The Forbidden Secret (Forbidden #2)

Chapter Thirteen

Evelina Bianchi

“The other safe houses in my arsenal are frequently used, so we can’t go inside and assume we’re safe,” Zeke explained as he pulled a car onto the street outside a large building full of apartment complexes. “Stay in the car, stay down. I’m going to check them out.”

“How will you know if they’re compromised?”

He lifted a small device. “I’ll scan for bugs and check the perimeter. It shouldn’t take long. If you feel like there’s a threat, drive away and go back to the last safe house. If you’re being followed, keep driving for half an hour through populated areas, and then go back to the safe house. I’ll be there waiting.”

I looked over at his stern expression and nodded. “I’ll wait here.”

He hesitated, looking between me and the apartment complex for a long moment before finally turning to the door and getting out of the car.

From what he told me this morning, Jaimie was deep undercover, trying to get more information on Clide Newton that neither Giovanni nor he could get himself. She would be on that cover for a few days—weeks if she found anything substantial enough.

God, I hoped she didn’t find anything that would keep her away for weeks.

As Zeke closed the door, my thoughts lingered around the situation and the utter hopelessness of it. There was no end in sight—no way to get out of this danger. It felt like it would simply never end.

I stared out the window and toward the apartment complex that Zeke was surveying, wondering how long it would take. If he was just scanning and surveying, I doubted I would be here long, but—

I saw it.

Right on the corner, beside a streetlight and right outside a vape shop, a payphone stood. Payphones were rare enough now that I had not hoped to find one, but this opportunity couldn’t be passed up.

It stood across the street from the apartment complex, and even if we were tracked to the area, they would assume we were passing through. They wouldn’t know that we stayed right across the street. Plus, in the time it would take for them to monitor hundreds of apartments, we would be gone.

I didn’t think it through.

I shuffled in the car for a few spare quarters before sprinting across the street, keeping my head down to avoid detection. I locked myself in the booth and put in all my quarters before dialing Maggie’s number by memory. It rang a handful of times before she answered.

“Hello?”

“Maggie, it’s me.”

She gasped audibly. “Oh my God, I had no idea how to get ahold of you,” she shouted. “You can’t do this to me. Beatrice was in the hospital a few nights ago.”

My heart skipped a beat as my palms began sweating. No. I couldn’t lose her. Panic filled my chest, and I found words nearly impossible to get out of my chest. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She had a case of RSV, and they gave her a breathing treatment. She’s doing much better now, but I needed you, Eve. She needed you. This can’t continue. I’m going to give birth any day now, and I can’t keep her longer. I love Beatrice with my entire heart, but this is too much responsibility. With the people still watching, and—”

“They’re still watching you? Has anything else happened?” I didn’t even know which questions were most important. I fisted my hair in my hand in frustration. “Jesus, Maggie. I don’t know what to do. If they know she’s mine, she’ll be in danger. But she needs to go somewhere…”

“You need to tell me what to do,” she demanded.

That was the problem. She was my only option—the only person who could keep Beatrice safe and out of these people’s hands.

“I… I don’t know,” I admitted.

Maggie exhaled. “Would turning her over to the foster care system be the best option for her right now? She’d be safe there. A family would take her in, and because she’s so young, they would love her.”

“No,” I said. “I won’t ever get her back if that happens.”

“Give me something, Evelina. You’re my best friend, but I have been doing this for you for months.”

My heart raced. It was too much.

“Is she doing okay?” I whispered. “I… I miss her, and… I just need to know that she’s okay.”

“She’s doing great, Evelina. She really is. I love her like she’s my own. If it weren’t for the people watching me because of your situation—the people who could pose a risk to my baby and yours—I would keep her longer. I would find a way to keep her safe for you. But it’s too much. I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens under my watch, and I’m afraid that something will. You need to find someone to come and get her. I’m so sorry, but I can’t keep her much longer.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” I told her, shaking my head. “Jesus, Maggie, you’ve done everything for me and my family. You told me from day one that you couldn’t keep her when your baby was born. I just… I never expected any of this to happen.”

“I know, honey. I didn’t either.”

I bit my lip as I considered. “How much longer can you keep her?”

She exhaled, and a small coo came from the background. I wanted to cry as the sound melted the resolve I had managed to keep during this entire conversation. A single tear slid down my cheek. I missed Beatrice so damn much. I needed to be reunited with her again, but were my selfish desires worth her safety?

No, not at all.

“Another week. I need you to tell me what to do if nobody comes for her after that, Eve. I need to know what you want me to do.”

There were only two options: come and get her or allow Maggie to give her to a stranger. And what were the odds I would ever get Beatrice back if she did that? The odds were slim, but if the options were to either put her in danger or risk losing custody of her, I knew the choice I had to make.

“If I don’t get back to you within a week, you can do whatever you need to do,” I told her.

I wouldn’t let that happen.

I would sooner tell Zeke the truth and pray he could do something for her.

The conversation lingered heavy on my mind as I marched back to the car and waited for Zeke to return. And he did with a scowl on his lips and a tightness to his posture. The moment he settled into the seat of the car, he began driving erratically, taking a series of turns that appeared counterintuitive.

“What did you find?”

“They’re all bugged,” he replied, shaking his head. “We got lucky that nobody is tailing us, but they’ll know we were there.”

A sense of hopelessness filled my chest. “Do we have any other options?”

“Just one.”

I didn’t ask as I weighed the benefits of telling him about Beatrice. I felt like I knew a part of him, but there were so many unpredictable parts that were volatile in a decision like this. Would he hate her? Would he give up his protection detail out of spite? I didn’t think so, but how much did I really know about him? I knew what I had learned on my own, but he still hadn’t opened up to me. He still didn’t show me who he truly was behind the mask of a mafia assassin.

We pulled up to a neighborhood different than the others we had frequented. This one looked like a street full of lawyers and doctors—people who could afford the luxury of a park across the street and balconies on each apartment. The stores beneath the apartments were primarily clothing shops, but we parked behind the building of a luxury candle and fragrance shop as Zeke pulled out a set of keys.

I followed him into the back entrance and up the elevator to a sixth-floor apartment sandwiched between two others.

When we walked through the door, I stumbled over my feet.

The décor was sparse, but there was something.

There was art hanging on every wall of the living room.

My art.

I turned in place, scanning all the pieces that seemed to fit immaculately in the room. Nothing else hung on the walls. No other décor had been arranged around the space.

“Is this your place?” I asked.

“It’s the only place left to go. All the other houses are occupied.”

I had delivered it to another place altogether and assumed the paintings had been a ruse. I had not given it much thought, but I had assumed that they ended up either resold or in the garbage, especially after he admitted that the delivery had been a plan to complete his job and kill me.

I had not allowed myself to consider the paintings and where they had gone.

“I didn’t think you would keep them,” I admitted.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

I didn’t give him the long-winded explanation of where my thoughts had taken me when I learned everything. Instead, I just shrugged. It didn’t make sense. None of it did. The reason he kept the paintings was what confused me the most.

“You bought them to complete your job and kill me.” He flinched, but I continued. “But I don’t understand why you kept them. I guess I just don’t understand you. I don’t understand why you do the things you do. I can’t understand your lack of commitment. Why do you act like you want me—like you care about me—but then refuse to act on those feelings beyond sex?

“I thought you were coming to terms with the way I don’t do commitment.”

I crossed my arms, thinking about Beatrice. If I told him the truth, I had no idea how he would react.

That hit home more than any other realization.

I didn’t know if he would accept his own daughter. But in the end, I was beginning to see my lack of options. Telling him may be my last option.

I stared into his eyes as blood rushed through my ears. I balled my fists and forced myself to nod. “Yeah, I’m trying.”

I could hardly hear my own voice in my ears as I turned my back on him and walked away.