Chapter 29
Milo
Maybe it was the concussion or my newfound realization that I loved Sable. The hold she had on me was enough to make me go against every code of honor I had ever learned.
Letting Chance off the hook for his betrayal wasn’t something I wanted to do, but if it meant keeping Sable in my life, I would do it. I hoped it didn’t come back to kick me in the balls.
“Milo,” she said. “What if there are too many of them? You don’t have any guards.”
“I’ll handle it.” The footsteps got closer to the cabin. “I want you to go to the back door in case you have to run.”
“I can’t leave you.”
The pounding on the door left no time to argue. Would an assassin knock?
I hurried to the door, clutching my gun, keeping my back to the wall as I glanced out the window. This assassin might.
When I reached for the door handle, Sable asked, “What are you doing?”
“It’s okay.” I opened the door to four familiar faces, but the most prominent was the man who would always come to my rescue. “Dad.”
My father rushed into the cabin, his silver hair dusted with fresh snow and his face red from the cold. His shoes were just as polished as if he had just left the house, and his suit pants had perfect creases down his legs. He looked every bit the mafia king.
“Milo.” He pulled me into a tight embrace, and I couldn’t contain the relief over him being back. “When I heard you went missing, I vowed to tear down the city until I found you.”
“I wasn’t missing, I just made a poor decision.”
“Which one would that be?” He glanced at Sable. “Driving the Porsche out in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm? Not telling anyone where you were? Leaving the dealership without a guard?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not finished.”
I shoved my gun in my waistband and waited for him to continue.
“You’re lucky that tracker was on the Porsche.” He motioned toward Josh, Ax, and Lucas. “Or else they might not have found you. Are you aware who this cabin belongs to?”
“Bello.”
“I suppose we have you to thank for this lapse in my son’s judgment?” he said to Sable. “Because I can’t really explain it. ”
“It’s my fault, Mr. Accetti.” Sable stood next to me. “I’m the reason Milo is here.”
“Dad,” I said. “There was a problem, but I’m handling it.”
“I know there is a problem.” My father turned to Ax. “Can you bring the problem inside, please?”
“Of course, Mr. Accetti.” When Ax glanced at Sable with an apologetic flash in his usual stone expression, I knew who the problem was.
Now that my father was involved, it would be more difficult for me to keep my promise to Sable, but not impossible.
When Ax opened the door, a gust of wind swirled in, extinguishing what was left of the fire. He motioned for two more of our guys to enter. They each held Chance up by his arms, because he couldn’t stand on his own two feet. Judging from the blood and cuts on his face, my men had done their jobs.
“Chance!” Sable hurried toward him, but I grabbed her arm.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said.
“Not only was this kid in possession of one of our SUVs when we found him, but he was also using my car to transport a package.” My dad gripped Chance’s chin. “Do you want to tell your sister what that package was?”
“I didn’t know,” Chance said. “Bello told me if I wanted to get back to you, I had to make the delivery.”
“What delivery?” I asked. “More fucking drugs in my territory?”
“If only.” My father released Chance. “A young woman was being transported to a pick-up location where she would be retrieved and put on a plane and delivered to her new owner. ”
“What?” Sable whispered. “What does that mean?”
“It means she was being trafficked.” I moved toward Chance. “You were sealing a woman’s fate by delivering her to men who were going to sell her to someone who would do vile things to her.”
“Chance.” Sable’s voice cracked. “You didn’t do that. You wouldn’t.”
“I didn’t know.” Blood dripped from Chance’s nose, making him look even more pathetic than he was. “Bello didn’t leave me a choice.”
“No, but I did,” I shouted. “When I paid your debt and removed you from Bello’s clutches. That wasn’t fucking good enough for you.” I shoved him to the ground. “You couldn’t accept what I had done for you.”
This was why I never showed any mercy. I went against everything I believed in when I spared him.
“Milo.” Sable touched my arm. “Please.”
She couldn’t honestly think I would save him now. Not only had he betrayed me, but he was working for an operation that my father risked his life to dismantle.
“Tell me what I should do with this rat.” I grabbed Chance by the arm and forced him to stand.
“The ungrateful piece of shit who tried to sell drugs in my club. I saved his ass. I saved both of you. I gave you jobs. I took you into my fucking house.” The humiliation of having to admit this in front of my men and Lucas—fuck, in front of my father—was more than I could handle.
I should never have put myself in this position.
“I know,” she whispered.
“And after all of that, he went to my enemy with information that he had no right to repeat.” I stepped closer to Chance. “You said you wanted to protect your sister from me, but what about the woman you were delivering to be sex trafficked? Shouldn’t someone have protected her?”
“Milo.” My father stood next to me. “We’re in enemy territory right now. If Bello and Diego come here now, it will be a bloodbath.” He glanced at Sable. “You need to decide who you’ll protect and how you’ll move forward.”
My father was right. Once Bello figured out where we were, he would send in his soldiers and we would be forced to defend ourselves. We weren’t prepared for that kind of battle right now. If he had the backing of Medina and his men, we would be outnumbered.
“This is your call,” my father said. “If you want to take him with us, perhaps we can find some use for him, but I doubt it. In my experience, these types of men are useless.”
My father put the decision in my hands because of my feelings for Sable. If she weren’t here, Chance would be dead. I had been in deadlier situations, but why did this one feel hopeless?
“Milo,” Sable said. “We talked about this. You said you would help him start over. Away from here.”
“No,” Chance protested despite the weakness in his voice. “I’m not going anywhere without you. I would never leave you with him.”
“Chance!” Sable clenched her fists. “Shut up!”
“This is priceless.” I shook my head. “You’re pleading for his life and he still can’t accept that he doesn’t hold any power.”
“What am I supposed to say?” Sable looked at my father. “My brother is a screw up, but he’s still family. I know that means something to you.”
“I realize you’re upset,” my father said. “But my family values don’t apply in this situation. If I’m reading the situation correctly, my son has been more than patient with your brother. Had it been me in the club the night Chance tried to sell drugs, we wouldn’t be standing here today.”
“Milo.” Sable reached for my hand. “Please.”
“You’re never going to see him for who he is,” I said. “You can’t have both of us. That will never work in my world. If I can’t trust him, I can’t trust you.”
“What are you saying?” Tears streamed down her face, but I couldn’t allow that to make me weak.
“I’m going to give you the choice.” I swung Chance around and made him face his sister. “You want me to spare his life again? I’ll do it at your expense. Him or me.”
“What do you mean? If I choose him, I’ll lose you. If I choose you, I’ll lose him.”
She couldn’t have put it more simply.
“That’s quite the bind you’re in.” None of this made sense, because if I killed Chance, I would lose her anyway. But why should I be the one to give in?
My loyalty wasn’t in question, but hers was sorely lacking.
“I can’t let you kill him.”
Fuck, she didn’t even pretend she had to mull it over.
“I’m ready to go.” I looked at my father. “There’s no reason to stay here.”
“Milo!” Sable held onto my hand. “Don’t do this.”
“You begged me not to kill him when you knew that was my only real option, and now you want me to stay here and what?” When I moved Chance toward her, she let go of me so she could hold his sorry ass up.
“Do you want me to help you nurse him back to good health so he can screw me over again? Should I abandon my family?”
“Let’s go.” My father motioned the others to leave the cabin. “We’ll be outside. ”
As they filed out, I hurried away from her, grabbing my jacket and shoes from in front of the fireplace.
“You said you loved me.”
“I said and did plenty of things I shouldn’t have.” I pushed my bare feet inside my wet shoes. “Look where it got me.”
When she sobbed I couldn’t bring myself to turn around. There were so many things I wished were different about us. When I swung open the door, the bitter cold flooded the cabin, but the snow had let up.
Once I stepped out onto the porch, my father moved to stand in front of me. He grabbed the side of my face and stared into my eyes.
“I want to get you checked out by a doctor.”
“I’m fine.” I pulled my jacket on. “A little banged up, but it’s nothing.”
“If that were true, I wouldn’t have had to come here and get you out of an enemy cabin.” He let go of me. “What the hell were you thinking? I already have one son on the run. Do you know what it was like for me when Lucas called and said they couldn’t find you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I need to get this family back on track. Are you going to help me do that?”
“You don’t have to ask me that.” I gazed out at the dark woods in the distance. “I got side-tracked. I allowed my feelings to come before business. I won’t do that again.”
“It could get you killed next time.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“What do you want to do about them?” He motioned toward the cabin. “Their fire is almost out and they have no transportation.”
“Bello can rescue them.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“Sable wants to protect her brother from me.” That was all she ever really wanted from the second we met. “I can’t be with her.”
“That’s a tough realization.” He patted my back. “But it doesn’t mean it will always be true.”
I didn’t see how Sable and I would ever get over the hurdle her brother had put in front of us.
“I want to go home.”
“Me too.” He headed down the steps and to one of the waiting SUVs. “I want to sleep in my own bed.”
“Does this mean you’re home for good?” I followed him, hoping he would tell me what I wanted to hear.
I had made a shambles of our organization. I needed my father’s guidance.
“Yes,” he said.
Josh opened the back passenger door and my father got in and slid across the seat, making room for me.
“Now that we know it’s Medina we’re fighting, there’s no reason for me to go underground.”
“We’re going to come at him hard.”
“We’ll talk about it in the morning,” he said. “I want to bring Marchello home. The three of us will protect this empire by any means necessary.”
I climbed into the car and glanced up at the window of the cabin.
When my gaze connected with Sable’s, I fought the urge to go to her.
The roads her eyes would make me travel were far too treacherous.
She couldn’t let her brother go. I understood why.
Family was everything to me. But I couldn’t allow Chance another opportunity to put my family in the line of fire.
Sable was too blinded by her desire to protect him to see she had left me no other option .
Letting Sable go was the best thing for both of us. Even if the pain of losing her would scar me for the rest of my life.
The End for now.
Continue with Milo and Sable’s trilogy by reading Fierce Betrayal: My Book