Caught Up In A Mafia Love: Destiny & Lucca

By Danielle May

After suffering heartbreak caused by the person that she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, twenty-four-year-old Destiny is more than ready for a fresh start. After her god-sister suggests she come to stay with her for a while, she jumps at the opportunity, but her newly drama-free life becomes disrupted when she crosses paths with the very dangerous and sexy Lucca who quickly turns her life upside down in more ways than one.
Having a reputation as being a ruthless hothead with a short fuse, Lucca is somebody no one wants to cross. Outside of his family, he has little to no respect for anyone and won’t hesitate to end anyone who disrespects him. After an encounter with Destiny that lands her on his bad side, he sets out to make her life a living hell, but that soon changes when the woman he once wanted to cause pain turns into the same person who awakens something inside of him that he never knew existed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Royalty Publishing House
• Release date: Jul 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781648407833

Book preview

I s sleeping in the guest room something that’s permanent? Because I’m getting tired of coming home from work to sleep in a cold, lonely bed, Katariina complained as she cupped the warm cup of coffee in her hands, viewing her sorry excuse of a husband sitting at the kitchen table. As long as she could remember, she’d been living off coffee along with bitter hope. Demarcus didn’t make life with him easy. He wasn’t some trophy husband that she could brag about. He never kept a job since the beginning of their relationship. It was always left up to her to pull all the slack and pull a miracle out of her ass to support their family of three.

Well, I’m tired of always having to argue with you about small shit. I’ve told you, I’m trying here. It’s not my fault nobody is hiring. Demarcus held up his side of the discussion.

Nobody hasn’t been hiring in years, Demarcus? You really want me to believe that? You’re just too full of yourself to get off your ass. Since I’ve been making more money, you find the smallest excuses to quit a job because you know I’m that safety net. I can’t do this on my own. Katariina held the cup firmly in her hands, trying her best not to toss it across the room at Demarcus. She had put up with enough of his shortcomings. For the last seventeen years, she’d been his safety net, taking stress off his shoulders as a man while she was losing herself as a woman.

See, that’s the problem right there. You don’t fucking trust me. You think I would stand up here and tell you a bold lie like that? I’m telling you the truth. Demarcus shook his head and raised from the table.

Seventeen years of the same bullshit. I would say it was longer, but when you were younger you were a better person. You seemed to know what you wanted out of life, so I can’t take those years and points off you. Katariina sat the cup of coffee on the granite countertop behind her and strolled over to Demarcus. She was done taking his bullshit lies and pulling him out of tight spots that he got himself into. Get yourself together or you will get out of my house and figure this out on your own.

Alright, fine. Fine. Demarcus backed down on his end of the argument because he knew Katariina was right. He wasn’t doing everything in his power to pull his weight. He was so used to her pulling him out of hot water that it had become a hard habit to break. Then he started to despise her because she was so good at life, at her job; in all the areas he was no good at. He started hating the ground she walked on because she was everything that even as a man he would never be.

Then it’s settled. You will get a job or move out. Katariina made sure she made the terms clear to Demarcus. Throwing her money out on a man who was supposed to be going fifty-fifty on things in their household wasn’t something she planned for her life. Fresh out of high school with a baby bump and a dream, Katariina knew she had no choice but to make something out of herself because her child was dependent on her and her mother wanted more for her since her older sister, Belinda, had went off the deep end.

So, you really going to kick me out if I can’t find a job? It’s not my fault these crackas won’t hire a black man. Demarcus came out of nowhere with his words like him pulling the race card was supposed to make Katariina change her mind

Don’t do that. Don’t blame this on you being black when you’re just being lazy. I know a lot of black men who can find work. You don’t have no kind of criminal record; you went to college. There’s nothing that’s holding you back. Nothing. Katariina removed herself from the kitchen before things could get any worse. Work was calling her name and she refused to be a minute late due to arguing with a man who didn’t want a damn thing out of life. She took her job serious as an FBI agent. She fought the life of crime while she faced a different battle at home every single day.

I’m lazy? Bitch you just don’t want to see the world for what it is since you work around all those white people. Being around them makes you forget where you came from. Demarcus sounded dumber than a crackhead after shooting up with Heroin and getting high on Bath Salt. Instead of turning around and giving him the attention he wanted, Katariina kept on her path outside into the cool October air.

On the way out of the house, her phone started going off like it did hour upon hour. There was never a moment it didn’t ring. In order to get sleep most nights, she had to put it on silent. Hello?

Hey, Kat baby. Daphne said.

Oh, hey Momma. What’s up? Katariina unlocked the car door and hopped in the car with every intention to make it to the other side of the city in thirty-minutes by racing against traffic. Atlanta highways were no joke early in the morning or late in the evenings. It was like everybody was in a hurry to get somewhere or had to be someplace special.

Kat, I’m worried ‘bout your sister. She hasn’t been returning any of my calls. I know last time I spoke with her she was talkin’ ‘bout getting clean. Now word got back to me that she’s on that shit heavier than the last time. Daphne felt sick to the pit of her stomach thinking about Belinda. No matter how many years passed with Belinda being part of the streets and living by its’ code, it all still worried Daphne like it was new. No matter how many times she said she was done worrying, it was never the truth. She worried herself sick about her daughter over the years until she didn’t know how not to worry.

I’ll go over to check on her on my off day. I have a lot on my plate right now, Momma. I don’t know if I’m coming or going. And I’ve told you so many times, stop worrying yourself about Belinda. She has proven that she’s going to do what she wants. Katariina fired up the engine, put the gear in reverse as quick as she could, then backed out the driveway like a bat out of hell.

Thank you for volunteering. I would go over there myself, but last time I didn’t have a good experience. I’m too old to be harassed the way they do visitors over there. Daphne took a long, exaggerating breath as she thought about where she’d gone wrong as a mother. She tried her best to give her girls the best of the world; at least whatever her small sum of money was able to provide. Back when she was younger, way before she got knocked up with Belinda, she was rolling with the neighborhood drug dealer, Ernest Sam. He took a good country girl who had just moved to the big city from a small Louisiana town and turned her out. She was breaking every rule put forth by her parents just to get underneath Ernest Sam again. He wasn’t like any other boy back home. He was strong-willed and played by his own rules. Then by the time she got knocked up with Katariina, he got busted with drugs and for murdering a man in cold blood. He went down the road for fifteen years, and when he was released on good behavior, he was no longer the man she knew. He was always trying to come back up on the streets, trying to prove a point to people that he hadn’t lost his touch on the streets. She had to wipe her tears and let him go, and ever since then, she’d been doing it all on her own.

No need for a thanks, Momma. Katariina held her breath. It was always about Belinda. Daphne was too occupied with stress caused by her daughter who lived by the streets to see that Katariina was losing her damn self over the years while she put up an act like she was alright. I’ll call you after I pay her a visit, okay?

Okay. I love you, baby. Daphne smiled through the pain.

I love you too, my dearest momma. Katariina hung up the phone with a heavy heart. It was time for Belinda to get her shit together or else Katariina was going to find a way for Daphne to cut all ties with her. She was tired of seeing her mother worried sick about a person who didn’t give a damn about the people she was hurting by her actions.

Katariina was quiet for a moment after she ended the call. She was so quiet in the car she could hear herself think for once. Thoughts that belonged to her. She wasn’t thinking about work or trying to crack the next case. Her thoughts lingered on where the hell she was going to end up if she didn’t take control over her personal life. She knew that if she continued to put up with Demarcus’ bullshit, she was going to raise another sorry excuse for a man. She was afraid Darrius was going to think it was okay to lean on his woman’s money without trying to be a man in the relationship and pull his load.

God, God, Goddddddddd, Katariina yelled through a dull pain that overtook her chest. She was tired of being the backbone for everyone around her; being there for people who were hardly there for her. It was like she had to be the one who swept her feelings and pain under the rug to keep the glue compressed. Help me get through this God, please. I’m begging You, because I’m so close to throwing the towel in. In the middle of her morning meltdown that she had almost every other morning before piecing herself back together, her phone went off again. This time around it wasn’t Daphne; it was her best friend and partner on the force.

Good morninggggggg, Nevaeh yelled over the phone like she was high on life or high on something else that was legit.

Damn, I forget to remind myself to place your calls on speaker because every damn time you almost burst my eardrum. Katariina laughed as her morning turned a little brighter. Nevaeh was the kind of friend that a person had to love no matter what. She wore her feelings on her sleeves, and she was over the top at times, but it got her through life. It was the only way she knew how to be.

Girllll, don’t even do me like that, Nevaeh replied as she strolled across the parking lot to the office. She lived closer to their job than Katariina, and she always woke extra early to be exactly on time since she didn’t have anyone to wait around on being that she was at the shitty end of a divorce. Just make sure you hurry up; we have a lot on our plate to deal with. Hopefully our team has enough to close on this case today and turn all evidence over to the court.

I’m racing against traffic now. I’ll be there soon. Save a seat at the meeting table for me, Katariina said before ending the call. Every time she heard her friend’s energetic voice, it always made her feel ten times better about life. It sometimes made her forget how tough of a time she had dealing with everything alone. Nevaeh was the breath of fresh air that every person needed but lacked on a daily. While people were stuck out there trying to figure out who their real friends were, Katariina knew that she found not only a friend, but a sister in Nevaeh.

Pistol walked into Aria like he was the wealthiest man alive. Judging him from plain sight, no one knew he slung drugs and pimped women. It looked like he had his life together and breathed the cleanest air a person could take in. He’d done many meetings in the city, so the people in higher places knew his name and he was treated with respect everywhere he went.

Mr. Washington haven’t seen you around in quite some time. Your party is waiting for you in the patio area. I tried to tell him that you preferred to do business inside, but he demanded otherwise. Gloria was the usual waitress that took care of Pistol whenever he visited the restaurant. She knew what kind of food he preferred and how he liked his whiskey. She knew him so well, he thought about offering her a job to work inside of his house. She wasn’t bad looking either. But he never messed with the help.

Ahh, it’s fine. I’ve heard he doesn’t like feelin’ trapped inside of places. Somethin’ like a phobia. Pistol followed behind Gloria, watching her small ass sashay in front of him. She had all kinds of confidence that most women lacked. He liked a woman who knew she was the shit without having to hear it from a man. Gloria was a damn waitress, strutting like she was ripping the runway in Paris for Fashion