Chapter Fifty
“I booked your annual vacation with Alix and Sadie,” Tate announced from his spot next to me in the back seat of the Escalade, his arm slung over my shoulder, his other hand scrolling through stocks on his phone. “Figured you could use some girl time.”
“Where am I going?” I nuzzled into his neck.
He’d been my rock since Mum passed away.
It was thanks to his unrelenting devotion that I was able to slide back into reality rather than crumble into it.
We drove to work together every day, took lunch together, and went back home together.
He’d been good at distracting me, getting us Broadway tickets, taking me to restaurants I’d always wanted to try, and binge-watching highly acclaimed foreign movies with me, even though I knew their slow pace and nuanced topics drove him mad.
“Havana.” His eyes warmed, but his face remained cavalier. “In honor of your mother. I figured you could take off from our house in Crimson Key. It’s close to Miami.”
Our house. I’d never even visited it, but Tate considered what was his also to be mine.
“Thank you.” I pressed my lips to the curve of his jaw. “It’s the best gift. You’re the best gift,” I corrected.
An overwhelming urge to treat him slammed into me.
“Darling,” I said, “I want to make dinner for you tonight.”
He whipped his head my way, surprised. “You know how to cook?”
“Yes.” I smiled brightly. He was in for a pleasant surprise. I was somewhat of an amateur chef. “I do. And you know how to eat.” As he’d demonstrated throughout our short marriage.
A wolfish grin tugged the corners of his lips. “That I do.”
“Anything specific you have in mind?”
“Never met a good steak I didn’t like.”
“Potatoes?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Broccoli. I haven’t had a starch in five years.”
My expression probably gave away my shock and alarm at that information.
He chuckled, stealing a quick kiss as the vehicle reached the entrance of GS Properties.
“I know, Apricity. It’s hard to understand when you are a twenty-six-year-old former athlete and have the metabolism of a hummingbird.
But your thirties bring with them a whole new level of maintenance. There’s an entire decade between us.”
I scrunched my nose. “Sometimes I forget I’m shagging an old man.”
He tipped back his head, barking out a delighted laugh and scooping me into his arms in a tsunami of kisses. “Then how about I remind you why it’s worth it.”
After holding meetings with union members all day and tending to my administrative duties, I got off work at four to have adequate time to prepare a romantic dinner. I only had one bodyguard now—Filippo. We got along well, although I kind of missed Enzo’s sunshine energy and funny jokes.
We started out at the farmers’ market, where I purchased flowers and three boneless rib eyes—yes, Filippo needed to eat too—along with some broccoli florets and other greens for a fresh salad.
“So when did you join the Camorra?” I tried to use the time shopping to get to know him better as we strolled side by side. I doubted we’d be spending a lot of time together now that Tate was working diligently to make peace with the Callaghans. “Enzo mentioned you are not a Ferrante by blood.”
The young, brawny man considered his words, weeding through what he wanted to tell me and what he wished to keep to himself.
“Yes, we’re not technically blood, but we’re much more than that.
Back in Napoli.” He scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing.
“My mother was a prostitute, and my father was a drunk. My father used to do some work for Vello in his Ischia summer house, so he knew the don. He sent me off to work for the Ferrantes to pay a debt. I could’ve ended up in a very bad spot, but the family took a liking to me because I was a hard worker, a fast learner.
Achilles especially.” He ran his teeth over his lower lip.
“They let me live in their shed, not with all their other laborers in the motel they own in Jersey City. In time, they even let me have a place at their dinner table.”
“Achilles doesn’t seem like the type to just dole out friendship,” I noted, striding along the stalls sprouting colorful bouquets of flowers, freshly baked goods, and handmade mittens.
We were edging out of the farmers’ market and toward the car park.
It was surrounded by low, industrial, red-bricked buildings, with a narrow one-way road leading out to the main street.
“He can be terrible,” Filippo agreed. “But he is always fair.”
“Is he?” I asked doubtfully.
Filippo nodded. “In our world, it is better to be cruel than to be weak. Whatever punishments he gives people, they always deserve it.”
“Did his baby brother deserve having his girlfriend shagged to make a point?” I couldn’t help but snap out. What a load of rubbish.
“This wasn’t a punishment, vita mia . It was a favor.” Filippo frowned, his eyes constantly scanning our surroundings, hyperaware we were in a public though secluded place. “And a lesson too. Enzo has a lot to learn about himself.”
I wondered what that meant.
I thought about Filippo’s life. How his choices were taken away from him at such a young age. I wanted to help him if I could.
“Filippo, would you rather—”
The rest of my words were drowned in a sharp, loud noise.
Filippo jerked forward suddenly, landing face down on the pavement.
Gunpowder scorched my nostrils, so smoky and peppery I could taste it on my tongue.
My eyes darted to his crumpled form. Horror quickly flooded through my veins.
His raven hair was wet and matted to his skull, and blood gushed from his wound, down the slope of his ear, in a river of deep maroon.
His eye was missing. Either it exploded or rolled off somewhere.
I shrieked, dropping the brown paper bags I held to my chest. I whirled around, my eyes flaring when I spotted Tiernan Callaghan standing about twelve feet from me, a Cheshire Cat smirk on his lips.
He was holding a gun with a silencer, spinning the trigger on his index finger.
Behind him were three scary-looking men.
“Hello, Gia .”
I started running before I had time to think about what I was doing, my heart pumping so hard I felt my pulse thrusting against every inch of my skin. I had never run so fast in my life.
“Bring her to me,” Tiernan ordered in an indifferent tone. “I want her alive and well. Mostly, anyway.”
The side street was empty, so I tore across the pavement as quickly as my legs could carry me, looping around streetlamps and stop signs to slow down the three men at my heel. Their feet pounded on the cement, reverberating through my spine as they inched closer.
I spotted two overflowing plastic bins. Whirling behind them, I pushed them hard against the three men, unleashing a dam of garbage on them.
They tumbled backward, cursing and growling.
It bought me a few precious seconds, which I took to turn onto Fifth Avenue.
There, I’d be able to disappear amid the throng of people.
My lungs were burning and my muscles shaking, but I kept running.
As soon as I made the sharp turn, the fog of catastrophe clouded my vision.
The street was closed for construction. Thick, long wooden boards blocked my way.
I’d hit a dead end.
The sound of thrashing boots grew louder, closer. They were snarling, swearing under their breath. Hurling garbage at them obviously only angered them further.
I stopped in front of the barrier, calculating whether I could smash through it.
I yanked my phone from my pocket and tried to slide the screen to unlock it, but my fingers shook too badly.
Tiernan’s soldiers materialized from the corner of the street, circling in on me as they spread across the narrow alleyway.
They stalked toward me. My nerves finally gave in.
I dropped my phone between the bars of a water drain. Bollocks .
I was completely screwed.
“Ah, there she is, the little spitfire.” The burliest man out of the three advanced in my direction, cracking his knuckles, his friends following close behind him. The three of them were brawny and pale, dressed in inconspicuous black jackets and dark denim.
My gaze danced between them, trying to come up with a game plan.
“Here, kitty kitty.” The leader of the pack rubbed the pads of his fingers together as though I was an alley cat. “C’mere now, you little—”
I pounced on him with a snarl, scratching his eyes out with my fingernails. Maybe I was going down, but I wasn’t doing it without a fight.
“Fuck!” He stumbled backward, falling flat on his arse. “This pussy has claws.”
The other two men tackled me, one of them pulling out a knife and pointing it toward me. “Tiernan said mostly well,” he reminded me, flashing rancid, yellow teeth. “He wouldn’t mind a few shallow cuts, and man, wouldn’t I love a taste of a proper lady.”
My back was pressed against the boards. I heaved, knowing the only way out was through. I could let them take me…
But as Tate graciously pointed out countless times, I was never good at taking orders.
Drawing a deep breath, I gained momentum and started running straight into the men, hurling myself between them.
For a moment, I thought I could actually escape them.
But then one of them grabbed me by my pearl choker, yanking me back.
My head slammed against the ground. My ears rang.
Liquid heat spread across the back of my skull. I was bleeding.
A cloth was pressed against my face, and my eyes snapped open, flaring in horror. Chloroform.
Thinking on my feet, I pressed my mouth shut and stopped breathing. Losing consciousness was a terrible idea. I fluttered my eyes shut after a few seconds while holding my breath until I felt the hand that pressed the cloth to my face loosening around my nose.
“Finally,” one of them spat on the floor. “Fucking bitch. Do you wanna have a go?”
“Nah,” another one sighed. “Her husband is killing people left and right. She’s gorgeous, but no pussy’s worth it.”
My eyes were closed, and my head was dizzy, but I wasn’t passed out. Someone grabbed my feet. Then a second pair of hands scooped me by the wrists. They dragged my back over the pavement on their way to the vehicle purposely, leaving painful welts of raw skin.
They tossed me into a waiting van. Tiernan’s face peered down at me, wearing his victorious expression like a crown of vipers. I watched him through half-closed eyes, still feigning unconsciousness.
“If it isn’t Tatum Blackthorn’s one and only weakness, in the flesh,” he rasped. “Oh, what lovely plans I’ve waiting for you.”