Chapter 32
LIAM
Aurora’s still asleep by the time I’m finished quietly, quickly dressing for the meeting. I told her I had business today, something important, but I gave her no more details than that.
I’m not lying. I’m not being dishonest. I’m only… holding back information she doesn’t necessarily need to know yet.
But really, what good would it have done if she knew I was meeting Gabriel Russo today?
Would she have slept a wink? I was sleepless enough for both of us, going over every step in my head.
Everything I would say to him, every argument I could offer.
He won’t take this well—I won’t delude myself into thinking anything else.
But I’ll make it worth his while. In the end, he’ll see.
He has to. I have to make him see. Of course, there’s a damn good chance he could decide to blow my head off and be done with it, too. A man in his position doesn’t stay that way by being balanced and reserved. It’s a chance I have to take. For her sake, for mine.
Before leaving, I take one more look, letting her fill my soul the way she always does.
Lying on her stomach, her face half-buried in the pillow.
Her hair is a golden fan against cream-colored silk, strands shimmering in the light filtering through the half-closed blinds.
I’ll be gone when she wakes up. She expects me to be gone.
But I will come back. No matter how tense Nick looks when I join him in the garage, where he’s waiting beside the car.
Like me, he’s in a dark suit, sharp as a well-honed blade.
He inclines his head in a silent greeting before climbing into the SUV.
I join him on the other side and the driver takes off once the door is closed.
Now that we are settled in, Nick gives me the report I was waiting for. “Crawford’s taken care of.”
The mention of his name leaves a bitter taste in the back of my throat. “Where was he hiding?”
“My guys caught up to him at the airport. He had a ticket for Switzerland.”
I grin in grim satisfaction. “Disloyal fuck.” He went MIA after Donovan was eliminated, probably knowing it was only a matter of time before I found out about his betrayal.
How he knew where to locate Donovan all the time.
How he gave Aurora the phone. Yet he could sit with me, swearing to do everything in his power to find the man I was searching for.
And Aurora thinks she’s the only one who knows how it feels to doubt the people around her?
Enough of that for now. I have to get my head in the game.
We’re meeting at a restaurant on the south side of town, somewhere Gabriel and his crew use as a base of operations.
It would be closed at this time of day, so we’ll have the place to ourselves.
“We have a few bodies in place,” Nick confirms, checking his phone. “All doors covered, everything secure.”
I don’t know how many meetings like this one I’ve attended over the years.
So many I should be used to them by now, definitely.
Yet here I am, one knee bouncing, my fingers tapping an uneven rhythm against it.
This is the first meeting where the stakes were this high. I only thought they were before.
That was another lifetime, the pre-Aurora days.
When I could afford to be sure of myself.
When vengeance carried me through. What matters now is protection, because she needs me.
I am all she has in this world. Donovan made sure of that—no matter what, she would always be in need.
Never capable of taking care of herself.
I plan on undoing all of that, but it’s not the kind of thing that can happen overnight.
A pair of men wait outside the doors to the restaurant, now dark inside, the grates pulled over the windows.
They nod in greeting when we step out of the SUV, then follow us inside.
Two of my own men are already waiting, drinking coffee in a room that smells vaguely of garlic and onions.
They finish, gulping it down, then fall in step alongside us as we walk into a back room after passing a few dozen empty tables.
Gabriel is waiting, hunched over a plate of fried eggs and bacon.
“I would offer you something to eat,” he tells us, gesturing to the chairs across from him with his knife and fork, “but Enzo whipped it up and he’s going to come out and join us now.
” He gestures, and one of the men standing next to a swinging door on the other side of the room opens that door and jerks a thumb, beckoning Gabriel’s brother out of the kitchen.
“Not to worry.” Nick and I take a seat and the guards stand behind us.
“Well?” He wipes his mouth with his napkin, then sits back. His brother joins us, slinging a dish towel over his shoulder after he finishes drying his hands. “Where’s my bride?”
Straight to it. “She’s not coming,” I announce.
Enzo barks out a laugh. “I told you,” he mutters to Gabriel, who hasn’t reacted. “I told you he was going to worm his way out of it. Maybe you and Blackwell have more in common than you thought.”
Gabriel holds up a hand to silence him without breaking eye contact with me. “Explain. Why isn’t she coming?”
“Because I’m offering a change in terms.”
“You don’t get to come in here and decide to change the terms all on your own.” The air in the room changes and his eyes go hard. No sense in pretending to be friendly anymore. “We had an agreement. I lived up to my end of that agreement. A real man would do the same.”
“I’m not turning this into a dick-measuring contest. But I am changing the terms. I cannot offer her up anymore.”
When Enzo reaches into his waistband, Nick does the same. “Let’s see hands,” he murmurs. “No need for violence.” Enzo inclines his head though he’s clearly seething,
“What would you give me instead?” Gabriel asks, folding his arms.
“Money. Plenty of it.”
“I don’t need money,” he informs me, sounding almost bored. “I need a wife. Which is why, when I made this arrangement with you, I arranged for a wife. Not for more of what I already have.”
“It’s all I can offer you now. Aurora is off the table.”
Enzo growls, but Gabriel does not. His eyes narrow, lips pursed like he’s thinking it over. His men shift their weight from one foot to the other, clearly affected by the energy crackling in the room. My men already had their orders: shoot to kill if someone points a weapon at one of us.
“All right, then.”
Nick sits up a little straighter, but I don’t flinch. That was too easy. “Really? Just like that?” he asks.
“I’ll still have my bride,” Gabriel assures me with an easy smile I don’t take seriously in the least. There’s something cold and hard under it. “If not Aurora, then her sister. Donovan’s other daughter.”
Mariella? “She’s too young.”
He waves a hand like it means nothing. “She’ll be eighteen soon enough, and when she is, I will take her to Italy with me and make her my bride.”
His voice drops to something close to a whisper. More like the hissing of a snake. “Take it or leave it.”
“And if I refuse?” Because I have to. Aurora would never forgive me. I’ve worked hard to earn her trust, to build something real between us. That would all be shot to hell if I go home and tell her she’s safe, but her sister isn’t.
A knowing grin starts to spread across his face. I watch, holding my breath while pretending to be calm, while Gabriel reaches inside his charcoal suit jacket. “I thought you might do this, so I brought along a little extra incentive.”
He withdraws an envelope. Unmarked, plain. “Hand Mariella over to me at the appropriate time, and I’ll tell you where to find your sister.”
Laura. No. That can’t be. My mind won’t accept it.
Nick grunts, leaning forward slightly. Like an animal that’s scented something on the wind. “Bullshit.”
“My sister is dead,” I murmur. My fists clench in my lap, my breathing harder than before when I remember seeing her that last time. Before the explosion.
“Are you sure about that?” Gabriel slaps the envelope on the table. “You might feel differently after you see what’s inside here.”
Nick pounces on it, tearing the envelope open, pulling out photos which he holds in hands that tremble harder with every passing second. I break eye contact with Gabriel to glance over at them.
Jesus Christ. A shockwave hits me when I recognize the woman staring up at me from those glossy images.
She’s older now, of course. She’s not the fresh-faced girl on the boat, pretty and smiling, dressed for a wedding that ended in tragedy.
The girl who was blown to pieces along with our parents, while I somehow was able to walk away all because I was on the other end of the boat, elbowing my way through the sea of bodies between us.
That sea of bodies is what kept me alive.
“She didn’t die that day,” Gabriel explains while Nick stares down at the images.
She’s beautiful, as she always was, her hair worn long in shining black curls.
There’s something sharp about her, something almost primal.
It’s her intense gaze, captured by the photographer, like she was staring through the camera.
“Agree with me today that once Mariella turns eighteen, she’s mine,” Gabriel says. “And I will send you all of the information I have on Laura.”
“How much information?” Nick barks. He’s a coiled spring seconds away from popping. Now I wish I hadn’t brought him. He’s making it too easy for Gabriel to set the terms.
“Enough,” Gabriel replies. “I’ll send it all to your email as soon as we shake on it. Mariella for Laura,” he concludes, sounding as smug and satisfied as he looks.
What can I do? This is my sister. My living, breathing sister. She looks so much like Mom, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe any of this.
Nick looks at me. He doesn’t have to say a word.
I can hear his thoughts, I can feel his desperation.
He’s already planning in his head how he’ll get her back.
There’s never been anyone for him but her—it isn’t that we’ve ever sat around and talked about this, but I know.
I know she has always been his reason why.
I can’t afford to lose this opportunity. And if I say no, I might lose him, as well.
What can I do? “All right. You have a deal.” I reach across the table to shake his hand and seal it, knowing there isn’t a chance in hell I’m giving him Mariella. There’s plenty of time before she comes of age. I’ll think of something.
In the meantime, Enzo works on his phone, then nods to his brother. “It’s done,” Gabriel announces. “The files have been sent. Good luck to you.” Why does it seem like he is finding humor in this?
“Tell me more,” Nick urges as I stand. “Where is she? Why did she never come home?”
I place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze tight, until finally he looks up at me.
“We’ll find her. They sent us the information, right?” I look at the brothers. Both of them nod. “Let’s go.”
Nick moves like a man in shock, holding tight to the photos as he gets up and we leave the restaurant.
He doesn’t say a word on the way back to the penthouse.
He only stares at them, flipping through them again and again like he’ll find something new.
My sister is alive. I didn’t lose everyone that day.
But why didn’t she come home, the way Nick asked?
Why did she never reach out? I suppose there’s no way of knowing until we look through the information Gabriel sent.
Nick rides the elevator with me, still silent, still rigid in his posture.
He’s in another world now, far away from the present.
It’s better that I let him go, so I don’t bother stopping him when he practically launches himself out of the elevator car and into the penthouse, heading straight to my office.
Aurora steps out of the kitchen, watching Nick as he retreats before she turns to me looking confused. “What’s happening? He looks upset.”
Upset doesn’t begin to cover it. I find Maggie in the kitchen, as well, fixing a salad. Another cutting board holds grilled chicken, which it looks like Aurora was in the process of chopping up.
“Maggie? Can we have a minute?” I ask.
Maggie looks back and forth between us but nods, leaving the room.
“Just come out with it, whatever it is.” Aurora lifts her chin and squares her shoulders like she’s preparing for a battle. “I can handle it. Just say it.”
If only it was that easy. “The meeting I’m coming from now… it was with Gabriel Russo.”
Her face falls and her mouth hangs open in horror. “Why didn’t you tell me? What happened? What did he say? Is he—”
“You’re safe. I told him I’m not handing you over, now or ever.” With my hands on her shoulders, I add, “And he understands. He agreed.”
Her eyes search my face, because she’s not a stupid girl. “What does he want instead? Money?”
If only it was that easy. “He still wants a bride. He wants Mariella, instead, when she comes of age.”
“And you said no!” She barks before catching herself, eyelids fluttering, her face turning red. “Sorry. But you did, right? There’s no way! We can’t do that to her!”
“Believe me, I protested. I told him it’s not happening.”
“And why do I feel like it didn’t matter?”
“Because it didn’t,” I have to confess, making her gasp. “But you don’t understand. He had something to offer in exchange. I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t. Because…”
I can barely make myself believe it. I’m almost afraid to say it out loud, like saying it out loud will ruin something.
Is it true? Can it be? “Because my sister didn’t die the day our parents did.
According to Gabriel and the photos he showed us, she’s been alive all this time.
He offered information on Laura in exchange for Mariella.
Once she turns eighteen. But I swear to you, Aurora.
He will not get her. I’m going to find a way to protect her. ”
All she does is stare at me, mouth hanging open, eyes unblinking.
While I wait to find out whether I’ve broken us beyond the point of repair.