Chapter 12 Megan
MEGAN
I never thought it was possible to ache so much.
I don’t even remember falling asleep. Gio gave me a shot of brandy to drink, took the glass from me when I coughed and spluttered, and rubbed my back when I almost brought it back up.
I remember him pulling the covers over my shoulders, kneeling beside the bed, and stroking my hair while I waited for the shivers to subside. The after-effects of the shock.
He kept telling me that everything would be okay. It was all under control. That my body needed a chance to heal.
My heart rate speeds up and I kick the comforter off when I replay the scenes from the accident in my head.
The things that man said about Nikki. I don’t know if he was injured when the van crashed into the RV, but the thing that’s most vivid in my mind is the overwhelming desire to make him suffer for what he did to her.
Payback. Not only for using her, but for showing no remorse about her fate.
Perhaps I, more than anyone else, should know that men like Tommy Romano exist. But there’s always been a part of me, the part that falls in love with the fictional heroes in romance novels, that wants to believe that those men are a minority.
That they are vastly outnumbered by men like Gio, who will do whatever it takes to make the woman they love happy.
Sitting up in bed requires more effort than ever before. The muscles in my neck and shoulders scream at me to lie down and wait for help to arrive in the form of a demi-god with brown eyes and strong arms, but I’ve caused enough trouble for Gio.
Besides, how can I be a wimp and stay in bed when I have no idea what Amber is going through?
The aches and pains in the rest of my body almost outweigh the pain in my foot when I stand up. I peer down at my body, arms hanging limply by my sides. Mottled mauve bruises are forming on my arms, and above my right knee.
“If that’s as bad as it gets, then I got lucky,” I mutter to the room.
If I hadn’t answered the call on Gio’s phone, if I hadn’t listened to Bianca’s proposition, I’d have been a day closer to getting out of this plaster cast. But then I would never have known just how despicable Tommy Romano really was.
Only now that I have it, I’m not entirely sure what to do with this knowledge.
I straighten my back, sucking in a deep breath with the dull ache at the top of my spine. Whiplash. But I can do this. I have to do this for Amber’s sake. For Nikki’s. So that men like Tommy Romano and Amber’s father don’t win.
Hobbling across the room, it feels like I’ve aged sixty years since I woke up this morning.
I’m a different person. I feel as if I swam across an ocean only to find that what I’m looking for is on the shore I left behind.
I’m no closer to finding my sister. Tommy Romano gave me no answers or the closure I’d hoped I might get, and to make matters a hundred times worse, I still need to explain to Gio why I jeopardized his operation by helping the prisoner to escape.
I open the bedroom door and make my way slowly along the corridor towards the living room, the sweet sugary aroma of cakes still permeating the cabin. I stop when I hear voices and lean against the wall to remain unseen.
“What happens now?” This is Demi. She’s speaking in hushed tones.
The pause sends my pulse spiking. Who is she talking to? The other guards generally keep their distance, which leaves only one person: Gio. So why the conspiratorial whispers?
“I’ll find another way.” Gio.
“Sounds to me like you’re running out of options. Men like him—”
“Have a point of no return. We’re not there yet.”
I hear Demi sucking in a deep breath. I can picture her narrowed eyes on Gio while she figures out how far she can go before she crosses a line.
“You’re sure of that, are you? He has what you want. What do you have?”
The saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ pops into my head.
Without knowing how their conversation began, I can only guess that they’re discussing Tommy Romano, so I’m trying to fit my own narrative to what I’m hearing.
The actor is withholding information, or at least, that’s what Gio believes, and now that I think about it from my hazy mist of aches and pains, I can’t believe I had him all to myself in that van and didn’t find out where Amber was.
The thought blindsides me, sucking the air from my lungs.
Tommy Romano’s life was in my hands, and I was so consumed by helping Bianca, clinging to Bianca as my lifeline instead of the man in the passenger seat that I didn’t use the situation to my advantage.
That’s what Gio would’ve done. He’d have squeezed the information out of him with his foot hovering over the brake pedal and the RV rushing towards him at the speed of light.
This, I tell myself, is the reason why I make cakes for a living and Gio runs a corporation with a turnover worth billions of dollars.
“I have Meggie.” Gio’s words pick me up and then push me down again with a feather.
What does he mean, he has me? Tommy Romano has no interest in what happens to me; he doesn’t even care about the woman he was supposedly dating, the woman whose career in Hollywood he offered to kickstart, the woman he used to get to me.
“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”
I sense the mounting horror in Demi’s tone, and I squeeze my eyes shut to focus on Gio’s response.
“Fuck no! I’d rather slit my own wrists in front of the fucking Fish than let him get anywhere near her. But he wants to speak to her, and time is no longer on his side.”
The Fish?
My eyes fly open again of their own accord. What is Gio talking about? How does he know what the Fish wants?
I peer all around trying to ground myself back in the cabin.
What time is it? How long have I been asleep? Hours? Days? I wish I’d picked up my phone, but I can’t even remember the last time I saw it.
“Okay, so what then?” Demi says. “You think he’ll want to atone for his sins before he faces an eternity of wronged souls clawing at him for revenge?”
“Perhaps.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Gio. The kid’s being held fuck only knows where, and you’re waiting for a miracle.”
Gio’s voice, when he speaks next, is flat. “A miracle is preferable to giving him what he wants.”
I’ve heard enough.
I stumble into the kitchen and lean against the door frame while I take in the standoff between Gio and Demi.
They’re supposed to be a team. They’re supposed to be working together to find Amber.
But this looks as if one of them made a move that might cost the team the game, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough to repair the damage.
“What does he want?”
They both turn around to face me, eyes wide at being caught out.
Gio comes straight over, slides an arm around my shoulders, and guides me to the table. “Meggie, how long have you been standing there? You shouldn’t be out of bed.”
I wriggle free of his embrace and remain standing, the look of hurt in his eyes sending shards of metal into my heart. “What does he want, Gio?”
Gio’s internal debate is over almost before it begins. “Sit down, Meggie, please.” He holds onto the back of the seat and gestures for me to sit down.
This time I lower myself into the seat, trying desperately not to wince when pain shoots the length of my spine. I don’t want him to insist on taking me to the emergency room. I don’t want him to fuss over me. There’s a time and a place for being treated like a porcelain doll, and this isn’t it.
One glance at my face, and Demi fills a mug with coffee for me, and pops two slices of thick-cut bread into the toaster.
She doesn’t speak, and I’m grateful. I’m not ready to explain why I did what I did; I haven’t even begun to process the consequences of my actions and what they mean for Amber.
Right now, I need to know what’s going on with the Fish.
Gio sits opposite me. His stubble is visibly darker than it was this morning, and the grooves across his forehead are noticeably deeper. “When you crashed into the RV…” His gaze flicks to Demi and back again. “You unwittingly led us straight to him.”
I gasp, my thoughts spiraling like dust motes disturbed by a feather duster. “H-how?”
“He was using the motorhome as a base.”
“Where is he now?” I whisper.
I already know the answer before Gio says, “He’s in the war room.”
I peer at the window, at the sky that’s slowly turning lilac as the sun sinks.
He’s in the next cabin. I remember all the conversations with Nikki in which I swore that sharing the same planet with him was too close for comfort, and now here he is.
But I already know that I have no choice but to speak to him again, in a controlled environment.
Because he’s the only one who can tell us where Amber is.
He has what we want. It’s all starting to make sense now.
“He asked to speak to me?” My voice is flat too. It must be the effect the Fish has on people, and I can’t help wondering what kind of person revels in inspiring this level of fear.
“Meggie, it isn’t going to happen.” Gio is on his knees in front of me again, cocooning my hands in his, rubbing them to make them warm.
“I know what you’re thinking: that he’ll tell you where Amber is.
But you’re wrong. He’ll hold it over you, break you down until you’re begging him to tell you, and then he’ll laugh in your face. ”
I shake my head. “You don’t know that. What if he wants to tell me where she is? What if he just doesn’t want to tell you?”
Demi slides a plate of toast across the table towards me, but the look on her face tells me she already knows I’ve lost my appetite. “Gio is right, Meggie. He’s playing a game. This will never be anything more to him, not while he has the upper hand.”
“So, take the upper hand away from him.” I look at Gio. “That’s how you win, isn’t it? You stack the odds in your favor. You’re the one who runs the casino.”