Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Kathleen took a step back, freeing herself from Enzo’s grasp.
The tension of the call and the bang on the door had led her to drop her guard and step into his embrace.
But staying there was dangerous. It wouldn’t do to forget he was, first and foremost, a mobster.
It didn’t matter how safe he made her feel, or how sexy he was; none of that could be factored in.
He was, she reminded herself yet again, still just another thug in a suit.
“What do we do now?” She glanced at the door as the sound of people going by filtered through.
“Now,” Enzo said, as he glanced at his watch, “we get dinner. I’m starving.”
A laugh burbled up from her throat. “Seriously? You’re hungry at a time like this?” The way residual adrenaline still roiled in her gut, she couldn’t imagine eating.
“I have always found that stressful situations make me hungry. Plus, we have to keep our energy up. We’re going to have to make a break for it tomorrow. We can’t let Dominic and his goons follow us.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know how they found us.”
Kathleen had no clue, nor did she, at this exact minute, care. “I need to clean my feet and get changed.”
Enzo glanced down at her poor feet and nodded. “How about this? I will go get something to clean and bandage your feet, and you relax for a few minutes. You’ll be fine. I’m sure Vitale has told Dominic not to do anything until we get to Paris. He has to see if I’m telling the truth.”
“And when he finds out you aren’t? What then?”
Enzo shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s the risk we’re going to have to take.” He turned and unlocked the door. “Lock it after me,” he said and then left.
Kathleen immediately locked the door and sat on the narrow bunk that served as a bed and a bench seat.
Letting out a long breath, she took her cell from her backpack and dialed her brother’s number.
She’d been dreading making this call, but, in reality, it wasn’t up to the Callahans to lie for her.
It was time to face the music. Maybe he wouldn’t answer since he wouldn’t recognize the number.
“Yes?” he said by way of a greeting.
“Jamie,” she breathed and then immediately had to swallow the lump in her throat.
“Kathleen! Jesus Christ, where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying your cell for hours now.”
She tried to speak, but her voice failed her.
Her brother spoke at breakneck speed. “Where are you? Are you okay? I’ll come to you. Just tell me where you are.”
A small laugh escaped her throat. “I’m okay. I’m okay! It’s just been a bit of an ordeal. I’m glad to hear your voice.”
“What is it?” Jamie demanded. “What happened? Didn’t the handoff go as planned?”
“Oh my God, so much has happened since then. Let me start at the beginning.” She took a deep breath and launched into her tale.
“So now you and Enzo are on a train to Paris,” Jamie said evenly once she finished. “With Dominic and his people watching you?”
Kathleen pressed the phone tighter to her ear as the train thundered beneath her. “They were at the station. Vitale called Enzo himself.”
There was a pause on the line. She knew her brother well enough to know the silence was him processing what she’d told him, but also calculating his next move. It was the calculating part that scared her.
“Does that about sum it up?” Jamie continued. “Because what I’m hearing is that Enzo assured me, very clearly, that everything was under control.”
She closed her eyes. “Jamie—”
“Where is he?” Jamie cut in. His question was still calm, still measured, but something lethal had slid into the timbre of his voice. “Why isn’t he keeping you safe?”
“He’s here,” Kathleen said quickly. “He hasn’t left my side.”
“That’s not the same thing,” Jamie snapped. The control cracked, just enough to let steel show through. “He promised me this was contained. He promised me you were never going to be exposed to danger.”
Kathleen swallowed. “Things changed.”
“They always do,” Jamie said flatly. “That’s why you don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
She could hear it now, the anger being locked down, compressed, turned into something colder and far more dangerous. Jameson Drake didn’t rage. He planned.
“I trusted him,” Jamie went on. “I let him talk me down. Let him tell me I was overreacting. And now my sister is running through train stations with a mob lieutenant on her heels.”
“Jamie… Listen—”
“No.” His voice dropped, quiet and absolute. “Listen to me very carefully. Enzo doesn’t get to decide how much danger you’re allowed to be in. He doesn’t get to gamble with your life because he thinks he can outmaneuver men like Vitale.”
“It’s not his fault, Jamie. Things just happened.”
“And now you’re stuck on a train to Paris with a group of blood thirsty henchmen.”
“Er, yes, but we’re going to ditch them once we get to Paris.” But how that would happen was still very unclear. Kathleen rubbed her forehead. “We have to find the treasure, or Bianca is dead. She might be dead anyway. I don’t think Vitale is the type to care about keeping his word.”
“Ah, there you’re wrong. Alessandro Vitale has no choice but to keep his word. It’s his reputation that keeps him in business, but there are pieces missing to this.”
“I know. Enzo and I think the same thing. We asked the Callahans to dig around and see if they can come up with something to explain the situation.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” Jamie demanded, hurt lacing his voice.
Kathleen’s heart broke a little bit. She drew a shaky breath.
“Because, dear brother, I didn’t want to put you in danger.
I know you’re already thinking you can negotiate with Vitale and get me out of this mess, but it’s a fool’s errand.
You’ll just end up involved, and he will use me as leverage over you, just like he’s using Bianca to get to Enzo. I couldn’t do that to you, not again.”
“You don’t think I can handle a pissant like Vitale?” her brother seethed.
“No, Jamie. I don’t want you to be in a position where you have to. Enzo thinks Vitale is desperate, and that makes him even more dangerous. I…I need you to be safe, to be on the sidelines. I need you to be there for Connor in case… In case anything happens.”
“But I can—”
“This time, Jamie, you have to let me deal with things. You have to trust me. You can’t always be the one to save me. This time, I have to save myself.”
She knew it was a big ask. He was her brother, and his inclination was to race to her rescue, especially after everything they’d been through in the past. But this time, it was up to her to get herself out of this mess.
It had to be. She needed this. Needed to be sure of herself again.
Needed to know that she was strong enough to weather this storm on her own.
“Kathleen…I just don’t want you to be hurt.”
“Me either,” she said with a chuckle. “But I have to prove to myself that I can stand on my own two feet, Jamie. This situation is better if you’re not directly involved. Who you are will just complicate things.”
There was a knock at the door, and she tensed, but Enzo called her name through the door. She unlocked the door and sat back down on the bed.
“Say you understand, Jamie,” she begged.
There was silence and then a very reluctant, “I get it. But I don’t like it. Not one fucking bit.”
She glanced at Enzo. “Like I said, we have the Callahans working on getting us some intel. Maybe you could help with that?” she asked hopefully.
Her brother sighed again. “Fine. Kathleen…just be careful. Where’s Enzo? I want to talk to him.”
“Er, he’s gone to get food. I’ll get him to call you when he’s back.”
Enzo cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Fine, but I’d better hear from him. If he fails you,” Jamie uttered each word with steely precision, “I won’t negotiate. I won’t threaten. I will end him.”
Kathleen’s breath hitched. “He won’t fail me.”
Another pause. Longer this time.
“He’d better not,” Jamie said softly. “Because right now the only thing standing between Enzo and my full attention… is you.”
The line went dead.
Kathleen lowered the phone slowly, her hands shaking.
“Your brother isn’t happy about this situation, I take it,” Enzo said as he took a seat beside her and put down the supplies he’d brought back with him.
She met his eyes and nodded. For the first time since Nice, she was afraid of something other than Vitale. “I think you’d better avoid him for a while. He’s very pissed off.”
“I’m sure he is. I don’t blame him one bit. If the situations were reversed, I’d have a death squad waiting for him at the train station in Paris.”
Kathleen stared at him, heat filling her cheeks as fear filled her belly. “You don’t think…”
Enzo glanced up, and his eyes narrowed. “So he did threaten my life,” he said softly. “Was he loud or quiet about it?”
Kathleen swallowed. “Quiet.”
Enzo grimaced. “That’s not good.” He sighed. “I will have to deal with him at some point.”
Pointing to her feet, he said, “In the meantime, let’s get you fixed up.”
Kathleen reluctantly swung her feet up onto the bunk next to Enzo. She wasn’t sure how he could be so calm. “I don’t get how you can be so relaxed when my brother wants to kill you.”
Enzo sighed. “I’m not relaxed. I’m realistic. Jamie can’t do anything at the moment. He’s a problem for another day. I’m dealing with each issue as it presents itself. Worrying about tomorrow’s problem today, when in all likelihood it will change, is a waste of energy.”
“So what’s today’s problem?” she asked and then hissed as he cleaned a cut on her heel with an alcohol wipe. “Me?”
Enzo grinned at her and then went back to wiping her feet. He pulled out an adhesive bandage. “If only all the problems were as easily fixed as your feet.” He pulled the paper off the bandage and smoothed it over the cut on her foot.
“I wasn’t talking about my feet,” she said as she tried to pull them from his grasp.
He held them firmly as he met her gaze. “What are you talking about then?”