Chapter 2 Piper
PIPER
Cristiano grips my upper arm, his eyes wide. "Let's go, Piper.”
His voice, saying my name the way he used to, pours over my skin like warm honey, but the sound of incessant gunfire snaps me back to reality. Suddenly, I remember we're in the middle of a shootout. One where we could both die.
More men have come. Donatio's men and what looks like men who came to back up Cristiano.
I don’t get to answer Cristiano; he yanks me behind him and shields me with his massive body as he moves us toward the door. While shock and raw terror consume me, he shoots back.
What should have been a short walk to the large swinging doors across from us feels like a trek over the wilderness, but we make it. The moment we go through the doors, Cristiano takes my hand and we run.
When we reach another set of doors, he shoots the keypad on the wall, allowing the doors to slide open.
We rush out, right into the parking lot. As the cool night air hits me, skating over my burning skin, gratitude that I'm still alive overwhelms me.
My fingertips tingle where they touch his.
It's maddening that even now, with bullets flying behind us and my sister missing, my traitorous body still responds to him like no time has passed.
My chest feels simultaneously hollow and too full, like my heart can't decide whether to embrace the comfort of his familiar presence or protect itself from the inevitable pain that follows.
A tremor lances through me, and I stumble, but Cristiano stops me from falling.
At that moment, we look at each other. Me staring at him in that shock I can’t contain for seeing him again. And him…
Well, I’ve known Cristiano Moretti long enough to label the emotion I witness swimming in his bourbon eyes as guilt. Guilt with an undertone of remorse and regret.
It’s as potent as the confusion swirling within me. Yet none of us speak.
I allow him to pull me along, leading me toward a black SUV with tinted windows.
He opens the passenger door and ushers me inside. The moment I'm seated, he closes the door and rushes to the driver's side to get in. Mere seconds later, he fires up the engine and we're off.
Cristiano speeds out of the parking lot like we have hellfire on our asses, and he takes me away from the danger and death and doom.
Once we’re on the road, my breathing calms, and with that clarity comes dread for Lana.
Is she dead?
She could be. My sister could have been killed, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Donatio sold her. Sold her. And the way he said it was like he was talking about a piece of meat.
If he says she’s either dead or on the way to fuck knows where, then I was always too late.
What am I going to do now?
Oh, Lana.
Cristiano pulls out his phone from his pocket, reminding me he’s here.
He glances at my still, hollow form and makes a call. "Any word on Lana?"
I look at him properly, my heartbeat kicking up several notches as I realize he must know more than I think.
Of course he does. He's here, and he saved me, and he came just in time as if he was watching, waiting.
In the soft moonlight streaming through the window, I get a good look at him as he speaks in Italian to whoever's on the other end of the line.
He's still hard around the edges and still devastatingly handsome enough to soften his abrasive exterior.
He’s had that hardness since I met him. I was sixteen, and he was eighteen. He’d just moved from Italy to the States with his family. Even before we officially met, I knew he came from a mafia family.
It was spoken about in hushed tones at school, and no one dared mess with him. He had that badass attitude that warned you not to.
Strangely, we first met when he saved me from my school bullies, and then we got together months later.
My parents didn't like him because of who and what he was. They also weren't fond of me dating a senior, but I never let anything stop me from being with him. Neither did he, not even when my dad warned him away from me.
Our plans were to go to UCLA so we could be together, away from everyone who wanted us apart. And we did. I followed right after him, and we had a glorious time together until the night he left me with no reason.
"I'm going to need all hands on deck for this one," he says in English again, then hangs up.
I don't even realize tears are streaming down my cheeks until one drops onto my arm, followed by more.
Cristiano’s dark eyes meet mine again, holding my gaze a little longer. For a moment, I see a flicker of the man who used to be mine. There's so much unsaid between us—so many questions and accusations.
“Are you hurt?” He looks me over.
“No.”
“My men are tracking Lana." He nods, breaking his stare. "I'm trying to get her back."
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “She’s alive?”
He nods slowly. "Yes, but it's imperative we get to her as soon as possible. She was in Sicily earlier. The man who bought her is moving her to a different location, but we don’t have details of where that is.”
That bastard Donatio made me believe Lana was still in Chicago. And I was so stupid to believe him. I wipe away my tears and drag in a deep breath.
"Thank you. Thank you for saving me and for trying to find Lana. But what are you doing here, helping me?" My frail voice sounds like it may shatter from the tension filling the space between us. “How are you here, Cristiano? And you know about Lana?”
"It’s complicated.” He glances away, back to the road, his jaw clenched.
“Then uncomplicate it. I haven’t seen you in six years. You left out of the blue, and I couldn't find you. Now you're here.”
His face hardens and his grip tightens on the steering wheel. "I'm sorry. A lot happened that I couldn’t tell you back then.”
“Why?”
“I needed to keep you safe.”
My throat goes dry. “Keep me safe?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t look at me as he speaks. It’s like he can’t.
All I can do is stare at him wide-eyed in utter disbelief. I thought he left the way he did because he was done with me and found it easier to abandon me.
It was so painful. There we were talking about moving in together because he was weeks away from graduating college, then he was gone. Just like that.
I looked for him everywhere and called him until it bordered on harassment. I just wanted to know he was safe.
When I contacted his family in the US and Italy, no one ever got back to me. It was like he never existed. Like we’d never been together. Like we were never meant to be.
“What happened? Why did you need to keep me safe?”
“One of my father’s enemies declared war on my family after his son was found dead on our land. They thought we killed him and started killing everybody we loved and cared about.”
“Oh my God. Why didn’t you tell me?” The knots in my stomach tighten when I think of what he and his family must have gone through.
“I couldn’t. My father called me the last time you and I saw each other and told me to head to Italy immediately. He was gathering the family.”
“You should have told me, Cristiano.”
“No.” His voice is more abrupt. “Being in L.A. and away from me kept you safe. They were targeting all the people we knew across Chicago and Europe. I was told to sever ties with everyone I cared about. Especially you. If I contacted you, or so much as checked on you, I risked putting you in danger. Too many people died just for associating themselves with my family.”
My mouth drops, and for a moment, I shift the pain I've felt all these years to the back of my mind. “I can’t believe that happened to you.”
Sad eyes meet mine again. “You have no idea how badly I wanted to contact you.”
“Did the problem get resolved?” Is that why he’s here now?
Again, he nods. "We found out my family was set up. The real murderer confessed on his deathbed, clearing our names.”
“My God.”
“It happened days ago. My first thought was to come back here to see how you were.” He blows out a ragged breath.
“I had people here who would check in on you occasionally when I thought it was safe enough. I never expected to find you and your sister in trouble. I’ve been tracking you both for the last two days. ”
My breath hitches. I want to ask him how he thought it was fair for him to be able to check in on me yet I didn’t get to know anything about him. However, Lana is the more pressing matter. “Lana is just so irresponsible she’s …”
He nods in understanding. “And she made a mistake.”
“The worst kind.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to get her back, Piper.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We're not out of the woods, so we need to get somewhere safe. Donatio will send his men after us, so we need to lay low.”
My blood spikes. "Where are we going?"
"A safe house just out of state. We should be okay there. At least for tonight. Hopefully, I can eliminate the threat by morning."
“What if you can’t?”
“Then I’ll figure something else out. Just trust me.”
Trust him? I’m still trying to process everything. It feels like I landed on my head at the bottom of hell. But at least, at least I have him.
I'm in danger. The past and the awkwardness of our reunion have to wait. Right now, I have no choice but to trust him.
In one night, I became a pawn in a mafia war and was reunited with the man who broke my heart.
"Okay."