Chapter 12 Megan #2
“That’s what I’m trying to do, Meggie, and if that means keeping you away from him, that’s what I’ll do.”
“But this isn’t only about me.” Hysteria is creeping into my voice, and I don’t even try to fight it off.
“This is about Amber.” Gio says what I’m thinking. “I will never ever lose sight of that, fiore, but he will use the information like a weapon. He doesn’t care about us finding her.”
I bite my lip, the iron tang of blood on my tongue, and Gio reaches up to catch the tears spilling from my eyes.
“He doesn’t even care about his own mortality,” he continues. “All he cares about is control.”
I shake my head. I know Gio is right, but I have to try, for the same reason I went through with Bianca’s request. For my sister.
“I don’t care about any of that. If this is my last shot, I’m not going to waste it.”
“I can’t—”
“You can’t stop me, Gio.” I’m on my feet so quickly that the blood rushes to my head, making me feel dizzy, as if the universe is conspiring against me to prove him right.
Gio jumps up too and holds me upright. “How will you feel when he refuses to tell you where she is?”
“I-I don’t know.” It’s the truth.
I’ve only just discovered that her father is in the next cabin; I’ve not had a chance to formulate a plan.
Maybe if I’d been invited into the war room to begin with, I’d have a better idea about strategy and strikes and counterattacks.
I feel resentment crawling underneath my skin and try to ignore it.
Gio isn’t to blame, and if everything he said about the Fish is true, he would probably love nothing better than to plant the seeds of discontent between us.
“Meggie.” Gio lowers his head and traps my gaze. “I know this isn’t what you want, and I already know what you’re going to say, but I want you to move down to the bunker until this is all over.”
“Are you worried he might escape?”
I saw the men guarding Tommy Romano. Gio knows what Amber’s father is capable of, and what he would do if he found me a second time, so the question feels moot to me.
“I’m taking no chances.”
“That settles it then.” I free my arms from his grip. “I’m going over there to speak to him.” My legs tremble at the announcement, but I focus on Gio instead.
“I’ll lock you in the bunker myself, Meggie.”
“Do you honestly think that would stop him if he was determined to find me?”
We’ve both forgotten about Demi. Gio is accustomed to giving orders, and I’ve never questioned them before, but in this, we’ll never get beyond stalemate because we both have valid reasons for what we want to do.
“Okay, guys.” Demi stands between us like a referee at a football match.
“Since you can’t reach an agreement, I’m going to perform an intervention.
” Gio opens his mouth to protest, and she shoots him down with a raised eyebrow.
“Neither of you are going to be satisfied with this, but honestly, I can’t stand here all day with the sexual tension buzzing between you. ”
The urge to giggle like a schoolgirl is real, but I manage to suppress it when I see the tic pulsing in Gio’s temple.
The eyebrow drops back into place, and I wonder if Demi’s brothers are more scared of her than they let on.
“So here it is: a compromise. Meggie speaks to the f—the prisoner surrounded by a fuck load of bodyguards. Give her a fucking gun if it will make you feel better. Because the way I see it, giving him what he wants can’t exactly make this situation any more dire than it already is. ”
She glances at me, and I give her a brief nod. Gio is as stiff as the statue people my mom used to take me to watch in Covent Garden when I was little.
“If he tries anything, it will be game over.” Gio’s voice is low, his gaze intense, willing me to understand what he’s saying via telepathy.
I get it. If he tries anything, Gio’s men will be forced to kill him, and then we’ll maybe never know where Amber is.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” So why do I sound like I’m the one who has just been sentenced to the death penalty?
“Then,” Demi continues, “with or without his cooperation, you and I will relocate down to the bunker, Meggie, until Gio gives the signal that it’s all over.”
“All over?” I interject. “What does that mean? I want to be there when you find Amber. She’s going to need me, Gio. She’ll be so scared… You can’t find her without me.”
“Hey.”
Gio wraps his warm arms around me, and I wish there was a way to turn back the clocks to the moment when I first saw him on the film set.
In hindsight, I should’ve grabbed Amber’s hand and gotten her the hell out of there, grabbed a burger and a milkshake, built sandcastles on the beach, did all the things that regular tourists do.
“That isn’t what Demi meant.” He doesn’t elaborate. “I promise that you will be there when we find her.”
But it’s an empty promise if we never find her. Which is why I know I’m doing the right thing.
“Deal.” I slide my arms around Gio and bury my head against his chest as he repeats the word.
The war room is claustrophobic, filled with men, the blinds rolled down to help enhance the appearance of a cell. The lights are off. I don’t know if this is to shield me from the Fish’s appearance, but I smell blood and decay the instant I step into the room.
I shudder involuntarily when I see him bound to the seat in the middle of the room.
When he was in my mom’s life, I never looked at him properly, as though my senses were warning me that he was some kind of Medusa who would turn me to stone if we made eye contact.
But it was the impression of him that lingered.
The spiteful comments sugarcoated to sound like he meant well, the way he would make my mom late for any appointments that concerned me, the cloying smell of his cologne that would ruin my appetite in a heartbeat.
All these things come flooding back the instant I set eyes on him, so deep-rooted that they quash even the image of him carrying Amber away from me at the mountain hut.
He raises his eyes to meet mine, a slow smile spreading across his face. I want to look away, but the alternative, the blood staining his clothes is even worse.
“We really should stop meeting like this, Megan.” Despite everything, there’s humor in his voice, and I’m reminded of what Gio said: everything is a game to him.
I keep my distance. Nothing could persuade me to get any closer to him; I already want to run back to the other cabin, toss my clothes onto a bonfire, and stand under the hot shower until my skin is raw.
“Where is Amber?”
He studies me, brow furrowed, as if he isn’t sure the question was directed at him. “Sit down, Megan. You’re making me feel uncomfortable standing there like that. You always did know how to get in the way.”
Gio is behind me. I can’t see him, but I’m comforted by his presence more than that of the armed bodyguards.
“I’m not staying.” I want to say more, but I need to focus on the task in hand. Getting cute with him won’t work anyway. He isn’t human. “I only want to know where Amber is.”
“That’s all you want to know?” The smile twists into something toxic that makes me want to run outside and suck in huge gulps of clean mountain air. “Are you sure about that?”
Gio moves closer, touches my elbow, and whispers in my ear, “Ignore him, fiore.”
I try to channel my inner mafia gangster. What would Gio say right about now? All I can think of in the oppressive atmosphere of the war room is that he would give nothing away. He wouldn’t show how important the information is to him.
“Do you remember how it feels to be five years old?” I begin.
“You’re like a sponge, soaking up information as it hits you from all angles.
It can be overwhelming because there’s still so much that you don’t understand.
She will be terrified that she did something wrong, but she’ll have no idea how to put it right. ”
I pause. He’s listening, but his expression is neutral, like my words are hitting a wall and bouncing right back at me.
Anger solidifies inside my chest like cooling wax. “How can you do this to your own daughter?”
“It’s easy.” His eyes meet mine and I realize with a whump that threatens to drag me to my knees that no matter what I say, he has no intention of telling me where she is.
“Kids outlive their usefulness. I mean in your case, your mom had figured it out long before I arrived on the scene, all she needed was someone to point it out to her.”
My thoughts are spinning. What is he talking about?
“Meggie, enough now.” Gio’s breath is warm on my ear. “Time to go.”
I ignore him; I can’t leave it like this. “Someone like you, you mean?” My voice rings out. “We were happy until you came along.”
“That’s what you think, sweetheart.”
“You turned my mom into an empty shell of the person she was before. Then you killed her. Why?” My voice is growing shrill. “What did you gain by killing an innocent woman? You left your own daughter without a parent. You—”
“Take her away.” He isn’t even looking at me. Instead, his attention is on Gio and the other men standing guard behind me. “I’m done.”
“You fucking bastard!” Without thinking, I lunge at him, but Gio’s arms wrap around my chest like a straitjacket, dragging me away from the man who killed my mom. “I know you killed her. Where is she? Where did you bury her? At least let her family give her the burial she deserves.”
“I’ve no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, sweetheart. Accusations like this can get you into a whole heap of trouble, you know.”
“Meggie.” Gio is a constant behind me. But instead of making me feel safe, his arms feel like the barrier between me and everyone else that I care about. “I’m taking you back now. I knew this was a mistake.”
“No!” I shriek, clawing at air to get to the man dripping blood onto the carpet with the benign expression on his face, while Gio tightens his grip.
“Tell me where Amber is! You might not care about her, but I do! Let me have her. I’ll take her far away from here, so you’ll never have to see her again, just please, let me have her… ”
I’m sobbing. I’m vaguely aware that I’ve done exactly what I didn’t want to do: I played straight into his hands by revealing how much my sister means to me. But it’s too late to take it back now, and I’ve still not provoked a reaction.
His top lip curls back into an expression that could never be misconstrued as a smile. “She’s closer than you think, but you’ll never find her.”
“What?” I swipe my damp face with the back of my hand. “Why won’t we find her? What the fuck have you done to her?”
Comprehension crawls inside me like a slimy slug, lodging inside my chest and making it difficult to breathe. He’s buried her alive. We might dig up every inch of this mountain and it won’t make a blind bit of difference because we’re already too late.
“You’re too involved.” He’s still talking, and I wish that someone would shut him the fuck up.
I turn around and bury my face against Gio’s chest, covering my ears with my hands, but it’s no good.
His voice is still penetrating my thoughts.
“You need to detach yourself from the situation; it’s the only way to gain clarity.
It’s the reason why people like you and him will never win. ”
“No…” I cling to Gio, praying for him to make it go away. “No, Gio, he’s lying. It isn’t true. Tell me it isn’t true.”
“Don’t listen to him, fiore. He’s trying to mess with your head, and it only works if you allow it to.”
He guides me away from the man known as the Fish and towards the door, but I feel the tenuous connection with my sister slipping from my grasp. Seeing the man triggers nothing but revulsion and fear, but what choice do I have? Only he knows where she is.
I understand what he is. I know that he destroyed my family five years ago, and is repeating the pattern right now, but nothing could prepare me for what comes next.
“How far would you go to see her again, Megan?”
My heart seems to forget what tune to play. Is this some kind of test to prove how much I love her? An unfair game between two players with Amber as the prize.
My heart is hammering against Gio’s chest, begging him to put an end to all this, but even as Gio’s arms tense around me, I remind myself that he didn’t want me to do this. He tried to protect me, but I, in all my glorious stubbornness, refused to listen.
Without leaving Gio’s embrace, I turn my head to face him. “What do you want?”
“Him.” His eyes linger on Gio, his lips rising at the corners. “Him for Amber. Final offer.”
I can’t breathe. Why? Why would he do this to me?
His ultimatum is too enormous for me to even comprehend, but all I do know is that, either way, he is going to break my heart in two.
I’m powerless to protest when Gio picks me up and carries me back to our cabin.
I hear grunts of pain from somewhere behind us in the war room, but I don’t look around.
I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t want to know.
My brain has shut down, refusing to deal with the information it has been given.
Gio carries me into the bedroom and sets me down gently on the bed like I’m a sleeping child.
He undresses me, tosses my clothes aside like they’re contaminated, removes his own clothes, and slides under the comforter with me.
He spoons me from behind, his warm body pressed up against mine, sharing his warmth, his strength, his love.
We don’t speak.
Sobs take over, my body shuddering violently, my brain still mercifully empty. I cling to Gio’s arms as if I’m dangling over the edge of a precipice and he is the only thing saving me from certain death.
Perhaps he is.
It’s strange how, when everything in your life is wrong, when you think that nothing could possibly happen to make you feel worse than you already feel, sleep crawls in like clear gas, unnoticed, unchecked, and welcomes you into its arms. And you don’t fight it with what ifs and maybes and things you forgot to do or say.
You drift unconscious because you know it’s the only way to survive the night.