Chapter Twenty-Six
Valentino
This wasn’t going to work.
There had been a reason I’d voiced a hard no to keeping Chantilly alive.
I’d never gone against a command from my don, nor had I ever allowed a woman to disrespect or disobey me. Not only had she done that by sleeping in another bedroom after I’d expressly told her not to, she’d destroyed my monitors. Even worse, she’d run away and nearly drowned in the process.
Yet all I wanted even now was to protect her.
I pressed my lips together. I’d been a fool imagining I could keep a woman like Chantilly in my life. I’d been even more foolish imagining she’d want to be in my life.
I kept my distance from her as the elevator swept us down to the underground carpark, though all I wanted to do was enfold her in my arms and hold her tight.
I sighed heavily. I’d screwed things up even further for her. Thanks to Carlo’s vile opinions and the coldblooded killings of two of our soldiers, I had doubts anyone would accept Chantilly into the family now.
We stepped into the carpark and headed toward my jeep. I stayed silent as her heels rang out like castanets on the concrete, her dress as crimson bright as the blood that had flown like a river across the patio.
I was heart sore when I opened the jeep’s passenger door, Chantilly climbing in while my thoughts got even more entangled, my emotions a fucked-up mess.
I had no one but myself to blame for the predicament we were now in. The Irish mafia family was out for blood now, the soldiers they’d killed just the beginning. Not only weren’t Ethan and his brothers safe, neither were the women and I’d die before someone harmed Sabrina and her unborn child, or Isabella.
I shut the door with my mind ticking over with possibilities, none of the outcomes good. I climbed into the driver’s seat, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders.
It wasn’t until I fired up the engine and backed out of the parking bay that Tilly turned to me and said quietly, “None of this is your fault.”
I didn’t look at her, I couldn’t. Not even when I growled, “Isn’t it?”
I drove up to the locked steel and mesh gates, frowning as I assessed the surroundings outside of them. Only once I was satisfied it was safe did I activate the unlocking mechanism to make the gates slide silently open.
The flashing lights of emergency vehicles caught my attention as I drove forward, police cars and a pair of ambulances pulling up at the front of the building. It’d be a matter of minutes before they blocked off the underground carpark. I flicked on my indicator and turned onto the street. I only hoped the dead soldiers bodies would be long gone by then.
I accelerated away from the crime scene, relieved to be getting Chantilly away from anything incriminating, yet sick to the stomach knowing Ethan and his brothers would be left to convince the authorities nothing untoward had happened.
I blew out a slow breath. If there was one thing we were all good at, it was hiding dead bodies along with the truth. If we weren’t we’d all been in jail right now. It helped that Ethan had an arsenal of officers and judges in his back pocket. I scrubbed a hand over my face. Thank God. Because I’d sooner be dead than rotting behind prison bars.
How do you think Chantilly feels? You imprisoned her and saved her from drowning knowing she’d chosen her own way to end her life.
I swallowed convulsively, sweat beading on my brow as the truth hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was a hypocritical asshole. I didn’t deserve her love or her respect, nor was I ever going to get it from her. Even worse, I’d brought her into even more danger by introducing her to my mafia family. Though the women and even Ethan might have accepted her, Carlo would do everything in his considerable power to turn them against her and bring her down.
A horn sounded behind me and I jerked at the realization I’d yet to accelerate through the green traffic lights. That I couldn’t recall stopping for red made me break out in more of a sweat. I was always in control, always ten steps ahead with backup plans in place just to be safe.
I was losing control with no contingency plan in sight.
My breath shuddered out as an idea suddenly fell into place, as frighteningly obvious as it was profoundly right.
I slid a glance at the woman next to me, my heart folding in on itself.
It would kill me, but I knew exactly what I had to do now.