Chapter 38: and

LUCA

I meet Nero on a side street near Diablo’s mansion, pulling up alongside his car.

This is one of the first proper times I’m seeing him since the night of Marco’s death and his injury. He’s healed well, but the wound is obvious the second I lay eyes on him. There is now a massive scar sliced across his face, but his injured eye has also turned white.

From what I’ve been told, he’s unable to see out of the eye, but he’s also been doing fairly well considering. It could’ve been so much worse and I happen to think he’s a bit lucky in that department.

Well, losing part of your senses isn’t lucky, but if he’d have lost both eyes—or if his attacker would’ve stabbed that knife right into the eye—it could’ve been so much worse. He could’ve easily died that night the second he was incapacitated.

We share a small greeting and begin the walk up the driveway. In Diablo’s absence, his security has essentially become null at his house.

I can admit, that makes this feel as though it’s a trap and it has me on high alert.

As Nero slings a baseball bat over his shoulder, he inquires, “So, what exactly is the job here?”

I lift my crowbar, dropping it down into my free hand. “Don Cain wants us to destroy everything. Hopefully we’ll find something that’ll tell us where Don Diablo is.”

Nero sighs, “Really?”

“What?”

He shrugs, as if he doesn’t want to say the words out loud. After a moments pause, he tells me, “Just seems like Don Cain is sending us out on strange jobs.”

“What d’you mean, strange?”

“It—More dangerous. More out there. Less successful. It feels like he’s desperate and grasping at straws. I mean, lemme’ put it this way—do you honestly think we’ll find anything here today?”

I shrug, and lie, “Maybe.”

“Don Cain is getting too reckless with things. I didn’t lose a fuckin’ eye for someone who keeps sending me out on these moronic and pointless jobs.”

Music to my fucking ears.

I haven’t spent a ton of time with Nero, but I’ve always gotten a good vibe from him. He doesn’t always speak a lot, but whenever he does, it seems like he’s loyal to my side of this fight. Even if he doesn’t realize it.

He’s losing—if he hasn’t already lost—his faith in Cain as a leader.

And with the way that Nero sometimes approaches me, I almost feel as though he looks to me for guidance during times of uncertainty.

Perhaps it’s a good thing for me to aid him. I am a part of the reason why he lost the vision in one eye. Every time I glance at him and the scar that disfigures his face, I’m reminded of that very fact.

I don’t comment on his admission. I don’t want to further implicate myself. In fact, I should probably be scolding him for even saying something like that—to keep up my public persona—but I don’t. I simply don’t have the energy to.

As we break into the house, we’re careful. We both wear gloves and keep an eye out for anyone who might be lingering and hiding. However, I honestly think Diablo has cleared this place out. I reckon he was expecting Cain to do something like this and emptied out his guards to save their lives.

At least, that’s what I would do.

When we finally get inside, I lead Nero straight for Diablo’s office, remembering where it is from the time I brought Raven here. It feels as though that was lifetimes ago.

Stepping inside, I flick on the light and am greeted with an empty room. The furniture is just as he left it, with the slightest speck of dust layering the top.

Lifting my head, I notice a camera on the far side of the room, the red light on the front visible. I stare at the lens for a moment, imagining that Diablo is likely observing on the opposing side. He probably has a live feed of the footage and watches the comings and goings of his place whenever any sort of sensor is triggered.

I don’t blame the guy. After everything Cain has done—is currently doing—he has to keep a close eye on things.

I recall when I spoke to him. I had warned him that it was more than likely that Cain would attempt to damage his businesses. I knew from the moment that Cain swore revenge and Diablo went on the run that Cain would begin harming Diablo’s business in an effort to draw him out.

He’s going to do anything and everything he can to make Diablo desperate enough to make an appearance. The thing I don’t think he realizes is that Diablo will never be that desperate. He believes Cain took away the only thing left he truly cared about. With Marco gone, Diablo couldn’t care less about the material things.

Cain doesn’t understand that feeling—that emotion or connection—because there isn’t one thing he feels that sort of love towards. He doesn’t understand love. Why do you think he laughed the way he did when Adiv confessed his?

Personally, I think Adiv only confessed his love for Dove because he knew he was fucked either way. If he didn’t say anything, he would’ve been hiding something. If he said something, like he did, I reckon he imagined that perhaps Cain might’ve seen it as a sense of honesty and loyalty.

If I was in his shoes, I imagine Adiv hoped that by laying it all out on the table, that maybe it’d convince Cain to leave Adiv alive. Potentially leaving Adiv with a life-changing injury—like making him deaf, blind, removing his hands or a limb—but he would’ve survived. At least, that’s what I picture his reasoning behind everything was.