Chapter 21
Bianca
Ever had that moment in your life where everything moves in slow motion? Where chaos ensues, but you’re not a part of it, only a bystander watching the action take place, trying your best to make sense of it all around you.
A man falls to the floor, blood seeping onto the concrete, and somewhere someone is screaming at the top of their lungs.
It takes a full minute before I realize that person is me.
I snap my mouth shut as men shuffle around me, taking shots at one another and some go down with the bullets.
Costi grabs me, chair and all, and shuffles me toward the back of the warehouse, behind a pile of boxes. “Stay here,” he says, aiming his gun around the large cardboard box.
I laugh, even though the situation is far from funny, because with my hands and ankles tied, there’s nowhere I could go.
I don’t know where anyone is, except Costi.
“Don’t leave me,” I rush out as tears fall down my cheeks.
He stares at me, really seeing me, and pulls out a knife from his pocket, releasing me from my ties. “Stay here. I’ll be back.” He kisses me square on the lips, and as soon as he pulls back, I miss the feel of his mouth against mine.
If he thinks I’m staying here, he has another thing to learn about me. I have no weapon, but I can’t just sit here, waiting for someone to capture me again.
I head off in the other direction. The direction Costi didn’t go, staying close to the ground as I rush toward the other side of the room. The place where Esmerelda rushed off to.
I leave the main room, heading down a darkened hallway. There’s minimal light, but enough to keep me moving forward.
I hear her shoes click across the floor ahead of me. “I know you’re there,” I call out into the darkness.
The clicking stops, and Esmerelda moves into the sliver of moonlight. “Ah, my property has come to find me.”
I hate how snarky she is. Such a bitch. And I plan on showing her just what I think of her. “My mother was a good woman. My father loved her so much. He’d never love someone like you.” I hate her, but at the same time, I cry a little for what this is probably doing to Constantine.
“Your mother was a thief. She took everything from me,” Esmerelda screams.
She lunges for me, and I grab at her. It all happens so fast but next thing I know, I have her on the ground, my hands holding her down.
One of Costi’s men rushes into the hallway, aiming his gun at her. “I’ve got her from here,” he calls out. “Costi is looking for you.”
“Is it over?”
He nods.
I don’t release my hold on her until he takes her from me.
I run back into the main room.
Dean Maddox, owner of the security company my father employs, leans down to the man who’s been shot. I recognize the man. I think he’s from the New York family, but I can’t remember his name. Simon or Sebastian. Something like that.
Bishop lies dead in the center of the room, and I breathe a sigh of relief once I spot Costi standing over him, assessing his body.
When he looks up and sees me, relief washes over his features. He rushes over to me, wrapping me into his arms and kissing the top of my head. “Everything is ok.”
Across the room Knox is on the phone with the authorities. The man I believe is named Sebastian sits up, and I’m glad his wound isn’t too serious.
Costi’s man enters the room with Costi’s mother.
“You’re going to pay back everything you’ve taken from the Amato’s,” Costi says to her.
Esmerelda spits in her son’s direction, and I can see the pain Costi works so hard to hide. No matter what’s going on around us, this is still his mother and I know this is hurting him.
Costi doesn’t let me go as the police arrive, and an ambulance, to help Sebastian. He’s going to pull through, the bullet only grazing his shoulder.
I meet the men with Dean, and after a while, I watch as the police take away Costi’s mother.
“Do you think they’ll keep her in jail?” I ask Costi as the police question Dean.
Costi wraps an arm around me. “Yes. They’ll also be able to get back everything she took from your father.”
I wrap my arms around Costi’s midsection. “You have a lot of faith in the police.”
He kisses the top of my head. “We’ve been after her for a while. There’s an open case on her.”
I lean back so I can stare into Costi’s dark eyes. “You have?”
He nods. “Years back, my father ran into one of Bishop’s men who mentioned a woman with the same description as my mother. We started investigating and realized she was alive. I wanted to come to you when I was eighteen, but I couldn’t do that with my mother on the loose. I’ve been chasing her, getting close for years, but never quite getting her. Until I heard Bishop wanted the Four Families’ daughters kidnapped. I knew she would pay big money for you. So I had to take you.” He gazes into my eyes, like his next words are hard for him to say. “It’s why I never contacted you. Once I caught wind my mother was alive, I was too afraid she’d come after you. I wanted to protect you.”
I lean back into him, letting him fold me into his strong arms. “You could have let me in on your plan.”
He cracks a grin. “Where’s the fun in that?”