Page 1 of Revenge & Truth

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It’s been two weeks since the police came and took Luca away in cuffs from the estate. Their timing couldn’t have been more perfect to catch us when we were too vulnerable to fight. Luca knew this as well as I did, so he went without argument to protect Astin and the Caprioni Family like a good soldier. Since it was the weekend, they held him until Monday for his arraignment, then deemed him too much of a flight risk and denied bail. Luca was charged with first-degree murder for the alleged killing of Mayor Wilson.

How they came to that conclusion is still evolving, but Luca has refused to utter a word to the police, no matter what they said or threaten. They even have him kept in solitary confinement as punishment, although they say it’s for his safety after a prison fight broke out in an attempt to kill him. The attacker ended up dead instead, and even though there was clear evidence to show Luca was acting in self-defense, the opposition was using it to their benefit.

A knock sounded at my office door, pulling my attention away from the police reports I’d been pouring over for the tenth time. “Come in,” I called.

Everyone quickly learned I wasn’t to be disturbed unless they had something of value to discuss. Astin was the one to put that rule in place. This woman was clearly a force to be reckoned with, but now it was like watching a caged animal pacing back and forth. She ran the Caprioni side of things with the others while Hound and I spent every waking moment getting Luca free.

To my surprise, it was Astin who entered, not typically one to knock the past few weeks. “Hey,” she greeted with a smile.

It shouldn’t make me feel suspicious that she was smiling at me, but since her mood had been worse than foul since Luca was arrested, I couldn’t help it. All of us close to her understood why she was lashing out. Hell, if I’d had to deal with all the shit she has dealt with in the past month, I’d be a dick too. While we did our best to tread carefully, unsure what might set off a swearing or throwing rampage as her alter ego, Darkness, reared her ugly head, there was only so much we could do.

“Hi,” I answered and returned her smile as I rose, but she motioned for me to stay put.

As she made her way over to my desk, I was relieved to see she was getting better every day. We’d been worried that all the damage she’d done to her leg on the day of the coronation would be permanent, but it didn’t seem to be the case. Her resilience was one of the things that captivated me about Astin from the start. My draw to her was hard to explain without sounding completely insane. Here I was, her adopted brother she knew nothing about, working as her father’s personal assistant, leaving her with no idea what to make of me. Flipping forward a few weeks, I’d become utterly infatuated with her. Honestly, it took me knowing her for all of ten minutes to decide I needed to get to know her.

The problem was she saw me as a threat.

I was the person who took her place at her father’s side all these years while she was hidden away. Not to mention how well I got along with her father’s second wife, Casimira, and Astin’s half-brother, Jamison. Things with them weren’t bad, but they were strangers, and it was another way for her to see me with the family she always wanted. With Colmazio Caprioni gone and Astin now in charge of the Family, things had begun to get better between Astin and me, especially when I gave her my oath, something I hadn’t even given to her father.

Astin rested her cane on the corner of my desk as she hopped up to sit on it. “Do you have a minute?”

“Astin,” I started, giving her a patronizing look before she raised her hand to cut me off.

“Stop. I know what you’re going to say, and I get it… you always have time for whatever I need, no matter what you’re doing.” She huffed.

Seeing she knew what I was going to say, I leaned back in my chair, crossed my leg over the other, and waited for her to tell me what she wanted.

“First off, I’d like to apologize for being a royal cunt the last week. Being so upset about things hasn’t helped matters. I was maxed out on the stuff I could handle, so I took it out on all of you, which, I might add, is an honor,” she shared, pointing a finger at me with a grin.

I grunted as I folded my hands in my lap. “How is that exactly because it certainly hasn’t felt like an honor?”

Astin nodded, a slight drop in her normal proudly-set shoulders telling me this was weighing on her. Leaning forward, I placed a hand on her knee, looking into her stunning emerald eyes. Astin was a gorgeous woman by anyone’s standards, but the self-assurance she wore as easily as her favorite high heels was downright sexy. After her father’s passing, there was a significant chink in her armor, and we saw glimpses of a more vulnerable side of this powerful woman.

“Hey,” I urged. “Talk to me.”

She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it, actually considering my request. A few moments of silence passed before she took a deep breath and gave me a glimpse inside her wickedly beautiful mind.

“I let them take him without doing a damn thing, Liu,” she stated. “My job is to be the leader of the Caprioni Family and protect those who give me their loyalty, and I just watched as they took him, patted him down, and shoved him in the back of that fucking cop car like he was scum. Luca is worth more than all the police in this goddamn fucking city, and I stood there like a statue with his cum leaking out of me.”

While it was no secret Luca had been the first of us to be intimate with her, I’m not sure I was ready to hear her say that. After Hound had shared that we needed to stall for a few minutes to let them get dressed, I’d been excited. Her willingness to let Luca get close to her emotionally and physically was a major improvement from where we’d started. Now, I fear she might shut the door on us all, which is why her getting so angry at us concerned me.

“I’m going to ask you a question, and then you’re going to think about the answer before you say a thing. Understood?” I asked, cocking a brow. She agreed with a simple nod which had me rolling my chair over so I was boxing her in with my body, arms resting on the desk.

“How can I support you right now at this exact moment? I’m not talking about in general or later in the day but… right now, this second. How can I help lessen the burden you’re carrying about this?” I challenged as I held her gaze, refusing to let her pull away from me.

There had been a reason she came to me and not Ryker or Braxton, who would pull the moon from the fucking sky if she asked. Astin was a smart, calculating woman, and there was something she believed only I could give her right now. My hope was it was something I could actually achieve.

Adhering to my request, she didn’t give me her gut response. Instead, I could see the wheels turning in her mind. I knew the instant she decided what she wanted as determination took over her elegant features.

“I want three things. Two of them you can’t give me now but, working together, I know we can make it happen,” she announced.

Shifting my hands, I slid them to hold her hips and slid her closer to me. “Tell me.”

“The thing you can give me now is the chance to see Luca. My other guys refuse to take me to the prison because they’re worried about my safety. You’re his lawyer and get privileged visits with him in a safe, secure area. If I come with you as an assistant, then there is no danger of someone getting any bright ideas and coming after me.”

I should’ve known that was what she came here to ask me. Honestly, I’m surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Hearing she went to the others first made sense. Astin and I didn’t have the same introduction as she did with her lieutenants. I’m fighting an uphill battle to prove that even though I was a loyal supporter of her father, it didn’t change how I felt about her.