Chapter 23
MEGAN
I can still feel Gio inside me when I open my eyes the next morning, his cum oozing out from between my legs when I roll over and stretch my back.
He isn’t there.
For one terrible moment, everything that has happened since Amber and I arrived in America comes flooding back, the images accompanied by panic that grips my chest and squeezes the oxygen from my lungs.
Amber!
I sit up in bed, panting, clutching the comforter to my chest while my brain catches up, reminding me that she is safe now.
We are safe. We are in Gio’s apartment in New York City.
When I checked in on Amber last night, she was cuddling Bella in bed, the puppy curled into a ball inside the curve of Amber’s body.
But that level of fear is hard to let go of. When you’ve been living in fight-or-flight mode for so long, some of it is bound to stick, and only time will be able to erase it fully.
Gio didn’t want to talk about what happened when he found his sister Bianca.
He said that she is safe, and that his debt to his brother-in-law has been repaid, but it’s what he didn’t say that is niggling away at me this morning.
I haven’t known Gio for long, but I see it in his eyes. Bianca is dangerous.
Pulling a robe on to cover my nakedness, I wander along the hallway and stop outside Amber’s room. I can hear her telling Bella about Central Park, and how much fun the dog will have sniffing all the flowers and chasing the birds.
Smiling to myself, I follow the aroma of coffee towards the kitchen.
Baby steps.
One day at a time.
I still have no idea where the future will lead us, but without the threat of Amber’s father looming over us, I can learn to accept that at least we have a future.
Until now, we’ve been living on borrowed time, waiting for the Fish to cut it short like the devil playing with souls for fun. But it’s all over.
Enzo’s voice reaches me from the kitchen before I get there. “…Here in the city. She could’ve gone anywhere in the world.”
I freeze. Who is he talking about?
“Where else to lie low than the largest city in the States?” This is Gio.
“Lying low, that’s what you think she’s doing?”
It feels wrong to be eavesdropping, but my curiosity has been piqued, and I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.
“She had no choice.” Gio sounds hesitant, and I picture him with a black coffee, trying to savor the moment between waking and real life, when the possibilities are endless and all problems are resolvable.
“She knew that from the moment she set Mario up with the bratva. There was no turning back, and her last-chance attempt to kill Meggie in the hospital sealed her fate.”
I’m confused. I thought that Mario had sold Biance to the bratva, and it was Bianca who almost killed Nikki a second time?
But before I can try to make sense of the upturned tables, Enzo says, “I think she knew that fifteen years ago, brother, but it didn’t stop her from trying to destroy your life.”
“She clearly didn’t know me at all.” Gio pauses. “But I think she understands now that she has no part in the family business. Everyone who knew our parents is aware of her part in their deaths. Even if she had chosen her children over Stella, she would never have the respect of our allies.”
I lean back against the wall, trying to process everything that I’ve heard.
Bianca was responsible for the accident that killed their parents and Gio’s fiancée?
Enzo said that she tried to destroy Gio’s life too.
How? By recruiting the Fish to kill me and kidnap Amber?
I replay the phone call with Bianca in my head, the one when she promised to help me find Amber if I helped Tommy Romano to escape.
I breathe deeply, trying to regulate my pulse and calm my thoughts. She didn’t care what happened to Amber. She wanted Tommy out of the situation before he revealed that the Fish was working for Bianca Sabatelli. Then she still came back for more.
“Everything okay, Meggie?” Demi has crept up on me so silently that my heart performs a triple somersault inside my rib cage at the sound of her hushed voice.
I try to still the frantic beating with a hand over my chest. “Where did you come from?” I glance along the hallway at the guestrooms. There’s Amber’s room, the one currently occupied by Nikki, and the room that I’d assumed was Enzo’s when we first arrived.
The flush spreading slowly across Demi’s cheeks tells me all that I need to know.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t prying.”
I think that Enzo and Demi are cute together, but I also don’t want to say this out loud in case I’m way off track. But if they are close, this might work in my favor.
She smiles. “My fault, I guess, for sneaking up on you.”
The time we spent together in Vermont has sown the seeds of a friendship that I hope will last, and I don’t want to take advantage of Demi, but after overhearing the conversation taking place in the kitchen, there’s something I need to do. And I can’t do it alone.
“Demi, I need your help.”
“Does it involve serial killers or misogynistic Ivy Leaguers who think all women will be grateful for their attention?”
I can’t help smiling. “No.”
“Taking the puppy out for a walk?”
“That’s Amber’s remit.”
“Shopping?” Crease lines appear between her eyebrows, and I guess that shopping isn’t one of her favorite pastimes.
“No, although it will come in handy as an alibi.” My mind conjures options then I ask, “How easy do you think it will be to get information out of Enzo?”
“And I thought you were building up to something big there. Ever heard the saying ‘like taking candy from a baby’?”
Demi delivers before lunchtime.
Gio is busy in the casino with Enzo, and Amber is playing with Nikki and the dog, when Demi and I leave the apartment.
Amber is so besotted with Bella that she would skip meals if I didn’t place food in front of her, and the pale, watered-down version of my best friend has no inclination to see what New York has to offer.
I knew that Gio would never agree with me going out alone, but he can’t argue when I have the new head of security with me.
I have no idea about the kind of doors that can be opened by the Sabatelli name until we enter the swanky apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The concierge greets us with a polite smile while his brain figures out which resident we might be here to visit.
I’m instantly conscious of my faded unbranded jeans and simple cotton shirt as his eyes pretend not to notice and judge in the first few seconds of our meeting.
But Demi, complete with dark shades and a smart gray pantsuit, stands close to my side, hands behind her back, chin jutting in the classic bouncer pose of all great gangster movies.
I experience a moment of blind panic when my brain frantically trawls my memory for Bianca’s married name and comes up with D’Angelo before I make myself look foolish.
The concierge’s fingers hover above the telephone on the front desk. “Who may I say is here?”
Shit! What if she refuses to see me? Megan Walsh would be so easy to turn away, but Mrs. Sabatelli…
“Mrs. Sabatelli. Her sister-in-law.” I hope that he doesn’t hear my voice wobble.
His eyes travel to my worn sneakers and then settle on a spot somewhere behind my left shoulder while he waits for Bianca to pick up and seal my fate.
Then, he is directing us towards the penthouse elevator, and we’re moving silently up to the top floor, my ears ringing with the blood pumping around my veins.
Bianca is waiting for us when the elevator door glides open.
The resemblance to her brothers is evident at first glance.
Bianca is a striking woman, with thick dark hair, wide brown eyes fringed by jet-black lashes, and a runway model figure that makes clothes look effortlessly elegant.
But there’s a coldness behind her eyes that sets her apart from Gio and Enzo and will make what I’m about to do a whole lot easier.
“Megan.” Her gaze slides to Demi and back again; she doesn’t smile. “I’m guessing Giovanni doesn’t know that you’re here.”
“No.” I wish I sounded more forceful, but there’s something intimidating about Bianca D’Angelo that I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced from a woman before.
“Coffee?”
She turns to lead the way, but I stop her. The apartment is tastefully decorated as I expected, but I see very little to show me the kind of woman Bianca D’Angelo really is. Then I spot the suitcase standing upright at the bottom of the steps that lead down to the living area.
“No, thank you. This won’t take long.”
She stops and faces me with one perfectly groomed eyebrow raised in question.
“I know what you did,” I blurt out. “I know that you paid the Fish to get me and Amber out of Gio’s life.”
Her expression is giving nothing away. “Is that what you came here to say?” Her voice is cold too, brittle, like she snacks on ice cubes between meals.
I smile. This woman had her parents murdered; perhaps I should be afraid of her, but standing here, all I feel is pity for the emptiness in her life. She chose her lover over her children. She and I would never get along.
“I forgive you, Bianca.”
Her lips flatten into a thin line, and I don’t miss the way her hands ball into fists. “I don’t need your forgiveness.”
“I know, but it isn’t yours to control. You might have thought that you could play God with people’s lives, Bianca, but that’s in the past. I love Gio. I’m not going anywhere, so if you ever try to hurt him or my sister again, I promise that you will live to regret it.”
Bianca’s eyes grow small with the anger brewing inside her. “Are you threatening me?”
“No.” I shrug. “I don’t have the backup of mafia connections that you have, so I wouldn’t presume to threaten you.
I’m simply stating a fact. I will fight for the people I love.
Perhaps that’s where you and I are different.
” My gaze drifts back towards the suitcase.
“I hope that you find peace and happiness with Stella.”
Something shatters behind her eyes, and for one long, drawn-out moment, I think she might be about to cry. There is only one suitcase. It’s obvious that Bianca is alone in the apartment. Perhaps she has gotten what she deserved after all.
Heart pounding, I step back into the elevator. I just need to hold it together until we’re outside the building.
I face Bianca one last time as Demi presses the button for the ground floor on the control panel.
“Oh, one more thing.” I stand in the elevator doorway to prevent it from closing. Bianca hasn’t moved. “I’m pregnant with Gio’s babies. We’re having twins.”
Bianca’s face pales as the door closes and I lean against Demi for support.
“You sure told her,” Demi says. “I’m proud of you, Meggie. I know who to call if I ever need a bodyguard.”