Chapter 53 #2
Ryder finally takes the last turn into Marcella’s driveway, and I’m more than ready to get the hell out of this van.
Ryder pulls to a stop, and I hear the front doors open and close before Ryder and Dex open the back doors up.
Marcella, Giovanni, and Vincenzo are all waiting outside the doors.
Ryder helps Evander get Micah out before everyone piles out behind them.
Ryder steps into the van, gently lifting Nina from my lap before handing her off to Vincenzo outside the door.
He turns back, sticking out his hand for me to grab, then hauls me to my feet.
His lips are on mine before I can blink.
I fall into the kiss, ignoring my throbbing face, and feel grateful that none of my guys got hurt.
He places both hands on my face before pulling back from the kiss and gently kissing my nose. “I love you, Il mio sole.”
“I love you too,” I whisper back.
He leads me to the back of the van before hopping out and grabbing my hand to help me down. Marcella comes rushing over, her shaking hands bracketing my face. “What happened?”
“Some guy got a lucky hit. I’m fine,” I answer with a smile. How bad is my face? “I need Giovanni to look at Micah.”
Marcella waves her hand around. “He’s already taking care of it. Let me take care of you.” She grabs my hand and starts dragging me toward the house, muttering in Italian.
“You do remember I speak fluent Italian, right?” I say with a laugh when I catch her saying something about dumbass kids.
She huffs. “Trying to give an old woman a heart attack. You said you would be here at one a.m. It’s three! You show up with a bruised face. Micah can barely breathe.” She opens the door, still pulling me behind her, still muttering, and I just let her go.
She pulls me into a little room just off the living room, sitting me in a chair in front of a vanity mirror.
I grimace after getting the first look at my face.
I’m going to have one hell of a black eye and some bruising over the bridge of my nose.
Luckily the mask took most of the damage; I can only imagine if I wasn’t wearing it.
Marcella comes bustling back into the room with an ice pack wrapped in a towel, shoving it against my face.
She starts looking me over and sees the hole ripped through my hoodie.
I completely forgot I got grazed outside the house.
She huffs again, motioning for me to take my hoodie off.
I lay the ice pack down and pull it over my head. “And a bullet wound!”
“It’s a graze, Marcella.”
She gives me the most motherly look I’ve ever gotten.
“From a bullet,” she says evenly and then shakes her head.
“Let me clean this.” She rummages around in the set of drawers beside the vanity table, pulling out a first aid kit.
She swipes it with antiseptic, and I hold back the hiss from the sting.
She applies antibiotic ointment and then tapes a little gauze pad over it.
She pulls me into a hug, surprising me with her ferocity. “You need to be more careful.”
I’m not about to tell her that isn’t in the cards right now. “Yes, Marcella.” She squeezes me tighter before letting go and pulling back. “I need to check on Micah.”
She nods. “This way.”
She leads me back through the living room and through the kitchen before taking a right where there are several doors.
She knocks on the closest one before opening it.
Micah is sitting on the edge of the bed, and Giovanni is wrapping his upper torso tightly in a huge ace bandage.
Micah is pale as a ghost and sweating bullets.
“You look like shit,” I say, walking into the room.
“You don’t look any better, shithead,” he replies.
Marcella throws her hands in the air and disappears from the room. Evander is leaning against the wall in front of the bed, his arms crossed, staring at Micah.
“Nothing seems broken. This will help with movement, and he can take it off when he feels ready,” Giovanni says. “He’s lucky.” He finishes securing the bandage. “I’ll leave you guys to it.” He walks by and ruffles my hair like I’m still a kid, shutting the door behind him.
“You can go,” Micah says to Evander, tugging his shirt back over his head.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Evander says, pushing off the wall, fire blazing from his eyes.
“Yes,” Micah says between clenched teeth.
I look between them. “Maybe I should go.” I turn on my heel and reach for the doorknob.
“No,” Evander says, walking toward me, “I’ll go.” He slides by me, jerking the door open and striding out.
I shut the door back and turn to Micah. “What the hell, Micah?”
“What?”
“Why are you being such an asshole to him?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“I’m not,” Micah scoffs, standing slowly from the bed.
“You are,” I reply, getting angry.
“I don’t get involved in your relationship, so stay the fuck out of mine.”
I lift an eyebrow. “So, there is a relationship?”
“What? No!” Micah sighs. “Can we drop this?”
“Oh hell no. Start talking.”
He shakes his head. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Something’s going on that you aren’t telling me.”
“Because I don’t have to tell you everything!” he yells, making me jerk back. Micah has never yelled at me.
“Wow. Okay.” I drop my arms. “Fuck you then,” I reply hotly, pulling the door open.
“Alessa.”
I don’t even turn around. I know he is okay, and that’s all I need to know.
I take a left out of the room toward the backdoor.
I know this house like I know the back of my hand, and this door leads right out to the fence by the field.
I just need some fresh air to get my thoughts straight and figure out what to do next.
Micah yelling at me hurt. Sure, we argued and had disagreements, but we never fought, and we sure as hell never yelled at each other in anger. Whatever is going on with him, he can figure it out on his own now.
Marcella’s is the only place I know where I can hide Nina until we can figure out what to do with her. I slide onto the swing that overlooks the field and pull my phone out of my pocket. I dial Alexey, and he answers on the first ring.
“You have her?”
I try to listen to any clues in his voice that he thought there might be a chance I wouldn’t get her. Perhaps because he knew I walked into a suicide mission. “Yes.”
I hear him relay the message. “Where?”
I can’t bring them here until I know the truth. “I can’t tell you that.”
“What?” Alexey asks, his voice dropping several octaves to that tone his dad uses. If I were anyone else, it would have scared me.
“Some shit didn’t sit right with me tonight, Alexey. Meet me at six at the docks.”
“Where is my mother?”
“Alive. That’s all you need to know. Six o’clock,” I remind him and hang up.
Call me paranoid, but I feel like they set me up to walk into a death trap.
Yeah, we got Nina out, which was the main goal, but something still doesn’t feel right.
Was Nina in on it too? We have another hour before the sedative wears off, and she wakes up.
She was just in a nightgown, so she didn’t have her phone, and Vincenzo knows the drill, so he would have taken any jewelry off her that may have a tracker in it.
We may have gotten out of that house, but Viktor’s still alive. That’s a big fucking problem.
“Can I sit?” My head jerks up, startled from my thoughts. I didn’t even hear him walk up.
“Sure,” I answer, scooting over so Evander can sit on the swing.
He takes a deep breath. “It’s nice out here.”
I pull my legs up to my chest, getting comfortable. “It’s my favorite place to be when I need a break from real life.”
“I can see why.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him about Micah, but he looked hurt walking out of that room.
Plus, it’s none of my business. Both of us stare out into the distance listening to the animals in the barn.
I need to check on Nina and my guys, but I can’t pull myself off the swing.
I’m so damn tired, and my day is still going with no end in sight.
“You have my full respect, Alessa,” Evander says, pulling my eyes toward him. “In the short time I’ve been around you, I’ve seen the way things are done in your family.” He looks over at me. “That is how I wish to run my own.”
“I appreciate that,” I say lamely, too stunned to say anything else.
“I was skeptical about you with my brother,” he chuckles. “About the relationship he’s entered into. But I’ve watched him come alive since being with you. And Gage. I fully trust him with you.”
I frown. “Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye, Evander?”
“Because I am,” he answers, looking back into the distance. “I need time away from Abbs Valley.”
“Does Leo know?”
“Not yet, but I’ll tell him.”
“What about Mateo?”
“He knows and may go with me for a few weeks. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Does this have to do with Micah?” I ask gently.
“Not entirely,” he answers honestly, turning to me with a smile. “You’re smart, so I know you’ve figured out something, but he’s your uncle. I won’t break that trust between you guys. He can tell you when he’s ready.” He reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Take care of Leo.”
He gets up and walks back toward the house. Why is he talking like he isn’t coming back at all? How will Leo handle this? Why did he tell me first?
So many more questions are piling up with no answers in sight.
Nina woke up almost an hour after I dosed her, screaming her head off until she saw me.
She looked confused at first, then relieved, showing me she had no idea who was in that house to take her.
Could I be wrong about the twins, or was she just in the dark?
I asked her where Viktor was, and she said he left yesterday to go out of town on business, and that made me suspicious all over again that he left the day before all of this went down.