17
Gioslouched in his seat, pulling the front of his hoodie up to partially cover his face.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered from beneath the thick fabric.
“Sorry? You’re fucking sorry? What are you— How did you? Why, Gio? You could have been killed. We barely made out ourselves, and we…” I paused and looked at Kai, whose expression was a mix of concern and sympathy.
“You’re what, Amalia?” He pulled down his hoodie. “A professional? Stop treating me like I’m stupid. That’s all you’ve ever done. You, Mom, Dad…Tony. All of you.” Tears glistened in his eyes as they connected with mine, filling my heart with anguish.
“We were just trying to protect you.”
“Because you think I’m not capable? In case you didn’t notice, I saved your asses back there.”
I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes before continuing so that I wouldn’t be compelled to strangle my baby brother. “Fine, Giovanni. You want in on the family business? You want to kill people? Run drugs, make arms deals like Tony did. Is that really what you want?”
“Is it what you want?”
His question was a gut punch. If I said yes, would he see me as a monster? And If I said no, would it be a lie? I wasn’t sure.
“It’s been one hell of a night. Maybe we should just make it home,” Kai interjected, his hand over mine, where I gripped the edge of the seat like a lifeline. “Call in and check with the infirmary.”
His words were like a dagger to the heart, because despite this car carrying some of the most important people in my life, some of my girls had been critically wounded. I threw one last reproachful glance at Gio before turning back around and leaning against the headrest.
Holly reached over and squeezed my hand but said nothing. Her silence spoke volumes, as she was never one to be rendered speechless, and I feared the worst. But I was too overwhelmed to ask questions and have reality flip my world upside down.
When we reached our driveway, Eva was on the steps waiting, jumping to her feet as the car pulled to a stop. Derek must have told her we were on the way, and I could only assume my parents were asleep.
Somehow, we all fell into the same stride as we approached the house, and judging by Evangelina’s horrified expression as she rushed Derek, we must have looked like quite a fucking sight. We were caked in dust, dirt, and blood as if we’d crawled out of a warzone.
Maybe we had.
“I don’t have the emotional strength to deal with you right now,” I said, fisting my brother’s hoodie. “But I will deal with you tomorrow.”
He shook off my hold. “You’re welcome.”
I said nothing more and stormed inside the house, sprinting up the stairs and into my room. The shower was on within the next several minutes, and I let the hot spray soothe my anguish. It wasn’t long before tears spilled over, and my fists connected with the wall until drops of my blood ran down the drain. But tomorrow was another day. And Rocco owed me one hell of an explanation.
The door to Kai’s room was a traitorous whore. It creaked loudly, announcing my arrival like a damn overhead speaker. Kai looked at me for a beat, and I suddenly felt strangely vulnerable.
“Deja vu,” I joked halfheartedly.
He reached over and pulled the blanket down next to him in an unspoken invitation. I hesitated for a moment until I found his eyes across the darkness. Slipping under the covers, he immediately pulled me against his side, and my heart fluttered because he knew exactly why I’d come to him. Maybe it was what he needed, too.
“Are you all right?” he asked, breaking the ten-minute-long silence between us.
“I’m always all right…eventually.”
“Tonight was…chaos. But we—you, me, Derek…Gio, we made it back.”
“I can’t believe he snuck into Simone’s van. He barely made it out when she was attacked. What was he thinking?” I shook my head, still in disbelief. “Is this who he really is?” I wasn’t sure why the thought of Gio being like me and like my parents was an unsettling one. Maybe because I’d always seen him as this beacon of light among the dark. But I’d been naive. This was our world, and even though he’d stood on the sidelines for so long, I realized now he was always watching.
Kai rubbed reassuring circles on my back, and I closed my eyes, letting the calm of his touch relieve my worries. Being in his arms felt so right. It was a terrifying thought in some ways because I’d never needed anyone like I needed him at that moment.
“He saved your life,” I whispered, snaking my arm up over his bare abdomen. The soft thuds of his heart gradually accelerated…or maybe it was my own.
“He saved yours.”
I propped my arms on his chest. “I wasn’t the one with a shotgun to the back of my head.”
“Maybe not.” A slight smile tugged at his lips as his hand came up around the side of my neck. “But neither one of us would be here had he not snuck away. And I would have had the worst time in hell.” Kai’s hand tightened around my nape. “Knowing that son of a bitch had taken you.”
“Is that right, Cain?”
“I’m back to being Cain?”
I laughed and lifted my finger to his lips, tracing the soft contours. “Always.”
He pressed a kiss against my skin. “Will you?”
Montesinos was my family’s name. If Kai and I would only be married temporarily, I didn’t see a point in changing it.
“This isn’t real, Kai. You know that.”
“Feels pretty fucking real to me.” Turning on his side, he hauled me closer so that our bodies were flush, his cock hard against my abdomen. But somehow, we both knew sex wasn’t the plan here. Not tonight.
“Don’t do that,” I whispered, closing my eyes and lowering my face. “You know what this is and, most importantly, what it’s not.”
“Yeah,” he said, barely audible.
Several minutes ticked by, and while Kai hadn’t said anything more, his hold on me hadn’t loosened in the slightest.
And I was glad.
“Do you think your—that man who adopted you—is behind this?” I’d heard what had happened with Silas and Helena. As far as I knew, it had been nearly two years since anyone had heard from him. But all the people he had a vendetta against would be in one place together. And after all, my girls and I had a hand in his downfall when we took out that Russian prick.
“I don’t think so, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe you should ask your friend, Rocco, how they knew we’d hit that particular compound since he planned it.”
His words held accusatory undertones. I knew where his mind had gone, and maybe I’d had those thoughts, too. But this was Rocco. We’d known each other since the two of us were in diapers. He’d never put me in a position where my life was at risk—that much I was sure of.
“I plan to.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I scoffed. “I don’t need you to protect me, much less from Rocco.”
“Are you always this obnoxiously stubborn?”
“Always.”
His laugh vibrated against my body, and it replied accordingly. Heat settled in my belly.
“Reina,” he whispered to himself. “It means queen.” I nodded. “Mi reina,” he said again, as though testing the way the words rolled off his tongue. I squeezed my thighs together, my pussy throbbing. The phrase did things to me coming from his lips.
“Cain?”
“Hmm?” he said, his voice now thick with exhaustion.
“Go to sleep.”
Kai dropped a kiss to my hairline and drifted off without another word, and I burrowed against him and closed my eyes.
What the fuck was I doing?