Chapter 20
ELSIE
“Are we really going on a trip to our hotel?” Sophia squeals after Michael informs us that we’ll be flying out on his private jet in three hours.
Imagine my fucking shock.
“Our hotel?” I question, darting a gaze from him to her.
“Yep! It’s Daddy’s hotel. He’s the boss, and we go to the beach there and have ice cream. Sometimes, Daddy sings and plays the guitar on the beach with the people who work at the hotel.”
He laughs. “I do own the hotel, and I only sometimes play the guitar.”
I look at him curiously. Why the hell are we going on a vacation out of nowhere? This makes no sense. He was just killing someone, and now we’re going away?
“You never told me you sing,” I say.
“You never asked.” The sides of his eyes crinkle as he grins.
“You sing nice like Daddy,” Sophia says. “Maybe you and Daddy can sing together when we get there!”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, princess,” he chuckles. “How about you go and take out your suitcase from the closet and figure out what you want to bring with you. I’ll help you pack. Mabel is coming with us too.”
“Yay! I can’t wait! No school!”
She rushes out toward the stairs while I carry the shock on my face as I stare at him.
“Why are we really leaving, Michael?”
His breath hitches as he moves closer to me. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He runs a hand down his face, heaving out a sigh, his shirt straining around his mountain of a bicep. “The Bianchis sent someone to take you from me. But they failed.”
“Oh, no…” I clasp a hand around my mouth.
They came for me that easily. What if they come when he isn’t here to protect me?
Oh my God. Kayla. They might use her to try and get to me.
“There’s nothing for you to worry about, little dove. The man they sent, he’s dead now.”
My brows shoot up. “Is that who you were…”
He nods. “Yes.” He picks up my hand, his lips softly landing on the top of it, the kiss too gentle for a man so hard. “I was distracted all day because of it. I’m sorry.”
His palm lands possessively around the top of my thigh, fingertips forcing their way into my flesh.
“You’re under my protection now.” His eyes pin me with conviction. “No one will hurt you. I’ll kill them all.”
“I believe you,” I tell him.
And that’s because I do.
Eight hours later, we arrive at a large, pristine hotel, nestled in acres of land.
We settle into one of the penthouses, with an adjoining room for Mabel and Sophia.
The hotel isn’t like one of those giant resorts, but a boutique kind with everything you could want.
Three restaurants, two pools, a private beach only for the guests.
The ocean, though…it’s been a while since I’ve stepped into one. The pool doesn’t come close. I remember once, my parents and I took a trip to Aruba. The water was almost as beautiful as it is here. So clear, you could see fish swimming around your feet.
Sophia splashes around in the water with Mabel, while I just stand watching them, toes curling in the sand.
As soon as we got here, unpacked, and had breakfast, I slipped into a bathing suit, and we’ve been here ever since.
But I can’t seem to make myself go in, quietly observing the waves instead of joining them.
I bend my face to the sun, enjoying its warmth, smiling as the rays hit me all over.
I’ve missed the sunlight. We never got out during the day.
We were closed off from the world, like forgotten little dolls until the darkness came to play.
“You like it here,” Michael says.
I jerk my head toward his rugged voice as he appears beside me, holding a slushie he went off to get for me.
“Do you really own all of this?”
Because I could get used to it.
I stare directly at his face, trying to avoid an eyeful of his very chiseled six-pack encased in all that glorious, tanned skin.
“Yes, it’s mine.” A flirty grin dances on his lips. “Why? Will you come visit after you’re through with me?”
My heart quickens. I don’t know how to answer that. Because I might want to.
When I don’t say anything, he glances out to where Sophia giggles, and I find him smiling with so much love, my heart weeps. Their relationship is so beautiful. I envy it. I miss my parents so much it hurts. I wonder if I’ll ever get to see them again.
He gazes at me once more, and it isn’t lust that I find when I look at him. It’s affection.
“Come on…” He holds out a hand. “Come swim with me, little dove.”
I peer over at him, then stare out into the turquoise water, wanting so badly to take him up on his offer.
He doesn’t give me a chance to refuse, because he grabs my hand and pulls me to the edge of the waves. Closer, until the water washes ashore over my toes and tears sting my eyes.
“I’ve got you,” he says, reaching a palm for my cheek and cradling it like he would a child. “I’ve got you, baby.”
Tears swim in my eyes as I nod, knowing that he does. And together, we rush into the water, and for once I feel free.
MICHAEL
An hour later, with my back against a tree, I watch them dancing on the sand. My wife and my daughter. Together. Like it’s real. Like somehow this woman has always been here. Like a ghost of what could be.
Elsie’s long white skirt twirls in the wind to the music, her hair sweeping across her face as she and Sophia laugh, running in circles, holding hands.
The sun illuminates Elsie’s face like she was born to glow beneath it.
The light to my darkness. But she’s not meant for a life like the one I’ve been born into.
And every single time we’re together, when I feel myself get lost in her eyes, I’m spit back out into the present, where I’m reminded of why we can’t ever be.
I can’t let her die like Bianca did. She’ll always be my weakness, and my enemies will know that.
They’ll use her to get to me. To destroy me. I can’t allow her to pay the price.
I fear every damn day that I’m going to lose my daughter. Even the full-time guard I have assigned to her doesn’t alleviate my concerns. I can’t live in a world where I fear losing two people in my life. Love is not worth the pain that it costs to taste it.
I still remember it: the day Bianca died, when I got that call. When nothing was ever the same again.
“Sir.” Alison rings the speaker in my office. “There’s a call on line three for you.”
I hit the button on the phone. “Take a message. I’m busy.”
“I would…uh…but it’s your brother, Raph. He says he’s been calling your phone, but you haven’t answered. He sounds upset, sir.”
“Put him through.”
“Okay.”
I pick up the receiver and hit the third line. “Raph? What’s going on?”
For a few seconds, all I hear is his heavy breathing.
“Raph?”
I’m on my feet already, grabbing my keys from my desk, heading out of the office in a hurry. My pulse slams in my neck in those seconds it takes me to head out the door.
Something happened. Heaviness hits my gut. Alison stands up as I pass, brows tightening. But I ignore her, rushing for the garage.
“Raph, talk to me. What happened?”
More silence, and that has me running into my car and gunning down the road. I don’t even know where I’m going. He wasn’t at work today because he had a meeting with some investors. After that, he was heading home to surprise Bianca with a night out. That’s where he must be.
Fuck, did something happen to her?
“She’s been shot.” His exhales roll heavily, like the tide.
“Who?” I weave from lane to lane, honking at every damn car going slow. “Bianca? Are you at the house?”
“Yeah…fuck, her pulse is light…hang on. Help is coming. Fuck!” he shouts. “The ambulance is on the way. I don’t know when it happened. The…the cameras were tampered with, like they knew where they were.”
He mutters a series of curses, and something heavy clatters, like he’s tossed something against the floor.
“I’m on my way. Only a minute. I’m going to stay on the line, all right?”
“She can’t be dead. I can’t be responsible for this. We had our issues, but I never wanted this…fuck!”
“Of course you didn’t. This isn’t your fault.”
“Of course it is! This is what happens when we get women involved with us. They die. They fucking die! Now her parents will have to bury their daughter, and I will have to bury my wife!”
I speed through the last couple of miles, stomping on the gas, almost crashing into the car in front. “She’s not dead. Don’t talk like that. She’ll be okay.”
He doesn’t say anything the rest of the way, only his heavy panting does the talking. I’m finally pulling up into the driveway, rushing out the door, just as the sirens of the ambulance get closer.
The entryway is open, and I run in, finding them on the floor in the kitchen, a pool of blood around her body. There’s too much of it.
He looks up at me, face ashen, his white t-shirt spotted with bright red.
“They fucking killed her,” he grits out, just as two EMTs rush in with a stretcher.
“How long ago was she shot?” one asks while checking out her vitals.
“I don’t know. Fuck!” He presses a fist into his temple. “Just save her!”
Then they’re on her, adding a mask around her nose and mouth.
Raph gets up, standing beside me.
“Patrick did this. You know he did,” he whispers. “And he’ll answer for it.”
He sounds sure. Did he see one of their men?
“We’ll talk about it. After,” I tell him just as quietly.
“There’s nothing to talk about. They come after ours, we come after theirs.”
“We’re going to take your wife to Montclair Hospital.”
“I’m riding with her.”
They carry her out, and he rushes behind them.
“I’ll call the family and follow you there,” I tell him.
He nods, getting into the back of the ambulance before it speeds off, the volume of the sirens decreasing as they get further away.
I use my key to lock up his house before slipping back into my car. We all got each other’s keys just in case there was trouble.
I call Gio, and he answers on the second ring.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
The music blasts through and I hear the laughter of women.
“Get to Montclair now and call Mom and Dad. Bianca’s been shot. She may not make it.”