Betrothed To The Mafia Lord novel Chapter 24

Luca’s POV

I walked out of the hospital room and closed the door quietly behind me, the ever distracting facial expression of Sofia when I had informed her that I was leaving, and the look she had worn throughout the small conversation that occurred between us before the doctor came in, was still brightly imprinted on the front of my mind. I inserted my hands deep into my pants pockets and glanced at the roof of the hallway of the hospital, directly staring into the security cameras located on the four corners of the roof.

I got into one of the empty elevators and sighed silently when someone placed his foot in between the doors, stopping it from sliding close, and it slid back open after a fleeting seconds to reveal the face of someone I’d rather not see at the moment.

“Good day, Luca.”

“What are you doing here, Richie?” I sighed out in a voice void of any emotion a few minutes after he had made his way into the elevator to stand on the other side of the elevator, keeping a wide amount of space between us.

Richie and I had been friends, once. It was a long time ago, when we were still kids. Identifying him as one of my ex friends seemed too far-fetched. Richie and I were never all that close, we were both involved in the mafia somehow, that was one of the many things that made us start talking at first.

Being in the mafia from birth and getting brought up in a particular lifestyle, meant even the school I went to while growing up, knew the kind of lifestyle their kids' parents were into. The school had its own bodyguards which was to keep the whole students safe and protected from anyone and anything– their mantra was: once your child comes into our school, their well-being and safety is automatically entrusted into our arms, right until they leave the school premises. If anything was to befall any of the students while in the school premises, the school would get sued and would have to pay whatever due requested by the child’s parents.

Richie and I met one day during break, in the playground. I could remember everything as clear as day, it might have happened decades ago, but my retentive memory was sharp as fuck.

“Visiting the hospital, obviously.” Richie replied in a low voice and I studied him from our reflections in the mirrors of the elevator doors.

“Could have fooled me, thought you were tailing me and wanting to all up in my business.” I mused after a few seconds, my voice carrying a air of authority like it normally does.

Despite all that has gone down between us in the past, he’d always have to be respectful to me, whether he wants to or not.

“I can’t do that, I have more… important things up on my sleeves.” He replied and I watched as a scowl crept into his once relaxed facial expression, making the lines in his forehead more prominent and outlined.

I didn’t bother giving him any other reply, I was obviously bigger than him mentally and would be acting like the bigger person here, because that was usual style and I wasn’t going to be changing that because of Richie.

The elevator finally landed on the last floor and slide open, I puffed my chest out and moved my shoulders around a little without taking my hands out of my pants pocket as I made my way out of the elevator, vividly aware of Richie falling into steps behind me.

“Er, a word, Luca?” His voice finally drifted up from his spot behind me and I slowed down before pausing in my tracks.

“What’s that?” I demanded without bothering to face him, I wasn’t worried about Richie trying anything stupid on me like stabbing me in my neck now that my back was turned to him, or blowing my brains off because I wasn’t looking at him.

Richie and I might have a past together, but that didn’t stop him from being automatically part of the mafia family.

Not like I trusted anybody in the mafia.

“I want to talk to you about something, I might need your help for something important and…” He started to say almost immediately, in a voice low and barely audible. Only a few people were walking around here on the last floor and some of those said people were throwing me curious glances, while some were openly looking at me and drinking me up.

I was used to getting this kind of attention wherever I go, here in the mafia, and in some neighboring mafias. I wasn’t popular in the states and I was extremely thankful and grateful for that.

People in the states were not aware of the fact that this kind of lifestyle we live out here was indeed a reality here and not a fictional story like they used to think it only was. Only a few people who were also involved in the underground business were aware of the kind of things our lifestyle entails, which was a really good thing.

“Make an appointment with my secretaries and come see me, we will discuss whatever you want us to discuss then.” I said to Richie who was still standing behind my shoulder, my voice just as low as his was, moments ago.

“I...” He wanted to say something else at first, it was obvious in the stall in his voice before he finally replied, “Alright, thank you.

I didn’t say a thing to that, nor acted like I noticed the stall in his voice as I made my way away from the stop I was in for a few minutes, all the way outside the hospital this time, and I was aware throughout that he didn’t continue to walk in my footsteps, like he did at first the moment we exited the elevator together.

The guards situated outside the hospital doors bowed their heads respectively as I made a way out the doorway, into the afternoon sun and the cool breeze of Venice.

Two of my personal bodyguards, which I had assigned over to Sofia the day after we got married, lifted up from their reclined position from the car they were once leaning against and discussed quietly the moment they sighted my presence.