Mafia Fall-Out

Chapter Ten

Charlotte

"Never have I ever been arrested..." Julia boasted, stretching her legs far out in front of her, watching intently for some of us to put our fingers down.

We had come back to the terrace in front of Luca and I's room so that I could put Lucy down. Two hours had already gone by with no word from the guys, and now here we were, 30-year-old women getting wine drunk and playing middle school party games. A glass of wine on the patio quickly turned into a bottle, which turned into three, and now we were just a giggly hot mess.

Hailey and I both put our fingers down, trying to be discreet, but Jenni and Julia were having none of it.

"What?!" Julia shrieked. "Now this is a story I've got here!"

"Mine isn't all that interesting." Hailey giggled. "When Luca found me, I was one strike away from going to prison for solicitation. That's probably where I'd be today if they hadn't taken me in."

Hearing little stories like this about Luca always made me smile. Even with all the bullshit in the mafia, he managed to be the silver lining for all kinds of people. A savior in wolf's clothing.

"How about you, Char? You were seriously arrested?" Julia pressed, completely dumbfounded. Apparently my image didn't scream convict.

"Her ex-boyfriend had her arrested for dating Luca." Jenni rolled her eyes dramatically.

Hailey's eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Well, it was a little more complicated than that." I laughed, taking a big gulp of my wine. "When Luca and I first met, one of my father's old enemies was after me, and his men came after me and the gallery. Angelo and Marco and Carlo saved me and made it look like a robbery, but we lost a lot of paintings. Luca felt bad about the whole thing so he donated a ton of money and Grant tried to paint it as insurance fraud to blackmail me into rolling over on Luca."

"He was a low-level district attorney who was looking for anything to be his big break. I can't believe I ever fell for his bullshit. That's not even the worst of what that scumbag did."

"What did Luca do when he found out?" Julia asked.

"Hah!" Hailey laughed out loud. "I can only imagine."

"He was definitely pissed." I arched my eyebrow, remembering the way the two of them had taunted each other right in the middle of the police station. "But he didn't go after Grant until we realized that he had lied to me for years to keep Layla and I away from Luca."

"Shut up!" Hailey shrieked. "I remember hearing about that when they had him stashed in the cabin, but I didn't realize that he had lied to you like that. I would've lost my mind."

"She almost did. She followed him out there and stole your husband's gun and nearly killed them all." Jenni smirked, not able to contain her laughter.

Thank God that was far enough away that we could laugh about it now, but I still remembered it like it was yesterday. "Yeah, and when I got caught, I much rather would've been arrested than facing Luca. He was so furious with me."

"I'll say. He doesn't take too well to people disobeying his orders."

"No kidding." I smiled, rolling my eyes. "But after that, we realized we both needed to compromise. He needed to stop trying to control me and ordering me around like one of his soldiers, and I needed to take directions a little better—especially when it come to things he knows more about. Turns out it was the best thing that could have happened to us."

"So that's the secret to a happy marriage." Julia smiled, refilling our glasses with what was left in the bottle of wine and juice in her own.

"I guess it is. Compromise." We had certainly come a long ways in the last seven years. We were two kids when we fell in love, and both had a lot of growing up to do. It was all worth it, though. I couldn't imagine my life without Luca, almost like he was the other half of my brain.