The Holy Ghost - M.E. Clayton Page 0,41

that I was allowed to leave the building. I smiled, got into my car, and drove out of one of the most secured buildings in the city.

The drive to Cedar Creek felt longer than an hour, but when I finally got to Robbie’s, I barely put the car in park and grabbed my purse, before I was out of the driver’s side, and jogging up to her rickety porch. Robbie’s house wasn’t quite in the poorest of neighborhoods, but it was close.

I knocked on the door. “Robbie!”

The door opened, but it wasn’t Robbie standing on the other side. And before I could absorb the magnitude of what I’ve just done, everything went black.

Chapter 17

Phoenix~

Luca was pissed.

Luca was pissed, and that wasn’t good for anyone.

“It was a bullshit meeting,” he said, voicing what we already knew.

“Maybe he just wanted to fuck with us because he knows we don’t like being here,” Ciro interjected. Giovanni knew we hated being at his house.

Luca eyed me. “He called Phoenix from his wedding night to prove that he could,” Luca deduced. “He knows about Francesca.”

The coldness in Ciro’s voice was a contrast to his volatile personality. “What’s my sister got to do with this?”

Luca looked over at him. “Giovanni is a lot of things, but stupid or blind isn’t one of them,” he replied. “He knows who and what she is to us.”

“She’s a threat,” I surmised.

Luca nodded. “As long as Francesca was out of the picture, he knew we’d forever be distracted by her absence. Now that she’s back…”

“We’re unstoppable,” Ciro finished.

“He called this meeting as a reminder of who’s in charge,” Luca continued. “Gio wanted to downplay Francesca’s importance by calling Phoenix away on, by rights, what is a couple’s most important night together.”

“I don’t give a fuck if he is your father, Luca,” I told him. “If he comes after-”

Luca’s eyes flashed before he cut me off. “Don’t ever suggest that I would let someone-anyone-hurt Francesca, Phoenix,” he growled. “That girl is my fucking life. I’d kill my father myself before I’d let him touch one hair on her head.”

Growing up, Luca and Frankie had a bond that would make most men insecure, but I never fell into that category. I recognized their bond around the same age that I realized she meant something more to me than anyone else in my life. At the time, I hadn’t known it was love, I just knew she mattered in a way that no one else had. Whatever Frankie and Luca had between them, it wasn’t a bond I needed to be jealous of. Frankie somehow kept Luca human, a fact both Ciro and I were fully aware of.

“She’s my wife, Luca,” I replied, needlessly. “She might be Ciro’s heart and your soul, but she’s my fucking everything. If Gio sees her as a threat to his crown, that’s a concern.”

I could see Luca’s shoulders relax. He knew I wasn’t challenging him, and I knew he wasn’t challenging me. We were just doing what we always did when it came to Frankie; we were protecting her.

Ciro stood up from the couch. “Does he see her as a threat?”

Before Luca could answer, his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and his eyes shot my way before his brows furrowed. “It’s Francesca,” he told us.

Ciro chuckled. “She must be pissed at Nix for being gone so long. She’s trying to salvage her pride by calling you to see where the fuck he’s at.”

Luca rolled his eyes, and it always threw me when he did that. It made him look young and Luca’s never been young, even when he was. He swiped his finger and held the phone up to his ear. “Francesca.” Not even a second later, his entire body stilled, and my heart dropped to my feet.

Luca has never reacted to Francesca’s voice like that.

I watched, the blood in my veins frozen, as Luca placed the phone on the desk and hit the speaker function. The voice that filled the room didn’t belong to Frankie.

“Did you hear me?”

Luca’s jaw ticked, but his voice sounded smooth as bourbon. “I do believe I missed that,” he replied. “I’ll need you to repeat yourself.”

The man’s voice was full of contempt. “Of course, you missed it,” the man sneered. “Because people like you don’t have to listen to anyone, do they?”

“I assure you, I listen to people all the time,” Luca countered smoothly. “It’s what makes me good at what I do.”

“Well, then listen well,” the man