My Bad Boy's Secret: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (203 page)

That we happen to be so busy is due to anonymous emails I got a couple of days ago. The name attached read “John Doe”, which was obviously false and useless, but the information it had might be what we need to go ahead with the case. It contained dozens of photographs of Blood Brothers engaging in drug deals, human trafficking, prostitution, grand theft auto, and murder. Audio files of the bikers discussing their plots for who to kill and what to sell were attached as well, along with club documents listing members, the money they made for each transaction, and plans for expansion. The evidence was indisputable and damning, and could put at a bunch of well deserving criminals in prison for decades. No way the judge could end the trial now. I sure would like to see the defense worm its way out of this.

I’ve tried calling her dozens of times each day, but all I could do was leave messages. So the office gave me the task of visiting her at home to see what was wrong. I felt both worried and frustrated at having no contact with her. We typically text each other hundreds of times every day, so to have her totally disappear like this was unsettling.

After work, I drove to Buckhead in order to solve this mystery. I was always impressed when driving by the mansions and estates that made up Atlanta’s finest neighborhood, and I felt a bit envious that Luciana got to live by herself in a house in this part of town. Buying a house in Buckhead and paying it off was something most mere mortals could only dream of doing. Either Luciana once won the lottery, or she had a lot of help affording her house.

I arrived and knocked on the door. I waited for nearly a minute, and was about to knock again, when I heard Luciana’s voice hoarsely pass from the other side of the door.

“Luciana, is that you?”, I asked with worry. “What happened to you? The entire DA’s office is worried sick about you. No one has a clue where you are. You should be thankful I’ve been finishing all your work for you. Why haven’t you returned my calls and texts?”

The door creaked open slowly, and I could see Luciana’s face, her hair a mess and her cheeks wet. From her red eyes and sniffing, I could tell immediately that she’d been crying for a long time. I grabbed the doorknob and let myself in, taking Luciana by her shoulders and embracing her.

As she continued to sob, I surveyed Luciana’s body. I’d never seen her so unkempt. She hadn’t brushed her hair, her breath was atrocious, and her makeup was smeared and uneven over her face. She wore old wrinkled sweats, and I noticed hickeys and bruises around her neck and upper chest. Now I was seriously worried for her.

“What happened?”, I kept asking, with more urgency each time. I brushed away some of Luciana’s tears, and hugged her tightly.

              She started to murmur through her sobs. “Rose, it was – it was t-terrible. Blake, he –”

              I recoiled and stared at her. “Wait, who?”

              As if she snapped out of a trance, Luciana stared back at me, looking regretful and frightened. “That’s what Robert called himself. When he – when he forced himself onto me.”

              “I – I’m sorry,” I began weakly, feeling my legs shake and my vision go black. I was positive I didn’t hear her right. “I didn’t catch that. Did you say that Robert raped you?”

              I was horrified when I saw Luciana nod. She continued to cry into my shoulders, and I drew her even closer.

              “I went to visit him in the hospital, to say hello and bring him a gift. At first he acted all nice and normal, but then he put his hands on me. I told him to stop, but he kept groping me. He wouldn’t leave me alone, so I couldn’t take it anymore. I left and told him never to contact me again. But he still came…” Luciana began crying harder.

              “You don’t have to tell me anymore,” I said. I tried hard to understand all of this. I didn’t want to believe that my boyfriend was a rapist. No way I could be dating a rapist.

              But then it made sense. He always looked like bad news. I blamed myself for not noticing sooner what a thug he was, with his scraggy face, ubiquitous tattoos, and fierce attitude. I got close to him, and now my best friend was hurt.

              I wanted to take a knife and cut off this creature’s dick and balls, and shoot him in the head with a gun, and slit his throat until his head came off. Luciana could be a wild girl, but she never hurt anyone.

              “Then the next day, he showed up at my house,” said Luciana after choking back sobs. “He must have stalked me. I told him to go away or I’d call the cops, but he broke a window and got in,” she pointed a finger and I saw one of the shattered windows in the dining room, “and chased me. He tore off my clothes, and raped me. It was awful. He had me in different ways, and made me beg him and thank him. I thought it would never end. He left marks all over me.”

              So that was how she got them. It all made appalling sense. Luciana’s once-flawless skin was riddled with scratches, bruises, and hickeys.

              “What happened then?”, I asked, hoping to have some clue to find Blake, or Robert, or whatever his real name was.

              “I don’t know!”, cried Luciana. “He finally had enough. I tried fighting back, scratching and punching and kicking, but he was too strong. He raped me for so long, but then he ran away. He told me, ‘Don’t tell anyone I did this, bitch, or I’ll come back and rape you again. Then I’ll kill you and make sure you never say or do anything again.’ I haven’t seen anyone since. I was too scared to call police, and I’ve just been staying home. I’m too scared to go out, Rose.”

              “We have to tell the police,” I declared firmly. “We’re going to find him and make him pay.”

              Luciana sniffed. “But how are they going to find him?”

              “You’re a lawyer, you know how. He left his DNA all over you. We’ll have the evidence to identify him. We’ll arrest him, and find out what he’s really called. And then we’ll kill this bastard.” I was surprised at how furious I was. I wanted blood from whoever had raped my best friend.

              “Let’s clean you up,” I said as I supported Luciana with my shoulder. I gave her a bath and first aid, and fed her some soup.

              “There’s something else you should know, Rose,” murmured Luciana.

              “What?”, I asked as I scooped a bit more soup.

              “I remember…the guy Blake…he told me he was looking for you too. I think he wants to hurt you as well. Rose, you’re not safe here. There’s a dangerous rapist running free and he threatened to find you.”

              As if I didn’t already have enough problems.

              “Are you sure?”, was all I could muster.

              She nodded. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I don’t want this to happen to you too. I have an idea. Leave town for a while. The DA is looking for a few people to join him for a legal conference in Savannah on organized crime. Take Jessica and Amber with you and get away from here. He can’t find you if you’re not in Atlanta. Leave tonight, and I’ll call the police. Leave it to me; I feel like I have to do this myself.”

              I pondered this, and I was impressed with how brave and thoughtful Luciana was. This girl had just been raped, and she was going to take matters into her hands and call the cops after not wanting to. And she thought of me and tried to protect me. I was lucky to know her.

              “You’re right,” I said, and I hugged Luciana. “I’ll let you handle the call. Meanwhile, I’ll take my kids and get out of town. Let me know when it’s safe to return.”

              “Thank you,” replied Luciana, and she smiled for the first time today. “Stay safe. Take your gun with you. And try to have fun at a lawyer’s convention.”

              Even at a time like this, she liked to joke.

              “I’m proud of you,” I replied. “I know you’ll get through this. Keep me updated on how you’re doing. If you ever need anything, just call me.”

              Luciana kissed me on the cheek, and I kissed her back. Friends like her were rare.

              “I don’t know exactly why, but I’m confident I’ll be better,” said Luciana. “And could you please just keep this between us two? I don’t want anyone else to know what just happened to me. Not yet, at least. It still hurts.”

              “Of course,” I said. This was no surprise.

              We spent the rest of the day talking and recovering. I went home, packed up immediately, and took Jessica and Amber to Savannah. I left the rest of it to Luciana.

Chapter 9 – Luciana

It was a cinch fooling Rose. I was amazed by how awesome my acting was. She didn’t suspect a thing. All my efforts paid off. The injuries, the window I broke, and the ripped clothes worked like a charm.

              I tidied myself and my house up, picking up the props after putting on a spectacular performance. With Phase 2 accomplished, I was ready to move onto engaging Blake. This involved taking him out to the middle of nowhere, where it would be just the two of us. Actually, the two of us and ten made men of the Maggadino crime family, plus my father.

Speaking of him, he arrived in Atlanta two days ago. I’ll have to call him and tell him about what just happened. I knew he would be proud of me. I would then remind him of our plan, and give him the cue to leave Atlanta and follow us to the cabin. So far, everything proceeded to perfection.

Chapter 10 – Blake

It was useless. No matter how many times and what time I tried calling, I couldn’t reach Rose. Every time I dialed her cell number, I got a dead silence. Not even an answering machine. It was weirding me out. I went to her apartment and knocked on it a bunch, and waited for her to open up. Rose just vanished like thin air. And there was nothing that told me where she went.

I was all alone this morning, laid out on my couch and barely watching TV while feeling hungry and not knowing what to eat. My doorbell rang. I was seriously confused. Who was coming to look for me? It better not be the landlord. I was kind of scared that maybe he had an issue with me, or worse, he knew who I really was, or maybe it was even the police. Shit, I was in a bad place. I felt really screwed right now. Maybe I could escape out the window.

But I had no idea who it really was. I might be overreacting. I dragged my feet over and peeked out the peephole. I let out a huge sigh of relief. It was Luciana wearing a flannel halter top and daisy dukes, and she seemed to be staring back at me through the round window. I opened and gave her a wide smile.

“Hey, baby,” I greeted her smoothly. I sure was glad to see her.

She returned my smile with one of her own, and reached out to hug me. “Hi Robert. I’ve missed you,” she cooed warmly and seductively. We kissed energetically and held each other.

“Where’s Rose?”, she asked.

I could feel my smile slipping away. “Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t know where she went. I tried calling and texting her for days, but I haven’t seen her in like over a week.”

Luciana looked confused. “You mean she didn’t tell you?”

“No. Do you know where she is?”

“Yeah, she told me she had a big fight with you and didn’t want to see you anymore. Said you were dead to her. I was really shocked. She used to say so many nice things about you.”

I almost fell over when I heard what Luciana said. Fight? We got along the last time on our last date. That was the last time I saw her, and we had a great time. We even had plans to meet again.

“Are you okay? You look pale,” said Luciana. “Why don’t you sit down?”

I obeyed, not really aware of my surroundings. This was too much to handle.

“She’s out of town, she said. There’s this big lawyer convention in Savannah, so she said she went on in order to be alone with her kids. Frankly, you couldn’t pay me to go to one of those funerals.” Luciana kept talking, and I kept staring at the wall, more confused than ever.