CHAPTER 58 - EPILOGUE

Twenty years later

Nicolo De Luca POV:

"Nico I swear, you are giving me grey hair! I can't keep bailing you out of shit! You are to be the heir and Max your second, if you don't pull your shit together I'm passing it to Luc's kids." my father shouts at me.

I'm already bored, so you may be wondering what has gotten the old man so upset? Let me tell you, I got caught with a stripper at The Underground, and may have shot her boyfriend in the leg for trying to mess with me. He didn't know I was a De Luca though. Kind of obvious if you ask me, Max and I look almost exactly like our dad, and Liya our sixteen year old sister looks exactly like our mother. "Dad calm the fuck down! I didn't kill him." I say rolling my eyes.

"You are not head of this family yet, do not tell me to calm down! Your brother has more sense than you, at least he doesn't fuck everything that moves!"

"Not that you know of. Any way, if you're done I need to go actually do legit business at the hotel," I say seeing my father's jaw tick in frustration. Sometimes I really do think he will shoot me, my father is one of the most ruthless men on the planet, and he loves us, but I know just how far to push. You could call me the wild card, I can be reckless at times and I'm known the world over as a notorious playboy, but Max my identical twin, he's more quiet and calculating. I may act like an ass but I do have shit together and dad knows it.

"Just get out, you have meetings today and I need to see to other business." My father dismisses me.

Don't get me wrong, Max has his fun but within limits. We are both really good business men, and extremely smart, we both graduated early from high school and got our business degrees in less than three years. We are not dumb, I just like to push boundaries and the ladies love it. Working out and training is part of our daily lives, we actually have the De Luca tattoo's already, we got them when we were eighteen, tradition.

"Nico you need to stop provoking your father, don't forget who he is, and don't you forget who I am. I gave birth to you so if I tell you to show respect, you show it and don't think you're too old for me to discipline you," my mother Alina says.

Now she's the only woman on this earth I am truly scared of, the sweetest woman you will ever meet but the deadliest. Her and dad are in their forties now, but still as fit as ever, my mother doesn't look a day over thirty, my father looks like my older brother. "yes mamma, I'm sorry I will behave," I say with a sigh and give her a kiss on the cheek. I really need to go to work, Max will kill me, we are running a few hotels and clubs of my dad's, nothing too illegal yet till my dad feels we are ready. We have been involved in some things, torture, killing, but not running anything big until dad thinks it's time.

Maximo De Luca POV:

I am so sick of having to cover for Nico's ass at work, I'm always the responsible one. I sigh sitting in a meeting with investors, I'm so bored, numbers are easy for me, and they keep explaining like I'm an idiot, just because I'm young. Nico said he will be here soon, it's too early in the morning for his shit, he can be so reckless. One thing though, you don't want to come up against either of us when your life is on the line, we are just as bad as our father, because we have to be that tough.

I make my way to the office and in walks my darling twin brother after missing two morning meetings. "Nice of you to grace us with your presence." I say sarcastically.

"Dad wanted to speak to me, apparently I should not have shot someone last night." Nico says trying to hold his laugh. I swear my brother can be such an idiot, but I know Nico is a lot deeper than anyone thinks he is, all of this is a front, his real problems come from having to step into dad's shoes and for me, to step into uncle Luc's.

"Just get to work you idiot, uncle Luc and uncle Dario will be here soon, and you know uncle Dario is just like dad, uncle Luc well you never know." I say pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Yeah, I'm on it, stop worrying so much, my work is always done brother." Nico says walking off and saluting me.

We may annoy each other but you don't get two people more close than us. We are literally two halves, and balance each other out. Me, I'm more quiet, but I do have my wild moments, I just do it more discreetly than Nico and don't shoot people at will.

Alina POV:

Nico really needs to get his shit together, I know Romeo won't step down any time soon and I guess that's why he acts like he does, my boy is a lot deeper than he let's on. I think its just a matter of stepping into Romeo's shoes. "Amore, you need to not let Nico get to you so much," I say sighing at my poor husband, who looks like he is about to kill.

"Bella, he pushes my buttons so much, I give them everything they want and need, is it so hard to ask for a little control and discretion?" Romeo says with a sigh.

"It's not, but you know Nico, Max is a bit more calm but just give Nico a chance." I say hoping it helps, there's no instructions to raising Mafia boys.

"How is Liya? Is my princess doing well?" Romeo asks, she's definitely a daddy's girl. My boys are more mommy's boys.

"She's well, I think she has a boyfriend, and she's at school right now, she's top in her class." I say with a smile. Romeo looks like he's about to have a stroke. "Calm down, she's going to be curious, and she can do everything I can do to protect myself." I say seeing Romeo's jaw tick.

"It's not her I'm worried about, I will fucking kill this little boy if he touches her!" Romeo says looking like he's about to go hunt the boy down and scare the shit out of him, so will Nico and Max if they get wind of this. Problem is I think any one of them will shoot him. I look at my husband and he's sitting on his desk chair exhausted. I move and straddle his lap and he slides his hands round my ass and gives it a squeeze. After all these years we are still like that young couple when we first met.

"Leo and Vince won't be here for a while, so we are here alone." Romeo says pulling me down harder and his excitement is evident.

"Jake is doing the studios for me today and Mari is at the hotel," I say with naughty smile, it's rare that we are alone like this, other than the bedroom at night it's difficult to just be free. Romeo picks me up and throws me on the desk and let's just say it was like old times, hot and heavy.

Trying to put ourselves together, Romeo looks at me with so much love and appreciation that I still melt. The kids still catch us making out and get grossed out by it but it's a good laugh.

Luc and Jake have two boys, they are in the life, a bit younger than our boys but so close with Max and Nico. Mari and Leo have one boy and one girl, about the same age as Luc and Jakes kids, they had a surrogate one is Luc's and one is Jakes. We have a very busy family, even Dimitri and Dario settled.

Isabella, now she took forever to settle down, she took over Sofia's restaurants becoming a world renowned chef, she married another chef named Julian, and they have a daughter, but she tries to stay clear of the life.

Dimitri married a wonderful woman named Emma, she's part Italian so it worked and they have son. Dario actually married Kelsey, they eventually patched things up and also have two boys now, he's still stoic and serious but more human now. The next generation of the De Luca Mafia is here and all of them will bring something unique to the table.

I can't wait to see what my boys will do with things and what heights they will take things too. I'm scared to death every day something might happen to them or Romeo, but I know that we all live as if it's our last day. Love as if it's the last time, and celebrate the joy where we can.

It's been a long road to getting to this part in our life, content and blissfully happy. "What are you thinking about so hard bella?" Romeo asks as I stare out of his study window.

"Just how full circle we have all come, and what the next generation will be like when they take over. We have lived a wonderful life, all of us married with kids that are now adults. It's been one hell of a ride Mr De Luca, from the moment we set eyes on each other in that club, now we have three beautiful kids." I say smiling as I face him.

"Si amore, it's been the best life, who knew when I showed up that night that I would meet the love of my life, seeing you dance, would give me all this." Romeo says smiling.

"I would like to think that Gio is still looking down on us and keeping us all safe. I still miss him after all these years." I say hugging my husband.

"Bella, he is, and life is good. God help the world when Nico and Max take over," Romeo chuckles.

"Ti amo Romeo," I say wistfully.

"Ti amo Alina," Romeo says give g me a kiss.

Life really is good.

The End.