CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
“We ditched our security detail,” I reminded Eve, the gravity of what we’d done hitting me now that Stefano was seconds away. “Do you think they’ll be mad at us?” I asked, knowing the answer but hoping Eve would tell me I was wrong.
“How can they be mad at us? I mean, look at us. We’re the victims,” Eve stated with such conviction that I almost believed her myself.
“I may have caused your crash,” the driver said, his voice weak yet indignant. “But it was you two who kidnapped me and held me at gunpoint. You shot me. Twice. And you murdered my friend. How are you two the victims?”
“Shut up, snitch,” I hissed, then faced Eve again. We needed to get our story straight and fast. “You’re bruised, and your shoulder hurts, right?”
Nodding, she placed her hand on her shoulder, her face immediately twisting into an expression of pain that was just a little too dramatic. “That wreck almost killed me,” she complained.
“Me too,” I told her, following her lead. “We almost died. Our cakes did die. We should cry.”
Eve nodded, her eyes suddenly shimmering with tears that appeared on command. The woman was a master manipulator when she wanted to be.
“I’m sad,” she whispered. “So sad.”
“Me too,” I told her, forcing myself to think of sad thoughts so I could shed a tear.
“These bad men made me ruin my cake that tasted like perfection,” Eve lied.
Cocking my head to the side, I told her, “Come on now. That’s pushing it. We have to make it believable.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Alright. We’ll just say they killed our cakes.”
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” the driver wailed. “I’m the one who is dying for real,” he cried.
We didn’t look his way. Instead, we forced more tears from our eyes. The door to the backroom burst open. Stefano stormed in, his face a mask of fury unlike anything I’d seen before. And his shirt was covered in blood. What the hell?
“Beast,” I whispered.
His gaze landed on me. Relief flooded his expression.
“Sienna,” he whispered.
The way he said my name, the desperation and relief in his tone, made my heart clench. I couldn’t help it. I ran to him. I ran to my savage. I slammed into Stefano’s chest, my arms wrapping around him, not caring that he was a bloody mess.
His hands were on me instantly, gripping my face, my arms, my waist like he needed to make sure I was actually there.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his eyes raking over me, taking in every scratch, every bruise.
“I’m fine,” I told him, even though my head was still throbbing from where it had hit the window during the crash.
His jaw tightened, the muscle there jumping.
“Don’t lie to me,” he growled, his fingers gentle as they traced the side of my face where I knew a bruise was forming.
“I’m not lying,” I said, staring up at him. “I’m okay, Stefano. What about you? Are you bleeding?” I asked, my hands moving over his chest, feeling for wounds beneath the blood-soaked fabric.
“It’s not my blood,” he told me.
Behind us, Enzo was doing the same thing with Eve, his hands on her face, turning her head to the side, checking the bruise that was darkening on her temple. His expression was thunderous.
“What the fuck happened?” he snapped.
We immediately turned back on the tears.
“That wreck almost killed me,” Eve whined.
At the same time, I said, “They ran us off the road.”
Our voices overlapped, both of us talking at once, trying to get our version of events out before the driver could contradict us.
“They were watching us at the cooking class,” Eve explained, her hands gripping Enzo’s arms.
“They had that black car parked out there recording us,” I told Stefano.
“We needed answers but knew the security detail would try to force us to go home,” Eve told Enzo.
“We couldn’t go home, we couldn’t sleep tonight without knowing what was going on.
So, we doubled back,” I said quickly. “We were hoping to get a picture of the person who was stalking us,” I explained, making it sound reasonable, necessary even.
“We just wanted a photo so we could give it to you and you could look into these creeps.”
“But they lured us here and tried to trap us in the alley,” Eve added, her voice trembling just enough to sell the fear.
“This guy crashed into us, preventing us from fleeing,” I complained, staring over at the driver who was shaking his head in denial, his eyes wide.
Stefano’s hands tightened on me as I spoke, his eyes darkening with every word. Enzo’s expression turned lethal as Eve continued her part of the story, his body growing tenser by the second.
“They said they were sent to watch us,” I added quickly, wanting to give them the information they’d need.
“By the Abeli family,” Eve whispered.
That got their attention. Stefano stilled, his entire body going rigid against mine.
“The Abeli family?” Enzo repeated.
“They said Daniel Abeli sent them,” I told him, watching his reaction carefully.
“They don’t know why. They were just supposed to watch us, track where we went, and figure out our routines. They weren’t supposed to engage,” Eve added. “That’s some scary shit, being watched without our knowledge.”
“You’re the scary ones,” the driver cut in, his voice shaking. “I’m the victim here. I swear, I never meant to hurt them. I just... they came here, they found us. I had to stop them from leaving, but I wasn’t trying to kill…”
“Shut the fuck up,” Stefano snapped.
The man froze. Stefano’s hands dropped from my body. He turned slowly. His gun came up. The driver’s eyes went wide as Stefano walked toward him.
“Please,” the man begged, shrinking back in the chair. “I told her everything. I didn’t touch them. I didn’t mean to hurt them. It was an accident.”
Stefano didn’t respond. He pulled the trigger without hesitation. The shot echoed through the room. The man’s head snapped back, blood and brain matter exploding outward, his body slumping forward, then slowly falling to the floor.
Silence followed. Stefano stood there for a second, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his grip still tight on his weapon. Then he turned to me. The rage in his eyes was still there, not diminished by the killing, not soothed by finding me alive. If anything, it had intensified.
“Sienna Keys, you lied to me,” he growled, each word like a dagger to my heart.
Well... Damn.