Cara (Cosa Nostra #2)

Chapter 1

Xavier

She’s gone.

My wife is gone.

Swirls of orange gravel hover above an unpaved driveway, blocking the view of the vehicle that Bo took her away in. All these weeks of planning. Months of beatings that would fuel my hate and motivate my vengeance. Months I envisioned this very moment.

Freeing her from hell.

It’s damn near impossible to stomach that there’s nothing left to do for her. That all of that determination amounted to just a few stolen moments and the loss of my life as I knew it.

Fuck, I preferred when I couldn’t cry, when tears wouldn’t come. It was easier.

The weight of this—of losing everything in one jarring blow—sinks me to my knees. I grasp them for support, forcing myself to continue to breathe.

Breathe, Marcello.

In. Out. In. Out.

She’s gone .

The relief of it is minimized by the agony striking through my chest like a knife, twisting and carving deeper with every inhale.

What it took to get here …

I should have known trying to escape was a false hope, an unachievable dream. And that my father would never suffer the shame of losing a son to something as trivial as love.

Not when wealth is his spouse and power, his ruler.

If I had just told her to go, to leave on that mountain… if I weren't so damn selfish, none of this would have happened.

What occurred in that cell would have never happened.

We’re here because I reached too far. Because I wanted what I didn’t deserve… a normal life with my wife. The corpses left in my wake, the severed limbs I’ve discarded without thought, the fear I’ve stricken into hearts and minds remind me of what I am.

I was a fool to think I could run from it, from what I was made to be. A fool to think I could be that man for Sophie.

I made the right choice, sending her away. Because now, she can find someone who can give her that life… who can make her forget the horrors she endured in my care.

The wedding band in my hand still carries her warmth. Peeling my eyes away from the last place I saw her disappear, I gaze at the only object I may ever have left of her.

A memory passes before me, and I’m suddenly back on the steps of that cathedral, reeling from an encounter I had with Vito moments before seeing my bride.

Even after a sleepless night, every decision I made, every step, was calculated.

Vito didn’t even hear my approach as I neared him.

I’m sure he never anticipated I’d hound him on such an important day, but deep down, I knew.

I knew he’d laid his hands on her. And as expected, I found him smoking celebratory cigars, spilling his guts to a worthless soldier, saying things no father should say about his eldest daughter to anyone willing to listen.

He froze when I turned the corner, revealing myself. The soldier ran for his fucking life, and I don’t blame him. I could have killed Vito Marin that very minute, torn him limb from limb. I'm good at making people like him suffer.

I don’t know how I managed to walk away.

My sole consolation was knowing that if I walked from that fight, I’d get a ring on her finger. I’d get her in my home, in my bed—a place she would never fear if I had any say in it.

I remember searching those sacred hallways, needing to see her. Needing to confirm that she was really safe, really mine. I found her standing by a window in her white gown, so scared but so strong.

My heart stopped, as it only ever did around her.

She was unsure about me, but fuck , I’d been waiting for that moment my entire life. Seeing her there, I knew there was hope, hope that she could learn to care for me.

Ineverdreamed that one day, she’d tell me she loved me.

I close my eyes, as if that will somehow erase her role in my life, and trudge back into the remote cabin.

Before, I could face anything. Thieves. Murderers. Armies. Now, there are moments where I just lose breath, where my mind fogs, and I have to reach out for stability.

I grip a pillar, trying to regain oxygen.

She trusted me.

I told her she could. I told her I'd get her out.

I had to watch as they ? —

As much as I wish I could block the images, the sounds, I know they’ll stay with me forever, searing guilt and shame into my memories that stem from my failure to get to her in time.

I just sent her to the airport, a mere hour after escaping what can only be described as hell. I’ve shoved her toward a new life where she will have to come to terms with everything that just happened to her—all alone, trying to cope with the horrors while still running for her life.

Dannazione . The kind of fear that impacts my veins, my pounding heart just imagining it… A foreign country, no one to protect her, no one to rely on. It’s nearly enough for me to race to my car and start the engine, nearly enough to chase after her, but I push through it.

There’s no way to brace myself for the shock of entering the cabin. All I can do is keep moving. I retrieve my wallet from the ground, forcing myself into the bathroom that still smells of her to grab her clothes.

On my way out, I press my lips to the wedding ring I once slipped onto her finger and lift my hand, placing it over the door hinge for safe keeping.

With one last glance at the cramped living room, I close the door, striding down the steps onto the grass. Retrieving a lighter from my pocket, I flick the edge for a flame, hearing tires crunch over the bare gravel.

I listen to the sound of boots approaching as my closest friend joins me by the fire, unable to tear my eyes away from the clothes she wore for months. I can still remember how that shirt looked clean, how it clung to her before we entered that goddamn restaurant in North Dakota.

Dante slumps against my car, his breath ragged. “You did everything you could, man.”

I haven’t felt my soul since she left. That should terrify me, but it doesn’t. “Not enough.”

“Bo will get her on that plane, X. You know that.”

“I do.”

Dante’s grip tightens on my shoulder, a steady pressure that borders on painful. “Man, just go . Just follow her or go somewhere else. You know what they’ll do to you.”

“I’ve come to terms with what awaits me, Dante.”

He scowls at my indifference, my complete lack of regard for life. “I’ll be damned if I let you go back to your sick piece of shit father just to get wrecked?—”

I face him. No fear in my eyes. No urge to find solutions. I’m sure he can see it. Resolve . “All my life, I dreamed of her. I didn’t need anything else… That’s no longer the case.”

“X—”

“I want revenge.” I lift off the car, avoiding that backseat at all costs. “I’ll make him regret the day he wished for a son.”

I haven’t hugged Dante since we were kids. Knowing this might be the last time I see him, I shake my head, thanking this man who is more a brother than a friend, realizing there’s only one thing left to do. “You’re fired.”

His eyes grow wide as I pull away from him. “Xavier.”

I open the door to the driver’s side, the creaking sound echoing the tension between us. “Propose to Mimi. She’s waited long enough.” I slide into the leather, turning on the ignition. “Tell Bo to get that stick out of his ass and live a little.”

“You’re out of your fuckin’ mind if you think?—”

“There are three envelopes in the cabin. One for each of you. It’s the only way I can think to thank you.”

“We’re not going anywhere, X. Not without you.”

“When I'm done with them,” I grab the door, “I won’t be worth protecting, Dante.”

As the thick tires squeal in reverse, Dante stares into the tinted windows, an interrogator unable to conceal the war within himself.

He thinks this is the last time he’ll see me.

He could be right.

I don’t have the heart to watch the cabin decrease in size, leaving behind the last moments I’ll ever have with my wife. It’s in this moment, as I grip the steering wheel with both hands, that I finally contemplate exactly what I should expect from my father.

He will attempt to strip her location out of me, I'm sure of that. He’ll tell me they've found and killed her in the most brutal ways. They’ll punish me dearly for besting them.

And I will take it .

I’ll play the game better than they've ever witnessed… and I’ll come down upon them with a fury they’ve never seen.

I will strip them of their power.

I will rid them of their protective skin.

I will take everything they have and obliterate it to pieces.

I. Will. Ruin. Them.

Nothing will stop me. I’ll revel in the revenge, soak in its destruction. They will wish they'd let me run. They will wish they’d never touched my wife. They’ll wish they'd patched up Thomas Ritchey and let him go free.

Did they make you watch more than once?

Sophie’s words, uttered so weakly, made me want to vomit then, right over the leather-bound steering wheel—and that urge hasn’t subsided, only stronger as I return home.

Home .

Fuck, I’ve never hated a place more.

The gates to the estate are open. They’re never open.

My eyes dart to where I freed Sophie just a few hours ago, noticing soldatos circling the door with interest. I cut across the trimmed lawn, eying the men I was born to lead. Most regard me with judgment, while others find it in them to feel pity. Neither reaction bothers me anymore.

“ Xavier !”

It takes whatever strength I have left to resist turning at my mother’s frantic screech.

For an unperceptive woman, her tone is rightfully pitched with panic.

Her heels thud against the steps, her screams escalating as she fights whoever stops her from following me.

“What are you going to do to him? Don’t you dare touch him! ”

Starà bene. She’ll be okay. I have to tell myself that. To be able to do this, I can’t think of how this will torture her.

My father is sitting on the veranda with this morning’s paper raised over his face. A steaming cup of caffè normale sits on the table next to an untouched breakfast. He doesn’t speak immediately, despite knowing I’ve returned.

When he does, his first words aren’t directed at me.

“Clear the yard.”