Chapter 31 – Rae
You can trust him.
The more I told myself that was true, the more I watched it manifest into reality. There was still that little, damaged part that wondered when Nico would stop being obsessed with me and leave. It was the only example I’d ever seen.
But I dared to write a different outcome.
I waited at my window long after Luigi dropped me off. I kept the dress on, and it wasn’t as uncomfortable as I would have thought. The mask, however, was somewhere on the bed. I had a key now, one I didn’t even have to steal. Uncle Theo gave it to me the other day when I asked.
Imagine that. I just had to ask, and he gave it.
I really liked my uncle. It was a pity he hadn’t been part of my life before now. Well, if the good lord was willing and the creek didn’t rise, I would have time to remedy that situation and forge a real relationship with my only living relative.
A yawn ripped straight from my lungs. Come on, Nico.
Where the hell was he?
He’d texted Luigi that we should leave without him. Work called him away. As I watched the house, I let my mind paint a picture. It was an experiment. Me living there. Married to Nico, and him the head of the Grimaldi Mafia.
“Wow,” I whispered.
I could see it, plain as day.
There would be changes, obviously. I wouldn’t sit at home like his grandmother, pretending not to know that his business dealings were shady.
No. If I was the boss’s wife, I would be involved.
My morals wouldn’t be compromised. Hell, they barely existed as it was.
I would lie, steal, and cheat for the mob.
Kill? I could do that if push came to shove, but I would be only too happy to clean the bloody messes Nico and his friends made while leaving the actual act of murder to them.
Another yawn bubbled up. Screw it. I was determined to sneak downstairs and mix a glass of instant espresso. The kitchen window would give me a view of the drive, so I wouldn’t miss Nico coming back.
I hurried down the steps, my bare feet making no noise. The third step from the bottom creaked, so I skipped it to avoid noise.
As I moved into the living room, the front door jiggled. My heart skipped a beat, and my pulse thrummed with life. Nico was back! The brat. I wasn’t going to let him ruin the surprise. He didn’t say explicitly that he was coming to me. Just that he wanted to rip the dress off.
There would be no ripping, by the way. This dress was the nicest thing I owned, and I planned to keep it that way.
Hurrying behind the couch, I crouched and hid. If I couldn’t go surprise him in his room, at least I would make him work for it. I held my breath and waited.
The door swung open.
Right before I jumped out to scare him, I heard more than one pair of boots stepping over the threshold.
The beat of my pulse changed from anticipation to fear.
Peeking around the couch end, I saw three men amble toward the stairs. They didn’t know about the step, and they cursed the first guy when he made it creak.
“Middle bedroom,” one hissed.
My room.
They were going to my room!
Panic surged through me. I didn’t have a weapon to protect Uncle Theo and Franky. Thankfully, their doors were usually locked. I whispered a prayer to anyone listening that that was the case tonight.
I have to do something.
I padded around the dark, not finding anything for a weapon. Crouching back behind the couch, I tried to fight back the rising panic.
Your phone!
Yes, my phone. I pulled it from the built-in bra strap. My clammy fingers slipped over the screen. When I managed to open it, I didn’t trust myself to text.
The call sounded obscenely loud in my ear. I turned the volume down and barely heard Nico answer.
“There are men in the house,” I whispered.
Even with the device’s volume down, his enraged shout crackled from the speaker.
“I don’t have a gun—oh shit! They’re coming.” I hung up.
I barely managed to silence the ringer before the men lumbered back into the living room. The screen pressed against my chest. I didn’t dare to breathe.
“The girl has to be around here somewhere,” one of the muttered. “Her vehicles are here.”
Dread leeched into my veins. They knew enough about me to mark my room, my truck…my car. Had they been watching me?
“We’ll come back another night,” the one who seemed to be the leader snapped.
They trudged out the front door, pausing to lock it.
I counted to ten. Inching forward, I peeked out. There were no faces in the frosted glass decorating the entrance. I sagged forward. Adrenaline made my gut churn.
But the fear of being discovered shifted quickly to anger. How dare they? How fucking dare they come after me, and I didn’t know who the hell these guys were.
“There’s one way to find out,” I spat, shooting to my feet.
Running to the kitchen, I grabbed the biggest knife I could find. Then I was out the front door seconds later. I planned to find their car and at least snap some pictures. If I got the chance to slice their tires, then they would be stuck…and at Nico’s mercy.
“Why the hell didn’t I slice them while they were upstairs?” Stupid me. I would have to do better as a mob wife.
I stuck to the side of the house. The shrubs reached out with bony fingers to snatch at my skirt. I needed to keep to the shelter, but their eager clutches were making me slow.
By the time I crept to the back, where the driveway was, their car was gone.
Or maybe they hadn’t parked in the staff lot in the first place.
I chewed on my bottom lip, debating which way they could have entered the property.
There was a road beyond the trees. The tall stone wall wouldn’t be hard for men their size to scale.
If I hurried I could still catch them, still slash their tires—
An engine roared. Headlights shot over me.
I screamed.
The vehicle lurched onto the grassy yard, and my scrambled brain didn’t realize it had come directly from the main drive. There was no time to run. I braced myself, ready to jump out of the way and attack whoever was coming for me.