41
Logan
“We’re at the Astley warehouse. See you there.”
I stare at the text message as Everest pulls into the abandoned lot. I can tell Damien doesn’t know what I’m planning. Well, I guess he must know enough to have lured Carmelo out here. But he has no idea his own life is about to end.
As is mine.
Lia spent the rest of the flight cradling Aurora in her arms. It’s as if she believes these are her last moments with her daughter. I don’t want her to feel that way. I need to make sure both of them live. I’m just not sure how to manage that.
I fall into step with Everest as Lia, carrying Aurora, and Dolores, walk behind us. “If anything happens to me tonight,” I whisper to him, “I need you to make sure they’re safe. Okay? I haven’t told anyone this. But I bought a place in Oregon. A safe house. You’ll bring them there.”
He stares at me. “Why would anything happen to you? Carmelo’s in there alone with Damien. There’s no way to fuck it up.”
Sometimes, his innocence astounds me. “Yeah. Just saying.”
“Okay, man. No worries.”
He goes back to texting on his phone, completely unconcerned as we enter the warehouse.
“Lia.” I wait for my girl to catch up, then wrap an arm around her waist. “You’re going to wait for me right here, okay? Everest will look out for you. I’m just going to deal with… something, and I’ll be right back.”
I lead them all to a small room on the opposite side of the place I know Damien and Carmelo are waiting for me.
Lia’s not half as naive as Everest, though.
“No, no, no. I want to stay with you, Logan.”
“Shh. It’s okay. I’ll be right back.” I press a kiss to her lips.
“Do you promise?”
I pause, then kiss her again. “If it’s at all earthly possible, I’ll come back to you.”
“No.” She shakes her head, refusing to enter the room. “I won’t leave you.”
“I love you so much.” My words come out thick. “I’ve loved you from the moment I set eyes on you in first grade, and I never stopped. I never will stop. I promise you that.”
She lets out a choked sob.
“Stay here with Aurora,” I beg her. “Aurora needs you. Please.”
Those last words convince her. She nods slowly. “Please come back to me, Logan.”
I kiss the curls that frame Aurora’s sweet, sleeping face, then press my lips to Lia’s one last time.
“I love you, ghost girl.”
As I cross the warehouse, I glance back one last time.
Dolores is standing on the other side of the room, her face drawn and worried.
Everest looks at me, his expression telling me that the situation is at last starting to sink in.
Aurora is sleeping in Lia’s arms, whose cheeks are glistening with tears.
There are no sharp edges to her anymore. Only love. Pure love.
I turn around, my heart breaking, and enter the room I once shackled my little captive in. Damien is busy talking to Carmelo, who looks as cruel and stupid as ever.
“Ehi, Logan,” he greets me, his beady eyes taking me in suspiciously. “Finally brought back the puttana?”
“Uh huh.”
I turn toward Damien, whose initial undisguised happiness at seeing me for the first time in two years quickly clouds over. He knows me well after all. Just as much of a mindreader as ever. I wonder what it would take for him to lift the gun he’s got in his right hand to my head.
Guess I’m about to find out.
He doesn’t let his voice betray his thoughts though, instead saying, “Carmelo accepted all our conditions. He’s here alone, and just wants the girl back. I told him he could trust that you’d bring her.”
I nod. “She’s in the other room.”
Carmelo’s eyes glint furiously, but he must imagine the smirk on his lips successfully conceals his anger. “She is my wife, and I should have you torn apart by my dogs. But maybe I won’t. Maybe I have my own conditions.”
This guy really is the village idiot. He clearly doesn’t suspect he’s in danger. He expects that as boss, he’s untouchable. But he’s too smug, too stupid to realize the family’s not loyal to him. He’s not respected like his father. And Coltello’s turned a whole lot of associates against him.
Coltello’s stupid in his own way, though, showing up with just a gun to protect himself. I guess he figured I was rational. Who in their right mind would kill the guy who’s offering you protection and a family and handing over the only proof that your girl’s been raped?
The thing is, I’m not right in the head. I don’t care what he was offering me. He saw that tape—he’s dead.
“What are your conditions?” drawls Damien.
“Well, you know, you’re my fratello,” Carmelo tells me, and this time, his smile does reach his eyes. “I won’t let some puttana get in the way of our brotherhood. Join me, and you’ll get a pass. We’ll forget about it. Okay, man?”
Maybe he’s not as stupid as he looks. At least, he does realize that his men aren’t loyal. He knows that if he doesn’t get some good soldiers on his side, he’s not going to be holding on to power for much longer.
“The problem,” I say, my hand twitching around the weapon at my side, “is that I’ve found out some things, during my two years away.”
“Oh yeah?” He crosses his arms, regarding me shrewdly. “What kind of things?”
“Things like…” I grit my teeth, forcing the words out. “She was forced into marriage with you after you raped her. And you filmed it. Didn’t you?”
I spare a glance at Damien, who doesn’t look surprised.
But he does take a step back, disappearing from Carmelo’s line of sight, cocking his gun up and pointing it at the bastard.
It hurts, how much he has my back. He wouldn’t hesitate to take him out, no matter the consequences. Just because it’s what I want.
So why the hell didn’t he tell me?
“We-e-ell…” Carmelo chuckles, not taking me seriously. “Those are some big words. It’s not like she fought—that much. Maybe I did give her some shit to loosen her up. So what? Who cares about some puttana? Do you?” He eyes me quizzically, as if daring me to admit that I do.
But I’m not like him. I’m not like any of them, because I’m proud to love her, and if that makes me weak, well, then, so be it.
“I do care. I care a whole lot.”
Then I whip my gun up, angling it at his head.
“Woah, woah!” His chuckle grows nervous, but he’s still not taking me entirely seriously. “What’s it to you, man? She’s my wife!”
“But she’s my girl.”
He opens his mouth to protest again, but before he can, I pull the trigger.
He falls to the ground in a thundering crash, his last chuckle dying in his throat.
“Well, that was quick.” Damien nudges the lifeless body. “I wasn’t expecting it to happen so smoothly. Maybe we will live through the night, huh?”
Then he turns to me, his eyes flickering with pain as they take in the gun that I’m now pointing at him. Though he doesn’t look all that surprised. “Well, you will, at least.”
“Damien.” My voice is heavy with everything I can’t say. “Why did you do it?”
“Why did I do what?” He pauses. “No, don’t answer. I know. I knew the second you walked in. Go on, pull the trigger, man. It’s fine. I can’t think of a better way to die than at your hands.”
His own voice comes out choked, and it’s hard to keep the gun pointing at him when all I want to do is hug him. Hug him, and ask him to fix it, the way he always does.
But he can’t fix it. That illusion has shattered. He can’t fix it, because he’s the one who fucked it up.
“I wish you had told me, Damien. I just wish you had.”
He nods. “I get that. I did try to warn you, though, didn’t I?”
I think back to the conversation in the car. “She denied it. She told me it wasn’t true. That he’d never done that to her.”
“Yeah.” He lets out a sigh. “Well, I guess that figures. She loves you, and her dad is all about that purity shit, you know? I’ve been in the family long enough to know him.
You’ve always done your best to avoid anything and anyone related to her, but I’ve worked with the bastard and I understand him.
I’m not surprised his daughter shares some of his ideas.
It’s pretty obvious to me she’s always loved you, no matter how much of a—well, you know—she was to you.
It was obvious to everyone, except maybe to the two of you.
You sure wasted a lot of time, didn’t you? ”
Yes. So much time. And now, it’s too late.
Bitterness twists at my heart, and I open my mouth to speak, but he continues, his eyes averted from me.
“You know, her dad said… well, he didn’t exactly say it.
But like I said, I understand him. I understand that apart from him, she had no one.
And honestly, I’d rather take no one over him.
He’s capable of a whole lot worse than forcing her to marry her rapist. I guess she got off easy in a way.
She must have grown up terrified and alone.
She probably never even realized how terrified and alone she was.
Maybe that’s why she acted the way she did.
She was protecting herself, you know? And you were that way too—terrified and alone, I mean.
I saw it in your eyes the moment we met in first grade.
I tried to be family to you, Logan, I really did.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about all that these past two years. About her, about you…”
“You were family.” My throat tightens. “You are family, Damien. My only family. I’m a lot luckier than Lia.”
He nods sadly. “Family who makes your girl eat garbage.”
“Well…” Why the hell am I trying to cheer up the guy I’m about to kill? “You didn’t actually make her eat garbage. You only stuffed her face in it.”
“Right.” He chuckles softly. “Maybe you should’ve killed me right then and there. You probably wouldn’t have suffered so much after.”
I shake my head. “I just wish you had told me, Damien.”
“I did try to warn you. Carmelo told me about the tape. I wasn’t able to get it from him. But I did watch it. Not all of it—just enough to understand what happened. But I had a feeling I wasn’t going to live long after that.”
I pause, my hand on the trigger, trying to digest this new, painful information.