Novel & Cerita Luca Books

For the first time in forever, we weren’t looking over our shoulders. There was no Matteo. No lingering threats. No debts to settle. Just us. And it felt good. At one point, Luca pulled me into a small bookstore tucked between two flower shops. “You don’t even read,” I teased, running my fingers along the spines of old books. Luca shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, but you do. And I like watching you get lost in them.” My heart squeezed. Before I could respond, he plucked a book from the shelf, flipping through the pages. “What about this one?”

Something I fought to control but still failed at. “I know you’re awake. You don’t have to keep pretending”, Luca states. Relief floods me and I instantly shoot up from the bed, throwing away the fact that he’d just caught me eavesdropping. It crosses my mind to apologize for my bad manners but he beat me to it. “You would eventually find out about him anyway. That’s my advisor. The underworld has seen its oddities and The Sage is one.”, Luca explains, pushing himself off the bed. His fingers work on his shirt, unbuttoning from top to bottom as he walks over to the floor to ceiling window that looks out into the horizon.

Just as I was about to take my seat…something caught my attention. A thick black book. Older than the rest. Worn on the edges. Tucked in the back of the top right shelf. And sticking out of it…a photo. I paused. Then gently, I pulled it out, dusted it, and opened the book. The first photo made my heart thump. A young Luca, maybe ten years old. Standing beside a tall man in a tuxedo. Proud. Looked familiar. Too familiar. The man had a bold, upward-tilted moustache,brown and thick, almost like it smiled on its own.

She wasn’t surprised to find it empty—who needed books when bullets made quicker decisions? But she found herself drawn to the rows of old leather-bound novels, trailing her fingers along spines that hadn’t been touched in years. “Looking for something?” Elana turned sharply. Luca leaned against the far wall, hands in his pockets, watching her with that same unreadable expression. “This is becoming a habit,” she said. “You showing up wherever I go.” “Maybe I’m curious,” he said. “Or maybe I just like the way you look when you think no one’s watching.”

I had never in my life felt more listened to than when Gabriella Russo went quiet. I looked at my hands for a moment. "His name was Luca," I said. "He was four years younger than me. He had our mother's eyes and our father's mouth and absolutely no capacity for self-preservation, which was funny when we were children and terrifying once we were grown." I paused. "He was the kind of person who made a room louder just by walking into it. Not obnoxious, just alive. More alive than most people manage to be." Gabriella hadn't moved.

ELENA RETURNS TO THE CENTRAL ANOMALY: CHAPTER STRUCTURE. Lucas whispered: “It’s like a book.” Nobody said anything. Then another line appeared. LUCAS COMPARES THEIR EXPERIENCE TO A BOOK. His face crumpled. “I don’t want to be in a book.” Elena knelt in front of him. “You are not a book.” “But it says chapter.” “You are Lucas.” “What if it already knows what I do next?” “Then it knows what you do next.” He stared at her. “That’s bad.”

My gaze fell on the old book again. “Is that about me?” “No.” Immediate. “About the amulet?” “No.” “About the gates?” “No.” “Rafael?” His eyebrows lifted. I smiled. “Just checking.” “No.” “Matteo?” “No.” “The Silver Wolf?” Luca went quiet. There. I sat straighter. “Oh.” He closed the book completely. “You've already read about it.” “In the chronicle.” “And?” “And half of it sounded like a bedtime story written by someone who had been drinking.”

Luca’s POV Luca sat in the underground room he used for work that no one outside his circle knew existed. It was buried under the mansion Dante gave him. The walls were covered in files, maps, and photographs. A long table sat in the middle with laptops, wires, and two phones. If secrecy had a smell, anyone who walked into the underground room would definitely smell it. Luca liked this room. It was the only place where he could lie, plan, cheat, and sin without anyone seeing his face.

While Yara was the Angelic Belluci, whom people saw as the pure, cute, innocent and handworking billionaire Belluci that had a successful brand, I was the Lilith Belluci, the ruthless, always on edge woman who needed to get laid, had the most sour expression, heartless and who had taken over half of her father’s Mafia business, because of reasons best known to her father. We were like the two fishes in the yin and yang. Or at least that’s what I thought they whispered behind me. Plus Nicola had said the same thing on a few occasions...one occasion rather. It sure made me mad as hell anytime I heard that considering how much I disliked her and couldn’t stand her. And I couldn’t even remember

Standard high-end security. “Story?” Luca asked, climbing into bed. “One short story,” I said. I picked a book from the shelf about a lost star. I read it quickly, my voice soft. Halfway through, I saw Sophia’s silhouette in the hallway again, listening. When I finished, Luca’s eyes were already heavy. “Is Papa coming?” “I’m sure he’ll check on you,” I said, smoothing his hair. It wasn’t my place to promise.