19. Acceptance
nineteen
Acceptance
The sun came out again on Sunday, and Romeo insisted on taking the three of them to a local ice rink. Something fun they could do as a family despite the cold, he’d said. Grace personally thought he suggested it out of pure defiance for having previously been accused of hiding away from the wintery weather. Either way, they piled into the Navigator and headed out, with Enrico driving a second SUV containing three more men directly behind them.
It was the closest to royalty Grace imagined she’d ever feel.
From the backseat, where Lucia had agreed to sit, Lucia asked, “Daddy, can I do that thing we talked about when we get there?”
Grace pulled her gaze away from the view beyond the window and glanced over her shoulder, toward the girl sitting behind her and innocently wiggling her feet. Still confused, Grace looked across to Romeo.
Romeo adjusted to more comfortably see them both. “Is that what you want to do?”
Lucia bobbed her head. “I thought about it,” she said, “and I think sooner is better.”
Clearly missing some information, Grace asked, “What are we talking about?”
Both De Salvos looked over at her and Romeo grinned. “Apparently, you’ll find out at the ice rink.”
“Oh, it’s like that, is it?”
Lucia giggled and Romeo’s grin only widened.
Grace rolled her eyes for dramatic effect. “You two are lucky I love you.”
They gave her no clues, and Romeo smoothly changed the subject to occupy the time until they arrived at their destination. She played along, pretending she’d let the curiosity slip her mind as they clambered from the SUV. Romeo assigned her a personal guard who was to accompany her exclusively if the larger group got separated and prioritize her well-being over the rest. She felt awkward about that, but knowing Lucia and Romeo had guards for themselves made it tolerable.
Once they were all past the entrance and had acquired rental skates, they found a pair of tables not immediately occupied and took them over. They were a large group, technically. They needed space.
Grace was reaching to unlace her sneakers—a new acquisition—when Lucia stepped up to her.
“Miss Grace, I really am sorry for kicking you before, and for yelling at you.” Lucia twisted her mitten-covered hands together as if she were nervous. “You’ve always been real nice to me, even before Daddy brought you home, and I like you a lot. And I appreciate how you protected me when … when that lady came. That was scary, and Daddy wasn’t home, but you held me. You made me feel better.”
Tears sprang to Grace’s eyes. She didn’t know why Lucia was suddenly saying these things, but the girl’s sincerity was so raw it was nearly painful. “Lucia, of course, sweetie.” She reached out, thinking maybe Lucia wanted a hug, but Lucia shook her head quickly.
“I wanted to ask you—Daddy said it would mean more if I asked you—” Her eyes widened. “But he didn’t tell me when! He just said it might be a nice thing to do. That it might make you happy….”
Grace smiled. “What did you want to ask me?”
Lucia pulled in a deep breath, shoved a hand into her zippered pocket, and withdrew an object Grace couldn’t quite make out over the fabric of the mittens. Not until Lucia fumbled up the lid and turned it around, revealing a stunning heart-cut diamond set on a platinum band. Holding the box almost steady, Lucia asked, “Will you marry us?”
Grace couldn’t stop at least one tear from falling as her throat constricted. It was hard to push out enough voice to answer the sweet girl staring determinedly back at her. “Absolutely.”
Lucia beamed and jumped into her lap with a squeal.
Romeo leaned close, wrapping his arms around them both in a tight embrace. “You did great, princess,” he said, landing a kiss on Lucia’s head. Then he angled his face and pressed his lips to Grace’s ear. “Love you.”
Grace let herself lean into him as she held on to the girl in her lap, soaking in the peace of the moment.
They took their time straightening, and Romeo made sure to do the honors of slipping the ring onto Grace’s finger. It fit perfectly, which raised questions she wasn’t in the mood to ask, and Grace was a little distracted as she finally switched into her skates. Every shift of her hand seemed to make the diamond reflect a new light and it was so beautiful she didn’t want to look away. The one thing it definitely was not was inconspicuous. Just like the man who was undoubtedly responsible for choosing it.
“Everybody ready?” Romeo asked, drawing her attention.
Lucia’s excited voice responded immediately and Grace forced herself back to the moment. Though she figured she was entitled this once, she never had been the kind of woman to fawn over jewelry. Grace got to her feet and allowed Romeo to lead her to the rink, where Lucia—with Enrico in her wake—had already started skating.
Romeo took her hand as they slipped onto the ice, leaning close. “If you think you’re going to fall, just lean toward me. I’ll catch you.”
She grinned. “Don’t I have a guard for that?”
He chuckled. “Catching you when you fall is my job.”
“Daddy! Come dance with me!”
Grace smiled up at him and tipped her head. “Show me how you dance with your daughter. Then come back and dance with me.” She held back and watched as her fiancé skated ahead and took hold of his daughter’s hands. Together the pair twirled on the ice, Lucia’s jovial laugh carrying on the air. It was a heartwarming sight.
She found herself pulled in, skate-dancing with both Lucia and Romeo alternatively. Before she realized it, they’d been on the ice long enough for her bladder to decide the morning’s coffee needed escape. She made her way to the ladies’ room after a quick detour to change, if only temporarily, back into her sneakers. Her newly assigned guard trailed behind her quietly, dropping off at the edge of the privacy wall to wait for her.
Grace nearly bumped into another patron rounding into the restroom. “Oh! I’m sorry.”
The other woman smiled and waved dismissively. “You have an adorable family. I couldn’t help but see you dancing out there.” She angled past without saying more and left her words hanging in the air.
I have an adorable family… Emotion rushed through her and Grace hurried into the nearest stall. She barely paid any attention to her motions, her heart racing. Romeo had made a joke earlier about being on a family date, and all of a sudden, she wanted all their dates to be family dates. She wondered if she could talk him into that.
Motion in the mirror behind her as she rinsed the overly sudsy soap off her hands drew her gaze up, but she wasn’t prepared for what she saw. For who she saw.
Filip Tracey, with a gun aimed at her head.
Their eyes clashed in the mirror and all the terror from the night of her apartment invasion slammed into her.
“You’ve really made a mess for me, bitch.” The seething anger in his voice was jarring. He didn’t sound anything like the unassuming valet she remembered.
The breath shuddered out of her and Grace let her arms fall from the sink basin. The motion-activated faucet shut off as water dripped from her fingers. “Why…?” There were better questions she could ask, but she felt absolutely certain he would pull that trigger if she even genuinely considered screaming.
Filip’s dark eyes narrowed. “Ya religious?”
The question surprised her and Grace frowned. “Not especially.” One more mark against her in her mother’s book.
“Then I suppose ya may never know.”
Instinct dropped her to the ground as an explosion shattered the tense near-silence in the restroom. She shrieked on reflex, until the impact of her butt hitting the hard, cold tile knocked the air from her lungs. Broken glass from the mirror rained down around her, most of the shards missing but one piece managing to slide through her pantleg. She couldn’t even hear the glass, or whatever sound Filip made as his feet moved.
Light reflected off a piece of precariously balanced mirror, onto her new ring, catching her eye in a surreal moment.
“You have an adorable family.”
“Will you marry us?”
“I am not letting you go.”
Grace twisted in place, not thinking about Filip’s gun or the shards of glass on the dirty floor. She just propelled herself forward and up until she made contact with her attacker’s knees, his gun going off again and deafening her to anything and everything else in the world around them. She crashed into his legs with her full weight, never in her life more grateful for being as large as she was, and let gravity take over.
She hadn’t lied, she wasn’t religious. But she said a prayer that it would be enough. That Filip would crack his head on the floor or a stall and at least go limp.
She was sprawled awkwardly over his legs, gasping for breath from yet another hard impact. For a moment, she thought she’d won. Then he started thrashing, his legs struggling, and she scrambled in an effort to keep him pinned.
His gun came back into her line of sight as he finally leveled it with her head, but it wasn’t the one that went off next. Her eyes widened as his arm jerked back, blood bursting from his arm and the gun slipping from his grip. She almost didn’t hear the shouting.
“Fucking get him up! Wrap his goddamn arm and lock him down, don’t even talk to him.” Romeo’s voice was the first to penetrate the ceaseless ringing in her ears, and Grace finally lifted her head.
Mo and one of the men that had come with Enrico—the one that was not her new guard—moved into positions on the opposite side of Filip. Mo lifted Filip’s gun, tucking it away.
Romeo crouched down beside her, slipped his hands under her arms, and swiftly unhooked her from Filip’s legs. “There you go, angel,” he murmured as if Filip hadn’t started shouting and cursing in the background. Or maybe Filip had always been doing that, and Grace had been tuning him out.
Grace focused her attention on Romeo, realizing finally that her eyes burned. She was crying again. “He—I … almost—”
“Shh, I know, I know.” Romeo pulled her close, tucking her head into his shoulder and reaching down. “You’re okay. Just hold on to me.” He scooped her up and turned toward the door.
“This isn’t over! This’ll never be over!” Filip shouted.
Romeo paused at the open doorway and glanced over his shoulder. “It’s over for you.”
Grace held tightly to him, struggling to catch her breath as Romeo walked. She knew they were outside from the cooler, cleaner air and the breeze dancing over her. That was also how she knew the mirror had definitely bit into her leg when it sliced through her pants. But the stinging, though unpleasant, didn’t seem bad enough to be worth making a scene over.
Romeo blew out an agitated breath. “You’ve always been good at assigning people to the right jobs,” he said unexpectedly. “Maybe I’ll line up a bunch of supposedly qualified contenders later this week and let you pick your next bodyguard. Since the last two couldn’t seem to stay alive long enough to even fucking protect you.”
She gasped and lifted her head from his shoulder. “He’s dead?” Visions of Al flashed through her memory.
“Luckily for him.”
Grace frowned. “How is that lucky?”
Romeo slowed and cut his gaze to hers. “If he’d just stood there with his thumb up his ass while fucking Filip Tracey snuck in to where you were and put a gun to your head? You think I’d yell at him and dock his pay and call it even?” His grip tightened. “Angel, when people fuck up in this job, they don’t usually pay in apologies and cash. They pay in blood.”
She supposed she could see his point, even if it sounded extreme. She released a breath and laid her head down again. “I’ll have to get used to adjusting my thinking when I’m off the clock.”
He chuckled quietly as they approached the SUV. “Door,” he snapped a second later.
“Daddy, is Miss Grace okay?” Lucia asked, her young voice laced with worry.
Grace lifted her head and smiled into the backseat, where Lucia was already buckled in and ready. “I’m okay, sweetie.”
“You’ll be better when we get that leg looked at,” Romeo said. He settled her into her seat, found the first aid kit Mo apparently kept in the back, and tore open the small hole in her pants until he could get at the gash in her leg.
“I can do that,” Grace said.
“Then you can treat me if I get hit someday,” Romeo returned, never taking his eyes from his work. He did only enough to apply a temporary bandage to the wound, straightened, and kissed her roughly. “You really need to stop bleeding on me.”
She could only smile, opting not to tell him that her head kind of hurt again. This time she was pretty sure it was a close-quarters gunshot headache, at least. She didn’t think she’d hit it on anything.
“Sir,” Enrico said from just beyond the car door.
“Daddy, I want to go home,” Lucia said almost simultaneously. “The ice rink’s no fun if bad men are here.”
Romeo looked behind Grace and managed a mildly softer smile. “We’re leaving, princess. I’m gonna have to go into work, but how’s a visit to Grandma’s sound?”
Both of Grace’s eyebrows shot up before she could contain the reaction. He’d told her of his mother’s confession on Saturday, and how he was struggling to make peace with what she’d done. At the time—not even a full twenty-four-hours earlier—he’d recognized her perspective but been unable to get past her actual actions. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was more a choice of convenience, or if in the face of new crisis, he’d found the peace he’d needed.
“Do you really have to leave?” Lucia whined.
“It’s important, Lucy.” Romeo reached over and buckled Grace in.
As he stepped away, shutting the door behind him, Grace turned to look back at Lucia. “Will it help to know I’ll be staying with you?” She presumed she would, anyway. She certainly knew Romeo wasn’t going into the DSI office.
Lucia had tear stains on her cheeks, and it was only then that Grace realized the girl had almost certainly overheard the gunshots. Hopefully overhearing was all she’d done. Lucia bobbed her head emphatically. “Yes, please.”
Romeo hopped into the seat beside Grace as Enrico took the driver’s seat and another guard the passenger’s. “Take us to Mom’s. Mo’s got another job.”
“Yes, sir,” Enrico said.
“Will Enny be staying, too?” Lucia asked.
“Enrico always stays with you, Lucy,” Romeo said. He reached over the seatback to lay a hand on her knee. “I’m sorry about this. But don’t let it scare you—we’re all okay.”
She sniffled. “Where’s Uncle Mo?”
“Making a delivery for me. He’s fine.”
Lucia fell quiet, and after a couple of minutes Romeo moved his arm and pulled Grace’s hand into his. He held her hand tightly, no one speaking a word, until Enrico parked in front of Eleonora’s house. Enrico and the other man got out, Romeo got out, and Grace unbuckled herself. Grace and Lucia were helped from the vehicle, and the man who’d ridden shotgun ducked into the driver’s seat quietly.
Romeo crouched in front of his daughter, kissed her forehead, and promised to come back in time for dinner. Then he stepped in front of Grace and cupped her jaw in his hands, simply staring into her eyes. “This never happens again,” he said, so softly she barely heard him.
She smiled at his unrealistic promise. “I get to see you for dinner, too, right?”
His lips lifted. “If you behave.” He paused. “Get your leg taken care of.”
“I promise.”
He brushed a chaste kiss to her lips, then disappeared back into the SUV.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Romeo said as his cousin strode into the forward-most room.
Cris inclined his head. “Sounded like a special occasion. Our guest in back?”
“He is.”
“You want in?”
“I do.” Romeo didn’t trust himself not to take one look at the fucker and blow his brain out the back of his head, but there was no way in hell he was passing up the opportunity to hear first-hand what the bastard had to say. So he hoped with Cris present, and in charge of the conversation itself, he might find the necessary self-control.
Cris took the hint and led the way down the hall, unassuming duffel slung over one shoulder. “How’s Grace?”
“Bruised and bleeding.” She wasn’t nearly as beaten up as she’d been when he’d found her at the hospital, he realized that, but the fact that she’d been endangered again at all pissed him off.
“And Lucy?”
“Scared.” None of them had been expecting the first gunshot. Even he had startled.
Cris grunted and toed the door open without breaking stride. He nodded to Mo, who was standing watch over Tracey, then moved to the center of the room and dropped his bag to the floor. He let it fall with a heavy, ominous ka-thunk , the duffel fabric shifting with the settling of items inside. “I’ll give you this, Filip. You’re good at covering your tracks. They teach you that in boot camp? Or was it something you picked up as an extra-curricular after you served?”
Romeo hung back, glaring silently at the man bound by chains that were wrapped around his wrists and ankles and anchored to a sturdy pillar. Filip’s arms were bent backward, further restricting his options, and blood already seeped through the half-assed bandage job that had been done where Romeo had shot him. What a shame. It wasn’t a wound he’d bleed out from, anyway. Romeo had been careful to make sure of that.
Tracey curled his lips, glare focused on the man in front of him. “Go t’ Hell.”
“Original.” Cris dropped into a crouch, somehow making himself look larger as he loomed over the other man, and his voice lowered dangerously. “I’ll get right to it. You’re going to tell us everything, Filip. You’re going to tell us about your connection to the Ink Blots, and why you went after an innocent woman—why you wanted her bad enough to go after her three different times. And if you’re real cooperative, my cousin here will kill you quick. Painless.”
Tracey’s eyes flicked in Romeo’s direction and something like a smirk teased his lips. “I ain’t tellin’ ya shit. I already won.”
Romeo’s hands twitched so he folded his arms across his chest to keep from reaching for his gun. He couldn’t wait to wipe that look off the fucker’s face. “How do you figure?”
Tracey had the gall to chuckle. “Pretentious bitch’s perfect life is over. And all those nightmares she’s gonna keep havin’? I’ll be front-and-center. Even if you motherfuckers kill me, your woman will still see me. All the goddamn time. Nothin’ ya can do to stop it.”
Cris rocked to his feet as Romeo ground his teeth. “Your accent’s shit, Filip,” Cris said. “I wonder how fast it disappears when you don’t have the energy to think about it.” He walked back to his bag and started pulling out tools. He laid down a row of differently sized blades, each intimidating in their own right, followed by a set of hammers. Then he reached inside again and pulled out a handheld bone saw.
“That one,” Romeo said. The words were out of his mouth impulsively, but he embraced the instinct.
Cris stood again and flashed him a grin. “You want the honors?”
“If I do it, I’ll go for his fucking throat. We still need information from him.”
Cris nodded.
“Do your worst, cocksuckers,” Tracey said. “I knew I was dancin’ with death when I took this job.”
Cris started toward Tracey again, saw in hand. “See? We’re already getting somewhere. Now we have confirmation that it is a job.” He crouched down, grabbed hold of Tracey’s restrained legs, and hauled them around in a way that forced the other man onto his back. “Now, we’ll start slow. Toes first. Gives you plenty of time to think and talk. You tell me everything you can about what I want to know, maybe I don’t amputate all your favorite body parts.”
“Ya think I can’t kick ya in the fuckin’ fa—” Tracey’s snarled threat became an inarticulate, piercing scream when Cristiano pressed the saw blade against his nearest big toe and started cutting. His back bowed and he attempted to flail, but laying on his arms and with his legs chained, there wasn’t much he could do other than scream and bleed.
Cris released the foot after his chosen toe rolled free, but he did not set down the saw. “Now, Filip. Let’s try this again.”
Tracey twisted his shoulders to the side and vomited. He coughed once more, then lay back, seemingly staring up at the ceiling. “Fuck. Brendan said you motherfuckers were monsters.”
Romeo’s eyes widened.
Cris growled low. “What the fuck did you say?”
Tracey chuckled like he’d won something. “Go ahead an’ kill me. I knew it was a risk. Brendan’ll make it right. He’ll make everything right.”
“Sonofabitch,” Romeo muttered. The bastard wasn’t just affiliated with the Ink Blots. He knew their goddamn benefactor, Brendan Coughlan.