Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
J ames
A bell chimes over the door I walk in, alerting Hodge to my arrival. He looks up from his table in the back of the coffee shop, his face instantly paling as I move toward him.
I drop into the seat across from him, my arms stretching over the back of it as I level him with my impatient gaze. “Whatever you have to say, lay it out now. I don’t have much time,” I tell him. I suppress the smile that fights to cross my face as I think of Cecilia’s terms of my visit with him. She was feisty this morning. I needed to wake her up and make her mad more often just so she could act like the sexy little brat that she was. I enjoyed her bossiness way too much.
He leans onto the table, keeping his voice low. “Chuck doesn’t know that I’m here. Frankly, I think he’d kill me if he did.”
I laugh. “He doesn’t have it in him.”
He shakes his head seriously. “He does. He’s gone crazy. Too crazy. That’s why I’m sitting here with you. He’s gotten out of hand. I never wanted to be involved in something like this. I just wanted a cut of the jewelry business. Chuck made the arrangement with Dante. He works for Dante or is being used like a stupid puppet by him. He thinks he’s in control, but he’s not. The night of the ball, he hired those guys to come in and attempt to kill you. Chuck thinks he’s calling the shots, but Dante’s just using him and his vendetta against you to get to Stefano Luccio.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. It had his naivety written all over it. What I want is the proof you claim to have against Chuck.”
He shakes his head. “Not until we come to an agreement.”
I grind my teeth together. “What kind of agreement?”
“I want your protection. Lie all you want, but I know you’re tied with the Luccio’s. I want protection against Chuck and Dante in exchange for the proof I have and my word to back off.”
“And how do I know this isn’t a setup either?”
“Because by calling this meeting, I saved your ass. Chuck and Dante sent one of his men to your place to see if you were home. He was going to arrange a hit on you this afternoon. I’m not sure if he went through with plans or not, but it was in talks. Chuck is here in Boston, too; I know that much.”
It’s like my nerve endings flare at that piece of information. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not saying anything more until I have your word.”
“You have my word,” I rush out. “I’ll call in your favor to Luccio. Now tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”
He reaches beside him and slaps a couple of pieces of paper and a cell phone onto the table. I picked up one of the papers that looked like information about an offshore account in Chuck’s name and large sums of money being deposited directly from Dante. I opened the phone to see pictures of Chuck and Dante in what looked like meetings. Almost all the images contained several illegal substances, like drugs, guns, etc.
“There are also recordings of Chuck and Dante’s discussions on the phone, many of them pertaining to you and Luccio. The guy is desperate for control in places that just being the mayor can’t reach.”
I selected all the photos and the downloaded recordings and sent them to Milana, knowing she knew exactly what to do. They’d be online for the world to see in the next ten minutes. I wasn’t fucking around anymore with Chuck.
I flip through more of the pictures and stop on one, my eyebrow furrowing as I look closer at what I’m seeing because there is no fucking way. The image was a little unfocused, so I couldn’t be sure, but a feeling in my gut hardened like a stone, making my blood run cold.
He notices my expression and looks over to the phone at what I’m looking at. “Oh, that’s one of Chuck’s new guys. He started coming around the last couple of weeks after Chuck found him, supposedly. The dude is really fucking strange. Gave even me the creeps. But he seemed passionate about Chuck’s plans. He actually may have been the one Chuck sent over today. Dante thought it’d be smart to send someone you wouldn’t expect, so keep an eye out for him.”
I looked up at him, feeling like I couldn’t move or breathe. “Did you get his name?” My ears rang as he turned his eyes up to think and then muttered the name, Lance.
I quickly stand from the table, my body vibrating with the need to get the fuck out of here. “Follow me outside. Luccio will be coming to bring you to a safe house,” I say urgently. Hodge follows me out and around to the back of the building without a problem. When we’re alone, I turn to face him, pulling my gun from my waistband and shooting him square in the chest.
He falls to the ground, a gurgling gasp escaping him. “You said…You said…” he stammers, blood bubbling from his mouth.
I go to walk past him but pause for only a moment, “My word means nothing when you’re someone like me. I didn’t forget what you did to Cecilia and what you had planned for her.” I crouch down to his level as he fights for breath. “I wish your death is painfully slow and the rats eat you to the bone.”
I leave him on the ground, already half lifeless, as I sprint to my car. I felt sick as thoughts spiraled through my head. All of the signs that Lance wasn’t right—his obsession with my life and jealousy that led to aggression against Cecilia. His growing obsession with her.
I freeze for a moment when I sit inside my car, my brain working to make sense of everything, when I remember the sling on Lance's arm the day I attacked him at the library. The same arm of the man I shot at the ball.
It all made sense. He ran away the minute the fight started despite me still getting a shot in on him. It was his first time probably doing anything like that, so he ran in fear.
My hands slammed against the steering wheel of my car. I felt stupid for not seeing all the signs, and now he was with Cecilia at my place, doing God knows what to her.
I tear off into traffic, driving way over the speed limit as I try and race back home. I have my phone out, trying to call Tobias, praying like hell he was there with her, but it keeps going straight to voicemail.
“Fuck!” I growl out, racing through a red light. Horns from other cars blare around me, but I don’t give a shit. I fly in the direction of my home, and the only thing on my mind is Cecilia’s face. If she wasn’t okay, I was going to end everyone’s miserable existence that has anything remotely to do with Chuck, including Dante and his men. He wanted to get to Stefano, so he tried to get to him through me, which is where he and Chuck not only found common ground but severely fucked up.
I’m five minutes from home when my phone rings, and I answer without checking. I hoped it was Tobias who would tell me everything was okay, but it’s quite literally the last person I want to hear from right now.
“Do you know just what you’ve done?” I hear Chuck scream on the phone. His voice sounded choked and full of rage. I’d laugh if I didn’t want to murder him violently right now.
“The question is do you know what the fuck you have done?” I growl back at him. “How long has Lance been working for you?”
Chuck laughs manically, and I press my foot harder on the gas, my street finally coming into view. “It wasn’t hard at all, you know. I’d been watching her for so long it didn’t take much to notice his unrequited love for her. It was tragic, actually, watching him fawn after her and seethe when she constantly threw herself at you instead. I simply had to educate him on your more secret business endeavors, and he was on board if only to save his precious Cecilia from you. He grew increasingly resentful and irrational the more she ignored him for you, even with the knowledge of who you really were. Those betrayed by their loved ones really do make the best of villains, don’t they?”
I turn down my street, my heart crashing harder and harder in my chest the closer I get. “I hope you’re enjoying your last laugh, Chuck, because you’re finished. And if she’s hurt when I get to her, you better pray for God to save you because there’s nowhere, no one, on this earth that can save you from me.”
I toss the phone to the ground just as I approach the house. I just get the gates open when I fly into the drive. My chest feels like it’s being electrocuted when I see two of my security guards near the gate dead and dragged into the hedges. I'm unsure if I even put my car into park before I raced out of it and into my house. The front door was wide open, instantly making my stomach drop. It’s deadly quiet when I go inside. I rush around the house, my gaze flying everywhere, looking for any signs of her. I walk into the living room and see Marco lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He was still, his eyes shut. My body feels cold just looking at him, but it’s then I hear two gunshots ring out from outside, and I bolt out onto the patio, not seeing anyone, and I realize it came from inside the maze.
I run inside it, whipping around corners and taking the paths I know by heart. I run and don’t stop until I come closer to the center of the maze, where I hear the fountain. Brief memories of my and Cecilia’s time there float through my head like an endless reel, reminding me that all that could remain of her now are memories. I felt like I was going to throw up, and tears sting my eyes as I think about her being shot right now and dying, and I wasn’t even there to hold her through it.
I turn down one last path that leads straight into the center when I come up behind someone slowly walking toward the fountain. I still, realizing it was Lance that I was behind. I look past him, seeing Tobias across the other side, aiming his gun at him and Cecilia on the ground behind him. Her hands are gripping the hair on her scalp, tears pouring down her face as she screams for her brother.
The sight of her alive but in so much fear and anguish rips at me, making my stomach roll with a mixture of nausea, rage, and sympathy for her, knowing this was someone she loved betraying her.
Lance doesn’t realize I’m behind him. Neither does Tobias nor Cecilia. Blood runs in a stream down his arm, and I realize Tobias landed a shot on him, just below his shoulder on his other arm. He fires off another shot, but he’s an amateur with the gun and misses completely. Tobias steps back, his hand shooting behind him to guard Cecilia and urge her back.
I already knew my plan, but I hesitated for a second, fearing what Cecilia would do or think once I executed it. Lance fires another shot in my hesitation, and although he misses again, it’s closer. It blasts dirt on the ground too close to Cecilia for my liking, and that’s when I don’t wait any longer.
I lunge behind him, wrapping an arm around his neck and immobilizing him as I win the gun from his hand. He roars in fury as I hold him against me. “I warned you,” I growl into his ear as I press the gun against the center of his back, and then I pull the trigger.
Blood splatters on my face and chest as he falls down my body to the ground. My chest rises and falls with sharp breaths as I fight to calm down now that he’s dead, and I know Cecilia is okay for the most part.
I look up, meeting Tobias’s stern gaze, his expression pained like he knows this will all crush her. I look down at her now, seeing her eyes, wider than ever, on Lance’s limp body at my feet.
She was still. So very still. Seeing her creates a burning in my throat because what I had just done could never be taken back. She had to see it in front of her, the man she loved killing the man, her friend she’d loved almost her whole life. I didn’t know if we’d ever recover from this.
“Lance,” she whispers. “Lance,” she repeats louder, waiting for him to answer. Her hands curl into her hair again, pulling on the strands as she fights to keep her composure. “This isn’t real,” she cries. “This isn’t…this isn’t real.” Tobias kneels beside her, pulling her to him as she starts to sob. Loud, drawn-out cries ripped from her like she was being physically tortured. It was the worst sound I’d ever heard in my life. “I want to go home,” she screams through her tears. “I want to go home. I want to go home.”
“Okay,” Tobias says quietly. “I’ve got you. I’ll take you home.”
My heart feels like it’s violently ripped from my chest. It’s like she doesn’t see me anymore. I was nothing to her. All she could see was her friend dead on the ground. All she could feel now was everything she had gone through the last couple of months since knowing me coming to a head. The worst part was I wouldn’t change what I did. I would kill him a million times over again and put her through this pain if it meant she was safe from him.
I walk to the fountain, sitting on the ledge as Tobias tries to calm Cecilia down. Her cries eventually die out and turn into soft, quick breaths. He helps her stand on her feet, and she does so shakily. Once she’s on her feet, she takes a deep breath, turning her back to me.
Tobias’s gaze bounces around them and then lands on me. “I uh…I’m not sure how to get back out of here.”
I stand now, carefully walking toward them, keeping my voice low. “I’ll show you out.” Tobias nods, waiting for me to go ahead of him, and I do, only glancing at Cecilia once, who doesn’t look back before leading them out of the maze.
It’s only about ten minutes before we return to the patio. I stop once we’re there, letting them go ahead of me now.
“Shit,” Tobias mutters, looking into the doors dividing the patio and living room where Marco lies. He runs inside, I’m assuming, to check if he is still alive and call the medics.
Cecilia stands on the patio, her eyes staring at the ground like she is catatonic. Yet, after everything, when I knew I should leave her be, let her heal without me, and find a better, safer life…I couldn’t let go of her.
“Don’t go,” I murmur. She still doesn’t move, but I see her eyes break from their trance as she looks at the ground in my direction. She doesn’t say anything, though, so I continue. “Don’t go,” I say again. “Let me take care of you. I can’t fix what I’ve just done, but let me try to fix what it’s done to you. Lean on me. Trust me to take care of you. Please. Don’t leave me.”
She finally turns her head to look at me, her eyes softer now, and I can’t help but hold my breath, waiting for what she’ll do. She looked a mess. Her hair was tangled, her silk night dress was covered in dirt, her hands and cheeks were covered in dried blood and dirt from touching her face and hair, and somehow, she still looked angelic. One that had been through a war. She’d never not be beautiful to the point that it was almost painful for me.
She walks toward me, and I can’t keep still. I stride toward her, letting her crash into my arms. She buries her face into me as I wrap my arms around her, my insides feeling like they finally stand still after an ongoing earthquake. I shut my eyes, resting my chin on top of her head. I was so fucking tired. I just wanted to carry her up to bed, draw the curtains closed, and keep us there for the rest of the year.
She wiggles in my arms and pulls away slightly, looking up at me. “I’m not okay,” she says softly, her eyes misting over again. “None of this is okay.”
“I know. You’ll never know how sorry I am.”
She nods, her hand finding my cheek and caressing it. It’s like her touch melts my insides. I didn’t understand how she could stand before me so broken and still have it in her to be gentle with me. I’m ready to pick her up into my arms, but the sound of movement behind me catches my attention instead, and before I can turn, all I can see is Cecilia’s eyes widen, and she’s gripping my shirt with both of her hands and pulling me to her as she turns us.
The world spins painfully slow as she trades places with me, and my eyes catch on Chuck, who is coming full speed at us from the side garden. ?He lunges hard and connects with Cecilia’s back, causing her chest to collide with mine. I know something is wrong when her stare instantly glazes over, and she becomes heavy in my arms.
Chuck takes a step back, and his delirious laugh fills the air as his proud gaze watches Cecilia fall to the ground. I go with her, fighting to keep her in my arms, but she’s dead weight.
“I told you what would happen if you crossed me,” Chuck snarls violently. “This is your fucking fault.” I ignore him as I sink to the ground, gently holding Cecilia in my lap as my heart beats furiously in my chest, a fear I’ve never felt before painfully slamming through my body.
“Cecilia. Cecilia,” I rush out, shaking her chin in my hand as she fights to keep awake. “Baby. Baby, what’s wrong? Stay awake. God, please stay awake.” It’s then I see the blood spreading through her dress under the left side of her ribs. I lift her slightly, finding the handle of a knife sticking out of her back. Her blood stains my hands, and I turn her back in my lap, seeing her eyes slowly blinking as she watches me. “No. No. No. Fuck. You stay awake. You hear me? This is not happening. Don’t you fucking dare.” My voice is rough, and I think I might actually be crying. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I scoop her into my arms, and her hand flies out, weakly gripping my arm.
“James,” she says faintly.
Chuck’s monstrous laugh becomes louder, and for once, I can’t think about killing him. I can only just hold her. It was all I cared to do.
“You ruined me,” he rages like he was trying to justify his actions for being exposed.
I hear the patio doors slam open, and I know it’s Tobias. A small bit of relief fills me when I hear his steps barrel toward us, and I see Chuck’s face drop as he starts to scurry backward.
“What the fuck?” Tobias shouts, running toward us all, taking everything in. He pauses for a moment, finding his sister's limp body in my arms, and his gaze turns dark. Murderous. He looks back up to Chuck, who is stumbling out of the garden to escape, but Tobias catches him and, in a silent rage unlike I’ve ever seen, grabs him by the head and completely snaps his neck in a split second. All I hear is the drop of his body hitting the ground, and only a moment later, I hear the sirens of the medics pulling up to the house.
I look back down at Cecilia in my arms. “The medics are here, baby. They’re going to fix you. Okay?”
She swallows thickly, her hand squeezing my arms tighter. “It doesn’t hurt,” she murmurs. “I don’t think that’s right.”
The tears in my eyes burn as I fight to blink them away. I didn’t want to miss a single second of looking at her. “Why did you do that?” I kiss her forehead, keeping her tight in my arms, rocking her as I wait for the medics to get to us. “God, I can’t lose you. Why did you do that?”
She laughs weakly, and her words come out slow and breathless. “I thought…the same,” she fights to say. “After everything…especially not you.”
Everything inside me feels like it’s sinking. Painfully falling away from me. ?“You’re going to be okay. No one is losing anyone ever again. Okay? I am not losing you. I cannot lose you, baby. You hear me?” The medics reach us just as she starts closing her eyes, and then they take her from me and…I can’t move. I watch like a statue as they carry her away, and Tobias rushes into the ambulance with her. I watch as they drive away with my life, and when they are out of sight and the sound of the sirens is no longer to be heard, I fall to my side and throw up until there is nothing left inside me.
Panic, unlike anything I’d ever felt before, invades my chest until I can’t breathe, and every part of my body feels restless, and then I throw up again. Her blood is all over my hands, and all I can think is that it might have been the last time I ever see her and hear her voice.
Tears run in rivers down my cheeks, and I continue to sit there. For the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do.