43. Chapter Forty-Three
ANNA
Matt was … well, he was everything she’d ever dreamed in a lover and more. Passionate. Generous. Extremely skilled. She pushed away thoughts of how he’d become so skilled and concentrated instead on how she’d reaped the benefits.
They made love twice more before another type of hunger made itself known. Sexually sated and blissfully sore, they ate their candlelight dinner right there on the deck, wrapped loosely in blankets. After the intense heat of their bodies coming together, the cool breeze coming off the surface of the water felt good.
“Can I ask you something?” she said, focusing on the buttery roll she was pulling apart with her fingers.
“Of course.”
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry?”
She shifted, repositioning her legs. “What changed? Since that night at the hospital, you haven’t spoken two words to me. Now”—she waved her arm to encompass the boat—“you do all this. Not that I don’t like it—because I do. I just want to know why.”
“Because I’ve decided to stay in Pine Ridge.”
“You weren’t going to before?”
He shook his head, seemed to think about something for long moments, then said, “I’ve been in the service for the past ten years. For the last four, I’ve been in a highly classified division of special forces. I was on assignment in Central America. I nearly didn’t make it back.”
Anna’s eyes went to his side, where she’d seen the bloody bandage, finding only a scar there now. She hadn’t even thought about it while they were having sex. She’d been too busy focusing on other things.
“Yes,” he said, guessing her thoughts. “I was very lucky. When I made it back onto US soil, my direct superiors made me an offer. A promotion, if you will. If I accepted—which I planned to do—I had to give up everything. I had six months to tie up any loose ends and say goodbye to my family. Without them knowing, of course. I knew it was going to be hard, but it was what I wanted. Or thought I did.”
Anna sucked in a breath. She knew exactly how hard it was to leave one life behind for another. The difference was, Matt had a good life and a family who loved him.
“What changed?” she asked again. Same question, different context.
“I realized a lot of things weren’t what they appeared to be. Including you.”
Anna kept her expression calm when she said, “You thought I was taking advantage of Mrs. Campbell.”
“I considered it as a possibility at first, before I met you,” Matt admitted. “But once I did, I knew you didn’t have it in you.”
You’d be surprised what I’m capable of, Anna thought.
And just like that, all the bliss popped like a balloon that had risen too high. Because she was, truly, not what she appeared to be. Matt might have decided to stay in Pine Ridge, but she would have to leave eventually, when her service to Mrs. Campbell was completed. She had to keep moving. Had to keep living this life she had created for herself.
But it was a half-life. Yes, she was alive. Yes, she was providing care and service to others. But that was survival, not happiness. She couldn’t have that, unless …
She looked at Matt. At his coppery-bronze hair, mussed and windblown, shining in the silvery moonlight and the golden light of the lanterns. At his softly glowing gray eyes in his beautiful face. His broad shoulders and his gorgeous physique, lean and muscular and capable of making her body sing arias in their entirety.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered.
“Can’t do what?”
“This. With you.”
She began to close the containers of food and shove them back into the baskets. His hands stopped her, wrapping around her wrists with a gentle but firm grip.
“Why not?”
Anna felt as if she were being torn in two. Self-preservation warred with desire.
“Tell me, Anna,” he commanded softly. “Tell me why we can’t do this.”
He said we, not you. Dare she tell him the truth? Wouldn’t she want to know the reason he chose to walk away if their positions were reversed?
“I’m not … I’m not who you think I am.”
His lips curled into a gentle smile. “I know exactly who you are.”
“No, you really don’t.”
Anna pulled away, and this time, he let her. She stood up and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. She needed space between them if she was going to tell him this. Thankfully, Matt remained where he was, his eyes following her like a hawk.
“The truth might put you in danger.”
Another smile, this one more along the lines of a smirk. “Did you miss the part when I told you I was in a highly classified division of special forces?”
Right. She took a deep breath. “My name isn’t Anna Black. It’s Giovanna Sofia Francesca Bianchi.”
Except for a slight raise of a brow, his expression didn’t change. Clearly, the name meant nothing to him. She supposed that was a good thing, but it made explaining things more difficult.
“My father was the don of the Bianchi family in Chicago. And by family, I mean the mob. Mafia. La Mala.”
The brow raised a little higher, but his eyes were more curious than judgmental.
“My father inherited the position from his father. At one time, we were a very powerful family, but my father grew overconfident and complacent, and another family began to chip away at his hold on the city, until they held most of the cards. In a last-ditch effort to retain some of his empire, my father proposed a marriage to unite the families. His only daughter to their oldest son. They agreed, and I was suddenly engaged. I didn’t even know about it until I was shoved in a limo and taken to a bridal salon to be fitted for my wedding dress.”
“I can see where you might have a problem with that,” Matt murmured.
“Oh, I definitely had a problem with that, but I was also the daughter of a Mafia don. I had no more say in my life than my mother did. Not what I wore, not where I went to school, not what I did or who my friends were. My entire life was decided for me.”
She was babbling on, sharing too much information, but once she started, she found she couldn’t stop.
“My brother didn’t have much control over his life either, but in a different way. He was the heir apparent, destined to take my father’s place someday, and so he was trained and given privileges reserved for only the most trusted members of the family.
“The thing was, my brother didn’t want to become the next don any more than I wanted to be some prince’s bride. Unlike my father, my brother had a clear vision of what was happening. He could see things crumbling down around us. He knew that my wedding was nothing more than throwing a sacrificial virgin into a volcano that was already erupting. So, he did the only thing he could do to save the two of us. He started a war.”
She paused, giving that a moment to sink in. Matt continued to watch her pace back and forth, back and forth. His brows were lower now, as if he was concerned, but not shaken. She kept going.
“He’s smart, my brother. He fired the first shot, so to speak, and then sat back, knowing my father would be blamed and wouldn’t be able to stop the blowback that was certain to come our way.
“The night they came for my family, my brother and I escaped, though we made it look as if we’d been taken. We went our separate ways shortly after, knowing it was safer for us both that way. I don’t know where he went. I roamed around, working odd jobs under the table, staying out of sight, until I was able to get a new ID. That was when Anna Black was created.”
Matt wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t look shocked. He didn’t look angry or hurt. She had to make him understand.
“So, you see, I can’t stay in one place for any length of time. If the other family discovers my brother and I are alive, they’ll come for us, and they’ll stop at nothing. No one around us would be safe.”
Matt remained silent. She could see his mind working.
Finally, he said, “Did Manny Falco discover the truth? Is that why he kidnapped you?”
She felt a small measure of relief that he’d asked a question she could answer. She nodded. “Yes. He was a beat cop in Chicago when everything went down, and he recognized me. He was going to sell me back to the family that had wiped out mine.” She huffed a humorless laugh. “He wasn’t very bright if he thought he could extort the mob. They would have made a deal, taken me, and given him a double-tap in the back of his head as payment.”
She stilled as Matt’s words echoed in the back of her mind. “It’s the strangest thing. Apparently, he stole a vehicle from the DOC and drove off the road and right into the Tawannock River.”
“But you ended up doing that anyway, didn’t you?”
Matt shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “He hurt you.”
He hurt you. A warm feeling wrapped around her. Through her.
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
“No,” she whispered. And it didn’t. It made her feel cherished and safe and protected.
If she was a normal human being, the idea that Matt had killed a man on her behalf would have raised a lot of red flags, but she wasn’t normal. She’d grown up in a family for whom killing was an everyday part of life. Hell, her brother had killed a man and basically engineered the annihilation of their horrible family, and she couldn’t love him more for it.
She didn’t realize she was crying until Matt was wiping the tears away. “Don’t cry, Anna. I don’t care who you were or where you came from. The only thing I care about is who you are now. You’re safe with me, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you stay that way.”
She believed him. His words resonated like the ring of fine crystal amid a sea of white noise. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m falling in love with you,” he said, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Do you remember when I told you about croies?”
She nodded.
“My heart tells me that you are mine.”
She felt as if she were dreaming. That the whole night had been some sort of fantasy her mind had conjured. Matt’s attention. The most romantic date ever. Incredible sex. Someone who knew her true identity, her past baggage, and still wanted her.
“There is one thing though,” he said.
Immediately, those dreamy feelings began to retract. “What?”
“The thing with croies is, it has to work both ways to be legit. So, I have to ask, what is your heart telling you?”
She grinned so wide that she thought her face might split, and she didn’t care if it did.
“It tells me, Matt O’Connell, that you are mine as well.”