6. Chloe
6
CHLOE
T hey caught me. Franco’s Mafia men had me in this car and they wouldn’t let me go. I didn’t ask. I didn’t waste my breath begging for them to release me, either.
If the Constella Mafia was involved in the deli shooting, they would take the incident into their hands. No one would dare to question them. None of them would contact the police—including me. I intended to stay under the radar of the “real” law and authority, but I sure as hell hadn’t anticipated ending up under custody of this unofficial branch of justice.
Of all Mafia Families, I had to get mixed up with his?
I went from running from gun-toting strangers to winding up in the backseat of this SUV. I struggled to accept how this was my life, that all that I’d done had ended me up here, but I knew better than to think of a way out of it.
I wasn’t a stranger to the Mafia. Franco had always known he’d serve as a soldier for his uncle’s organization. He never kept it a secret when we dated, and he never got mad when I asked questions about how it all worked. Details weren’t given, and I never outright asked for specifics that would compromise my safety. I wasn’t stupid, only dumb enough to fall in love with him, the bad boy my parents disapproved of so vehemently.
Seeing him was a shocker, but I couldn’t lower my guard around him. In that first look we’d shared in that motel room, through surprise at seeing each other, I felt so much weight in his gaze. Too many heavy things passed between us, all the unspoken but powerful feelings that neither of us could deny. Franco and I had volumes of history, but that couldn’t matter now. It couldn’t be relevant with why they captured me.
No. Wait. Franco and Liam hadn’t only captured me. They’d also saved me. I spotted the dead man who’d been chasing after me since shooting up the deli. If not for Franco and Liam, I would’ve been dead. Caleb would’ve been an orphan.
In this light, Franco was my hero, but I’d be damned if I'd let that get in my head. He was a Mafia henchman, a man who chose a life of crime and corruption—both things he claimed fell in the line of “duty” to his family.
I had to remain on guard, no matter how much I yearned to see him again in other ways. In the way that he so easily reminded me of our youth, when we were young and so in love.
When we parked at a huge complex of enormous houses, I struggled to make eye contact with him. While I felt every tense bit of pressure when he stared at me, I couldn’t face him. Not with all these men. Not in a public setting like this. While the men spoke, I tried to look around and figure out where they’d taken me.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
I watched as he reached out his hand to steady me, but he seemed to think twice as he lowered his arm.
In what universe could I be all right after running into you, Franco?
“Are you injured?” he asked instead.
“No. Just from knocking my head,” I muttered and gently probed at the spot.
“Get her food and water,” he ordered.
“What about Danicia?” Liam asked.
Who?
“Yes, just to make sure her head wound won’t be an issue,” Franco replied.
And if it is an issue, it’s my issue! “Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”
“This way,” a guard instructed, gesturing for me to proceed toward the house. After snapping at Franco, I couldn’t dare to glance at him. For all I knew, he was counting down the time until I wouldn’t be here. I hadn’t committed a crime to work at A&J’s Deli. Nor had I done anything wrong in trying to run and hide from those killers. They had no right to treat me like I was an accomplice or an instigator of more trouble.
It’s not like they’re binding me up. It was a small grace, but I had to appreciate it.
They ushered me inside to a room and closed the door. As soon as the guards had left, another returned with a tray of food. This guy didn’t say anything, either. He set the food and bottle of water on a table, and only then did I slump to the edge of the bed and sigh.
My God. This is a disaster. I rubbed my face, overwhelmed with all the chaos, but deep down, I was grateful that it was just me suffering this time. With Caleb on spring break, he was far from this danger. He was staying with a friend in Brooklyn who lived with his grandpa, and I was so damn happy that I didn’t have to worry about him here as I settled into a new job.
What job?
I shook my head. While I hadn’t known Manny and Suzie at the deli for long, I did miss them and what they represented. They were supposed to be my new employers, bosses who wouldn’t mind paying me under the table and keeping things on the down-low. Regardless of how well I could’ve gotten to know them, I was certain they were innocent and didn’t deserve to die like that.
Now, my new start on life would need to be restarted again.
As soon as I get out of here.
I glanced up at the door as someone knocked, then entered. The tall man wasn’t the one I both dreaded and looked forward to seeing again. It wasn’t Franco, but his distant cousin.
“Romeo?” I guessed. That was the name of the man he referenced the most, Romeo, the son of Dante—the Boss.
“Yeah.” He laughed once, lightly. “I’m surprised you remember.”
I nodded and cleared my throat. “Franco mentioned you. Way back when.”
“Right.” Romeo took a chair and turned it around to straddle it as he faced me. “Long time ago. It’s definitely a surprise to see you again—like this.”
Like what, though? Romeo was settling in to chat, and it was with a heavy stomach of discomfort that I realized he’d be asking me questions. Franco seemed to want nothing to do with me.
And how can I blame him, anyway?
“Chloe?”
I blinked, jarred from my musings. “Where’s Franco?”
Romeo shrugged. “Busy. So, tell me. How come we’re experiencing this blast from the past, reuniting like this?”
I heaved in a deep breath, almost grateful for the chance to talk about this. Ever since those men came into the deli, I’d been bottling it all up. “I reported to A&J’s for my shift, but ten minutes into it, two men burst in from the front door and started shooting the place up. I dropped in the back storage area and hid. I had no clue what was going on. I was so terrified, I froze and balled up, hoping I would stay out of sight.”
“Did you recognize them?”
I shook my head and described what I could. “They wore masks, too. From where I sat, I couldn’t see too much of the shop floor, but I saw Manny and Suzie on the—” My throat tightened at the flashback.
Romeo uncapped the water bottle and offered it to me. “Go at your own pace.”
I nodded, then sipped the offered water. “They were dead, lying in all that blood on the floor.”
“Did they say anything?”
I frowned. “Manny and Suzie? No, they didn’t have a chance to do more than scream.”
“I meant the shooters.”
“No. If they spoke to each other, I didn’t hear it over the gunfire. As soon as I heard them, I hid.”
He sighed. “Then what?”
“I slipped out the back, thinking I could just run. I walked to work—I mean, so far. I only moved to the city a couple of weeks ago and happened to buy a couple of things in the deli when Manny said they were looking to hire some help.” I shrugged. It was strange how that felt like ages ago but had only happened two weeks in the past.
“As soon as I got outside, another man appeared—another one in a mask—and he shot at me. I dove for the van and just focused on getting the hell out of there. The next thing I know, they were chasing me in that truck. I got lost in the city, which kind of helped to lose them, but they caught up to me on the highway. The van was about to lose gas near Beckson, so I swerved to get off the ramp there and hid in that nasty motel room. I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t have my phone or money or anything.” I hate reliving this. “I was so exhausted that I passed out. But they came back. I don’t know why they waited all night, maybe the rain, but they searched the motel and I knew I was cornered. But then Liam and Franco were there and…”
“And they took care of those men.” He asked a few more questions about the shooting, but I didn’t have anything else to add. I didn’t know anything. It happened so suddenly, and I’d only been working there for so long.
“What about—” Romeo stopped speaking when Franco entered the room.
I sat up, taking note of his stern demeanor as he stalked in. “I can handle it from here.” He set his hand on Romeo’s back. The tall, tatted man nodded, then stood.
“You sure?” Romeo glanced back at me.
“Yeah. All recorded.” Franco sat and nodded at the phone recording the audio of this conversation.
“Okay. I’ll wait to speak with you afterward,” Romeo told him. “Drink that water,” he advised me as he headed for the door. “You look dehydrated.”
No, just tired. Of life. Of struggling. Of all of it. But I dutifully showed him the bottle then took a sip. It served as a prop, at any rate.
Franco wasn’t going to let anything stop him from asking me questions. He must have been listening to what I told Romeo because he didn’t start with the shooting. He went further back.
“Why were you working at that deli?” His tone was firm, mad, even, and I didn’t want to decipher why he’d be angry at me. I was the victim here.
“I didn’t know it was associated with your family.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I narrowed my eyes, hating that he’d be this confrontational. Then again, with the way I left him, why wouldn’t he be? “I wanted a job that paid under the table.”
“Why?”
I shook my head. “My personal life isn’t your business.” Not anymore.
He huffed. “Yeah, you’ve made that clear. How did you end up at A&J’s? Walk me through it, from the moment you left Beckson to now.”
I bristled. “I just told you that my life isn’t your business.”
“The sole surviving employee of a Constella-owned business is. The life of the eyewitness to an attack on a Constella-owned business is. So fill in the details, Chloe. Explain to me how you’re not involved with this shooting.”
You asshole.
“What happened since you told me that you ‘can’t do this’ all those years ago and left me?”
Oh, Franco. My heart softened at his hurt tone, but I couldn’t press rewind and undo the damage I’d done to him. “I went to college in New Mexico, on a scholarship. I dated a few guys. I ended up dropping out when my courses got too hard with maintaining other things.”
“What other things?”
I ground my teeth slightly, damning him for picking for details. “Hobbies. Family.”
He rolled his eyes at that mention. I didn’t mean family as in my judgmental parents I couldn’t stand, but my family. The very small one I’d started.
“I mainly just worked hard at whatever jobs I could find and tried to avoid contact with my parents. They were too overbearing.” And still are.
“That’s it? That’s all that you’ve been up to since you left town? All that happened between when you left me in Beckson and your showing up to work at A&J’s?”
I nodded, praying he’d buy it.
He stared at me, seeming to search my face for any clues of deception. I wasn’t in the mood to tell him my biggest secret. The longer I kept that sliver of truth in my mouth, unspoken, the more he seemed to get angry.
There was no way this sexy man could be a mind reader and just know that I wasn’t telling him all of it.
“Was it worth it?”
“What?” I held my breath, suspended on the edge of nervousness and confusion.
“Was it worth it? All those years that we were apart. Was it worth it?” His lips stayed pressed in a firm line. As he leaned over, his blond hair shaded his brow. Slanted closer, he seemed stuck in a struggle not to reach out to me. He refrained, but the tension between us grew and grew.
I stared at him, refusing to answer. “It’s not fair of you to put me on the spot like that. Now? After I was chased and nearly shot down and…” I growled, shaking my head. “You can’t ask me that out of the blue. You wouldn’t have understood my reasoning. Not then or now.” I stood, too upset and intimidated to sit here and take this line of questioning that had nothing to do with what his Mafia family could care about. My reasons to leave him had nothing to do with the deli shooting.
“It’s not fair of you to still be so mad now,” I insisted.
“No.” He shot to his feet and stepped closer. “No, Chloe. It’s not fair that I’ve spent half of my life missing you.”
I frowned, bothered about his troubled expression and stormy gaze because I was the cause of it. I’d caused him all this pain and heartache.
“Nothing’s fucking fair about how you left me.”
Tears burned behind my lids, but before I could will them back, he closed the distance between us and kissed me hard.