Chapter 29


    Luca’s POV


    “What happened to him? He showed up with fight wounds?” James asked and I made my way towards


    the car and opened it immediately before sliding in and starting the car.


    “Worse. He was floating on molly and some other shits.” I replied to him and nced sideways as the


    Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g


    bodyguard who usually rides with us in the first car tugged the door open and slid into the passenger’s


    seat.


    “Jesus. This early?”


    “I can fucking rte, man.” I replied as I started to slowly ease the car out of where it was parked.


    I ended the call with james after exchanging a few more with me and dropped the phone into the


    console as I drove the car towards the gates which slide open after a few seconds of me waiting behind


    it and I drove out of thepound immediately, easing into the busy roads and navigating through the


    traffic as it permitted.


    I wasn’t used to driving because I always had a driver on me almost every time, but that doesn’t mean I


    didn’t know how to drive. I might not be texting my driving skills very frequently but I still knew how to


    drive a car just fine. It was like a bike. Once you learnt how to ride one, it doesn’t matter how long


    you’ve rode one, that skill was forever in your brains and veins… that was the same with driving a car.


    I wished I had at least calmed down a little and prepared a cup of coffee assuming I had known


    beforehand that I was going to be driving the car to the office this morning myself. Now I was feeling


    half dead and with barely enough sleep as I handled the wheels like a pro that was.


    I finally pulled into thepany’s premises and parked the car in its usual spot in the part marked out


    for only really important people. I noticed James’ Ferrari parked a little space away from mine as I


    alighted the car and mmed the door shut. The one in control of all the cars came around and halted


    in his spot for a few seconds on seeing me stepping out of the driver’s seat today.


    “Good morning, Mr Ri.” He finally greeted one he regained himself as he remained a few steps away


    from me.


    “How are you, Henry?” I inquired as I ensured my phone was deep in my pocket before I mmed the


    door shut and locked it with a button on the car’s key.


    “I- I’m fine, sir. Very fine.” He replied almost immediately, a little bit too fast and too rushed with gave


    away the fact that he was a tad bit afraid of me, and also nervous around me.


    Everyone was just so afraid of me, it gets annoying sometimes.


    “Here are the keys.” I said to him with the keys raised up and he reduced the distance between us


    before reaching up and collecting the key from my grip. Henry was a young adult of either twenty one


    or twenty two years of age but had the height of a teenager.


    He epted the keys, muttered his ‘thank you’ and was whirling around and away from me almost


    immediately. I made my way into thepany and into the elevator, all the way to the highest floor


    where my office was located.


    Making my way into the office, past my three secretaries which consists of two men and a woman, all in


    their early andte twenties who were currently huddled over a particr file they were trying to figure


    out, and into my office.


    James lifted his head up and stared at me before going back to the files he was currently counting on


    one part of the first shelf in the office.


    “Hey man, good morning.” I called out to him as I sank into my seat and quickly dug out my


    handkerchief to wipe off the perspiration that had gathered on my forehead, or tried to, because I


    rxed at thest second that I was without any.


    “You have an handkerchief with you, James?” I called out as I stifled an unexpected yawn that tumbled


    into my mouth from my throat.


    “Oh yeah, look into my suit jacket’s pocket.” James called out and I stood up and turned around to pick


    up his jacket which was currently handing on its usual spot which was the back of the chair opposite


    mine. I checked the first pocket and found a fresh handkerchief there, before tugging it out with a


    relieved sigh and using it to mop my face almost immediately as I made my way back to my seat.


    “Gosh, I need coffee so bad, I might faint if I don’t get one in the next few minutes.” I said aloud as I


    picked up the new set of files my secretaries had sorted out and had submitted here for me to go


    through, sign and stamp. I couldn’t do any of that shit now without getting coffee into my system.


    “Call the secretaries and have one of them bring you coffee, to wake your brain up.” James'' voice


    started to get closer before he came to stand at the side of the table and stare down at me.


    “You look like shit, Luca. Is this because you drove yourself to the office this morning?” James


    murmured with a slow grin and I puffed out a breath and flipped him off before picking up the wired


    connected phone on the wall beside my table and put a call through to the room after mine, which was


    the secretaries’ office.


    One of the two men answered the call and I requested to be brought coffee. He agreed to go get it


    immediately and I ended the call immediately and ced the phone back on the wall, hooking it up


    carefully so it wouldn''t fall off the wall after a little while.


    “You looked really rough man, like you had a really bad morning. Did something happened? James


    inquired in a voice void of all yfulness this time. I ran my fingers through my hair and moved the


    finger down to the veins on the back of my head to massage it slowly with my fingers.


    I was in desperate need of a thorough muscle massage at this point.


    “I don’t know, man. I haven’t been sleeping that well for the past few days as well so I guess that was


    part of why I feel like shit at the moment.” I exined to James, staring straight to him now that he was


    finally sitting in the chair before me, a bunch of files in his hands which he settled on the table and


    pushed it to the other side of the table and ced a couple of pens on it the way we always do to avoid


    mixing up files that shouldn’t be mixed, together.


    “Why haven’t you been getting enough sleep? Is it because of your little wife?” James demanded,


    narrowing his eyes at me and I rolled my eyes at him as I made to supply him with an answer.


    “It wasn’t because of her, she didn’t do a thing.”


    “Are you sure?” He demanded and I nodded my head immediately in a quick move. “Positive.”


    “But this not getting enough sleep of yours literally only started after you got married, five days ago.”


    James started to say and I sighed a little as I silently begged the secretary to return with my coffee as


    fast as possible.


    “Man, I’m really getting more and more convinced to steer clear of marriage,” James continued to say


    and Ipletely ignored him as I started to massage my shoulders muscles with my fingers.


    A knock sounded on the door and I quickly gave whoever it was permission toe in because I was


    sure it was my coffee. The door got pushed open and in walked Loki, one of the two men amongst my


    secretaries. Loki was in his early twenties but was smart as fuck.


    He walked into the room and ced the coffee on the table before asking me if there was anything else


    I’d like him to do for me. I dismissed him, reassuring him that there was nothing else I needed from him


    and started to loosen the whole packaging given to the coffee even before he was out of the door and


    was swallowing a hot mouthful of coffee a momentter.


    I leaned against the back of my seat and slowly savoured the taste of the coffee, loving the way the hot


    liquid slightly burned my tongue. That was part of the trill of drinking coffee early in the morning. While


    it is going to be doing its job in waking your system up in the morning, the burn it would leave behind on


    his tongue alone would snap your brain awake.


    “Where to first?” I asked James once I already had almost half of the liquid in my system and I could


    already thankfully start to feel more like a human and less like a zombie.


    “The diamond gathering. It’s pretty stupid as to why a gathering is set this early in the morning, if you


    ask me.” James said with an eye roll as he started flipping through one one of the files he was


    searching for when I came in here, some time ago.


    “It doesn’t sound that important, is it really, really important?” I asked with a small grimace as I quietly


    swallowed a mouthful of my coffee and allowed it to slowly slide into my throat this time.


    “It is and it isn’t. It depends on how you look at it. Looking at it from our perspective, it’s important to us.


    It’s about an auction and we’re all going to be bidding for diamonds.” James paused and I leaned


    further in my seat as my mind started to pick out where I had heard about this particr thing before.


    “We received an invitation to the gathering about a month ago, right?” I asked, the thought still feeling


    foggy as fuck in my head.


    “You received the invitation a month ago, yup.” James rified and I rolled my eyes and massaged my


    hands against one another on the table.


    “So we have to go bidding for a diamond we have no use for?” I demanded and James cracked a smile


    before shaking his head and leaning forward in his seat as well.


    “First off all, a lot of high people are going to be there. In Fact, I heard The Manzo mafia were also


    invited, which means a lot of other huge mafias around the whole of Italy were probably invited.” James


    paused and reached for my coffee, which I picked up and downed the remaining content without


    missing a beat.


    James continued without making a fuss, as if he didn’t just try to casually drink from my coffee.


    “It also means every mafia is going to want to prove a point that they were the richest mafia in the


    whole of mafias invited by bidding and bidding. It means we’re also going to bid and bid and not give up


    until we get one of the most priced diamonds there.”


    “Wait.” I paused and rolled all what he just said around in my head. “All that just to prove a point? Who


    cares if we’re seen as the richest or not?”


    “A lot of people do. If we don’t emerge as one of the best there, we’ll loose a lot of respect and some


    dumb people might get into their head to directlye attack you after a while.” James exined on


    and on and I nodded my head, finally seeing sense in what he was saying.


    My mafia was one of the most respected of the Italy and I wouldn’t want that to change, to avoid us


    falling to the bottom drastically.


    “So, how are we going to do it?”