Chapter 39 Aerin
AERIN
When I’m not attending visits with my doctor or pregnancy classes with my mom, I’m helping my father rebuild his empire. News spread quickly about my brother’s betrayal, and with my father’s ailing health, we’re fish swimming in shark-infested waters.
I hate him.
But I promised Falco I would protect our baby, so that’s what I do.
Within a month of taking over from my father, I have a new deal worked out with the Italians and their gunrunning business. Coupled with a new drug deal with the cartel, the Irish are forced to back down on their threats to crush us into dust. They even propose the marriage again.
I swiftly reject it.
Many men stare at me with wide eyes and think they can get one over on a pregnant woman, but Falco taught me to defend myself, so I have no qualms about spilling a little blood so people know I’m serious.
Six months after his departure, a box arrives in the post. Inside is the aquamarine sea glass I’d found up at the cabin and forgotten about until now. It rests inside a white gold locket, and I immediately place it around my neck, hoping Falco would appear next.
He doesn’t. Instead, just as I’m in full swing organizing a charity fundraiser to soften the family’s image in the public eye, my father dies.
His health has been rapidly declining as I made myself big so he could rest and heal in peace. Then, one evening he retires to bed and that’s it. He passes without noise or fuss and the great Guido Paramatti is buried four days later in the Paramatti family crypt.
My mother breaks down. She stops eating. She stops sleeping. She drinks heavily and blames my pregnancy and my affair with Falco as the last nail in my father’s coffin.
She blames me up until I go into labor a month later and my darling daughter Keira is born.
Her arrival injected new life into Mom, and she became a completely different person. No nanny is needed when work calls because she’s right there to help.
I don’t know where I would be without her, because the death of my father tore open a can of worms I hadn’t known was festering in the background.
When Giacomo died, those loyal to him were hunted and killed. But a few remain, snakes in the grass that rear their ugly heads not long after Keira was born. Cutting them down takes almost as much attention as trying to survive with a newborn.
Through it all, I never stop thinking about Falco.
The moment the family crypt closed on my father, I put out feelers to try and find out where in the world Falco ended up. To no avail.
He left under my father’s order and became a ghost.
Then, one stormy night, while Keira screams in my arms and refuses to take her bottle, while my skin is clammy with sweat and puke, and I haven’t taken a shower, dreadful news is brought to me by my guard.
Mom is gone.
Taken is more accurate.
She left the estate intent on purchasing baby clothes and toys for Keira and never returned. Two hours later, her guards are found shot and killed in a parked car just off the highway.
Mom is gone.
There’s no ransom demand.
Dad is dead.
Falco is gone.
Vinnie, my guard, stands before me with his hands clasped behind his back while I stare down at Keira’s face. She’s screamed for so long that she’s turning red, and a crushing wave of hopelessness crashes over me like rocks.
“Aerin?” Vinnie asks softly. “What do you want to do?”
Thunder crashes outside as rain lashes the window and Keira jumps in my arms, screaming to new heights. I abandon the bottle and cradle her close to my chest. “I don’t know.”
“I have teams out scouring the city for her, and I have our ear to the ground in case anyone tries to pass her off. Do you want me to reach out to the Italians?”
I shake my head. “No. Not until we know more.”
“We know nothing.”
“I know that,” I snap and Keira cries harder. “I just…” Between the thunder, my own hunger, Keira screaming in my ear, and this new pain that Mom could be anywhere in the hands of anyone, I’m losing my mind. “What about Falco? Has your team found anything?”
“No,” he replies. “Except…”
“Except?” My eyes dart up and Vinnie leans toward me with a small scrap of paper in hand. “I found this. A man matching your description of Bullet was seen at the airport two days ago. We scoured through the footage and found the name he flew under, which was attached to a number.”
“Have you called it?” I ask, snatching the paper scrap.
“No. Your mother was declared missing an hour later so I haven’t had the time.”
“Leave me.”
“Are you sure?” He casts a concerned glance at Keira.
“Leave!”
Vinnie closes the door behind him and I ball up the paper, fighting to organize my thoughts. What would Falco do? What would my father do?
Before Keira, I felt like I was on top of the world.
It was easy to make decisions and talk back to the arrogant assholes who claimed to know more than me.
Mostly, they did because my father never gave me the full rundown of the drug trade or how often the smallest conversation can result in the biggest deal. I’ve been learning as I go.
But ever since Keira was born, the world has felt different. I see threats everywhere, from the food I eat to the weather and anyone who leans too close. Decisions have become harder because the entire world knows I have a baby and any moment without her sends me into a panic.
Mom usually comforts these thoughts.
I stand slowly and rock Keira back and forth, closing the drapes and taking her to the farthest corner of the room where the thunder is quietest. Back and forth I walk, humming softly and staring at her perfect little face that, even red from crying, still looks exactly like Falco.
If only she would take after him in volume.
By the time I calm her to sleep, my brain is mush and I collapse into bed, utterly exhausted.
The next day, Vinnie sprints into the dining room while I’m giving a much happier Keira her morning bottle. “We have a situation,” he gasps.
“What is it?” I ask, not taking my eyes off Keira.
“Hernadez.”
“The Cartel?”
“He’s dead.”
My heart stops in my chest and I look up. “What do you mean he’s dead?”
“Not just him.” Vinnie clutches the back of the dining chair to catch his breath. “His entire family, his entire gang have been wiped out.”
“What the hell?” Hernandez and I only recently became acquainted at a gala to raise money for children. That gala was also a front to one of the largest drug auctions in the world and we struck up a deal on a new drug that’s found its way into the States. “What happened?”
“Everyone’s dead. Like everyone. His places are all burned to ash too. No one knows who did it, but they’re saying he must have pissed off the wrong family because it’s got everyone from the Italians to the Yakuza on edge.”
“Do I need to be worried? I just secured a deal with him for those little blue pills, y’know the ones with the flowers?”
Vinnie nods and winces. “I’ll go back over everything, but we should be fine.”
“Make sure we are.”
Vinnie ducks his head and drags his hand through his hair, then he makes a hasty exit. Keira claps her little hands together and gurgles around her bottle, staring up at me with the widest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
“Mommy’s work might be in trouble,” I coo softly. “Yes it might, yes it…” Suddenly, Vinnie’s message from last night sparks in my mind and I spend the next twenty minutes tearing my bed apart in search of that tiny bit of paper with a phone number on it.
Bullet’s number.
When Keira’s down for her afternoon nap, I call it.
It rings twice.
“Hello?”
Warmth curls in my gut as Bullet’s family voice fills my ear. “Bullet.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Aerin. You don’t recognize my voice?”
“Holy shit, no,” Bullet snorts. “You sound different.”
I glance down at my sleeping baby. “I guess I am different.”
“I was told we can’t talk.”
“I know. This won’t take long but I…I was wondering if you had a way to contact Falco.”
“Falco?” Bullet sounds surprised. There’s rustling against the phone, and when Bullet’s voice returns he sounds slightly stressed. “I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now. Can I call you later?”
“Bullet please. I’ve been trying to find Falco for months, but it’s like he’s dropped off the face of the earth. Is there anything you can give me?”
“Later,” Bullet says hurriedly. “Bye.”
“I—”
He hangs up before I can say anything else and my heart sinks.
Asshole.
I spend the rest of the day on long calls with men in the organization who swear up and down that my mom has vanished off the face of the earth. No one is claiming her, no one has a ransom demand, and no body has turned up.
After putting Aerin to bed in my office, I sink back into my seat and slowly pour myself a Scotch.
I told myself I could do this. When Falco left, I swore I could do this.
But now I’m alone.
And it hurts.
Before I can give in to the tears welling in my eyes, the door suddenly crashes open and Vinnie stumbles inside.
“Vinnie!” I snap in a hushed yell. “I just put Keira down!”
“I’m sorry, but you have a visitor!”
“What?”
“Aerin!” Past Vinnie rushes my mom, still wearing the dress I last saw her in when she kissed my cheek and headed out to shop. She makes it to the desk as I hurry around it and suddenly she’s in my arms. “Oh darling!”
“Mom? What the—how are you even—are you okay?” I stumble over my words, unable to decide what I want to ask first as I cuddle her close and she weeps onto my shoulder.
“Oh, it was awful. It was awful! I thought I was going to die there!”
“How did you even…?”
The floorboards creak and Vinnie moves out of the way so the answer to all my questions can walk through the door.
He’s taller than I remember and the wrinkles on his face sink a little deeper when our eyes meet and he smiles that soft, familiar, slightly crooked smile.
His eyes, as gold as the setting sun, twinkle and he stops a few feet away while dragging one hand through dark hair that’s definitely been kissed with a little more silver.