Convenient Mafia Vows (Ruthless Billionaire Mafia Kings)

18. Caleb

18

CALEB

Victoria almost collides head-first with me as I enter Penn Station.

“Whoa!” I don’t think she even realizes that it’s me until I pick Abigail up and reach for Victoria’s hand. “What’s wrong?” My gaze instinctively slides towards the busy station entrance like it might be on fire. “What’s happened?”

“Caleb?” She pulls away from me, her eyes darting back and forth between me and the building. “What are you… How did you find us?”

“It doesn’t matter. Stop. Take a deep breath. And tell me what’s going on.”

When Martin alerted me to their disappearance in Macy’s, I hoped it was simply Victoria making a stand against me offering her and Abigail protection. I blamed myself. Even after the shooting incident, I refused to cloud her image of my dazzling world of casinos, designer outfits, and friends in high places because… Well, because her innocence is all part of this inexplicably overwhelming attraction I feel towards her.

I see now that it’s too late. Victoria’s life will never go back to the way it was before. Not that it was an enviable position to be in. But she’s a part of this world now whether she likes it or not.

“A man was following us.” Victoria’s breathing is shallow, sweat beading on her forehead.

I set Abigail down between me and Martin who comes running up behind us. I focus on Victoria. “Listen to me. I need you to concentrate and copy me. Breathe in.” I suck in a deep breath through my nose and hold it along with her gaze. On the count of five, I breathe out through my mouth.

Victoria mimics me, her breathing slowly regulating as tears collect on her eyelashes.

“Now tell me slowly what happened.” I don’t release her. I’m still worried that she’ll bolt if I let her go.

“There was a man … dressed in black. I spotted him over there.” She raises a trembling hand and points towards Madison Square Garden. “He was following us. I ran into the station and tried to hide. But then he came in, and I needed to get Abigail out of there. I couldn’t let him take her…” She’s sobbing now, and I pull her against my chest and hold her close.

Her heart thuds against my ribcage, out of sync with my own heartbeat, which has slowed to a steady da-dum, da-dum, while I manifest a violent ending for the guy who did this to her. Above her head I gesture for Martin to send a couple of men inside the station.

I don’t know how she did it, but I’m going to quadruple the protection around her and Abigail. She won’t be able to make a slice of toast without me knowing whether she likes it just with butter or with strawberry jelly too.

When she is calmer, I hold her at arm’s length. “Can you describe him to me?”

“Dark hair. Olive skin. He wore black clothes. I don’t know…” She shakes her head as Martin’s men come back empty handed. “Maybe I overreacted,” she adds in a small voice. “Maybe he was just catching a train.”

“Victoria, I want you to listen to me. If you thought that you were being followed, then I trust your instincts.”

“You do?” She peers at me from beneath those goddamned thick lashes, and I have to stop myself from marching inside the station myself and ripping the place apart.

“Why didn’t you call me?” I want to ask her why she gave Martin the slip, but it can wait for later.

“I ditched my coat. My phone was in my coat pocket.” She covers her face with both hands. “Sienna won’t be able to get hold of me now. I don’t know where she is. I was looking for her…”

Something cold and slimy settles in my stomach. Mason Callahan, Brailand Voth, and now Sienna. “We’ll find Sienna.”

She lowers her hands and glares at me. “Have you found Mason?”

I flinch. “No.”

“How did you know where to find me, Caleb?”

“I gave Abigail a phone, so that I could track her.”

She squeezes her eyes shut briefly; when she opens them again, her eyes are filled with accusations. “You were tracking Abigail?”

“It’s for her own protection. If you’d stayed with Martin and Kev, I wouldn’t have needed to track her.” I feel my own voice rising a notch but I’m powerless to tone it down. The thought of losing Victoria to someone who has a beef with the Murrays sets my thoughts on fire.

“I got a picture of the man.” Abigail’s voice jolts me back to reality.

“Abigail?” Victoria furrows her brow. “What are you talking about? Which man?”

“The man who was following us.” She slides a slim phone from the pocket of her overalls and offers it to me rather than Victoria.

“How did you know the man was following us?” Victoria asks while I unlock the phone and find the image.

I zoom in. It’s grainy, but it’s better than nothing. I send the image to Terry, and hand the phone back to Abigail. “Good job.” I high-five her, and she knows exactly what to do.

“You kept looking at him,” Abigail says in response to Victoria’s question. “Then you told me to hide. I waited for him to come through the doors and then I took a picture.”

“Caleb, what is going on?” Victoria drags her eyes away from her niece. “Do you know who that man is?”

“No.” It isn’t a complete untruth.

I’m hoping Terry will come back with a name, but even with a hazy photograph snapped by a five-year-old, I can hazard a good guess at what is going on here. I think the guy works for the Petrovs. Ivan’s unscheduled visit the evening before hot on the heels of the shooting incident is more than just a coincidence. I think that he and Olivia are in this together, and whatever game they’re playing, the only outcome they’re looking for is one that will benefit the two of them and no one else.

I need to warn Kyle. I was already uncomfortable with him volunteering to take Olivia on, but now it can’t go ahead. I’m almost certain that Don Dragonetti has no idea what his daughter is up to; if he did, he’d have shut it down before it even crossed the starting line. I’m equally certain that Olivia has convinced herself she doesn’t need her father’s protection. Perhaps she is replacing Daddy with Ivan Petrov.

An image of the two of them together, racing around the city in Olivia’s Lamborghini and blowing up the other mafia families fills me with a sickly sense of dread. They’re both volatile. Their behavior is erratic at best. They probably imagine themselves as a modern Bonnie and Clyde, armed and dangerous, and laughing at the other families as they ride off into the sunset.

“Caleb?” I’ve known Victoria for less than a week, but it already feels like she can see right through me. “Who is he? Do you think he might know where Mason is?” She catches on quickly.

“I think we should get back to the Wraith.” It’s a cop-out, and she knows it, but she doesn’t argue.

“No.” Kyle shakes his head. “I bumped into Olivia in her favorite nightclub yesterday evening, and we hit it off straight away.” He helps himself to a glass of iced water and sits on one of the sofas in my office.

I’ve already instructed Lauren to hold my telephone calls for the rest of the day, and to let the rest of the family in as soon as they arrive.

“It’s too dangerous.” My brandy goes down without the burn. Typical. “We’ll find another way.”

“I thought you already did that and look where that’s got us.” Kyle doesn’t use sarcasm; he’s merely telling it like it is. And it hurts.

I can’t deny that events have escalated since I introduced Victoria to Don Dragonetti and his daughter, but this is no reflection on Victoria. It’s all down to the loose cannon named Olivia Dragonetti. She’s the loaded gun, and now Ivan Petrov is waiting to pull the trigger.

“Ivan Petrov was in the Wraith last night.” I say, and Kyle sits forward, elbows resting on his knees. “He offered me a deal to throw in with his family.”

“Go on.”

“I told him the Murrays were not on the market.”

“Which he obviously doesn’t believe.”

I refill my glass; I sip this one slowly. After recent events, it will hit me later, and I want to be sober when I face Victoria. “Olivia might be crazy, but she isn’t gullible. She’ll know you’re not interested in her.”

“So, I have to make it believable.”

The door opens then, and Terry walks in with Mom. I fix them both a drink, Terry’s on the rocks, Mom’s neat. Cash gets his ability to drink his friends under the table from our mother.

“Guy’s name is Riki Kuznetsov.” Terry tosses a printed sheet of paper onto the coffee table. “Ivan brought him back from his sabbatical in Europe. From what I hear, we got lucky today. This guy will fire a bullet if you mispronounce his name.”

I enlighten them about Ivan Petrov’s offer. “We can’t proceed with the Dragonetti alliance without squaring things with the Petrovs first, and it still all revolves around Olivia. Whatever she promised Ivan, he’s bought into it.”

“Only because there’s nothing better on the table.” Terry swallows a mouthful of brandy and crunches an ice cube with his back teeth.

“Terry’s right,” Mom says. “We didn’t get lucky. What happened today, and outside Cesar was exactly what was supposed to happen. A warning. Ivan is hedging his bets. Going along with Olivia because keeping her happy is his safest option until he figures out his next move.”

“I’m not cutting a deal with the Petrovs.” I address Terry. If he suggests that I reconsider, then I’ll listen, but I already know his feelings on the matter.

Terry shakes his head. “We don’t have to.”

“We proceed as planned,” Mom joins in. “Olivia Dragonetti won’t be able to stop herself. The instant she reveals her true intentions regarding cutting you out completely unless you marry her, Ivan will back off. He’ll have no choice. He’ll do it to save face.”

“Or risk being banished again,” Terry adds.

“Kill two birds with one stone.” Mom drains her drink and slides her glass my way for a refill. “The Petrovs stand down, leaving the way clear for Don Dragonetti to step in. Win-win.”

When the door opens a second time, it catches us all by surprise. Victoria is standing there, a red-faced Lauren trying to skirt around her and speak first. “I’m sorry, Mr. Murray. I tried to stop her, but she?—”

“It’s okay, Lauren.” I avoid Kyle’s eye. He has always claimed that he would rather face a scathing lawsuit than the wrath of Miss Ingram, and it shows in the way he visibly shrinks in his seat.

The older woman reverses out of the room, closing the door behind her, but not without glaring at Victoria’s back.

“Is this about what happened today?” Victoria’s gaze flits around the room and finally settles on me. It must’ve taken a lot for her to come down here and gatecrash a family meeting, and she already looks as if she has lost her momentum.

I stand and gesture to the seat next to me where we sat only days ago with Abigail between us. “Come and sit down.” So much has altered since then that it feels as if it was a lifetime ago, a memory of a meeting that happened to two very different people.

Victoria sits between me and Mom. “If Abigail is in danger, then I have a right to know. Until Mason comes home…”

“She’s under my protection.”

I half-fill a glass with water and hand it to her, but she shakes her head. I add a splash of brandy, and she glugs the first mouthful, wincing as it goes down.

“Abigail is safe here.” Mom’s voice is steady. It’s impossible not to believe my mom, she always speaks with such utter conviction and loyalty, that no one dares question her. “Today’s unfortunate situation should never have happened but—” she takes Victoria’s hand and rubs it as though trying to coax her to dive into the deep end of the pool on her first swimming lesson “—we’ll all learn from it.”

Victoria swallows. The inference that she should have stuck close to her bodyguards isn’t lost on her. “I-I thought I saw Mason. I was trying to catch up with him before he left Macy’s, but I lost him and then…” Her voice trails off. “Then he was gone.”

Mom smiles and releases Victoria’s hand. “No harm done. You’re both safe and well.”

“I’ve increased security at the Wraith,” I confirm.

Victoria seems to slump against me, the fight draining from her as she realizes that this is out of her control. Just like when I fucked her in the elevator.

“Does this mean that I’m stuck in your apartment?” She sucks on her bottom lip, and I can’t help wishing that I was the one doing the sucking.

“On the contrary,” Mom says before I can respond. “We want you to continue as if nothing has happened.”

“Mom.” The warning note in my voice is totally missed by my mom but not by Terry and Kyle who both hide behind their drinks. “I’m not risking Victoria?—”

“No one is risking anything.” Mom talks over me. “Your wife is going to plan her wedding reception, buy an outfit worthy of the cover of Vogue magazine, get her hair done, visit her new family, and act like the happy new bride everyone expects her to be.”

“But I—” Victoria begins.

“One thing you must learn about our family,” Mom continues regardless, “is that we provide the tabloids with a united front. No matter what happens.”

Her gaze slides my way and back again, a warning not to undermine her even when the discussion relates to my wife.

“We will all be beside you every step of the way. No one will get to you unless they get through us first.”

Victoria smiles tentatively. “What about Abigail?”

“Goes without saying.” I reach for Victoria’s hand and entwine her fingers with mine, a gesture that isn’t missed by my mom. “But you must let the bodyguards do their job.”

Victoria lets out a sound halfway between a chuckle and a sob. “Will there…”

She blinks back tears, and I’m reminded how overwhelming this whole situation must be for her. She’s sitting in a room with one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in New York City having been shot outside a restaurant and followed by a mafia mobster while we all discuss keeping her and her niece alive. She probably regrets the day she accepted the job as temporary concierge at the Wraith, and who could blame her?

“Will there be trouble at the wedding reception?” she asks in a small voice as though scared to voice her concerns out loud.

“Not on my watch.” Terry drains his drink, and peers into his empty glass.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Mom says. “You have the word of every single one of us in this room.”

Kyle clears his throat. “I don’t think we can guarantee there’ll be no trouble at the wedding reception.”

“I’ve told him to abandon the plan we agreed on yesterday.” I refill my glass, and tip Victoria’s towards her lips.

Despite the gravity of the conversation, my mind is already drifting towards fucking a tipsy Victoria later when I have her all to myself. Sober, she offers me her body with complete and utter abandon; I can’t wait to see what happens when she’s softened by booze.

“What plan?” Victoria asks.

Kyle answers. “It’s fair to say that my brother’s fake marriage, rather than prompting her to back off, has ignited a fuse beneath our friend Olivia Dragonetti. So, we decided to provide her with a distraction. Aka me.”

“No.” Victoria shakes her head, and Mom flashes me a warning glance. Control your wife; she isn’t part of this family . “Why would you do that? What about Suki?”

Kyle smiles. “Suki was just a date. She was happy to be seen out with me because it keeps her social media profile current.”

“But Olivia Dragonetti…” Victoria swallows the remainder of her drink in one mouthful as if requiring fortification. “She told me that Caleb’s car was waiting for her outside the restaurant the other night.”

“Precisely my point.” Kyle spreads his hands wide like he’s addressing members of the jury rather than his family. “I realize that she’ll use me to get to Caleb, so I intend to drip feed her tiny crumbs of information about my brother’s rocky relationship with his bride of a few weeks.”

My fists clench, and I set my glass down on the table before I crush it. “No. I’m not faking a rocky marriage with Victoria.” I realize the irony a beat too late when Kyle shakes his head.

“Caleb, hear him out.” Victoria sits forward so that she doesn’t miss anything. “You want her to believe that she’s in with a chance.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “She has never been in with a chance. If she doesn’t get it after ten years?—”

“But don’t you see?” There’s excitement in Victoria’s voice now. “Her brain obviously isn’t wired the same way as other people’s.”

“The closer it gets to the wedding reception,” Kyle joins in, “the more desperate she’ll become.”

“Which will spark Ivan Petrov’s fury at being used.” Even Mom is on board with this now. “She’ll be on her own when she realizes that Caleb and Victoria are happy, and that’s when she’ll get careless.”

“Abigail will be at the wedding reception.” I already know that my input is washing over their heads.

“We’ll be waiting for her,” Terry says. “It’s the only way to make sure her father understands what a monster he has raised, and it will offer us a way out from the Petrovs when they have to confess to Ivan helping her.”

“I don’t like it. Too much can go wrong.”

“Oh, Caleb.” Mom smiles. “Too many things can go wrong every minute of every day. It’s the world we live in. It never stopped you before.” She gives Victoria a sideways glance. “Wouldn’t you agree, Victoria?”

“I know Olivia is…”

“Crazy?” I suggest. “A nutjob with psychopathic tendencies?”

Instead of being deterred, Victoria smiles. “But maybe this is the only way to get her out of your life for good. And you have your family on your side.”

Her tone is gentle, but I sense the wistfulness behind the comment. I don’t know her history, but it’s obvious that Victoria has been the one holding her family together. Perhaps she is more like my mom than anyone realizes.

A sudden image materializes inside my head: Victoria, twenty years from now, sitting around a table with our sons, reminding them that family is everything, and that together, they can rule the world. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s so vivid, my breath hitches in my throat, and I find myself nodding in agreement.

“Good.” Mom and Victoria exchange glances, and I don’t know how the meeting slipped into their hands so easily, but I feel as if they ganged up on me. And won. “I think this calls for a toast.” Mom clinks her empty glass against mine.

I top up our drinks—including Kyle’s—and we toast our futures.

Victoria’s bottom lip disappears behind her top teeth, and I make a mental note to tell her not to do that in public unless she wants to risk me ripping her clothes off and fucking her with an audience.

“What about Sienna and Mason?” she asks. “Do you think Olivia has something to do with their disappearance?”

“I’m already on it.” Terry sets his glass down on the table; he has barely touched his drink. “The Petrovs have been keeping a low profile while Ivan was off the scene. Expanding their business into computer equipment.”

Computer equipment?

My face must reflect my bewilderment because Terry grins. “My sentiments exactly. It’s a front for something else—my guess is weapons or drugs.”

“Or both,” Kyle suggests.

“Or both.” Terry inclines his head. “Either way, storage capacity within the city is at a minimum. I’ve put out feelers to locate their warehouses. With Ivan involved, it’s as good a place as any to start looking.”