Chapter 3 Cristiano
CRISTIANO
The safe house comes into view after a two-hour drive through the darkened countryside.
Two hours of tense silence broken only by necessary conversation.
Two hours of stealing glances at Piper's profile when she stares out the window.
Two hours of my knuckles white on the steering wheel, fighting the urge to reach across the console and touch her, just to confirm she's real.
Since I couldn’t do that, I took advantage of those moments I looked at her and memorized the beautiful changes in her face and body that six years have carved.
I’m just as ruthless and merciless as the men in my family and those in the underworld, but Piper has always been the exception to my rules. She was the one thing in my world that made me human and gave me use of my heart.
Leaving her the way I did and staying away for all those years felt like tearing my heart out of my chest and ripping it to pieces. And this isn’t how I imagined us reuniting, with her traumatized after nearly being killed and her sister missing, sold in the flesh trade.
I pull up to the lakefront cabin nestled among towering pines and cut the engine. The silence that follows feels deafening.
"We're here," I say, my voice piercing the silence.
Piper scans the isolated property. "It’s beautiful.”
The cabin is beautiful, but I can tell from the faraway tone of her voice that the compliment is just something to say.
"You’ll be safe here."
“Thanks.” She glances at me and nods with more gratitude.
I step out and circle around to open her door, an old habit she used to tease me about.
She hesitates before accepting my outstretched hand. The brief contact sends electricity racing up my arm. Six years, and my body still recognizes hers like no time has passed at all.
I continue stealing glances at her as I lead her into the cabin. The place is well-equipped with a living area that has a stone fireplace, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. All the essentials for lying low.
Piper stands in the center of the living room, arms wrapped around herself, looking lost and exhausted. My chest tightens at the sight of her.
"There's a shower through there," I tell her, gesturing to the hallway. "Towels in the cabinet. I'll get a fire going and make something for us to eat."
She looks at me, really looks at me. "You cook now?"
A small, genuine smile tugs at my lips. "I picked up a few things in Italy. Nonna made sure I didn't starve."
The ghost of a smile crosses her face. "She always threatened to fatten you up."
Instantly I remember her meeting my grandmother during spring break of my freshman year.
Nonna immediately declared Piper too skinny and proceeded to feed her every Italian dish imaginable.
It was the first time I'd seen Piper truly relax around a member of my family, laughing as my grandmother fussed over her.
Piper wasn't like that with my parents, or rather, they weren't like that with her.
They always wanted me to be with someone from our world.
They still do, especially because I'll be taking over the business next year when my father retires.
Like always, I refused to be with anyone who wasn't Piper.
"Go shower," I say softly. "You'll feel better."
“Okay, thanks.” She nods and disappears down the hallway. Moments later, I hear the water running.
I exhale slowly, the weight of the night settling onto my shoulders.
I pull out my phone and check for updates.
There’s a text from Gio, my senior guard.
The message says they’re still tracking Lana's location and narrowing down possibilities.
I send a brief text back instructing him to continue updating me on the hour, even if he has no new information.
I'm kicking myself for not being able to prevent this disaster. Although there was probably nothing I could have done, I hope I can do something now. Getting Lana back may make up for the past in some way.
I shrug out of my jacket and take out my guns just in case we need them.
I get the fire going in the dining room fireplace and then move to the kitchen, gathering ingredients from the well-stocked pantry. I decide to make simple cheesy spaghetti. Piper used to love that.
As I prepare the meal, my mind drifts to the last time Piper and I were together. We were at her apartment at UCLA. I was trying to make her carbonara. She'd perched on the counter, stealing bites and distracting me with kisses. We'd barely eaten before ending up tangled in her sheets.
The memory burns through me, desire mixing with an ache so profound it's physical.
Fuck, what I wouldn't give to go back to that moment. She was mine. My girl.
Piper is still mine. After being this close to her, I can't go back to how things were without her. Life was shit. Everything was shit, and I had my hands tied behind my back, unable to be with her because of the threat. It was torture for a guy like me who likes to have control.
I survived on getting reports from the men I’d left behind to keep an eye on her. It was never enough, though. Nothing was ever enough compared to being with her.
I hear the water shut off as I'm finishing the sauce. By the time Piper emerges, hair damp and wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants from the emergency supplies, I've set two plates on the small dining table.
She pauses in the doorway, and I'm struck again by how beautiful she is, even now with exhaustion lining her face.
"Smells good." She approaches the table cautiously.
"Nothing fancy," I reply, pulling out her chair.
She sits and gives me a kind smile. “I still love cheesy spaghetti.”
I return her smile. “Glad to hear that.”
I sit opposite, and we tuck in. For a few minutes, the only sounds that fill the room are the clink of forks against the plates and the crackling fire across from us.
I watch her from beneath lowered lashes, a million things I want to say clashing around in my mind.
When her beautiful blue eyes meet mine, I notice she looks as uneasy as I feel.
“I’m sorry about your parents.” I’ve wanted to broach the subject of her family since earlier, but I knew it would be a tough conversation.
Things didn't go as I hoped for Lana after I left. She was studying medicine enroute to being a doctor. Her parents were killed a mere month after I left. That’s when she left UCLA and flew back to Chicago to take care of Lana.
“Thanks. It’s been difficult.” Her fork dangles lifelessly between her fingers.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“Me too. It was the hardest time of my life. I’ve only just gotten things back on track. Even though I had to defer my studies for a year, I was able to catch up and finish med school. I’ve just started my internship.”
She must have fought like hell to keep everything together. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. What about you? Are your parents okay?”
"Yeah. They're okay. They're staying in Italy, and I'll be taking over the business here."
She sits straighter and gazes deeply at me. “So you’re really back then? Home.”
“Yeah. I’m home.”
She looks away as if dismissing any further conversation, pain filling her eyes once more.
The worst thing I could do is allow that awkward silence to drift back in, so I decide to keep talking. Because we need to talk. “Piper…”
She sets the fork on the plate. "If it's okay, I think I may go lie down. I’m… really worried about Lana.”
“I’ve asked my men to send me hourly reports.”
“I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for Lana and me. I couldn’t have searched for her without your help.” She pulls in a haggard sigh. “In fact, I'd be dead now. At least now I have a chance to get my sister back. Although she may still be gone forever.”
“Don’t think like that.”
“I have to be realistic.”
“My men are the world's finest, so I have faith they'll get her back.
" I never really spoke to her about the defense systems my father used to protect us.
It's been amplified a hundredfold since the threat of our enemies.
“They go on these sorts of recon missions all the time, so please try not to worry.”
“I can’t believe you’re helping me like this.”
“Of course I am.”
“But you don’t owe me anything.”
“I do.”
She shakes her head. "No, you don't."
“Piper—”
“No, Cristiano, you don’t owe me anything. Realistically, I'm just someone you used to know." Her breath catches, and she stands to leave.
I stand, too. "Piper, you are so much more than that to me.”
She gazes back at me, her chest heaving on the edge of a staccato breath. “It’s strange and hard… talking to you again. Especially during this situation with Lana. It's like a systems overload, and I don't know how to deal with the fallout."
I dip my head, and then I nod, understanding. "I know."
“I hated you for leaving me.” A tear runs down her cheek. “I hated you so damn much, Cristiano.”
It cuts me deeply to hear her say those words, but I deserve every one of them. “I… know.”
“I understand why you left, but that’s all. I understand it. I get it. I'd be a fool if I didn't understand that you protected me, but the pain is still there.” She presses a hand to her heart. “It’s been six years’ worth of pain because I never forgot you.”
“I never forgot you either.”
“But I didn’t know that, and even though I get it, it feels unfair that you could check on me, and I never knew if you were dead or alive."
"I wish I could have changed that.”
“Was there really no other way?”
“Not for us.”
"I just wish you’d given me a choice."
“Every choice would have put you in danger.
When they killed my cousin's fiancée just because they were seen together in the park, then they bombed my uncle's restaurant with his entire staff inside, I realized I couldn’t risk losing you.
" I never get emotional, but memories of our lost loved ones who didn't need to die hit differently.
"I couldn't lose you that way, Piper. Not death. So I chose for you to hate me instead.”
Her skin pales at the horrific details I'd spared her earlier.
“I am so sorry for leaving.” The words feel inadequate, but they're all I have. "Leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever done. But I’d do it again the same way if it meant keeping you alive.”
She dips her head and allows a stream of tears to fall before returning her gaze to me.
"You disappeared without a trace. Do you have any idea what that did to me?
" Pain flashes across her face. "I mourned you, then I had to learn how to live without you.
Now you're home, and I don't know what that means. "
“Well, that’s just the thing. I’m home for you. I flew back to Chicago with one goal in mind.” I take a step closer, close enough to catch the scent of the soap she used—pine and something citrusy.
“What goal?”
"To get you back," I confess. "To fix this. Fix us. Make you mine again.”
Her eyes grow so wide that the deep blue hue brightens. “Me?”
I touch her cheek, allowing my fingers to glide across her smooth skin. “You.” My voice drops to a near-whisper.
Something shifts in her expression. A softening around her serpentine eyes, a slight parting of her sensual lips. "Cristiano," she breathes my name, and it sounds like both a question and a surrender. “It’s been six years.”
“I don’t care how long it’s been. It could be a hundred years, and I would still fight to get you back. That’s what I’m going to do. Fight. Every day. For as long as it takes."
I take the final step toward her, eliminating the last barrier of space between us. The heat of her body calls to mine, familiar territory my soul recognizes even after all this time apart.
In her eyes, I see the reflection of my hunger, mixed with the complicated tangle of hurt, hope, and need that defines us now.
"I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, even if you fight me,” I add.
She bites back a weary smile. “You’re not going to give me a choice?”
“No. Because you were always mine. Nothing will ever change that.”
I can't help myself any longer. I pull her in for a kiss and savor the taste of her sweet lips on mine.
A taste I plan to savor forever.