Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Marchello
“Drive faster,” I shouted at Milo as I continued to dial Lissia’s phone.
It was a fucking setup.
The minute we got to Danny’s expected location, our miscalculation was evident.
“I’m already doing a hundred,” Milo said as he maneuvered a sharp curve in the road. “If we get pulled over or wrapped around a pole, we’re not going to do Lissia any good.”
“Why isn’t she picking up?” I dialed again. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Maybe she’s sleeping,” he said. “No one has access to the villa, right? Dom is with her.”
“He’s not answering either.” I slammed my hand against the dashboard and stared into the distance at the early morning sunrise. “Something is wrong. I shouldn’t have left her.”
My phone rang. I immediately checked the caller ID and answered it. “Lorenzo, I need you to go to the villa and check on Lissia.”
“I’m heading there now.”
“Why?” I glanced at Milo, the panic rising in my gut as he accelerated. “What’s happened?”
“I’m not sure, but when I sent a few more of my men to the beach, they identified men who weren’t in my detail.”
“How did that happen? Where is Dom?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m trying to figure that out. None of this makes sense,” he said. “Where are you?”
“Two minutes out.”
“Do you want my men to break down the door if she doesn’t answer?”
“Do what you have to do to get to her.” I ended the call. “I have a bad feeling.”
As we came up to the entrance of the resort, my heart pounded. If Lissia was okay, she would have answered her phone. Where the hell is she?
“Collins got to her,” I said.
“You don’t know that.” Milo pointed ahead. “You’re going to see her in a few seconds. She’s okay.”
“You don’t know that!” I shouted. “This is my fault. Lorenzo’s men were compromised. Why go through all the trouble if Collins wasn’t coming for her? He led us on a wild chase so he could get to her. We fell for it!”
One of the last fucking things I told her was I would cut her loose if she couldn’t control herself. Who does that? Why did I say that to her?
I didn’t wait for Milo to stop the car as we approached the villa. I jumped out while he was shifting into park.
The villa door was open, and Dom came outside to meet us.
“Marchello.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry for what?” I hurried up the porch steps, ignoring his grim look and not waiting for an excuse I didn’t want to hear. “Is she in there?”
“Yes.” He moved out of my way.
“Marchello.” Lorenzo stood in the hallway. “We just got here. I don’t have the details yet, but Collins is dead, and I’ve taken the guards that didn’t belong into my custody. We will question them and figure out how they ended up here.”
“Who took Collins out?” Milo stood at my side. “I need all the details.”
“Where is Lissia?” I pushed past Lorenzo to get a clear shot of the scene. She was huddled in the corner on the floor.
The frigid room reeked of death, and the bright coastal colors, immaculate counters, and floor were splattered with red streaks.
When I made eye contact with Lissia’s tortured gaze, the massacre in front of me didn’t seem to matter. I didn’t care about protocol or contamination of the area. The police would never see it anyway.
I plodded through the blood and stepped over Collins as I made my way to her. I had more questions than answers, but she was breathing, and that was all I occupied myself with.
“Chello.” She reached out her quivering, bloody hand for me. “You’re okay.”
“Don’t worry about me.” I joined her on the floor, pulling her into my chest, trying to stop her from shaking. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
I yanked my jacket off and covered her with it.
“Marchello,” Lorenzo said. “We have to get this situation under control. The quicker, the better.”
“Not now,” I snapped. “Clear this room.”
“You heard my brother,” Milo said, his voice raised. “Everyone outside.”
Milo ushered everyone out of the villa as I tried to piece together what had occurred.
“Danny is…was…” She inhaled slowly. “Working with Diego.”
“He told you that?”
“He had a keycard. He let himself in and told me he would kill Dom if I tried to run.” She looked around the room. “Dom was here. He’s okay.”
“I saw him.”
“This wasn’t his fault.” She held onto me. “Don’t take this out on him. I didn’t manipulate him or try to leave. I did what you said and stayed put.”
I kissed the top of her head, thanking God that Collins didn’t hurt her.
“Diego was able to get to Lorenzo’s people.” She stared up at me. “The security, getting into the villa. He’s more dangerous than we thought.”
“It’s okay.” I stroked her hair, cursing myself for underestimating Diego. I looked her over, tracing my finger over the welt on her cheek. “You need ice.”
“No.” She gripped the collar of my shirt. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never.”
“I thought…” She sucked in a breath. “He was going to…you know?”
“Did he?” My chest constricted as I shoved back the rage threatening to break free.
“He got pretty close.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “He said he wanted to hurt me and then take pictures so you could see.”
“I should have killed him that night in the club.” I wiped her face. “I left you vulnerable. Unprotected.”
My worst fucking fear. All my posturing over keeping her safe, and I let the biggest enemy we had walk right in and harm her.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “This is on my father for bringing Danny, and now Diego, into our lives. What are we going to do about Diego?”
“We have to take this one step at a time.” I glanced around the room. “I have to let Lorenzo back in so he can deal with this mess.”
“We have to call the police.” She wiggled out of my hold. “This was self-defense. No jury would convict me, would they?”
“It’s never going to get that far.”
She was my wife. Any eager prosecutor would love to take that case.
“Your last name could get you convicted,” I said. “You’re mafia royalty. Your father-in-law is one of the biggest crime lords on the east coast. I’m his fucking heir. I’m not risking your freedom.”
If the media caught wind of this, she would suffer the consequences. Not to mention what Diego would do once he realized we were on to him.
“What are we going to do?”
“Clean it up.” I pulled her back to me. “No one is going to mourn him. He attacked you, and you took care of business.”
“I wasn’t going to let him violate me.”
“You were very thorough.”
I hated to think about the trauma this incident was going to cause her once she realized what she had done. Taking a life, no matter how justified you thought you were, never came consequence free. She was going to live with those demons for the rest of her life.
“I didn’t want you to have to live with the guilt of what he did to me.” She rested her head on my chest and sobbed. “If he took me away from you, I would have died, because I couldn’t live with the pain of knowing you… I wouldn’t want you to know what he had done to me.”
“No.” I lifted her into my lap and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You fought, and you won. You didn’t let him rape you, and you didn’t let him take you from me. You’re strong and courageous. You did what you had to do, and I will be forever grateful.”
She continued to cry in my arms, her sobs growing louder and breaking a piece of my heart. Her anguish ripped through me, creating more rage than I had ever felt before. But now wasn’t the time for me to plot my revenge. That wasn’t my purpose. I had to comfort her and shield her, not only from our enemies but from this crime, no matter how justified she was.
My priority would always be her.
“We need to get you into the shower.” I hugged her. “Do you think you can do that?”
We needed to scrub this place, and that meant every trace of her too. Lorenzo had people for this, and once we left, it would be as if we were never in this villa.
“I want to get out of here.” She glanced at Danny’s rotten corpse. “I don’t want to see him anymore.”
“We’re going to do that.” I scooted her off my lap and stood before crouching down and scooping her into my arms. “But we can’t go anywhere with you soaked in his blood.”
“I got it on you too.” She touched my shirt.
“That’s okay. We’re going to make it like nothing ever happened.”
“But it did happen,” she said as I carried her to the bathroom. “I did it.”
“The next few days are going to be incredibly difficult for you, but I will be with you every step of the way.” I set her down once we reached the shower stall and turned on the water. “Right now, we have to focus. I need you to get cleaned up while I talk to Milo.”
She didn’t argue.
“I won’t be long.” I lifted her chin and gently kissed her. “And then you won’t be able to get rid of me.”
“You’re going to fix this?” She gazed into my eyes, revealing the vulnerability in hers.
“You already did most of the work.” I ran my lips along her jaw. “Let me do the rest.”
“I’m really tired.”
“Hang on a little longer, then you can rest for as long as you need to.”
I helped her out of her stained underwear and guided her into the shower. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at me as she immersed herself under the faucet. Even in such a traumatic state, she was still the most alluring woman I had ever seen.
Leaving her to shower alone wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I had to put plans in place and get her out of Florida without another catastrophic incident.
I went back into the kitchen and stopped once I got to Danny’s body. Glaring down at him, I prayed that his soul went straight to hell for the torment he put Lissia through. I hoped he paid for what he intended to do to her.
An eternity in hell wasn’t long enough. I only wished I could make him suffer more.
“Fuck you!” I kicked him in the ribs. “I should have been the one to send you to hell.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Milo said as he joined me, “I’ll make sure no one ever finds him.”
“It’s a start.” I glanced down at Danny. “This is on me.”
I should have been the one to do it. I should have been there, standing between her and the monster who dared to touch her. Instead, I’d left her to fight my battle, and now the blood on her hands would stain her soul.
“No.” Milo pointed at the dead body. “It’s on him.”
“I left her alone to defend herself.” I clenched my fists. “She had to kill him. That’s something that will never leave her. That’s on me too.”
“She wasn’t alone,” he said. “We had guards on her.”
“Guards that were compromised.” I clutched the sides of my head, trying to contain the scream that wanted to break free. “Fuck.”
“Mistakes were made.” Milo gripped my shoulder. “This is why I vet all of our security. I know Lorenzo was trying to help, but now we know never to allow anyone who doesn’t pass the check to be anywhere near us.”
“We have to get this mess cleaned up.” I surveyed the room. “Get rid of his gun, the knife, everything. There can’t be anything that connects this to her.”
As I barked orders to Milo, my voice was steady, but inside, I was unraveling. Every drop of blood we wiped away would be like a piece of her innocence disappearing with it. I’d brought her into this world, and now I had to live with what it had done to her.
“I’m going to oversee it all myself.” Milo waved his hand over the knife. “She hit him in the right spot. She didn’t fuck around.”
“He was about to rape her.”
“Christ.” He spit on Danny’s body. “Thank God she outsmarted him.”
“That’s my girl, right?” I slammed my hand against the wall. “She wanted so badly to prove herself to me.”
“I think she succeeded.” Milo patted my back.
“I made her a killer.”
“I see a woman who did what had to be done.”
“She shouldn’t have had to do it.”
“She’s resilient. Once she comes to terms with what she had to do to save herself, she’s going to be fine. She’s one of us.”
“She is.” I took a deep breath and composed myself. If I lost my shit, I would be useless to her. “We have a lot to do.”
“Your priority is your wife.” He stared at my shirt. “You’re going to have to shower and get changed too before you leave. I need to get rid of any trace of Danny.”
“I will.” I leaned against the wall, wishing I could get rid of Danny’s memory as efficiently as we could his body and any evidence of a crime. Lissia was going to carry this night with her for the rest of her life. “We need to discuss a few things.”
“I told you I got this.”
“I appreciate that, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, but I need you to do something else.” I sighed. “You’re not going to like it, but it’s necessary for this family.”
“Anything.”
I hated to ask this of my brother, especially with our father gone and the business climate being so volatile, but I didn’t see another way. Maybe in a few weeks or months the circumstances would be different.
“We need to figure out who Diego is. We need all the information we can get on him.”
“We’re going to get that.”
“You have to keep the dealership afloat and keep the cartels happy.” We had so many balls in the air. “Dad is too deep into dismantling the trafficking operation to come home now.”
“He doesn’t need to come home.” Milo loosened his tie. “We can handle this.”
“If we divide and conquer, we can.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“I can’t take Lissia back to New Jersey or New York. Diego will have eyes on us there.” I glanced down, spotting Lissia’s bloody footprint on the tile. “He’s already gotten way too close to her. He probably staged the arrest tonight, hoping I would have been detained a little longer.”
“He’s clearly not someone we can underestimate.”
“Exactly, which is why I have to go underground with her,” I said. “I can’t keep her in plain sight and hope Diego doesn’t find another way to come for her.”
“We’re prepared this time.”
“I want to be more prepared.”
The more I knew about this bastard, the better my strategy would be. Once Collins turned up missing, Diego would come looking. I wasn’t going to make this easy for him. I wasn’t going to leave Lissia out in the open with a target on her back.
I had to get ahead of this and make Diego regret the day he ever thought coming for my family was a good idea.
“What are you saying?” Milo asked.
“It’s time for you to take the throne.”