Mafia Legacy

Chapter Twelve- Charlotte

When I got home that evening, there was a strange car in the driveway. My mind immediately went to the worst possible scenario. They were here to take Luca; he was being arrested, just like that asshole cop had promised.

I grabbed my purse and rushed in through the garage, frantic to find out what was happening. Instead of finding cops swarming my house and my husband in handcuffs, I found Axel sitting at the kitchen island next to Angelo and Marco. Luca stood leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a distant scowl on his face, deep in thought. The tension in the room was suffocating.

"Charlotte." Axel smiled warmly, standing up to give me a hug. "I didn't think I was going to get to see you."

I glanced towards Luca, but he didn't meet my eyes. "Hi Axel. It's nice to see you." I said with a tight smile. If I was being honest, I wanted to strangle him right now. He was the one who had dragged Luca in to this mess and from where I was standing, he was doing next to nothing to fix it. Luca had done a favor for him, and Axel was letting him hang out to dry to protect his own ass. Why was he even here?

"Hey babe." Luca said, pressing his lips to mine. Something about his tone was off, but he was trying to hide it. "How was your day?"

Even in his own distress, he picked up on my tension from the interaction with the officers at the courthouse. "It was fine. Just a tough case I'm on. We can talk about it later." I gave him a convincing smile. Luca may be trusting Axel again, but I wasn't there. I'd tell him and Marco and Angelo about what had happened once Axel was gone. "How are you? Where are the kids?"

"Landon is upstairs working on homework, and Layla picked Lucy up to take her shopping." Luca said.

"And Leo?" I arched an eyebrow. He was usually the wildcard.

Marco chuckled. "Leo and Viv are on a date... He took her to the movies."

My eyes widened. "Seriously?" Of course, it had always been a running joke that once our children grew up, they'd marry each other, but I never really considered it to be a reality. It was absolutely adorable that Leo and Vivi were dating, and I was all for it.

He nodded, a big smile tugging on his lips. "He asked me for permission first."

Angelo let out a laugh. "More of a gentleman than his father... you raised him right, Char."

Luca rolled his eyes, chuckling. "First of all, you guys are assholes. I can be a gentleman. Tell em, babe."

"Of course you can, baby." I smiled, placating him. Luca certainly could be sweet and romantic when he wanted to be, most of the time, though he chose to be extravagant and domineering. I loved all of those parts of him equally as much, though. I didn't marry Luca because I thought he was gentle.

I set my stuff down and started to pull a few things out of the fridge. "Axel, will you be staying for dinner?"

"No, he won't." Luca answered quickly, tensing up again.

Axel gulped. "No, Char. Thank you though. I just came by to..." He glanced at Luca as if to see how much he wanted him to say.

"Go ahead." Luca threw his arm in the air. "Tell her what you've gotten us involved in."

Axel's eyes fell. "Look, I never meant for it to turn out this way."

"Of course you didn't," Angelo scoffed. "You never think. You do what's best for that ego of yours and the rest of us are left to clean up the pieces."

"Nothing is going to..."

"Nothing is going to what, Axel?" Luca glared. "You said that last week and now Angelo and I are smack in the middle of a murder investigation."