Chapter 19 #3
It was time to get out of there.
“Let’s go home…” Kara said. For the first time… she meant it. Because she had a home… had a family… had a man who held her heart. Her home would always be where her heart was, with Angelo.
Kara was safe. That was all that mattered to Angelo. Angelo held her on his lap in the back of the SUV, relishing the way she tucked herself into him.
Asher was in the front seat talking to Colton on his cell phone. Colton and Atlas were in another SUV heading to meet the police to retrieve the sedan out of the lake. Which meant he and Kara had some time to talk.
Her face was pressed against his chest and neck.
Only one of her hands peeped out, resting on his arm.
His grandmother’s pearl gleamed like frozen moonlight.
The sight of it on Kara’s finger made his chest ache and his eyes burn.
He didn’t know what happened or why the ring had been removed, but she’d gone back for it.
Faint, angry red marks, formed a bracelet around her wrist. She’d been tied up.
The rage inside of him began to build like a storm as he fought to keep it inside.
He peppered her face with soft kisses, especially around the bruise darkening one of her eyes.
“I thought you drowned,” she suddenly whispered, her lashes fluttering beneath his lips as he kissed her closed eyes. The storm inside of him instantly died as he processed her words. He had almost died.
“According to Asher I kind of did,” he admitted.
“What happened?” Kara burrowed her face against his neck. “You promised you’d be right behind me.”
“I watched you swim away, and I knew I had to get out and follow you—to keep my promise because I go where you go.” He nuzzled her temple, pressing soft, reverent kisses against her skin.
“When I finally got my seat back and escaped, I started swimming away, I’d already lost precious time without air and…
” The words he wanted to say choked him into silence.
“If it’s too much we don’t have to talk about it.” She kissed his chin and somehow her understanding gave him the strength to continue.
“The next thing I knew my life flashed before my eyes. I always thought that was some kind of silly thing that happened in movies. But it happened to me…” It felt like he was swallowing glass.
“And?” Kara’s lips brushed against his throat causing him to shiver, and then she shivered a second later. Damn, he was cold and so was she. He reached forward to turn up the heater on for the back of the car.
“Angelo, tell me,” she pressed.
He rested his chin on her head and tried to fight through the emotions that threatened to drown him.
“I saw my life… and it… led right to you at the end. You were my last thought before…” He couldn’t finish, but she seemed to know what he couldn’t say.
Kara… She had been the last thing his mind clung to as his life faded away. He knew the poets had been right about love all along. He suddenly smiled.
“Life can be made stronger than death, if man learns carefully and unmistakably the language of love,” he murmured.
Kara lifted her head up to look at him, her brows rose in silent question.
“It reminded me of your poetry. Sri Chimroy wrote it.”
“Poetry?”
“I started reading some after you went to bed last week.” He stared in her eyes, seeing a host of stars.
His private galaxy. He cleared his throat.
It still hurt like hell and he swore he still felt water in his lungs, but he was alive.
“I was thinking about your idea for the cookbook. It might be a good one. I want to write it with you.” He tightened his grip on her slightly.
“Really?” Those stars in her eyes grew brighter, shone deeper.
“Really.” The thought of sharing his grandmother’s recipes with the world and sharing stories of her life in Italy… and his life with Kara now, it felt right.
Kara relaxed in his arms just a little more. They were both quiet for a long while before she spoke again. “I still don’t understand it. How did you find me after you got out of the lake… and how did he… Atlas show up with the Westies?”
“I can answer that,” Asher said from the front seat as he hung up his phone. “I put tracking devices in various articles of clothing as well as your suitcases. Angelo and I discussed that if you decided to run, we would track you both in case something happened.”
She looked up at Angelo a flash of betrayal in her eyes.
“Kara, I was never going to let you just run off, not when I knew your father’s men would never let you be free.
Asher and I agreed that I’d go with you, and he’d track us and we’d try to lure Cormac out.
” He bent his head, his nose brushing hers as he breathed slowly in and out.
“Even if you didn’t want to stay with me, didn’t love me, I wasn’t going to let you lose your life, not to Cormac or anyone else. ”
Tears clung to her lashes and she blinked several times, making him want to kiss those lashes and dry her eyes.
“Am I forgiven?” he asked.
She nodded and he lifted his head again. Asher was watching them through the rear view mirror and took that as his moment to continue his explanation.
“I was on the tail of the SUV following you but I didn’t know it was Cormac’s men until they rammed you into the lake.
When they hit you, they started arguing and didn’t immediately get out of the car.
So I ran past them and down the embankment where I found you.
I dove into the water to get Angelo out.
They took you while I was in the water.”
Kara grimaced and touched her hand to her chin where a bruise was forming. One her eyes was black, and Angelo wanted to know how she’d gotten that but didn’t have a chance to ask.
“While I was getting Angelo out of the lake Colton rendezvoused with the Cabrinis and got into contact with Atlas who said he was bringing in the Westies on a private flight from New York.”
“Who is Atlas?” Kara asked.
“He was my man running point in New York. He kept track of every moment while they were there. He got a job at a local café they went to every morning and kept tabs on them. They somehow figured out he was tailing them and blew up his car. Thankfully Atlas wasn’t inside.
He and the Westies met up at the airfield and caught a flight right after Callahan and O’Leary did.
They actually beat Cormac to the plane he hired to bring you back to New York and he knocked the pilot out cold.
It was a dice roll. Atlas didn’t know for certain if Cormac had made him or just his car.
Colton worked with the Cabrinis to have a little discussion with the Westies about you and your situation before they met you.
And it turns out, they were willing to listen and willing to let you go. ”
Kara relaxed even more in his hold, and he kissed the top of her head before resting his chin against the crown of her hair. Angelo knew he and Kara would have more questions later, but he didn’t want to think about anything but Kara and getting her home.