Signed To The Mafia King - Chapter 39: Chapter 39

LUCA
The dungeon smelled like damp and blood. The man was hanging from the ceiling, arms stretched, his head slumped forward.
He was still conscious but barely. And I hadn't even touched him yet.
I sat in the chair across from him, legs spread, elbows on my knees. My fingers tapped against my thigh, my thigh tapped against the chair.
Something about this wasn’t sitting right.
The shipment showed up at Alina’s warehouse. The missing drivers. The fact that this man, one of the original drivers, was still alive when the others had disappeared.
I didn’t like it.
The door creaked open. Marco and Olga stepped in.
“The shipment is secure,” Marco said. “It’ll be distributed by morning.”
I nodded, my eyes still on the man hanging in front of me.
Olga stepped forward. “You want me to handle him?”
I didn’t answer right away. I could question him now, break a few bones, force him to talk, but the truth was, I wasn’t sure he even knew anything. Not yet.
He was one of my men and I didn't doubt that for enough money, one of them could betray me, but I couldn't make myself believe he did.
“Untie him,” I said. “Get the doctor to fix him up. I’ll deal with him in the morning.”
Marco hesitated for half a second before walking to the man and cutting the rope. The man fell to the floor in a heap. He didn't even try standing alone.
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing a hand down my face. “Find those fucking drivers.”
Olga nodded and walked out. Marco grabbed the unconscious man and dragged him toward the door. I watched them go, regretting being so harsh with the man.
I stood, rolling my shoulders before heading upstairs. The house was quiet, but my mind wasn’t.
Something was wrong. I had been thinking that a lot lately. There was a storm brewing towards me. I was sure of it now.
I could feel it crawling under my skin, pressing against my ribs like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
Someone wanted me to find that shipment.
Someone wanted to make a statement.
But what was the statement? What was I supposed to see from this?
I stepped into the guest room, pulling my shirt over my head as I went straight for a shower. The water was hot, burning, but I let it. It was the first moment of silence I’d had all day.
When I finally got into bed, I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling.
The feeling didn’t go away as I fell asleep.
I woke up suddenly, my heart pounding.
For a second, I didn’t know why. The room was dark, the house silent. I was breathing roughly, my skin wet with sweat.
Then it hit me.
If Alina didn’t know about the guns, if someone had ordered them in her family’s name without her knowledge, there was only one explanation that made any kind of sense.
It had to be her family member. A Costa.
I sat up fast, pushing the blankets off. My mind was moving a hundred miles a second, every piece clicking into place like a puzzle I should have figured out hours ago.
Someone close to her had set this up. And that someone had tried to frame Alina for it. Which member of her family hated her enough to do this?
Her uncles.
Roberto or Alberto.
One of them, maybe even both, had something to do with this.
I reached for my phone on the nightstand, nearly knocking over the glass of water next to it. The screen was bright in the darkness as I scrolled through my contacts and hit call.
Darion picked up on the second ring.
“Luca,” he said, “What is it?”
Darion barely slept. That was one of the reasons I liked working with him. The man was always ready. He just liked going to places late.
“I need you to track down where Alina’s uncles have been for the last two days,” I said, swinging my legs off the bed. My bare feet hit the cold floor, but I barely felt it.
There was a pause. “Both of them?”
“Yes.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. My temples ached. “I want their phone records. Where they’ve been, who they’ve talked to. Everything.”
Darion didn’t ask why. “I’ll get it to you.”
“Make it fast.”
I ended the call and tossed my phone onto the bed.
My thoughts were running wild, going through every possibility.
If Roberto or Alberto had something to do with this, then what the hell was the endgame? Why steal a shipment then have it taken to their family warehouse?
It would become immediately obvious a Costa had been the thief. What were they trying to do?
Alina.
She knew I suspected something.
I’d seen it in the way she looked at me tonight, the way she flared up in the car.
She thought I believed she had something to do with the missing guns.
She was wrong.
I never really believed it.
Not even for a second.
I knew Alina, knew how she carried herself, how she looked people in the eye when she spoke. She wasn’t a liar.
But my men had hinted at it, and I hadn’t shut them down immediately. That was my mistake.
I should have told her outright that I knew she wasn’t involved.
Now, she was probably in bed thinking I saw her as a traitor.
This was a mess.
And the worst part? It wasn’t the only problem I had.
My father.
Since the moment he arrived in town, everything had gone downhill.
It was like his presence had stirred something in the shadows, something ugly that had been waiting for the right moment to come to the surface.
I didn’t believe in coincidences.
My father showed up. Alina’s mother met him. The stolen shipment. The dead man over my wall.
Somehow, they were all connected.