Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
RAYNE
“It’s time, Wildcard,” Rafael says, his face breaking out into a grin.
“Stop calling me that,” I admonish him, my nerves kicking in.
For all my talk of wanting to be involved in this, I haven’t been a part of this world for a long time, and while I recall how it works, I’m not the same person I was back then.
That version of me was invincible and defiant.
Now, I feel vulnerable and unsure. Remembering who I am and where I came from, I stand, brush lint from my jeans that’s not there, roll back my shoulders and follow him out of the room with Luca behind me.
My knees tremble with every step I take along the hallway.
I have no real reason to be afraid of these men I’m about to meet.
I’ve no doubt met all of them already at some point, but I don’t know them.
However Enzo trusts them enough to reveal that I’m back, and he’ll be with me every second, so I have nothing to fear.
Still doesn’t stop my legs shaking though.
Luca and Rafael flank either side of me, but it no longer feels like they’re my prison guards anymore, but my allies.
Luca catches my eye and winks, while Rafael gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
And I’m taken back to a time when these men were like my brothers. It’s bittersweet.
Rafael goes to open the door, but I ask him not to, wanting to walk in there under my own steam. Steeling myself, I turn the handle and push. The door feels heavier today, somehow. Or maybe it’s just my hand that’s heavy, my pulse racing loud enough to drown out the voices on the other side.
I push through anyway, and then I’m standing in Enzo’s dining room, surrounded by powerful men.
The room grows silent in that way it does when something impossible happens.
Micah is leaning against the window, silent and observing like he’s not a part of whatever meeting is happening.
There are two men on the opposite side of the room, leaning against the wall like they’re not part of the proceedings either.
I suspect they’re the personal bodyguards of two of the family heads.
Enzo told me two are loyal to him and considered good friends, so I imagine they’re here with the two who are less comfortable with a personal invite to Enzo Medici’s penthouse.
The four men sitting around the table stare at me like they’ve seen a ghost. I watch as recognition hits each of them in turn, like dominoes falling in slow motion—confusion, then disbelief.
“Is that—” someone starts and doesn’t finish.
My knees want to buckle, but I refuse to let them. Enzo is standing at the far end of the room, his dark eyes on mine and a look of pride on his face. I force myself to walk the length of the table, past all sets of eyes staring at me, like I’ve walked it a hundred times before.
I reach Enzo and he gives me a quick kiss on my cheek. Even though I shouldn’t need it, it empowers me. “Gentlemen, I’m sure you all remember my fiancée, Rayne.”
Fiancée? I don’t correct him because this isn’t the time. The men nod, their mouths agape as Enzo introduces them to me by name.
“Rayne Ellis!” Rocky declares, and now I remember him from a few parties we attended together. He was always nice to me. “What the hell are you doing back here?”
“It’s a long story,” I say.
My hands are trembling at my sides, so I lace my fingers together so none of them see.
“What the hell is this about, Enzo?” Gian asks, still gaping at me like I’m an exhibit at a zoo.
“Six years ago, Carmine and my father made me believe that Rayne and Tommy Fiorelli had betrayed me in the worst possible way. It was all a fucking lie. A lie orchestrated by Carmine to secure my loyalty.”
“So she’s not a whore who fucked your best friend then, like the story goes?” The voice comes from nowhere, almost sounding disembodied. Every head in the room spins to face the sound, finding one of the bodyguards looking decidedly sheepish.
He holds his hands up in surrender, like he’s aware he just earned himself a punch in the mouth—or worse.
But even I know what he did was an enormous sign of disrespect.
I see movement from Enzo out of the corner of my eye and before I can register what’s happening, there’s the sound of a gunshot.
The man slumps down the wall, a perfectly circular bullet hole between his eyes.
“Anyone else want to insult my girl?” he asks, voice dripping with menace.
They all shake their heads, but none seem overly perturbed by the fact that Enzo just killed a guy for calling me a whore.
I’m staring at him in shock, but he’s glaring at someone else. “Did you know he was a spy for the don, Gian?” he asks on a snarl.
Gian glances over his shoulder at the dead body, regarding it with disdain. “Of course I didn’t. Had I been aware I wouldn’t have brought him here.”
What the hell is going on? “How do you know he was a spy?”
It’s Micah who answers. “Every single thing about him since he got here.”
I glance between Enzo and the dead man. “But you didn’t know he was a spy.”
He walks over to the dead body, reaches into the inside pocket of his suit, and pulls out a cell phone before tossing it onto the table. “He’s been recording the entire conversation.”
Gian mutters a curse in Italian.
Enzo comes back to stand beside me, his hand on the small of my back. “But I would have let him live for that. I killed him because he insulted you.”
My throat tightens. Six years of being alone and convincing myself I didn’t need anyone to stand up for me, least of all this man standing in front of me, and yet something inside me cracks open at his, frankly unhinged, display of protectiveness.
I look at him for a long moment. While the anxiety is still there, sitting low in my stomach where it’s been since I walked into this room, there’s something stronger now. The certainty that I’m not as alone in this world as I’d thought.
I turn back to the table, to the men still staring at me, waiting for some kind of explanation. I won’t tell them the whole story, but I will tell them what they need to hear.
“I came back here for retribution too. What Carmine took from me can never be replaced, what he did can never be undone. But I will look him in the eye before he takes his final breath and let him know I’m responsible for paving his way to hell.”
Enzo stands at my shoulder, like he intends to stay there forever, and for the first time since I opened the door, the shaking in my hands and my knees stop completely.