26. Liana
— ? —
Liana
Glass shattered somewhere in the house.
I was out of the chair before my eyes were fully open. The folder of photographs scattered across the kitchen floor as I moved, my body running before my brain caught up. The sound had come from the front of the house. The living room window.
Bianca.
I took the stairs two at a time in bare feet. My heart was slamming against my ribs so hard I could hear it in my ears.
And then I saw the shape in Bianca’s doorway. A man. Tall. Dark clothes. His hand reaching for the door handle.
I hit him from behind with my full weight.
We went down together, my shoulder driving into the small of his back. He grunted when he hit the floor. I scrambled over him, clawing at the hardwood, trying to get to the door, and his hand closed around my ankle and yanked.
My chin cracked against the floor. Blood flooded my mouth. He was dragging me backward, away from my daughter’s room, and I kicked out with my free leg. My heel connected with his face. Bone crunched.
He let go.
I was through the door before he could grab me again. Bianca was sitting up in bed, her eyes huge, Gerald the elephant crushed against her chest.
“Mama?”
“Come here.” I scooped her off the mattress and turned to face the door. “Hold onto my neck and don’t let go.”
The man was in the doorway now. Blood running from his nose where I’d kicked him. And behind him, a second man. Broader. Holding a knife that caught the hallway light.
“Just the kid.” The first one wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “Hand her over and you walk away clean.”
“You’re not touching her.” I backed toward the window, Bianca’s arms tight around my neck, her legs wrapped around my waist. “You’re not getting near her.”
“This doesn’t have to be hard.” The second man stepped into the room. “Few hours, one phone call, and you get her back. Nobody has to get hurt.”
“Mama.” Bianca’s whisper was hot against my ear. “Mama, who are they?”
“Bad men, baby.” I kept my eyes on them. “But Mama’s not going to let them take you.”
The first one moved.
He came at me from the left and I twisted away, keeping Bianca on my opposite hip. But the second man was already there. I saw his arm swing. Saw the knife coming. I turned my body to take the blade on my shoulder instead of my throat.
I went down on one knee in pain. Bianca screamed in my ear, a high piercing shriek that went on and on. Blood was running down my arm, hot and fast, soaking through my nightgown. The gash was deep. I could feel the edges of it pulling apart when I moved.
The first man grabbed for Bianca.
I sank my teeth into his wrist.
He screamed and ripped his arm back. I used the moment to scramble backward, dragging Bianca with me, my injured arm shrieking in protest.
My shoulders hit the wall beneath the window. I curled my body around my daughter and covered her head with my good arm.
“Crazy bitch.” The first one was cradling his wrist. “She fucking bit me.”
“Just grab them both.” The second one stepped closer, the bloody knife still in his hand. “Costa will come for either one.”
I pulled Bianca tighter against my chest. Her screams had turned to sobs, her whole body shaking, her fingers digging into my shoulders hard enough to bruise.
“Don’t touch her.” My voice came out raw. “Don’t you fucking touch my daughter.”
The second man reached for us.
The house exploded with noise.
The front door crashed open downstairs. Shouting. Footsteps pounding up the stairs. The two men in Bianca’s room spun toward the hallway, reaching for weapons, but they were too slow.
Dominic’s men came through the door.
I didn’t see who threw the first punch. Bodies hit the floor.
Bone cracked against bone. The second man’s knife skittered across the hardwood and disappeared under Bianca’s bed.
And then the two intruders were on the ground, zip-tied and bleeding, and more men were flooding the room, checking windows, talking into phones.
Then Dominic was in the doorway.
He looked at me. At the blood soaking my nightgown. At Bianca sobbing against my chest. At the two men on the floor who had tried to take his daughter.
I had heard stories for ten years. Whispered accounts of what Dominic Costa did to people who crossed him. The bodies that were never found. The men who simply stopped existing. I had never seen it myself.
I was seeing it now.
He crossed the room in three strides and dropped to his knees in front of me.
“Let me see.” His hands found my face, turned it toward the light from the hallway. “Where are you hurt?”
“My shoulder.” I was shaking. The adrenaline was fading and the pain was getting sharper. “The one with the knife got me.”
His fingers found the gash. I hissed and he pulled his hand back. He looked at the blood on his palm. His jaw tightened.
“Bianca.” His voice went soft. “Bianca, baby, look at Papa.”
She lifted her head from my chest. Tears and snot smeared across her face. Her crown had fallen off at some point and her hair was wild and tangled.
“Papa.” She reached for him. “Papa, the bad men came.”
“I know.” He gathered her against his chest with one arm, his other hand still on my face. “I know, piccola. But they’re gone now. Papa’s here.”
“They tried to take me.” Her voice was muffled against his shirt. “They tried to take me away from Mama.”
“Mama stopped them.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Mama was so brave. Mama kept you safe.”
I leaned back against the wall. My injured arm was throbbing in time with my heartbeat. The blood was still flowing, dripping onto the hardwood, pooling in the cracks between the boards.
“How did you get here so fast?” I looked up at him. “It’s been five minutes. Maybe less.”
His eyes met mine over Bianca’s head. The emptiness cracked, just for a second.
“I’ve had someone watching you.” He said it quiet. “Since you moved out. Every night.”
“You’ve been-”
“I couldn’t sleep.” He shifted Bianca to one arm and reached for my face again. “I couldn’t close my eyes without knowing you were safe. Both of you. So I had Stefan put a man on the house. Every night from dark until dawn.”
“Dominic.”
“I know you told me to stay away.” His thumb traced along my cheekbone. “I know you wanted space. But I couldn’t do it, Liana. I couldn’t leave you unprotected. Not you. And definitely not her.”
“You’ve been watching us this whole time.”
“The man outside saw the car pull up. Saw them break the window. He called it in and went for the front door, but you’d bolted it.
He was still breaking it down when my men pulled up behind him.
I was in my car before he finished the call.
” His voice cracked. “Fuck, baby. I’m so sorry.
I should have been here. I should have been in this house with you. If I had been here-”
“Stop.” I grabbed his wrist with my good hand. “You’re here now.”
“They came for my daughter.” His jaw was tight enough to shatter. “They broke into your house and tried to take my daughter as leverage against me. Because of my business. Because of my war. Because of choices I made.”
“Because of Angela.” I gripped his sleeve with my bloody hand. The fabric turned dark under my fingers. “It’s Angela, Dominic. She’s Grassi’s. She’s been his the whole time. The leak, the routes, all of it. It’s her. And Grassi sent these men.”
He went still.
“The folder in the kitchen.” I nodded toward the stairs.
“I’ve been up for two nights putting it together.
Photographs. Cell records. A burner phone that pings near a Grassi property every time one of your shipments walks.
She’s been feeding him everything for a year. Since before she ever came back.”
“You’re certain.”
“I’m certain. I sent it all to Stefan tonight. I couldn’t make myself call you.” My voice broke. “I waited too long. I should have called you tonight. I should have-”
“Don’t.” He pressed his forehead against mine, hard. “Don’t do that. This is not your fault.”
“I had the proof. I knew what she was. And I sent it to Stefan instead of calling you, because I was tired and angry and I wanted one night where I didn’t have to save you.”
“You saved our daughter.” His breath was warm on my lips. “That’s all that matters. You put your body between her and them. You took a knife for her. You held onto her and you didn’t let go.”
“I was never going to let go.”
“I know.” He pulled back and looked at me, and the coldness in his eyes was absolute. “Stay with Bianca. One of my capos is going to stay here with you. Medic’s on the way.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find Angela.” He stood. “And then to find Grassi.”
“Dominic.”
“Stay with our daughter.” He looked down at me, and his face was the face of the man the whole coast feared. The man who made people disappear. The man I had married without ever really seeing. “I’ve got you. I’ve got both of you. I’m going to end this.”
“Be careful.”
“I’m never careful.” He crouched down one more time and pressed his lips to my forehead. “But I’m always thorough.”
He stood and walked out without looking back.
“Mama.” Bianca’s voice was small against my neck. “Is Papa going to make the bad men go away?”
“Yes, baby.” I held her tighter with my good arm. “Papa’s going to make sure they never come back.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
I thought about the emptiness in his eyes. The cold flat stare of a man who had already decided exactly how this was going to end.
“He’s going to be fine.” I pressed my lips to her hair. “Nobody’s going to hurt Papa.”