Chapter Twenty
Aria Bianchi
My eyes were crusted shut from what had to be a fitful sleep.
As I tried to pry my eyes open, I realized that I had not slept so hard in a long time. Maybe ever.
Then, Enzo’s betrayed eyes pierced through my mind.
With each second, I remembered more about what had happened before I had been knocked out. Enzo’s cold words. His hate-filled stare. My final thought before going unconscious: Was he going to kill me just like his father had killed his mother?
My body swayed with motions, and I finally managed to blink them open with a groan. I was sprawled across the back seat of the car as if someone had tossed me inside without any consideration for positioning. My head ached, but I blinked it away as I looked around the cramped sedan.
“Pull over,” I whispered with a hoarse voice. I cleared my throat and sat up, looking at the stoic-faced driver. “Pull over,” I repeated louder.
He didn’t hesitate before putting on his blinker and pulling off an exit. I tried taking in where we were, but I couldn’t find any landmarks. Nothing of substance. He put on his flashers as we pulled to a stop sign, and he unlocked his door.
I could have asked him to bring me to a rest stop, but I needed out.
My eyes locked on a gas station a quarter of a mile up the road, and I stumbled out of the car, falling to my knees the second my legs tried to bear my weight.
The driver peeled off quickly enough that the door slammed shut on its own, leaving me in the dust. It took me a moment to gather my balance and pull myself to my feet. Whatever I had been injected with had muted all of my senses enough that walking took great effort.
I felt my clothes, shocked that a phone had been placed in my pocket.
My phone.
I opened it and scanned the map for my location. I zoomed out and found that I was somewhere in mid-Pennsylvania.
How long was I asleep?
Okay, Aria. Think.
I was given a unique opportunity. I was far enough away that if I kept going, I could start over. Change my name and pursue the future I had wanted. I could have everything I had ever wanted, but…
My hand lingered over my lower belly.
I didn’t think I wanted that anymore. What I wanted was back in New York, and he had to know the entire truth. He had to know that I never offered any important information and that I was trying to stop this from happening.
He had to survive.
And my sisters…
There was one thing I had to do first. Before I went back to Enzo, I needed to make sure my sisters were accounted for and out. If I could get them out, I could have the future I wanted. Everything had the potential to fall into place.
I dialed Jaimie and listened to the rings.
“What?” she answered, her one terse.
“Jaimie, did—”
“You lied to all of us,” she said.
“There’s more to it than that. I’m going to explain. But I need my sisters out first. Did you find them?”
The line went silent, and the back noise around her faded before she spoke again. “I don’t do blind faith, Bianchi. But I wasn’t going to let two girls be punished for shit they’re not involved in. I found one of them, but I can’t get her out. She’s under heavy guard. That one is the youngest. The older sister is missing. Finding her will take more time.”
“Evelina?” I asked as my heart skipped a beat.
“I can find her, but I need time.”
“But you can’t get either of them?”
She paused. “It will take time.”
“I don’t have time,” I shouted, ending the call.
My father would learn that I failed him, and Evelina would be sold in a matter of days? Hours? I didn’t even know how long I had been unconscious. I also couldn’t understand why Enzo would send me away rather than keeping me close and questioning me, but that was something I would unpack later.
I thought I had everything figured out. I thought I would be able to get my sisters out and have the family I had started dreaming of, but if I could only have one thing—if both options weren’t on the table…
Evelina and Livia had to come first. But Enzo and his uncle were just as important. They deserved to survive me and my father’s plans. My happiness would come second. The baby in my womb… well, I would make sure it was loved and cared for regardless of my situation.
I dialed a number I had hoped never to dial again.
My father answered on one of the last rings. “You fucked up,” he snarled as soon as he answered. “All my intel in the Rissi family has gone dark, and they are suspicious. What did you do?”
His pissed off tone should have terrified me, but I was on a mission.
“Don’t kill Giovanni,” I demanded. “I’ll do anything. Anything. But don’t go through with the plan to kill him.”
He laughed hard. “You’re fucking kidding me. You’re going to negotiate with me?”
“What do you want from me? I can work for you. I can be anything, but I want them to be left out of the situation.”
“You are stupid if you think you matter more than everything that is at play.”
“I don’t,” I told him, keeping my tone steady. “I know I don’t. But they have you outnumbered, and when you attack, they will win. Whether or not you take out the entire bloodline. They have plans to keep everything running smoothly, even in the event of their deaths. But you? You have two daughters who you are holding captive, none of whom will take over for you or remember you when you are killed. When you die, you will become nothing. Nobody will remember you in a few years, nor will they care to.”
“I have three daughters under my thumb, and that’s more than enough.”
“You don’t have me anymore. You didn’t even see me leave New York. You won’t find me if I don’t want to be found.” Silence greeted me on the other end of the line. “Even if I come back, there is no guarantee my sisters will be safe. You won’t be able to use them as leverage anymore if I never come back, and neither of them will do your bidding the way I always have, will they?”
He knew the truth. Livia was too rebellious, and she would betray him at the first opportunity. Evelina… well, she wasn’t socially aware enough to be of use to him.
He had me. Only me.
And if I never came back, he’d have nothing.
“Tell me where you are, and I won’t harm them.”
“Yes, you will,” I told him. “The moment I fuck up again, you’ll use them like you always have. Promise me that you won’t kill Giovanni or Enzo like we planned, and I’ll do whatever you want.”
I waited for his reply, and when it didn’t come, I checked to make sure the line was still connected. It was, so I waited. I could feel that I had him. I knew how important it was for him to have leverage over the people closest to him. I tried to play off of the things I knew about him. He wanted to be powerful. Notorious. He wanted everyone to see him as such.
And I had information that would ruin everything.
“If you don’t spare them, I will make sure everyone knows what you have been doing to frame them,” I told him. “And if I am killed, there is someone else who will make sure the information is delivered.”
He finally replied. “You’re asking me to give up my one chance at successfully becoming capo dei capi,” he reminded me.
“Yes.”
“You’ll need to give me much more than your loyalty.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
I had a feeling my leverage was already enough, but I couldn’t risk pushing him too far. If what I knew wasn’t enough, was Giovanni’s life really worth the risk?
Was Enzo’s?
“You’re right that I don’t have anyone to take over after me. I didn’t raise you girls the way I should have, but I still have the chance to raise someone else to take my role. An heir.”
My breathing quickened. Was it possible he knew of the pregnancy with Enzo? He couldn’t know. I hadn’t told anyone. I didn’t want to know how he’d react if he ever learned the truth.
“You want an heir?” I asked, my voice tense.
“Yes. If you want to keep them alive, you’ll give me an heir with a capo of my choosing.”
* * * *
I walked through the familiar hallways of my childhood home, escorted by one of my father’s long-time drivers. It took everything in me to keep my shoulders back, despite the unseemly clothes I wore and what I knew was to come.
We marched toward the garage where my father “worked,” and the nausea churning in my gut took all my concentration to keep at bay. I wouldn’t consider what I was going to see inside. It wouldn’t matter as long as everyone in my life remained safe and alive.
Livia. Evelina. Enzo .
If I kept adding names to my list, I would never escape.
The driver pushed open the garage door, and my father stood alongside a dozen older men. The youngest in the lineup couldn’t have been younger than forty, and my gut churned again, this time audibly.
“Pick one,” my father said immediately.
“Pick one?” I repeated, turning over the words in my mouth. “For…”
“You made a deal to me. Produce me an heir, and I won’t follow through with my plans this time.”
“And my sisters?”
“Both being kept safe and under guard as collateral.”
“Collateral?” I scoffed. “You have every advantage. I’m giving up my body for you to keep your end of the bargain, and you can’t give me my sisters?”
He moved forward so swiftly and without an ounce of hesitation as he lifted his palm. My cheek stung from the slap before I registered what he had done.
“And I’m putting aside my plans. Plans that have been in motion for a very long time.”
I shouldn’t have come here. I should have put myself first for once in my life, but instead, I had put everyone else’s well-being above mine and my unborn child’s. And now, I stood before possible suitors.
At least he was giving me a choice…
“It’s that important to you?” I asked.
He only nodded, and I knew this was it. He didn’t know I was already pregnant, so he would think that this pregnancy came from the man I chose. His not knowing the child was Enzo’s could save the baby’s life. It would save my life. And as the mother, I could shield my baby from the hardest parts of this life.
“Him,” I said, pointing to the only man who looked to have any emotion in his eyes. The rest of these men were cold. Unfeeling. Perfect soldiers beneath my father.
“Tomorrow afternoon before the event,” my father said to the man. “We will see if my daughter will make herself useful for once in her fucking life.”