Chapter 22Anna
Chapter Twenty-Two
ANNA
I smiled and slid into my usual seat at the coffee shop. Papa had a coffee waiting for me, but I wouldn’t be drinking one today. My nerves couldn’t handle a jolt of caffeine.
My countdown was now at forty-eight hours. I wasn’t sure when all of this would feel real. Maybe it’d take up until the moment Ari and I were announced as husband and wife. The thought had my stomach tight with nerves.
Papa had wanted to meet again. I had things I needed to be doing, but I hoped that maybe I could, at least, convince him to attend the wedding. He could stay on one side of the church and Jason on the other.
I would need to explain why my brother was giving me away instead of my father. I’d had an overwhelming need to ask him, and I knew when he’d immediately agreed that I’d made the right call.
“It’s good to see you again so soon. Did you enjoy the event the other night?”
I had until that Gabriele guy showed up. Call it intuition or whatever, but he’d rubbed my spirit raw. I was delighted when Ari shared my opinion.
“It was okay.” I tilted my head. “I was surprised you were there. I didn’t think you’d be interested in city politics.”
“It was a chance to see old colleagues.”
“You weren’t worried about Jason?” I kept my voice neutral. Something was off about my father, and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
Shaking his head, he straightened his spine, which gave him more height. “I knew he’d keep the peace, so I wasn’t worried about my safety.”
“What did you think of the potential mayoral candidate?” I wasn’t sure why I asked the question. Not on the surface at least.
My father crossed his arms over his chest. “I think he’d be good for the city. If Jason wanted to back him, there’s a good chance he’d work with the family.”
I didn’t like that answer, but he’d been out of Chicago for three years. Out of the family business. I was tempted to ask him about Gabriele, but he was so off on Dwyer, I didn’t see the point.
Ari didn’t like either Dwyer or Gabriele. It made my chest swell with pride. I was perturbed when he tried to compare himself to Moretti. Ari wasn’t innocent, but unlike Gabriele, evil didn’t bleed from him.
My phone chimed. Ari’s name appeared on the screen. Was I thinking about him that hard? I smiled.
Where are you?
“Who is that?” My father’s eyes locked with mine.
“My fiancé.”
“I must admit, I’m very surprised that you seem so eager to go along with this. When you were younger, an arranged marriage was detestable to you. ”
I quickly responded. “I was a child then. I didn’t understand things as I do now.”
I typed out a message to Ari and sent it.
I’m running an errand. If I tell you then you’ll know what I got you as a gift.
A gift? You are the gift.
A blush scorched my cheeks. He was a dream come true, whispering sweet nothings that could turn a girl’s insides to mush. With Ari, it was different. There was a well of sincerity in his eyes that convinced me he wasn’t trying to manipulate me.
Papa cleared his throat, like a whip snapping, wiping away my momentary haze. “You can postpone the wedding.”
I blinked. “What?” After all the work I’d put into this thing? The money that was spent? Granted, that wasn’t a good enough reason to get married, but still, it was a lot of both.
“I’m not saying to completely call it off. Just slow things down. Get to know him better. You do seem to like Ari, but marriage is about love and trust. Can you say you feel either of those two things for him?”
Catching Papa’s gaze, I replied, “Thank you for caring about me and watching out for me. I promise I’m okay.” Even as I gave him the reassurance, a sliver of doubt wormed its way in, but I also tingled with the excitement of what the future might hold. “I can’t do it. Ari is the most wonderful man. I feel in my heart I need to see what my future holds and where this might go.”
A stoic mask fell over his face. “I see.”
“Please come to the wedding. I can make?—”
“No, my darling, I can’t.” He patted my hand. “While I hope you have a wonderful marriage, I will not attend a marriage that I cannot bless.”
The air was sucked from my lungs. I knew by his tone at the fundraiser that he’d had his reservations, but I never would have thought he’d refuse to attend my wedding. “What?” I said barely above a whisper.
He stood, tossing a few bills on the table. “I won’t attend a marriage that I believe is doomed to fail.”
The world spun as he casually walked out of the coffee shop like he hadn’t ripped my heart out, leaving a hollow cavern. Hot tears burned my eyes and pooled in the corners. Before I could wrangle them, they were racing down my cheeks .
Fueled by hurt and the desperate need for comfort, I shakily picked up my phone and called Ari.
“Anna? Where are you? What’s wrong?” An urgency infused his voice.
“I...” The sob escaped before I could stop it, a choked sound that ripped through the carefully constructed dam holding back the flood. “I’m at...” I rattled off the address, each word punctuated by a shaky breath. “Would you please come get me?”
“Ten minutes. Stay inside the shop.”
“Okay.” I inhaled a ragged breath, burying my head in my hands. The apology died on my tongue, choked back by the lump forming in my throat. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have?—”
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll talk about it when I get there.” A beat of silence, then a softer tone, “See you in a minute, sweetheart.” The endearment sparked a warmth in my chest and did more to soothe my frayed nerves than he could ever grasp. I hope he kept that calm when I told him who I’d been meeting.
I stood and walked towards the bathroom, slipping inside the single-stall room right as the previous occupant walked out. “Let me freshen up, and I’ll call you back, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Ari?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for…being you.”
A low chuckle rumbled through the phone. “You owe me at least an hour’s worth of making out for this one.”
Rolling my eyes, I replied, “If you’ll recall, Mr. Broken and Bruised, I’m the one with the IOUs.”
“That mouth,” he said with a sigh. “Hold on. I’ll see you in a minute.”
“Okay.”
I ended the call and checked myself out in the mirror. My mascara looked more like warpaint. Waterproof, my butt. After cleaning myself up, I took a deep breath and put on a smile as I stepped out.
Cold metal bit into the flesh between my blouse and the waistband of my ankle jeans. “We’ll take this nice and slow.”
That voice. I jerked my head around. “Lorenzo?”
“Hello, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that!” I hissed.
He jammed the gun harder into my flesh. “ The Morettis have waited three years for you and we’re not waiting any longer.”
Waited? “What are you talking about?”
He grunted. “Your father promised you to a Moretti. We were uniting the two families with that union. Then your brother stepped in. We don’t take kindly to people going back on their word. We’re simply taking what’s ours.”
I couldn’t control the tremors racing through my body. “Ari will find me.”
“No. No, he won’t. Even if he does, we’ve got an army waiting.” He jabbed the gun harder into my back.
“He’s on his way.”
“Which means we need to be on ours.” His hand found my hair and fisted it. “We’ll take the back way.”
If I didn’t do something, Ari would never know what happened. “I’ll scream.”
“And I’ll kill five people and still drag you out of here.”
I was beginning to shake uncontrollably. “You wouldn’t.”
His lips pressed against my ear. “You see that little blonde girl over there playing with her baby doll? I’ll kill her first if you make so much as a sound.”
The malice in his voice was enough to convince me he wasn’t bluffing. “Okay. Okay. I’ll go.”
He let out a sick laugh. “That’s what I thought. Come on. You’ve got an appointment with a priest.”
“You can’t make me agree to this.”
“You’d be surprised what drugs can do.” He yanked on my hair so hard, strands fell to the floor.
Drugged? I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but I couldn’t stop the instant automatic response to fight back. I wouldn’t be drugged. I wouldn’t.
Lorenzo took the gun from my side and pressed it against the back of my head. “I won’t hesitate to pull this trigger.”
I’d rather be dead than marry you. The thought raced through my mind. Another one quickly followed: Ari needs me . He needed something to indicate I’d been taken forcibly. I slowly dragged my hand down my side and over to the clip on my strap. As Lorenzo knocked open the back door, I pretended to stumble, hoping it would hide that I had unclipped it and let it slide to the floor right by the bathroom. If nothing else, Ari would know I was here and that someone had taken me out the back. He'd at least have a place to start.
If I made it out of this, I was never, ever keeping anything from him again. Not because I needed his permission, but because I wanted him to know. Because I…because I loved him.
The thought swam in my head and the feeling pressed against my lungs. Somewhere between that cab ride and this moment, my soul had sealed itself to Ari Kalantzis. His smile. His laugh. The way he spoke to me. The way he looked at me. The way he held me, and especially the way he kissed me.
I wanted to pledge my heart and life to him. I wanted him .