Chapter 20
ELENA
A lfeo's eyes widened just as I pulled the trigger, my breath frozen in my chest.
We'd been waiting in the shade of trees for what felt like an eternity, though the morning sun hadn't even reached its peak. My body ached from the night's horrors, and my mind couldn't stop replaying the moment I'd pulled the trigger. Of how Alfeo's body had dropped.
I struggled to shove it aside, his lifeless corpse floating through my brain. I'd dreamt about the moment on repeat, the same final seconds stuck on a wheel.
"Anyway, so when Mercedes said that, of course shit hit the fan," Ivy's voice came into focus from the distant droning it had become.
She'd been filling the silence with chatter about reality TV drama and workplace gossip—anything to distract us from what we'd just survived. At one point, Jackson made a comment about how most dancers seemed to have terrible relationships.
"Of course we do," Ivy replied with that practiced nonchalance she'd perfected. "No sane woman without trauma becomes a working girl."
Jackson's expression shifted, something softer crossing his features. "I'm sorry for whatever led you down that path."
Ivy just shrugged it off like water rolling off a duck's back. The conversation died after that, leaving us in the oppressive quiet of the countryside for a few minutes, a warm breeze dancing across us. Nothing like the chill of yesterday's storm.
"I would literally die for a Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccino right now," Ivy groaned, fanning herself dramatically with her hand. "And maybe a burger. Or three. Possibly an entire pizza. God, when did I last eat real food not from a can?"
I nodded, too exhausted to even attempt humor. My stomach had been growling since we'd left the abandoned house, and my throat felt like I'd swallowed glass.
"There," Jackson said suddenly, his body tensing as he nodded toward the road.
A black SUV approached, moving deliberately down the country road, kicking up dust in its wake. The vehicle slowed as it neared our position, and I felt my heart rate spike again. Fight or flight instincts died hard, apparently.
"That'll be Roman," Jackson added with a relieved sigh. "Let me handle the talking." He dragged himself up from the ground, wincing as he held his injured leg. I rose with him, offering my support, which he resisted at first but quickly changed his mind after a few steps.
The SUV pulled to a stop, and the driver's window lowered. Roman barely glanced at me as his dark eyes locked immediately on Jackson, dropping to his wounded leg and the gun in his hand. "You good?" he asked, his voice clipped as his gaze flicked to the tree line for potential threats.
To see if we were being followed, or a trap was waiting, probably.
"Yes. I'll explain on the drive." Jackson gave one firm nod.
"Right. Hop in." Roman glanced at Ivy and I, not bothering to question us, but he did arch a brow at our selection of clothing, or lack of.
We climbed in silently—Jackson first into the front passenger seat, wincing as he got in, then me in the back, my legs trembling beneath my dressing gown. Ivy slid in beside me, her hand brushing mine. A reminder that we were together, that we'd survived.
"Safe at last, I hope," Ivy muttered as she closed the door. I let out a breath as Roman pulled away, tires crunching on gravel.
"What happened?" Roman asked, eyes flicking between the road and the rearview mirror.
Jackson exhaled slowly, his voice low and relieved as he began recounting everything.
The ambush at my apartment, his gunshot wound, the Malatesta death, our kidnapping, and then Alfeo's death.
He didn't mention that I was the one who'd pulled the trigger.
I wondered if that was to protect me or if he simply didn't want to complicate things further.
"His body was gone by morning. Probably dragged off by wildlife." Jackson finished up the recount.
"Where were you staying?" Roman asked, his eyes meeting mine briefly in the mirror before darting away.
"Up the road," Jackson replied, gesturing vaguely. "On the left, there's a long dirt drive to a seemingly abandoned house. Still has water and power."
Roman nodded. "I'll let the Malatestas know. They'll want to find out if it was a safehouse or just somewhere only Alfeo knew about."
Had they kept that information to themselves? No one had come, so I wanted to believe they'd truly not known about it.
"They've been looking for you," Roman continued, tapping a finger on the steering wheel. "The Malatestas came forward after Alfeo went off rails and shot his own blood. Some young kid had information apparently. They gave us locations to check. We've had teams everywhere."
So the kid hadn't stayed quiet. Good. Although if Alfeo wasn't dead somewhere, mauled or torn apart after I'd shot him, then maybe it wasn't so good.
Thankfully, he was animal food now.
"Let's hope it wasn't a calculated oversight and was indeed one only Alfeo knew of," Jackson muttered as he shifted in his seat, a grimace flashing across his face.
"You need medical attention," Roman added, glancing at Jackson's bandaged thigh. "I need to get back to the hospital anyway."
Jackson turned to him, frowning. "Why? What happened?"
Roman hesitated. Just for a second. The pause was so brief I almost missed it, but it was enough to make my stomach drop. "Meredith's been admitted."
The air in the car changed instantly. Ivy shot me a look as my stomach somersaulted. Jackson went completely still, his body rigid with tension. My pulse kicked up again, this time for someone I barely knew but couldn't stop thinking about.
"Why?" Jackson asked, voice tight with concern. "Did something happen?"
Was he feeling guilty for not being there with her, protecting her like he was tasked to do?
Roman's jaw flexed as he kept his eyes on the road. "She's pregnant. But there's been complications."
I didn't know Meredith well—had only spoken to her in our brief interaction at work—but my heart lurched for her. Pregnant? With complications? Was she miscarrying? What was going on?
"Will she be okay?" I asked.
"I don't know, we need to wait." Roman glanced in the mirror at me for only a moment. I knew he didn't want to share much with Ivy and me present. Understandably. We were no one to them.
Silence settled over us as we all processed this information.
I stared out the window, watching the landscape blur past, trying to reconcile the woman I'd built up in my mind with this new reality.
She wasn't just the privileged daughter who'd had everything I didn't. She was a person with her own struggles, her own life, her own future growing inside her.
"What's the deal with this Alfeo guy anyway?
" Ivy asked, her leg bouncing in the backseat.
She'd never been one for tense silences.
It was a part of where her wit and snark had formed.
She'd always broken the quiet it since we were kids, normally with sarcasm and jokes, although now was not the time.
"And what's the history between these families? "
Roman's eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, and I knew he was trying to figure just who the hell she even was. "Malatesta and Donati businesses occasionally overlap. Alfeo was unstable. That's all you need to know."
Ivy opened her mouth to press further, but Jackson shook his head slightly, and she leaned back with a sigh, shooting me a look of frustration.
"So, Elena, I take it she's your roommate?" Roman asked.
"Yes."
"She got taken with us," Jackson added.
Roman's gaze shifted to our attire, taking in my dressing gown and Jackson's briefs with a raised eyebrow. "Interesting choice of clothing for a kidnapping."
Heat crept up my neck as I became acutely aware of how we must look. The evidence of our intimacy was written all over us.
"I was staying the night at Elena's," Jackson explained, his voice steady. "You asked me to keep an eye on her."
I shifted uncomfortably, avoiding Roman's eyes.
I still wasn't sure how to feel about knowing Jackson had been assigned to watch me, especially given what had actually happened between us before the phone call that must've been with Roman.
Had our connection been genuine, or just part of his job? The thought made my chest ache.
Roman arched a brow but nodded. "I'll have clothes waiting for you both at the hospital."
"Will someone go look for Alfeo's body?" I asked softly.
The image of him falling after I'd pulled that trigger, the sound of the gunshot, his body lying there as I'd gone back for the first-aid kit, the way his body had been dragged away by whatever lurked in those woods—it all haunted me, swimming through my mind like some sick video stuck on repeat.
Roman glanced at Jackson. "Was it a kill shot?"
"Yes," Jackson confirmed without hesitation.
"The Malatestas will recover what they can," Roman said. "But for murdering his own blood, they'll likely leave him to the scavengers, especially since the body was already dragged off by wildlife."
My stomach knotted at the thought. Though I wasn't sure if it was the gruesome image or just hunger and exhaustion catching up with me.
I wished I could crawl back into my old bed in the house with my mom and sleep for days, pretend none of this had happened.
Pretend I hadn't killed a man. Pretend I wasn't falling for someone who lived in this dangerous world.
Someone who could have been using me, who I was just a job to.
What had I expected?
But we'd shared moments, especially last night, in the house during the storm. He'd opened up to me fully, revealing a part of him I doubted many knew.
Ivy squeezed my other hand. "We survived," she murmured, her voice pitched low enough that only I could hear. "Everything will be okay."