Chapter 28
JUDE
With the tour wrapped and the band on two weeks of leave, I had nothing but an ocean of regret and time.
That night after I received the coordinates, I climbed into one of my cars, a black nondescript Dodge Ram I’d never driven with Sofia.
It’d help in case she recognized my other vehicle and bolted before I had a chance to assess the situation and speak to her.
I drove down to Sofia’s work address Amos gave me, parking the truck beneath the shadow of a rusted water tower across the street from the depot.
Through the cracked windshield, I spotted her at midnight.
Sofia stepped off a bus wearing an old, oversized cardigan and linen-cleaner uniform pants.
Her chin was tucked down as she walked toward the terminal administrative block.
My heart squeezed as I took her in; she appeared small and exhausted.
Yet her posture remained stiff with fierce dignity.
The depot sat nestled in a treeless, industrialized pocket on the ragged edge of town, surrounded by rusted chain-link fences, gravel lots, and the skeletal structures of abandoned warehouses.
From my vantage point, I spotted three off-duty coach drivers lounging near the brick entrance on their break.
Their eyes locked onto Sofia the second she walked past.
They checked her out, and a couple of crude catcalls drifted across the lot.
Every muscle in my body coiled tight as a hard, violent heat flooded my veins.
I wanted to rip those bastards’ throats out for even glancing at my wife.
Then her manager stepped out of the dispatch office.
The man’s posture was aggressive as he barked a series of terse, biting orders at her with an unnecessary, bullying air of authority.
Sofia just nodded, her shoulders rigid, absorbing the hostility without a word.
I longed to tear out of the vehicle, cross that street, and put both the drivers and her boss through the nearest brick wall.
I was dying to intervene, to remind every man on that lot who she belonged to, but I held back, even if the restraint ripped me apart.
She had no clue yet I was there, and my first approach to her could not threaten her job.
Sofia emerged once more, pushing an industrial mop across the grease-stained floor.
I sat in the shadowed cab, eyes on her as she lugged equipment and cleaned up.
Acting as her sentinel, I kept my eyes pinned on the glowing yellow lights of the open depot bays while my mind wrestled with how to reclaim what was mine.
First things first, her fuckin’ boss.
At dawn, when she got on the bus to return to her shelter after her shift, I stepped out of my ride and crossed the road.
I headed towards the manager’s drab office.
I skipped knocking, kicking the door open, the edge bouncing off the walls as I prowled into his space.
A brass nameplate on the clutter of the desk read Arthur Miller.
‘Who the hell are you?’ he sniped.
Up close, Miller was a greasy slug with a coward’s sneer plastered across his slick face.
‘Sofia Antonelli? She work for you?’
He nodded.
I stalked around his worktable.
‘The hell?’
His eyes dilated, and he scrambled back in his chair.
I grabbed the lapels of his cheap shirt, hauling him out of his seat to slam him into the wall.
‘She’s my wife.’
His eyes watered at the unadulterated menace in my growl.
‘I’ve done nothing -.’
‘You listen to me,’ I rumbled. ‘You raise your voice to her again, you bully her, or you speak down to her one more time, and I will end you. Same goes to your useless crew, they treat her with any less respect than they would a Queen, their asses are mine. Hear?’
I shoved my fists down, wrapping my fingers around his right hand and squeezing the bones together with crushing force.
Miller shrieked, his face blanched like curdled milk as the joints popped beneath my grip.
I held him at the edge of agony for three seconds, letting him wallow in terror, then threw him back into his chair.
Miller scrambled back, clutching his throbbing hand to his chest, gasping for air while I stared him down with cold eyes.
‘Understand me, Miller?’ I growled.
He nodded, his jaw trembling.
I turned my back on him, prowled out of the office, climbed back into the black Ram, and drove to her shelter.
I caught up to her bus and followed it all the way to the shelter, pulling into an alleyway when it got to her stop.
I tracked her as she trudged into the lobby of the refuge.
I killed my engine, stepped out of the cab, and prowled straight into the foyer.
It was empty apart from her.
Sofia stood by the sign-in desk, handing over cash to a person in a security room behind reception, which I assumed was for her rent.
She slid it into the mail slot, then froze as my shadow cut across the counter.
Her eyes turned to me in shock, and our eyes locked.
‘Babe.’
I stared at her, drinking her up, heart aching so much for her.
Even with exhaustion bruising the skin beneath her eyes and her thick hair pulled into a hasty knot, she took my breath away.
The certainty hit me like a physical blow: I was in love with this woman.
I was also on the brink of losing her forever if I didn’t get my shit right.
‘Babe,’ I repeated in a rough rasp. ‘I got to the truth, and you weren’t lying to me.
I’m fuckin’ sorry for not believing you.
I went to Milan; the club Ignazio claimed you stripped at got shut down years ago.
Bishop’s tech contact also ran the pixel layers on those prints.
They’re computer-generated. You’re innocent, and I’m the fool who let my temper and my demons close my eyes to the truth. ’
She stared back at me, without saying a word.
I showed her my finger, forcing her gaze to the black-and-gold band on my finger, then to her diamond hanging off my neck.
‘Babe, I’m wearing both your rings. You belong to me, and I to you.’
I took a breath and took my shot.
‘I love you, Sofia.’
She blinked and tilted her head.
‘Where was that love when I told you the truth, and you threw it in my face?’ she murmured.
Damn.
With a sigh, I reached into my leather jacket, pulled out a thick manila envelope stuffed with ten thousand dollars in cash, and dropped it onto the counter.
‘Take this. It’s a fraction of what I owe you for the hell I put you through.’
She scoffed.
With a pursing of her lips, she picked up the envelope with two fingers, turned, and shoved it straight through the narrow metal slot of the shelter’s donation bin.
The thick package hit the bottom with a hollow thud.
She turned to leave, and I grabbed her wrist before she could retreat, my grip firm, yet careful not to hurt her.
‘Hey, don’t walk away from me, babe. Listen to me.’
‘This man bothering you, Sofia?’
I whirled around to see a gruff, muscled woman in ripped black denim standing in the foyer, arms crossed over her chest.
Her frame radiated a martial arts background from her short-cropped blonde hair to her fighting stance.
‘Hey, Linda,’ Sofia said, as she shot me a cold, warning look.
‘No, he’s-.’
She hesitated, drawing a slow breath. ‘He’s an acquaintance.’
A shard of agony sliced through my chest.
An acquaintance?
I clenched my jaw and cursed under my breath.
Linda studied my ink and my solid build, recognizing the volatile energy in the room.
She grunted, backing toward the glass exit.
‘I’m in the security hut. He gives you any trouble, I’ll be out there in seconds to kick his ass.’
The door clicked behind her.
I turned back to Sofia, my hands dropping to her waist.
A lesser soul would have dropped to his knees, but I wasn’t a beggar; I was a man willing to burn the world down to fix his mistakes.
‘Look at me, babe,’ I rasped. ‘Punish me. Make me pay back every single second of pain I caused you, but do not close the door on us. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if I have to. I’m a dead man without you.’
Sofia’s expression remained unyielding, though a tiny muscle twitched in her jaw.
‘No one else can fill the silence you left behind, and no one can match your energy. You’re locked into my heart, and I can’t let you go. You belong in my bed, not hiding in a dump like this. I’m in love with you, and I’m not leaving without you.’
With a cold calmness, she reached down, peeled my fingers off her waist, and walked past me.
She stepped around me, pushing through the security door into the residential wing.
The latch clicked shut behind her.
I stood in the dead silence of the empty lobby, my fists clenched at my sides.
Fuck.
I’d need to do a whole lot more than confess my love to undo the ruin of my own making.