Chapter 10 – Sara
As I opened the front door, a gust of wind blew something silky right in my face.
With a yelp, I jumped, missed the top two steps, and barely kept from spraining my ankle as my foot clipped the middle.
I clung to the wrought iron railing, breathing ragged, and swiped at the white strands. They stuck to my shoulders—to my hair! I stifled a squeal, imagining eight tiny legs prickling over my scalp.
But as I pulled the strands, my racing mind reached the conclusion that it was synthetic fibers. It was just one of the Halloween decorations. As usual, Drusilla Ravello had spared no expense to decorate Raven Manor for the spooky season. Relief made me sag forward.
A giant spider wasn’t going to kill me.
Since I’d already been thinking of a new scene with monsters my heroine needed to kill, my squirrel brain overlapped fiction with reality. Instinct jumped to the conclusion that Drew’s Halloween décor was going to kill me.
I needed to get out of here!
I’d left the “family” dinner my father dragged me to, slipping out before the meat course.
A new idea for my book just popped in my head as I chewed the bruschetta.
There was no force on earth strong enough to keep me from thinking about the vivid details.
I stopped hearing the conversation. I felt my heroine’s pain.
I planned to talk the scene into my phone in the car, and then have it transcribed on my laptop once I got to the lake house.
That process usually yielded subpar results, but this scene was just too emotional to wait!
Which was why being attacked by fake spider webs sent me into a fight or flight response.
I swatted at the damn silk, feeling it tangle in my hair. The glasses shifted down my nose, and I shoved them back in place, feeling a strand of web catch in the temple’s hinge.
“Here, let me help,” a gravelly voice offered.
Spinning around, I stared up into a pair of beautiful brown eyes. Flecks of golden sunset flickered in his irises.
“Cam! Hi,” I gasped. “Didn’t know you were out here.”
“Just…taking a break.” He cocked his head. “You?”
He didn’t have his cigarettes. There was no scent of menthol. Maybe he’d stopped.
Good for him.
I shrugged—and felt the spider web caress my throat. With a hiss, I clawed at it. The silken material tore. Despite its delicate properties, it stuck just fine to my hair.
“Stand still,” he groused.
I froze when his huge hand reached out. But he was gentle as he pulled the strands from my hair.
My skin ached at the memory of that gentle touch. Warmth spread through me. I coughed to shake off the feelings.
“Drew just loves her holiday decorations,” I quipped. I’d known Drusilla my whole life, and while I was the quiet kid in class, Drew grew up into a high maintenance woman who never apologized for her larger than life personality.
There was a wraith hanging from the vaulted ceiling of the stoop. Skeletons peered from their hiding spots in the shrubbery. There were pumpkins, stalks of corn, twinkling orange lights, and far too many cobwebs. And that was only the front of the house!
“I heard that she decorated the back field with zombies this year,” I said, flicking a glance to the wooded area and the pasture beyond.
Her parents, Lucian and Bree Ravello had been engaged out there.
Rumor had it a knife had been involved after a gun fight.
I shuddered. The Ravellos were a psychotic family. “Have you been out there?”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t like zombies.”
“Funny, me neither.” I turned and flashed him a grin as he picked the last of the web from my hair. “When someone is dead, they should stay that way. Am I right?”
He didn’t smile. And why would he? His job was to deal with the dead. The don’s executioner, he was probably responsible for most of the deaths in the Cove—and the Tri State area.
“How’ve you been?” I asked, shifting the topic to safer grounds.
Fudgesicles, he’s hot. Of all the men, his quiet, stoic attitude was really attractive. His temper wasn’t fiery, and he didn’t fly off the handle. He was calculated. Just like me.
“Living the dream, Sara. You?”
I chewed on my answer. “Same. Granted, I’ve been handed a few lemons, but once you squeeze those suckers into vodka, you don’t notice the sour flavor anymore.”
Cam threw back his head, and a laugh boomed from his chest.
This felt good.
In a way, it was a return to the status quo. We were friends once. Good friends. But after my diagnosis and treatments, we’d drifted apart. By then, he’d been recruited into the mob, while I’d left town in search of a fresh start.
Who knew we’d both end up back here.
I flicked a glance to his left ear, hiding my knowing smirk by biting my bottom lip. There was that little freckle. He thought he was so freaking sneaky.
My body turned molten as the memory of him driving me into the mattress flashed through my mind.
“Well, it’s been great to see you, but I’ve got a long drive,” I sighed and took a tentative step backward. The sooner I got to the lake house, the sooner he would sneak into the cabin.
Or so I hoped.
The smile slipped off his lips. “Of course.”
Brushing a hand through my hair, I kept back any comment about seeing him later. “Don’t be a stranger, Cam.”
His eyes flickered in a question.
I simply smiled before turning and heading to my car. But I didn’t take more than four or five steps before I stopped and crouched.
“What is it?” Cam immediately asked, worry filling his voice.
I held up my prize. “Just a pretty leaf.”
Bending at the waist, Cam plucked another crimson leaf off the ground. “They’re from the big maple.”
He gestured to the stately tree holding court over the grassy center of the circular drive.
“I wish I was crafty enough to make something with them.” I made three big leaves into a fan and fluttered it in my face.
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ringing of my phone. Wincing, I pulled it from the pocket of my pencil skirt. Disgust made me wrinkle my nose, and I sent it straight to voicemail.
Cam’s voice cut through the air like the kiss of death. “Who was that?”
I let out a long breath and tossed my head in dismissal. “Someone I wrote out of my story.”
Those sunset eyes studied me.
I was tempted to tell him the short version of the last few chapters of my life.
While it was embarrassing to admit I’d been played the fool with a cheating boyfriend, that tragic incident freed me.
And now…I was kind of seeing Cam. I wanted to see more of him.
So there wasn’t really a reason to talk about the past. Besides, he might get jealous.
These Made Men were highly territorial. My body count—not the killing kind, but the sexual one—wasn’t very high.
Best not to bring it up at this point in our secret relationship.
But surely, he’d been with a few of the mafia’s princesses in the last decade.
My gut soured.
Before I could decide what to say, the front door banged open. Drusilla Ravello descended onto her front porch with an air of a queen looking over her domain.
“Camillo! Lucian is looking for you,” she sniped, propping a hand on her hip. The pencil skirt hugged her curves and showed off her toned, long legs that ended in a pair of skyscraper heels that had some kind of fancy designer label.
“You’re an errand girl now, Drew?” Cam snorted.
Her mouth twisted, and she was about to make a nasty comment, when those hawkish eyes flicked toward me. Her sharp gaze softened, but only a fraction. Pity scrawled across her face.
Poor Sara, the sick girl. But I was used to it.
Either the locals ignored me, because I was the odd duckling, or they remembered my fight with cancer in my late teens and were drenched with sympathy. Honestly, I preferred being known as a quirk. Their compassion was always tinged with relief that they’d been spared the terrible diagnosis.
“Thank you for having me, Drew,” I called out politely.
“You’re always welcome, Sara,” she said with a drop of kindness that didn’t sound too forced. For the mafia princess, that was something.
I gave her a nod and hurried to my car. The moment with Cam was done. I would wait, because another opportunity to engage with him was coming soon.
And I, for one, couldn’t freaking wait.