Chapter Forty-Seven
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Georgia/ Two Years Ago
L eani’s voice was shaky when she called to tell me to come over, leaving a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drove up the long, windy driveway. As much as I wish I didn’t care about the frail woman, I know she has very few people in her corner. I know how that isolation feels, so I’m willing to be the bigger person despite the consequences.
Fingers tighten around the steering wheel when I see an unfamiliar car parked next to my father’s; I take a deep breath as I stop beside it.
“Be the bigger person,” I remind myself, stepping out of the car to see the front door cracked open and Leani standing there with a wary expression on her face.
As I walk up to her, I ask, “Whose car is—”
“Shh.” She cuts me off, pulling me inside and quietly closing the door. When she turns to me, I gape at her discolored face.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, studying the blues and purples that makeup clearly couldn’t cover.
Leani guides us into the kitchen. “It doesn’t matter,” is the first thing she tells me.
I shake my head, swallowing the shock down when I get a better look at her in the light. “How can this not matter? Look at you, Leani!”
She won’t meet my eyes for the longest moment, but when she does, there’s something I’ve never seen in them before. Defiance. “What matters is ending this.”
Ending what? “What are you—”
“He’s with his lawyer.” She gestures toward the study. “They’ve been having a lot of meetings lately, mostly away. But his lawyer showed up this morning looking intimidated, and Nikolas hasn’t been right since.”
What does this have to do with me? “Leani, why am I here? Why are you here? If he’s done this before, why stay?”
“For the same reason you came back,” she tells me firmly, grabbing my hand. “Because we’re trying to protect the people we care about. I have sacrificed so much, been punished for so much. It all needs to end. The lies. The betrayal. Everything.”
Her grip is stronger than I expect, causing me to wince when her nails dig in until crescent indents are left behind. “I have given up my life for love, and it was a love I was never able to have.”
All I can do is blink at her. Did she actually love my father?
“So what I want to know is this. How much are you willing to sacrifice for love?”
For love.
Lincoln pops into my mind, and I know she knows she has me.
“What did you call me here for?” I ask, shoulders squaring at whatever idea she’s been cooking.
“I need you to listen very closely to me.”
Nerves buzz under my skin as the stretch of silence lasts longer than I’d like it to.
“I had an affair with William Murphy shortly after he became partners with your father. I was in love. He always made me feel appreciated, and I felt like I mattered in a world where us women rarely are. We’d both been having some troubles in our marriage that were caused by the stress of MDR’s rapid growth, and things went too far. Your father was never going to love me the way he loved your mother, but he hated when anybody had control over something he considered his. And that is what I was. His.”
She takes a deep breath and winces, holding her side and making me wonder if she has more injuries than I can see. “William Murphy treated me like a person rather than a pawn, and I will be forever grateful for what he has shown me. But I don’t want to keep being punished for falling in love. Your father is losing control because he was driven by greed and money, and now he’s drowning in the consequences of his actions.”
Leani looks away from me.
“You loved William.”
Her eyes sadden. “I did.”
It’s more than sadness. There’s grief. “Did my father do something to separate you two?”
A fresh glaze settles into her eyes. “He made a deal with the devil,” she whispers, shedding one tear and hastily swiping it away.
“Stefan Mangino.”
She dips her head. “Stefan has intervened in your father’s life since your mother turned away the Mangino family. Your father thought if he could strike a deal with him, that they would be even. William—” Her voice breaks. “William was in over his head with the people he was working with. I told him to stop, but he couldn’t. He was becoming a risk, and Nikolas knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught. So, he set him up in the hope of proving to Mangino that he was loyal. He wanted William out of the picture and Stefan Mangino to let go of the vendetta he had against him.”
But he didn’t. “So my father got his partner locked up, the business in his name, and Stefan Mangino became an investor.”
Her throat bobs. “He thought he could show Mangino that they were on the same side. That they didn’t have to be enemies. But Mangino would never forget what your mother did. So he went back on his promise to Nikolas and started making the business beneficial to him and his…associates.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
She reaches into my bag and pulls out the phone to reveal the recording in process. “I’m telling you this because you have gotten good at playing the role of the dutiful daughter. But you are like me, Georgia. You are done wondering when the punishment will end.”
When she releases my hand, I hit the red button that stops recording audio. “Why tell me this when he’s here and put us both at risk? Why not go to the police yourself and tell them what you know?”
When she lifts her shirt, I suck in a breath when I see the large bruise covering half of her torso. “Because I won’t survive any more of his wrath. You have far more officers on your side than I do on mine.”
Lowering her shirt, she takes my hand in a softer grip. “I can’t have children of my own,” she tells me, her lips wavering. “And I’ve taken that frustration out on you when it wasn’t deserved. But you are better than your father. Better than me. You have something worth living for. Something to lose. Do something with it.”
Something crashes in the study, making both of us flinch as voices begin raising.
My eyes dart to her, dipping to her torso where the bruises are hiding. “Why is he speaking to his lawyer anyway?”
She swallows. “He wants to void the contract with Mangino before he can run the business into the ground. He needs his lawyer to figure out how.”
If Stefan Mangino is as powerful as he seems, then no lawyer would be able to void a contract like that.
As if she knows what I’m thinking, she murmurs, “The devil never takes back a deal without a sacrifice. And I fear that one of us may be the lamb brought to slaughter.”
“So, what do you propose?”
The study door opens, and Leani pulls me off to the side and out of sight when a man with a red, round face scurries down the hallway.
As he opens the door, he spots where we’re hiding and freezes. His eyes widen when he sees me before they dart behind him.
In a voice low enough for only us to hear, he says, “If you were smart, you would get out while you can.”
He says that to me, not Leani.
“You can’t help him,” I state.
The stranger scoffs. “Nobody can. I wish I’d never accepted his business in the first place. But a mad man’s logic is a sane person’s confusion.”
What does that mean?
He darts out the door before I can ask.
Leani tugs me into the kitchen. “Evan Maloney. That’s his lawyer who’s done very sketchy work for your father. Nikolas has worked with him on deals that the Coleman legal team didn’t want to touch. And I know for a fact that the business Maloney and Nikolas have done is hardly the legal kind.”
My brows pinch. “Then what—”
A door slams, and footsteps creak along the floorboards of the hallway.
Leani presses a finger to her lips to silence me, her eyes warily moving away from the archway as my father beelines for the front door.
When he slams it closed behind him, she closes her eyes and releases a shaky breath.
“I don’t know what you plan to do with those recordings, but you should know that everything comes with a price. But no matter what, you’ll always wind up paying something for freedom.”
“What’s the price you’ve paid?”
“I will never be free, Georgia. But I will accept any form of peace I can get, even if it takes everything away from me.”
*
Clenching and unclenching my fists, I walk through the front door of the high-rise and go over to the directory by the elevators.
“Can I help you with something?” the woman behind the desk asks with a smile.
I turn around and offer her a sheepish look. “I was told that Luca Carbone was here today. Do you know what floor he’s working on?”
Her eyes widen a fraction. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Oh. Well, no—”
“Mr. Carbone and his son are very busy.” She cuts me off. “I’m afraid nobody sees him without an appointment.”
I can tell there’s no room to convince her, but before I can even try, the elevator door opens, and she quickly stands. “Mr. Carbone, I was just—”
The second Luca sees me, he looks over his shoulder at the elevator where a group of men are talking as they begin entering the lobby, then grabs my arm and pulls me into the nearest room.
When we’re closed into what looks like a cleaning closet, he flicks the lock. “What are you doing here?”
His tone has me standing straighter, which puts me closer to his six-foot height. “I need help.”
“Then why don’t you ask the detective?”
I glance at the door, where voices are gathering by the front entrance. “Because you know this world better than I do, which means you’re the only one who can help me with what I need.”
The way he looks down at me doesn’t make me uncomfortable, but it does make me wonder what’s going through his mind. There’s too much interest lingering, and it reminds me of what Lincoln said that day. “You have my attention.”
Wetting my lips, I try taking a step back to put as much distance as possible between us. It’s hard to do in the tiny space, and I bump into a bucket and broom. Luca catches it before it topples over, his quick reflexes bringing us chest to chest as he slowly puts it back where it was.
Swallowing, I take a deep breath. “Can you please move?”
That grin returns, spreading across his whole face. “Am I making you uncomfortable, Georgia?”
I don’t entertain him with an answer. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“That depends.” He steps back and leans against the opposite wall. “What exactly do you need help with?”
The voices from outside start fading, and I’m not sure how long we’ll have before they come looking for Luca. “I need to talk to Stefan Mangino.”
His expression drops. “Come again?”
“I need to talk to—”
“Oh, I heard you,” he says, the playfulness on his face long gone. “But now I’m wondering if you recently fell and hit your head. Are you insane? That can be the only reason you’d want to do that.”
“Can you or can you not help me?”
He blinks slowly. “How much do you know about Mangino? Because it’s far more than I thought you did, which makes me wonder if your father is really starting to crack.”
Hasn’t that been the problem all along? “I know enough to understand that he’s the answer to my problem.”
“The answer…” Luca laughs. “That man is not the answer to anything. You wanted out of this world. And now you’re asking me to bring you straight to the leader of it? No.”
He starts to go toward the door, but I put my hand on his to stop him from opening it. “Please. He hurt Leani. Badly. I may not be close to her, but whatever pressure he’s under, he’s taking out on her. And he’s on something. Drinking more. There was powder on his desk last time I was there. He’s losing it. She’s going to wind up dead if this keeps going on.”
I can tell he wants to argue, but he doesn’t.
“I’ll do anything,” I whisper. “Just help me end this. There’s got to be something that Stefan Mangino wants from my father to finish this.”
Luca shakes his head, his eyes darkening as he turns from the door and blocks me in. “One thing you should be very careful of is your choice of words, little Del Rossi.”
I swallow.
He reaches forward, placing his hand against the wall to box me in. “You would do anything?”
“Within reason.”
The grin on his face isn’t playful or friendly. There’s something sinister behind it that matches the shadows masking his face. “There is no such thing as reason in the world you want to step into.”
“Not into,” I correct, pressing myself against the wall. “I want him to get me out of it.”
It’s obvious he doesn’t think it’s possible. “I wish I had your delusion.”
“It’s called optimism, Luca.”
“Not all of us are afforded that in life.” Using his free hand, he wraps a strand of my hair around his finger.
“W-what are you doing?”
He tugs gently on it. “You said you’d do anything, right?”
My heart starts thumping in my chest, but I don’t trust myself enough to answer. If my voice breaks, if the shakiest sound comes out of my mouth, Luca will know he’s gotten under my skin.
And that seems…dangerous.
“Kiss me.”
The two words have me looking up at him. “I thought you said you didn’t want to marry me. You made it seem like you weren’t interested.”
His finger releases my hair and pinches my chin before his palm slides to cup my cheek. The only thing he says before closing the distance between us is, “I lied.”
Suddenly, his mouth is on mine.
My body locks up, not returning the kiss or letting my hands wander the way they automatically do when Lincoln is the man in front of me.
This feels wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
It lasts only seconds, but it might as well have been an eternity by the time Luca pulls away and sees my rigid body.
He steps back, staring at me as I wrap my arms around myself and keep my eyes on the ground. “I’ll make a call.”
I blow out a breath.
Clearing his throat, he unlocks the door and turns the knob. “Wait a few minutes before leaving after me. I’ll make sure my father and his men are gone. But, Georgia?”
Cautiously, I lift my head.
“Mangino gives no mercy,” he says. “Not even to his family, and they are the few people he’s loyal to. I would know.”
My lips part, but nothing comes out.
His eyes glaze as he stares down at me. “And never tell him that you’ll do anything. Do you understand me? He will take advantage of you. He will use you. Twist your words. If you want out, make him a bargain he can’t refuse. Make it worth his while.”
Taking a deep breath, I find my voice. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because maybe one of us can get out,” he murmurs, looking at the door. “And thanks to his son’s death, it sure as hell won’t be me.”
It’s hard to swallow.
Luca takes a deep breath. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but the one I think I’ll regret is not trying to win you over. Because if I’m going to be stuck in this hellhole of a life, I think you could have made it worth it.”
What? “You don’t mean that.”
When his eyes meet mine, they’re hollow. “I guess we’ll never know.”
He opens the door and makes a quick escape, closing it behind him.
My heart drums in my ears as I wait the longest five minutes of my life before moving from the closet. The receptionist is gone, and so are Luca, his father, and the others they were with.
Locking myself in my car, I glance into my purse at the audio recording still playing.
I turn it off.
Take a deep breath.
And drive home wanting nothing more than a shower and to wipe off my tingling lips.