Chapter 38
MICHAEL
“Thank you for stopping by.” Patrick walks us toward the door, and I can’t wait to get home to Elsie and my daughter.
Just as my father and Gio make it outside, Patrick calls me over for a private chat. When I step up to him, his eyes scatter behind me as though wanting to make sure no one hears what he plans to say.
“Are you sure about this, Michael? It’s family, after all.”
I nod once. “Sometimes family doesn’t mean a damn thing, and sometimes we’d do everything to protect them.”
“If you’re sure…” He flips his fingers in the air. “There’s no going back once you pull the trigger.”
“I’ll do what must be done.”
“Well, I, for one, think you’re doing the right thing.”
Just as I’m about to go, my cell rings. I immediately get it and I find Elsie’s name on the screen.
My lips jerk with a smile I can’t seem to keep to myself.
“Marriage looks good on you,” Patrick says, his mouth thinning.
“I know,” I toss out as I press a button. “Hey, ba—”
“Michael,” she sobs, and my pulse jumps to my throat. “Oh, God…they came for us.”
I can hear Sophia sobbing, and my heart…I never knew it could feel this much pain. My vision clouds, my throat constricting.
“Elsie?” My feet are moving out the door on autopilot. “Who came? I’m on my way. Fuck!”
There’s a buzzing in my ears, like something just exploded in my head.
Patrick’s right beside me as I yank at the collar of my shirt.
“Men with guns. They tied us up. They said they wanted us alive. I shot them. One is still alive. I—I…please hurry.” She sniffles. “The police are on their way.”
“I’m going to find out who did this, baby. And I’m going to make them pay.”
All she does is cry harder.
“Someone came for your family?” Patrick asks with concern in his thick, gray brows.
I nod, listening as she tells me more of what transpired while I was here, leaving them helpless.
“They tied up my fucking daughter. My wife,” I grit.
My fingers curl with undulated rage, my heart slamming in my rib cage. How the fuck did they take out my men? How many were there? And who sent them? I will gut the one still standing until he squeals like a pig.
“Take my sons with you.” Patrick waves them over, and they come. “We’re family now.” He claps my shoulder, his stare intense.
“I won’t forget this,” I tell him as I rush for the SUV still outside, Gio and my father already inside.
I need to get on that plane right now before more people come for my girls.
I get in next to Gio and slam the door shut, tightening the phone still in my grasp. “Elsie, listen to me carefully. There are car keys in the bar room. Right under the lion statue. Take them. They’re for the blue SUV.”
“Where are we supposed to go?”
“To a safe house.” I shoot off the address. “Repeat it for me.”
She does.
Dad turns from the passenger side and looks curiously at me.
“I’m going to bring you two home, but not until I find out if it’s safe for you to return.”
“Hurry. We need you,” she gasps on a breath.
“I need you too, baby. Both of you.”
“Hurry back.”
“I’m coming home, baby.”
Then the call goes dead.
“What happened?” my father implores.
Suddenly, his phone goes off too, just as I was about to tell him.
“Yeah?” he shoots off as he stares at me with concentration. “When?” His jaw pulses. “What did it say?” He inhales, nostrils flaring. “We’re going to kill him.”
Gio and I look to one another in confusion.
“Send me a photo of it.” Then he disconnects the call, passing the phone to me. “One of our new restaurants just had a fire.” His tone seeps with vitriol. “Guess who left a note?”
My brows furrow as I drop my gaze to the screen, and as I enlarge the photo, I find the note he’s talking about.
My entire body stiffens, and I clench a tight fist.
“What does it say?” Gio asks from the passenger side.
“Until we meet again, brother.”
“Fuck,” he mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.
And I instantly know, if he’s involved with what happened to my girls, this will end today.
He’s crossed the line.
“It’s time we come face-to-face with our brother and settle this once and for all.”
“Who sent you?” I pummel a fist into the man’s face as blood seeps from his mouth.
Elsie did good shooting him, keeping him alive for me. As soon as I found out she called the police, I called my contact at the precinct and told them not to show up, that I had it sorted. He obliged. He always does. He runs the precinct.
“I…” The bastard before me coughs harshly, his breathing labored. “Don’t…know.”
“Liar.”
I lower to him, my teeth clenched, and I bash my forehead into his. I barely register the pain as he screams.
“I’ll kill you slow. I’ll cut you into a million fucking pieces…” I grab a fistful of his hair and yank. “…if you don’t give me a damn name.”
“He’ll k-k-kill my family.”
“Not if I kill them first.” My features turn animalistic. I can feel it without even seeing myself in the mirror.
It’s just me and him here. My brother and father went to check on Elsie and Sophia.
“I’m done playing games. You came after mine, and I’ll come after yours.”
I step back, grabbing the knife on the ground beside his feet. When I level it to his throat, his chest fights for the air he’s about to lose.
“If you don’t talk now, I’ll come after everyone you love. Your children. Your parents. Your wife. Everyone will die because of you. So, tell me…” I edge the tip of the blade into his throat, cutting him clean, but just on the surface. “Who hurt my family?”
His mouth starts to move, fear trickling in his dark eyes as he looks at me.
“Speak up!” I bend my ear closer, until I can almost make out a name.
“It’s…” he stammers.
But once he gives it to me, that’s when my world turns upside down. I wanted to believe he’d never stoop this low, that he could never hurt Sophia. But I was wrong.
I straighten, the knife still grasped in my palm when I lift it up and pierce his neck hard, turning the blade until the very last breath leaves his lungs.
With a bloodied hand, I retrieve my cell and make the call I can finally make. It rings once before his voice comes on.
“Yeah?”
“It’s happening. In three hours from now, we’re taking him out. Get back to the house and get everyone ready.”
There’s a long pause, but finally, he speaks.
“We’ve been ready. See you soon.”
The next thing I know, I’m in my car, heading for the safe house, because I need to see them before I go off fighting, not knowing if I’ll return.
“Daddy!” Sophia rushes for me.
I drop to my knees, emotions gripping the back of my throat as I hold her tight, taking in a long breath, never wanting to let her go. My baby could’ve died. I could’ve lost everything that mattered to me.
“Daddy is sorry.” My voice throbs with an ache. “I’ll never leave you alone again.”
She pulls back, her tiny hand engulfing my cheek. “It’s okay, Daddy. It’s not your fault. They were bad people.” Her chin quivers. “But Elsie…she saved me.”
I shut the door behind me, lifting her up in my arms and marching out of the foyer, needing to see my wife for myself to make sure she’s okay too. This place isn’t as big as my home, but it’s big enough to navigate.
“Where’s Elsie, princess?”
“She’s with the doctor on the couch.”
I freeze, gazing up at her. “Why does she need a doctor, baby?”
“The bad men shot her arm, and…”
I don’t hear the rest as I rush for the living room. And that’s when I see her…
My pulse thrashes, my entire body growing ice cold.
“What happened?” I ask the doctor, dropping Sophia to her feet, and she rushes toward Gio.
The doctor peers over at me, wrapping gauze around her upper arm.
“I’m fine.” She forces a smile, but it doesn’t last. She winces as the doctor finishes.
“How bad is it?” I ask Simon, our personal doctor.
“It’s a graze. She got lucky. She’ll be fine.” He starts to collect his things.
“Fuck,” I grumble under my breath.
Fine? She’s not fine. She could’ve died, and it’s all my fucking fault.
I should’ve sent her to her parents. She would’ve been safe. Why did I think I could ever give her the kind of life she deserves? I can’t even keep my own daughter safe.
And I can’t keep Elsie safe either.
ELSIE
“We have to talk,” he tells me, and I sense the tension gripping the timbre of his tone.
He paces in the now-empty safe house, while dread bathes me with goose bumps clinging to my skin. Whatever he wants to say, I know I won’t like the sound of it.
I’m glad no one is here to hear it. Gio and their father took Sophia back home. She barely wanted to let me go, but I convinced her I’d see her soon, and reluctantly she left with them. I was so close to losing that little girl who’s become mine. My God, the very thought…
My stomach churns when I see her dead body before my eyes.
That’s the panic talking. The fear. She’s okay. She’s safe. I am too.
I stride to Michael and take his hand in mine, stilling him in place.
“What is it? Just say it,” I implore, begging him to look at me, my heart thumping with a beat too loud to contain.
His knuckles slowly climb to my face and softly brush down my cheek. The look in his eyes spills with glaring intensity, as though he’s already saying goodbye. My gut bottoms out. Because whatever he’s about to say, it’s going to destroy me.
His breath is long and deep. “I’m falling for you, Elsie. Falling hard and fast, and there’s not a damn thing I want more in this world than you. But I can’t…” He pauses.
I gasp, my lips trembling with words that won’t come, with tears that won’t spill. This is goodbye, and my heart’s already breaking.
“I won’t watch you die, knowing I could’ve stopped it from happening.” He rolls his hand around to my nape, gripping with power, with want.
My heart races as he pins me with a striking gaze.
“Do you see the kind of life I lead? What happened to Bianca?”
He shakes his head, pain threading through the turn of his words.
“What almost happened to you? I would die before I let that happen,” he whispers, dropping his forehead against mine, hands cupping my neck, his warm breath searing me in my ever-growing demise. “You’re better off without me.”
Every word from his lips carves into the marrow of my bones.
It hurts.
This hurts.
“No…” I back away with a cry. “I won’t go.” My chin rises even as my fingers tremble. “I’m not leaving.”
His demeanor shifts and hardens. “This isn’t a choice. Your bags have already been packed, and they’re waiting for you on the plane.” He backs away completely. “You will go, and you will forget me.”
“No, Michael!” I shout. “You can’t do this to us. To her. You’re breaking us before we’ve even had a chance.”
I rush up to him, taking his hand, my heartbeats flailing in my chest.
“Please, don’t do this. We can be a family,” I stammer past the anguish seeping into my heart, and for the first time, I beg a man for something.
And I would do it again.
His eyes drift shut, and his chest widens with a long inhale.
“I want that too, but…” He snaps a gaze at me, and it’s cold. Ruthless. “It’ll never happen.”
He picks up the cell he gave me from the sofa and hands it to me. And when he whistles, two men suddenly appear, marching toward me.
“No.” I shake my head on a whimpered cry.
But he starts to go, giving me a look over his shoulder, doused in his own pain. And with a drop of a sigh, he walks out on me and the life we could’ve had.