincidence, and in hindsight, it’s obvious the Jackal planned it that way. He waited until I was blind and out of reach, then made his move .

And somehow, in less than four weeks, Sebastian Moretti convinced Isa to marry him.

“How?” I snap, the question coming out harsher than intended. “Why did you agree to marry him? You barely knew the guy.”

“I did my due diligence,” she says, folding her arms defensively. “I ran a full background check. Everything came back clean. He seemed… normal enough.”

I exhale hard through my nose. “Because the Jackal manipulated the data. He gave you exactly what he wanted you to find.”

Still, credit where it’s due. At least she tried. She didn’t just fall for a pretty face. She researched him, the same way she did that accountant. The one who, thankfully, hadn’t been too hard to… relocate.

“We flew in Sebastian’s cousin’s plane to Vegas,” she says quietly. “That was the Jackal’s, wasn’t it?”

I give a curt nod, jaw locked. He wasn’t on board. I checked the CCTV. But I would bet anything he was monitoring the flight, making sure everything unfolded exactly the way he wanted.

Not on my watch.

I don’t even want to imagine what could have happened if I hadn’t finished the Brazil job early. The Jackal must have counted on it taking longer. For anyone else, it would have. But he still underestimates me.

“The plane had Hale Enterprises painted on the side,” Isa says, stopping me from spiraling any further into what-ifs.

“Yeah,” I say, bitter to the bone. It’s not jealousy. It’s disgust that the world believes he’s a good man. “Carter Hale. Silicon Valley wonder kid. Glamorous billionaire philanthropist CEO by day. At night, he becomes the Jackal. One of the most dangerous, most unscrupulous hackers alive.”

Isa looks like she’s trying to piece together a puzzle she never realized she was holding.

“So what did he want with me?” she asks, quieter now. “Why did this Carter want Sebastian to marry me? And why did Sebastian agree? What was in it for him?”

I rub my face, the weight of it all pressing down on my skull .

“Sebastian Moretti was drowning in debt. Gambling losses. The Russian Mafia was breathing down his neck. My guess? His cousin offered to clear it all… if he managed to marry you.”

I stare at her, and something twists deep in my gut. What a prize Moretti would have won. Even a dumbass like him must have realized it was no hardship to be with Isa.

She’s brilliant. Beautiful. Fierce, funny, and utterly unforgettable.

But he didn’t earn her. He tricked her.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” I bite out. “Why, Isa? Why did you say yes to him? You barely knew him.”

The thought of him touching what’s mine makes my hands curl into fists. I should have ended him myself instead of sending him to the Russians.

He kissed my woman. God help me if I find out he did more than that.

She doesn’t meet my gaze, just fingers the end of her braid.

“Plan NUPTIAL,” she says finally, as if that explains everything. And maybe it does. To her.

“I was determined to have a ring on my finger and a new last name.”

Not following, I just stare at her. So she keeps going.

“I wanted an out, Luca. With Father gone and believing you were dead, I figured it was only a matter of time before someone else tried to take control of my life. Mamma’s new man, or the new Don. He’s ruthless.

“Who’s to say he wouldn’t try to cement his reign by marrying me or Mia off to one of his capos? I was done being a pawn in other people’s plans. So I figured the easiest way out was to marry someone outside our circle.”

“Hence the online dating,” I say, filling in the gap.

Of all the reckless things. I had wondered why she would turn to a site crawling with desperate nobodies and filtered frauds who couldn’t handle a real woman if they tried.

“You knew about that?” she asks, her eyes narrowing.

Is she really surprised? Has she still not grasped the extent of my obsession with her?

“I know everything about your life, Isa,” I say, keeping my voice level. I try not to sound unhinged.

“Except for the last four weeks, when Sebastian made his move,” she says, and I can’t tell if it’s a jab or a tease.

Either way, it grates.

I hate having blind spots. I hate even more that someone slipped through and got that close to her while I was gone.

“And I suppose you were behind my screwed-up online dating profile?” she asks after a beat.

That makes me grin. I couldn’t help myself. It was too easy to twist it so she only attracted losers.

She rubs her chin, lips pushing into a pout.

“And Andrea’s promotion to Milan?”

“Hey, at least I got him a pay raise.”

Her mouth flattens. “I liked him. He was nice. Very normal.”

Is she trying to provoke me?

“He was boring,” I say flatly. “A simple accountant could never have made you happy.”

She lets out a sigh. Neither agreeing nor denying it.

Yeah, she’s testing me.

I’m tempted to forget this whole idea of space and patience. To remind her who she belongs to. To punish her for ever thinking happiness could be found in anyone else’s arms.

“And that was you trying to ruin our first date, wasn’t it?” she accuses. “You wanted me to get a bad impression of Andrea… clumsy, with unpaid credit cards. And then the wrong order arrived with a butterfly.”

I don’t deny it. What would be the point? I had fun that afternoon.

“And don’t forget the constant spam calls. Too bad you turned off your phone.”

She scowls at me, but I can’t help it. I laugh.

It fades quickly.

“The day Andrea told me he was leaving… you didn’t see Sebastian in the café?” she asks, sitting down on the weight bench.

“No,” I say, irritation slipping into my voice. “Hale had the rest of the café cameras running on a loop, so he never showed. My original feed only caught you leaving. The interaction with Moretti was missing.”

I pause, jaw tight.

“I didn’t realize he had been there until I started pulling deeper files on my flight to Vegas. That’s when I found out we had both been played.”

Once I started digging, I couldn’t stop. And the rage I felt resurfaces all over again.

“Suddenly the evidence of your meet-ups with Moretti was everywhere. Too easy to find. Which meant Hale wanted me to see it. He wanted me to follow a trail of breadcrumbs. To sit back and watch your relationship with Moretti unfold.”

I lower myself to the floor in front of Isa, suddenly too tired to stand.

Isa shifts on the bench, her knee bumping the weight rack, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Her face is pale.

“He knew exactly how much it would destroy me,” I whisper, the look of guilt and regret on Isa’s face doing nothing to quiet the chaos inside me.

God help Carter Hale when I find him. For what he did to her… to us. For what he’s still doing.

I will finish him.