Chapter 36
Vivi
I’D BEEN TO the city thousands of times.
This visit wasn’t any different than the others.
Traffic was terrible. Tanaka’s surprise visit pushed us into the start of midday rush hour.
Horns blared. We were in a battle of bumper-to-bumper traffic with yellow cones and construction vans blocking a lane and the alley behind the store.
There wasn’t a parking spot within a six-block radius of Manhattan Swim.
“Drop me at the front by the steps.” I pointed to the gray building with fake palm trees and giant posters of bikini-clad girls above the doors. He couldn’t miss the boobs.
“No.”
I ignored the calm vehemence in his tone. “Yes. By the time you swing around, I’ll be waiting for curbside pickup.”
The rough sound scratching his throat told me Luca was not convinced.
“I have my phone.” I held it up and then shoved it into my little bag next to Tanaka’s card and my wallet.
Only three items were inside, which made for easy access to call in case of an emergency.
“This is the cell you gave me. Not Vigo’s.
I don’t have anything else on me, and you swept the Range Rover before we left the house.
Damian’s SUV too. No one could possibly know we’re here, and who would want me now anyway?
I’m your wife, bound to my father by more than blood.
He doesn’t want to kill me. Neither does Catarina.
The lunatic who attacked me is in the morgue.
The Angelinis are joining the Cabello family, so we’re at peace for the next ten minutes. Fifteen max.”
The dark depths of his eyes stared into my soul as our vehicle remained stationary. A vein throbbed in his temple. My palm on his thigh did not ease the tension. His fingers found mine, winding through until he brought my hand to his heart, which thumped too heavy for a quick trip into Manhattan.
“It all makes sense, uccello, and still, I have a hard time allowing the most beautiful creature to slip away.”
“I’ll never slip away. I’ll be right there. And you’ll be—”
“Right here waiting for you. Always waiting.”
I smiled and then pressed my lips to his.
“I’ll be out in a jiffy.” I kissed him again for good measure, grabbed my bag, and hit the street with a freedom I hadn’t felt in a while.
I might have spouted the list of recent events to convince Luca of my safety, but as I ran up the three steps to the store, it eased the strain in my shoulders as well.
The shop was long and narrow. Two-story white walls.
Bright bikinis. A posh changing room by the back exit.
I inhaled a deep breath of coconut, moving past the bodyboards, surfboards, and beach towels, and stopped where the utilitarian suits were folded on a table.
A bell above the door rang, another patron cashed out, the salesgirl called a thank you as he left, and I ruffled through to find my size.
“Vivi?”
My head snapped up.
My pulse exploded.
I blinked the person in front of me into focus, stunned by a blonde ’fro and turquoise eyes.
“Sam? Hey.” I held the suit to my chest as if it would ease my thundering heart. “You scared the life out of me.”
“Oh, sorry. I was excited to see you. What are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I laughed, holding up the white one-piece. “I swim all the time. On the other hand….”
“I know, I know. I’m not a fish like you, but Dale’s taking me to Atlantic City. A little bit of gambling, a little bit of beach, and a little tiny diamond knowing his savings account. But a girl can always upgrade on her tenth anniversary.”
“He’s proposing?” My jaw dropped. “Wait a minute. Dale? The guy who says marriage has too many rules and that he doesn’t want to get tied up in so much responsibility. That guy?”
“Yeah.” She waved away his excuses. “He’d rather have the responsibility than lose his hot girl. Besides, I may have told him how happy you were on your wedding day and that I was jealous you finally got to start your life with the man of your dreams.”
The hair on my nape prickled.
I dropped the suit and stepped back. “But you despise Luca.”
“No.” She glanced left and then right before refocusing on me.
“No, I really don’t. Your marriage was a surprise, that’s all.
I want what you have. That kind of happiness, and I think I’ve found it with Dale.
I told him so, and then I told him if he didn’t want the same thing, it was time to break up. ”
“You want… what I have?” I’d heard that before, from another friend on another day. I swallowed a lump and looked around. A guy was behind the register, but it was a woman’s voice who called a thank you to the person leaving the store when I entered.
“That sounds weird,” she said. “I just meant I want the kind of connection you have with Luca, that’s all. Vivi, what’s wrong?”
The sun, sand, and walls closed in. Something hot and uncomfortable simmered under my skin.
“Why are you here?” I pressed, even as I inched away.
“I told you.” She smiled. “I’m here for a suit.”
I stepped back a foot. “You’d never pay these prices. Resale is your vibe.”
She held up her palms but walked forward. “Hey, you’re freaking out. I can see it in your wide eyes. Nothing’s wrong, I promise. I only want to talk to you. Let’s get a drink, and not a margarita this time. That was drama overload.”
“I can’t.” I shook my head so violently, hair frayed from my bun. “Luca’s waiting for me in the car. He’s with me, right outside.”
I reached into my purse, fingers curling around my phone.
“Great, the more the merrier. We can get to know each other. I’d like that.”
“Another day. Call me, okay?” I sidestepped Sam and headed toward the front of the store.
She caught my arm, spinning me around until we were face-to-face. “I’m so sorry, Vivi, please believe me. But I can’t let you leave. We’re going to talk, here or at the station.”
“Station?” The world I knew blurred before my eyes. She reached into her back pocket and retrieved a black bifold wallet, a gold badge glinting under the fluorescence. I couldn’t read the details, but I knew exactly what it meant.
The knife of betrayal was swift, cutting deep.
Oxygen escaped my lungs. I couldn’t find my next breath.
“It’s not what you think,” she said.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The audacity sliced through my confusion.
“Go to hell,” I hissed, wrenching out of her grip.
The man behind the counter lunged. I did too, faster and toward the back of the store, not the front, where they assumed I’d go. Sam called out; the stranger demanded I stop. I punched Luca’s number on speed dial as I pushed through the rear exit and broke into a run on the street.
The call rang once. “Vivi?”
“Luca,” I screamed. “The alley.”
“Ten seconds, and I’m there.”
“Hurry,” I cried, but dropped the phone to use both arms for momentum and to dodge the construction cones and then the dumpster.
The blue sky shone between concrete mountains, adding surreal glitter to a dark world.
Then my salvation screeched to a stop at the end of the block, a worker’s van preventing his turn to meet me halfway.
Luca pushed the passenger door open, his fingers reaching over what was my seat, as if he could pull me inside quicker than I could run.
Behind me, shoes slapped on the pavement.
Luca’s eyes grew wide.
A white truck pulled up, blocking traffic in both directions.
Horns wailed.
“Viviiieennne!” Luca screamed and reached.
I ran faster, drowning in my thundering pulse.
Bodies filed out of the truck. Men in nondescript gear with a bevy of weapons flooded the Range Rover.
“Luca!”
A hooded figure smashed the driver’s side window, then yanked open the door. He grabbed Luca’s neck and dragged him out with his hand still extended, his lips still forming my name, his eyes round with a panic I’d never seen.
“No!” I screamed and ran. I got close as they wrestled his wrists to his back, shoving him onto the hood and pressing his cheek onto the gleaming metal. Still, his gaze never left mine, even as the worker’s van next to me rumbled and shook.
The door slid open, and a giant lunged out.
His shoulder thrust into my side.
The world went black.
?
“THIS DAY WAS inevitable, but I had hoped it wouldn’t be so dramatic. How’s your head? Agent Burnet forgets his size. He had no intention of knocking you out. He only wanted to stop you from running.”
Sam, or whoever the hell she was, chatted incessantly while I glared, or snarled, or demanded she bring Luca to me.
She never did. Pain blurred the outer edges of my vision.
Possibly a concussion. My cheek burned from the asphalt scrape.
There was good potential to sue the snot out of the police department and win, but I didn’t care about money.
I wanted Luca. My fingers were numb because I wouldn’t let this piece of shit filth near me to release the cuffs.
She could go to hell, and I told her so twenty times in the last five hours.
“Let’s talk. Ask me a question, and I’ll answer with the truth. Anything, Viv. You go first.”
“Where’s my husband?” I growled, staring at the black coffee she set before me.
It turned my stomach.
The room was dirty gray. The fake wood table I leaned against reminded me of my old elementary school, but without sweet little Mrs. Casper and a chalkboard behind her back.
Instead, a mirrored wall reflected my disheveled state—a looking glass with a mystery mob on the other side waiting for the mafia daughter to crack and spill her secrets.
I snarled and wished I was filthy enough to spit on my reflection.
“I know my rights,” I said instead. “I want a lawyer. I also get a phone call, and I’d like to use it to speak with my father. Vigo Cabello is his name. Just in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I haven’t, and you’re not under arrest. I just want to talk.”