Nobody said anything for a while.
Kira folded her arms, eyeing Lucas with open suspicion. The kind of look that meant a question was coming. Nico caught it before it left her mouth and rushed in first.
"As you can see, we’re currently a little bit understaffed. Expecting developments soon." He said. "You should go on in. Lucas here would help out with your luggage."
The girls didn’t look satisfied. But they didn’t push either. Nico watched them turn toward the bungalow, waited for the door to click shut behind them, then rounded on Lucas.
"’Master’, really. And what was all the fancy accent all about?"
"Well, you asked for a decoy, boss. I’m giving you one."
Lucas said it without missing a beat, already popping the trunk. He grabbed a bag in each hand like it was nothing.
"The location was the decoy, Lucas."
Nico walked over and took two of the bags off him. His eyes drifted toward the bungalow, lingering there a second too long.
"And hopefully tonight, it’ll work well."
"You were followed?"
Lucas asked. He scanned the treeline, the road, the shadows past the porch light without turning his head too obviously.
"As predicted." Nico’s voice dropped low. "They’re definitely snooping somewhere around the area right now, waiting for the right time to strike. There would be no sleep for us tonight."
"Understood."
Lucas said it flatly, already moving. Nico turned to head inside. He’d made it two steps before Lucas spoke again.
"Your father called earlier."
Nico stopped. Didn’t turn around right away.
"Of course he did."
"He’s thinking of taking your name off the late boss’s inheritance and giving it to one of your other brothers." Lucas said, catching up to him now. "Now I know I don’t get a say in this, but I personally think that for a change— this should be the one thing you shouldn’t let him take away from you."
Something tightened in Nico’s resolve.
"I don’t intend to." His words came out sharper than he meant. "But that’s a topic for whether or not we survive this night. So, keep your head up. Literally."
Nico didn’t wait for a reply. He walked into the building, leaving Lucas standing there with the last of the bags.
***
Nico pulled off his shirt and tossed it somewhere he didn’t bother to track.
The mirror caught him mid-motion, and he stared at it longer than he meant to. Three years ago, he’d made a resolve. To live on his own terms. Without family, judgment, or strings.
That resolve had aged badly.
He’d spent most of his adult life trying to earn a nod from Robert Ashford. His father. The man sitting at the top of the family’s tangled, blood-soaked hierarchy. The same man who never once looked his way, no matter what Nico laid at his feet.
Robert had taken plenty from him over the years. The right to build his own mafia family under the Ashford name was just one item on a long list. And somehow, through all of it, Nico had stayed blind to the obvious. Every attempt to win the man’s approval only dug the hole deeper.
Now here he was again. Back in the exact life he thought he’d walked away from for good.
At best, he’d managed to save enough to disappear. Somewhere warm year-round. Somewhere with a beach close enough to walk to. He’d even started pulling his travel documents together.
Then Silas died, and an inheritance landed on his lap that he still hadn’t decided whether to keep or throw back.
He sighed, stripped off the rest of his clothes, and stepped into the shower. Cranked the dial to cold.
Water hit the back of his neck and ran down his spine, and his thoughts circled right back to where they’d started.
He knew his father too well. Robert would take this one thing too, if Nico let him. But the days of trying to prove anything to that man were over. What was left now was a single question: whether he’d regret the choice he was about to make.
He’d wanted to run his own mafia group for as long as he could remember. His father had made sure that dream died young.
And now, with the whole thing sitting in his name, something in him refused to let it slip through his fingers again, even if it meant three crippled mafia wives came attached to the deal.
’No. I already made up my mind. I’m not letting this go.’
This was Silas’s last gift to him. An empire, whole and waiting. He’d die before he handed it to his father, or to any of his brothers.
The noise in his head finally quieted down. Nico shut off the tap.
He reached for the drape, fingers closing around the edge of his towel. That was when the bathroom door swung wide open.
"What the fuck—"