32. Chapter 32 #3
“That’s New Jersey. Wait until the wind comes off the Hudson.”
A DarkMatter man opened the rear passenger door of the center SUV.
Nik stopped beside it.
“I’m driving.”
Rory raised a brow.
“You?”
“Yes.”
The convoy was already arranged with one armored SUV ahead and another behind. Henri, Aria, Gabriel, and the rest of the security detail split between the lead and rear vehicles.
Lucian took the front passenger seat beside Nik.
I climbed into the second row behind Nik, while Isabella settled beside me behind Lucian.
Scarlett and Lacey were already waiting in the back. Scarlett immediately leaned forward between the seats and squeezed my shoulder, relief softening her face.
“Good to have you back, Lach.”
“Good to be back.”
Lacey reached forward and caught my forearm, her fingers tightening around it for a moment before she let go. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to.
Then both women turned their attention to Isabella.
Before I could make the introductions, Scarlett leaned forward again, her red hair spilling over one shoulder.
“Hi. I’m Scarlett.”
Isabella smiled nervously. “Hi.”
Lacey leaned over the seatback and wrapped an arm around Isabella’s shoulders in a quick, enthusiastic hug.
“And I’m Lacey. We’ve been dying to meet you.”
Isabella glanced at me as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do with that much immediate affection.
I squeezed her thigh reassuringly, and her smile grew.
“It’s nice to meet you too.”
Nik pulled away from the FBO behind the lead SUV.
Lacey’s attention immediately dropped to Isabella’s coat.
“I see Aria has already paid you a visit.”
“Yes, and somehow she knew my size.”
Scarlett groaned dramatically. “Don’t bother trying to understand it.”
Lacey nodded. “Aria is our Mafia Fairy Godmother.”
From the driver’s seat, Nik said, “Is that an official position now?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Scarlett replied. “She appears with the right shoes, the right dress, food, cosmetics, medical supplies, and occasionally life advice before you even realize you need any of it.”
“And she even knows your bra size,” Lacey added with a laugh.
Isabella’s eyes widened.
“She does?”
“Every time.”
Nik glanced at Lacey in the mirror. “I pay her very well.”
“Not enough.”
“Noted.”
Isabella laughed again.
Hearing her laugh with Lacey and Scarlett made it far too easy to picture her belonging here.
Lacey settled back. “You’re going to love it here.”
Scarlett nodded. “And before you start worrying that you won’t fit in, please understand that none of us arrived into The Syndicate’s world normally.”
“That may be the understatement of the century,” Lucian said.
Lacey pointed toward Nik. “That man stalked me.”
Nik’s attention remained on the road.
“I investigated you.”
“You watched me through cameras.”
“For security.”
“See?” Lacey told Isabella. “This is what I live with. And he wonders why I call him overprotective.”
Scarlett laughed. “At least he started with surveillance. Lucian skipped straight to trying to abduct me from a church.”
Isabella turned toward Lucian.
He shrugged.
“She’s leaving out context.”
“And even after I tried to stab him through the heart, he still married me,” Scarlett said, smiling sweetly as she held up her hand to show Isabella her wedding ring.
Isabella glanced around at all of them for a beat.
Then she started laughing—not a soft little laugh, but a real one, open and delighted.
I sat back and let the women take over.
They talked around me as the convoy moved through Jersey—Aria, Xyst, life in Manhattan, husbands who considered surveillance a love language, and the particular insanity of becoming involved with The Syndicate.
Then Manhattan appeared across the Hudson.
Isabella went silent.
She turned toward the window, practically pressing her face to the glass. Across the gray-blue river, the skyline rose into the winter sky, towers disappearing into low clouds while thousands of windows caught the last of the daylight.
Her hand found mine without her looking.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “That’s Manhattan?”
“Aye.”
She stared for a few more seconds. “It’s enormous.”
I smiled. “You haven’t seen half of it yet.”
Her eyes widened. “There are so many buildings.”
Her attention moved across the skyline, trying to take everything in at once.
“People actually live in all those buildings?”
“Some of them.”
“And you live in one?”
“Yes. I think you’re going to like it.”
She finally glanced at me, wonder written all over her face, then immediately turned back to the window as though Manhattan might disappear if she looked away too long.
The road curved, and concrete walls began closing around us.
Then she frowned.
“Where are we going?”
“The Lincoln Tunnel,” Lacey said.
Isabella looked toward the river.
Then toward the tunnel entrance.
Then back at me.
“No.”
I laughed.
“What?”
“You said Manhattan was across the river.”
“It is.”
“But we’re going into a tunnel.”
“Aye.”
Her pale blue eyes narrowed.
“Under the river?”
Lacey laughed. “I had the exact same reaction the first time I went through it.”
“People drive underneath an entire river every day?”
“Thousands of them,” Nik said.
Isabella stared through the windshield as we descended.
“This city is insane.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Scarlett promised.
The tunnel lights streaked over us while Isabella gripped my fingers so tightly I started to lose feeling in them.
When we finally emerged into Manhattan, she forgot to be nervous.
Her head turned from side to side as traffic, buildings, pedestrians, lights, storefronts, taxis, and people poured past the windows.
For twenty-five years, the world had been whatever Ciro Delgado allowed through the gates of La Cruzona or her very controlled outings with her mother.
Now she had Manhattan outside the glass, and this was only the beginning.
By the time Nik turned into the underground garage beneath our building on Eleventh, darkness had settled over the city.
The convoy followed us inside.
Lucian and I got out first.
I opened Isabella’s door and held out my hand.
She took it, and I pulled her to my side.
Scarlett climbed out from behind us while Lacey slipped between the seats and over the center console to take the seat beside Nik. The tiny woman moved as if she’d been built without bones.
“We’ll see you soon,” Lacey shouted.
“Very soon,” Scarlett shot back over her shoulder.
Nik drove off with the rest of the convoy while the four of us crossed to the private elevator.
Lucian pressed his palm to the scanner, and the doors opened.
When we reached our floor, two penthouse entrances waited on opposite sides of the private landing.
Scarlett turned to Isabella.
“If you need anything—and I mean anything—I’m right next door.”
Then she pulled Isabella into a hug.
Isabella stiffened for only a heartbeat before hugging her back.
Scarlett smiled as she released her.
“I’m really happy you’re here. It’ll be nice having another Syndicate sister.”