Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Lissia
My eyes fluttered, but I didn’t want to open them. The pounding in my head rivaled the musty scent of the old couch I had slept on. I couldn’t tell which one made me more nauseous. I drifted in and out of sleep, disoriented and sore.
“Lissia,” Marchello whispered. “Wake up, princess.”
“Marchello.” I smiled, but I still couldn’t open my eyes. “You’re here.”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
“You have to run so I can find you.”
“Run?” I pressed my hand to the back of my head, rubbing the throbbing knot beneath my hair. “Where do I run to?”
“Me.”
“How?”
“You have to figure out a way. I know you can do it.”
“I want to come back to you.” Anxiety coursed through my veins faster than my own blood could pump through them. “I didn’t mean to leave you. I didn’t want to, but I wanted to protect you. I thought I could help.”
The conversation shifted, and it was no longer Marchello’s voice that I heard.
“Yes, everything is under control. She’s sleeping.” A man laughed. “Of course she gave me trouble, but she’s fine.”
I forced my eyes open, staring at the brown spots on the ceiling.
The cabin. Danny!
I sat up and glanced around the frigid room. Marchello hadn’t come for me. How could he? Would he even look for me after I left him?
“Now that we have her back, we can move forward with the plan,” Danny said. He must’ve been on the phone because I couldn’t hear anyone else. “He won’t see us coming. This is too easy.”
Run. Marchello told me to run.
I swung my feet to the side of the sofa and stood, but my legs wobbled, sending my bottom back to the ratty sofa cushion. I tried to get my bearings, but the pain in my head was so prominent.
“I have to go,” Danny said to whoever he was talking to. “I’ll be in touch.”
I rested against the back of the couch, remembering how I got here. I definitely would have made a different choice if I had known this was going to be the outcome. Trusting my father was something I would never do again.
“You’re awake,” Danny said from a chair in the corner of the room.
I focused on his angelic features, knowing he was anything but. There was evil inside those piercing blue eyes of his. I had seen it.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Awful.”
“I’ve been checking on you every couple of hours to make sure you didn’t die in your sleep.” He put his phone into his pocket. “Concussions can be deadly.”
“You wouldn’t have had to do that if you didn’t hit me so hard.” I touched my swollen cheek. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I had to get you under control. You were acting crazy. I wasn’t in the mood for your nonsense.” He got up and came toward me.
“Don’t.” I held up my hand. “Don’t come near me.”
“As long as you keep your hands to yourself, I’ll keep mine away from your face. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Liar.
“Here.” He picked up a glass from the coffee table. “Drink this.”
“What is it?”
“Water.”
I peered into the glass and examined the contents, which appeared to be water, but what else was in it?
“You’ve been taking small sips all night,” he said. “You were just too out of it to remember.”
“I don’t trust you.” What if he had been drugging me and that was why I was so groggy?
“I’ll drink some if that makes you feel better.” He took a sip from the glass. “It’s fine, see.”
I gazed up at him, still not believing he wouldn’t drug me.
“You’re a lot bigger than me. That little sip wouldn’t do much to you.”
“Why would I slip you something?” He handed me the glass. “If I want to knock you out, we already know I can do that. I don’t need drugs.”
That made sense. I was thirsty, so I took a long sip from the room-temperature tap water. I preferred sparkling water with a lemon twist, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. The liquid coated my dry mouth and throat, but I was still thirsty.
“Let’s start over,” he said.
“If you mean from the day we met and you don’t acknowledge me this time, I’m in.”
“That blow to your head didn’t cause you to lose any of your edge, I see.”
“You had no right to hit me. When my father finds out you put your hands on me, he’s going to kill you.”
“You shouldn’t have struggled,” he said. “You were out of control. Your father knows how difficult you are. He’ll understand that I did what I had to do to keep you safe.”
“Safe from what?”
“Yourself.”
“I want to go home.” I placed the glass on the table. “I want to see my mother.”
Why had she moved back in with my father? They despised one another.
“And I want a woman who respects me and doesn’t cause me so many problems.”
I’m not her.
“You’re going to have to get used to me. I’m not going anywhere. Your father and I have a deal, and you are a key factor in all of this. You’re going to have to accept it.”
Never.
“I can make you something to eat,” he said. “You must be starving.”
I didn’t want to think about eating or starting over. I wanted to get out of here. I had to run.
I tested my legs again by getting up. I wasn’t as shaky this time, but I wasn’t at full strength either. I held on to the arm of the couch and inched my way to the center of the room. Danny’s gun was on a small end table by the chair he had been sitting in when I woke up.
“Lissia.” He came up from behind me.
“What?” I jumped, taking my gaze away from the gun.
If I could get out of the house before he got to the gun, I could escape into the woods. It wasn’t an ideal plan, but it was all I had.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Whatever we have is fine.” I wouldn’t be here to eat it anyway.
“Why are you being so agreeable?” He moved into the kitchen area that overlooked the space where I was.
“Didn’t you say we were starting over?” I asked.
“Hmm…” He eyed me suspiciously. “How about a turkey sandwich?”
“For breakfast?”
“It’s noon, sweetheart. You slept through breakfast.”
“Oh.” I’d much rather have breakfast and a mimosa or two. And I wouldn’t mind some of that sexy banter Marchello and I liked to tease one another with right about now. “Sure.”
As Danny worked in the kitchen area, I casually maneuvered my way closer to the hallway. It was about six feet to the front door. I could make it, but where would I run to? Did it matter? I needed to get out of here. I’d worry about the destination once I was outside.
“Why is this alliance between you and my father so important?”
“You’re making small talk?” He placed two pieces of bread on a plate. “That’s new.”
“No, I, ah, I’m just curious.” I made it to the archway that led to the hall. “I don’t understand any of it, so maybe if you explain it, I could accept the arrangement you made with my dad about me.”
“You must have hit your head pretty hard if you’re considering the arrangement.” He laughed. “If I had known that, I would have knocked some sense into you before you escaped with Marchello. It would have saved me a lot of problems.”
“What kind of problems?” I glanced down the hallway. Light streamed in through the slightly ajar door.
“Accetti intercepted a key shipment I was moving for a new associate. It took weeks to figure out the logistics and to get the authorities to look the other way. I had to pay plenty of people off, and I only had a small window to get the job done.”
“It didn’t go well?”
“Not at all.”
“What happened with the new associate?” I didn’t care about any of this, but I needed an opportunity to get to that door.
“They’re not happy with me or your father since he backed me. They thought they could trust us, and they could have if Marchello and Milo didn’t fuck it up.”
“Didn’t Marchello make that move in retaliation for something you did to him?”
“How did you know that?”
“I hear things.” I motioned toward the plate. “Are you going to make me that sandwich?”
“You’re a little demanding, aren’t you?”
You have no idea.
As soon as he took his eyes off me to open the refrigerator, I bolted for the door.
His footsteps came up from behind me, and my heart raced. I desperately reached for the handle. I wouldn’t get another chance to get out of here.
He hauled me by my hair toward him before I could get outside. “How dumb do you think I am?”
I wailed my arms in the air and kicked back my foot, nailing him in the one place that would make him release me.
“Fuck!” He let go of me and dropped to the floor.
I didn’t look back as I hurried out the door and into the woods. I ran as fast as I could, leaves and twigs cracking beneath my feet. In my haste to flee, I forgot I didn’t have any shoes on. My chest burned and my feet ached, but I had to keep going.
Maybe I could flag down a car. I’d worry about that when I was away from here.
“Lissia!” Danny screamed.
I glanced around at the large trees and the lake in the distance, my breaths quick and labored as my pace slowed.
“There you are.” Danny came through the trees, waving his gun at me.
I ran faster. It was risky to turn my back on a lunatic with a gun, but what choice did I have?
He fired in my direction, and the bullet ricocheted off a tree. I stumbled, but I caught my balance and turned to face him as he hurried to me.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I shouted.
“We both know the answer to that.” He waved his gun. “You’re too valuable to kill, but I will hurt you.”
“Not if I kill you first.” Marchello came out of the woods with Milo and six very large men behind him. They all had their guns drawn.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Danny asked.
Relief dominated my emotions. Marchello had found me. But why didn’t he look happy to see me?
“I believe you took something that belongs to me.” Marchello grabbed my arm and shoved his gun into my side.
Are you kidding me? What the hell is he doing?
“I have a message for you.” Marchello tightened his hold on my arm.
“What is it?” Danny gazed at all the men holding guns on him.
“Your friends in Argentina say hello.” Marchello smirked.
“Screw you.” Danny looked at me as he spoke to Marchello. He laughed. “You can have that little whore. She’s not worth the aggravation.”
“I’m not worth the aggravation?” I pulled out of Marchello’s hold and lunged at Danny as he shot his gun in the air.
“Oh!” I screamed.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Marchello removed me from the line of fire and pulled me back to him. “Are you out of your mind?”
While everyone’s eyes were on me, Danny fled into the woods.
“Go after him!” Marchello ordered his men.
They all took off except for Milo, who ran his hand through his hair and shook his head, probably wondering how I could be so reckless. Impulse was my only explanation.
“Glad we found you,” he said to me before bringing his attention to his brother. “What do you want us to do if we find him?”
“Take him alive,” Marchello said. “We can’t eliminate him until I know where we stand with Argentina.”
“Okay.”
Milo turned to go, but Marchello touched his shoulder. “Be careful.”
“Always.” He took off running, yelling over his shoulder, “I’ll meet you back in the city.”
“You found me.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “I knew you would, but I was a little nervous when Danny brought me out here to the woods.”
Marchello gripped my arm harder and kept the barrel of the gun firmly planted in my side. When I tried to look at him, he held me still and kept me facing forward with my back to his chest.
“What you did was incredibly stupid and reckless.” His voice was so low I almost missed his words, even in the quiet of the woods. “You’ve wasted time, effort, and resources. I have enough shit to deal with. I can’t worry about you running off or stepping in the middle of nine loaded guns.”
I preferred when he yelled—at least then I could gauge his fury.
“I was trying to help.”
“I don’t need your fucking help!” He tightened his jaw. “I need your obedience.”
“I can’t give you that,” I said. “I’ll give you everything else.”
“If you want to stay alive, you better figure out how you’re going to listen to me because Collins isn’t going to disappear from our lives anytime soon.” He lowered his head and whispered into my ear, “And you, princess, are his number one target.”