by Mae Doyle
She had to have gone out the front door. There’s no way that she would have managed to sneak out the kitchen door, not with Ma in there cooking up a storm. I stomp back to the living room, fear making my heart beat wildly in my chest.
Roque sees the look on my face first. “What the fuck’s wrong with you, Arlo? You look like you’ve seen a fucking ghost.”
Everyone turns at his voice. Pops, Matty, Valentino, and Ricky all look serious. More serious than they sounded just a moment ago.
“She’s gone. Hannah’s gone.” Even as I say it, it doesn’t make any sense. Her feet are all fucked up. There’s no way that she could have gotten very far, no matter how much of a head start she had. After I’d brought her here, I’d spent a long damn time bandaging her feet.
So where the fuck is she?
“Did you check the bathroom?” Matty’s on his feet and down the hall before I can even respond, but I already know the truth. She’s not there. She’s turning us in.
Worse, she’s turning herself in.
My knees feel weak at the thought that she couldn’t hack it. I’ve been doing fucking everything for her, but she obviously doesn’t care. She’s thrown it all back in my face.
Valentino pulls out his phone and makes a quick call. He has contacts everywhere, as does Ricky. I watch in horror as Ricky does the same. They’re probably calling the cops we’ve bought off. If we can get them looking for her then we’ll be able to find her.
Fast.
Matty runs back in. “She’s not there. She must have left.” He sounds calmer than I feel, but I can see the bit of panic on his face. We all know what will happen if she turns us in. If she goes to the cops…well, we’ll have to kill her, but that will be fucking hard from a jailcell.
“I’ll get the syringe.” Roque is already digging through the small side table in the corner of the dining room. It’s where we keep the meds that we need to deal with people, and it has the syringes that will put her to sleep.
Easy peasy. We just have to catch her first.
That shouldn’t be fucking hard. She could barely walk before, and after she tore up her feet again coming to save me in the parking lot…there’s no way that she’s gotten far. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Why would she put herself at risk like that and kill someone for me and then make a run for it? Guilt? Can people actually feel that bad about things that they’ve done that they’re willing to lose it all over the guilt?
“You better go find her,” Pops tells me, his dark eyes boring into mine. “And don’t you dare pussy out. I know that you think you have feelings for her, but we can’t let a broad put what we’ve built here at risk, do you understand? Stop her, no matter what it means for you.”
Fuck. This is not what I wanted the day to be like. We should have skipped family dinner and just stayed in bed. I was just beginning to think that she could be my family when she had to go and pull this shit.
I don’t know if she realizes how much she’s fucked up. Once you cross the Torenti family, there’s really no coming back from it. Hannah may have had a seat at the table before if she just hadn’t done anything stupid, but now that she’s threatening us and our way of life, she’s no longer welcome.
If she thinks that being aligned with our family is bad, then she has no idea what can happen when you’re the one that we’re hunting.
Chapter 19
Hannah
I realized who it was when I was asleep. I don’t know what my subconscious was doing for me to suddenly wake up from a deep sleep and know that the person who was going to kill Arlo was my brother, Mitch, but my mind must have been working hard.
I’ve never woken up in a sweat like that before. I wasn’t in my room, or in Arlo’s room, and I didn’t realize at first that I was at the Torenti home. That little fact didn’t make me feel any better.
I’d just shot and killed my brother.
For my fiancé.
The man who’s baby I’m carrying.
I think.
Fuck. I’d swung my legs out of the bed, but as soon as I’d tried to stand up, they buckled beneath me. I was honestly surprised that the sound of my body hitting the floor in the bedroom hadn’t brought all of the Torenti family running, guns drawn.
And now what? It’s not like I can make a run for it, but I’d managed to army crawl to the door. Miraculously, it was unlocked, and I’d made my way down the hall to the bathroom.
It’s hard for me to tell if I’m sick because of what I just did or if I’m sick because of what I think is going on with my body. Is it possible that Arlo got me pregnant? And if he did, then is it okay that I think I may be happy about it?
Fuck. Gently, I rest my hand on my stomach. After throwing up, the first thing that I want to do is make a run for it. It’s not like I know where I’m going and it’s not like I’d ever be able to make it very far, but I want to get the fuck out of the house. Even though running sounds amazing, I’m not stupid.
It’s hard for me to breathe, even now.
I can’t bear sitting here any longer knowing what I’d done. I can’t handle the fact that I had killed my own brother.
Do my parents know? Were they in on the hit?
Fuck. My skin is clammy and I lean against the toilet tank. This is disgusting, and I know that, but it’s the only thing in the bathroom cool enough to help take some of the fire out of my skin. This is exactly how I’m sitting when the bathroom door swings open and someone leans in, probably to look for me.
But he doesn’t see me curled up next to the toilet. I try to make myself as small as possible next to it. I just really don’t want to be found, especially by someone I didn’t know.
That’s why I’m crammed between it and the wall and why I crane my neck to rest my head on the cool porcelain of the tank. My stomach keeps rolling and I want to throw up again, but I’m afraid to. I don’t want anyone to hear me.
I think I pass out for a bit.
When I feel like moving again, I realize just how quiet the house is. It’s supposed to be Torenti family dinner, but I don’t hear anyone in the house. Reaching up for the counter, I slowly pull myself to my feet and splash a little water on my face. It’s torture putting any weight on my feet, but I have to see myself.
And I have to rinse this terrible taste out of my mouth.
I’m standing there, clutching the sink and trying not to cry over the pain in my feet when the bathroom door swings open. It surprises me so much that I let go of the sink and fall back down to the ground.
“Ow!” I cry out, closing my eyes against the pain. I don’t know which of the Torenti men has come looking for me now, and I don’t know who I want it to be. I don’t think that I can look at Arlo and know what I did.
Know that I killed my brother for the father of my child.
“Oh, Hannah, are you okay?” The voice is kind and quieter than I would have thought anyone in this family could be, and my eyes fly open. Ma Torenti is standing there in her apron, her head tilted slightly to the side as she takes me in.
Relief floods through me and I nod, even though I’m not okay. Not at all. I feel tears start to prick the corners of my eyes, but I ignore them the best that I can. This is really the best thing that could have happened to me. It’s a hell of a lot better than someone like Pops finding me.
“Can you help me?” I reach for her, hoping that she’ll take pity on me and reach back, even pull me up from the floor. I have no idea if I can support my own weight. My feet are on fire and, when I look down, I’m shocked to see that I’m bleeding through my bandages.
Fuck. There are smears of blood from my feet across the floor.
“Come here,” she tells me, bending down and helping to lift me to my feet. I cry out as soon as I put weight on them again, but I manage to stand a little, hanging onto her for support. “You’re causing quite the fuss, you know that?”
“What do you mean?” My feet are still killing me, but I can’t help but be intere
sted in what she’s saying. I wondered why the house was so quiet, but I honestly didn’t think that it had anything to do with me.
“They’re all out looking for you,” she explains, and then when she sees the look on my face, she continues. “I overhead from the kitchen. It’s hard sometimes to know when dinner is going to be with this group.”
“They think I left?” There’s too much going on, and while I want to go with Ma and lay back down on the bed, I feel my strength waning. My knees give way under me and she gently helps me back to the floor.
“Just wait here, Hannah,” she tells me, and then runs back out of the bathroom.
She’s probably calling the men right now. A chill runs through my body as I think about what they’re going to say to me when they realize that I was right here the whole time. Arlo’s made it very clear that the family doesn’t like it when broads get involved, and that they don’t like problems.
I know how they deal with problems.
After a moment, she returns, and begins pulling fresh gauze and bandages out of cupboards. I watch her for a moment, and when she settles herself on the floor next to me with a bowl of warm water and her supplies, I finally get the courage to speak.
“Are they coming back for me?”
She doesn’t answer at first, and I gasp when the pain from my foot shoots through my body as she unwraps my bandage. My feet were well on their way to healing, but they had been cut so deeply and so many times that the skin was just flayed off.
They were raw before, even with Arlo taking care of me, but after the parking lot, they’re now worse.
My throat threatens to close up when I think about the parking lot and I turn away so I don’t have to see what Ma is doing.
“They’re on their way,” she says finally. She’s faster, probably because she’s had plenty of experience taking care of her family, and in no time I’m wrapped back up. After that, she sets about cleaning up the blood on the floor behind me.
The sound of the front door flying open makes her pause, but she doesn’t turn to look at me. Instead, she gathers up all of her supplies and quickly leaves the bathroom.
What the fuck? I’m stuck here on the floor, completely unable to stand up or move without crawling. I have no idea which of the Torenti men is coming down the hall, so I strain my ears to listen.
Ma’s voice floats towards me. She’s obviously explaining me to someone. When I hear an angry, louder voice rise to meet hers, I get a chill. That has to be Pops. I can imagine that he’s a little pissed that I’ve ruined everything.
Struggling to my knees, I lean out into the hall. Directly in front of me are pants. I gulp then slowly look up to see who they belong to.
Arlo’s looking down at me, and my heart skips a beat. It could be worse. It could be Pops or any of the other Torenti men, but Arlo? Arlo won’t be mad at me, right?
“Where were you?” He bends down without waiting for me to answer and scoops me into his arms, easily lifting me off of the floor. “Do you know that we’ve all been looking for you?”
“That’s not my fault!” Squirming, I lean back so I can look into his face. He looks pissed. His gorgeous features are dark and twisted and I realize with horror that the look on his face makes me wet.
“I was in the bathroom the whole time! I can’t help the fact that whatever idiot leaned in there to find me didn’t see me!”
“I’m an idiot?” The voice behind me sounds bitter, and I gasp and turn around. Fuck. It’s the guy from the bathroom.
“I didn’t mean that,” I tell him, but he scowls and walks up to us.
“Do you know that we’ve been driving around this damn city looking for you? And you were just hiding in the bathroom?”
Arlo’s heart is pounding in his chest and I lean back into him for safety. I don’t know who the fuck this guy is, but he looks like he wants to kill me.
“I wasn’t hiding,” I snap back. “I was sitting by the toilet because it was cool and I felt like absolute shit. It’s not like any of you had come to check on me or anything, so I didn’t think it would matter if I relocated. So fuck off.”
His eyes widen and he opens his mouth to say something but then snaps it shut when he looks back at Arlo. “Good fucking luck with this one,” he tells him, turning around and stomping back down the hall.
“You weren’t hiding?” Arlo carries me into the bedroom and puts me gently back down before kneeling in front of me to search my face. “You weren’t trying to escape?”
Even though trying to escape had crossed my mind, I’d known that there wasn’t any way that I could get out of there. I can’t run, can’t walk, don’t have keys to a car. What the hell did these guys all think that I was going to do?
“I felt terrible,” I explained. “I had to throw up, so I went to the bathroom to do it.” Shrugging, I try to look as innocent as possible, even though my stomach was twisted up. “I didn’t try to get away.”
I can see his shoulders visible relax at my words. “Why were you sick? What made you feel so terrible?” His eyes search mine and I realize that he knows the truth.
Or one of them, I guess.
I open my mouth to tell him, but he cuts me off before I can speak.
“You know about your brother?” The look on his face is sad and I hate the way it makes me feel. I don’t like being pitied.
But I nod. I could tell him the rest of the truth, but I don’t want to. Not right now.
Chapter 20
Arlo
Everyone’s at the table. Well, all of the men. The broads are in the kitchen with Ma helping get the food ready, but they know not to come in here right now. We all have some shit to work out before we eat, and they’re not invited.
“You believe her?” Pops takes a sip of his whiskey and then slides my glass towards me across the table. Everyone else already has something to drink, and I take a long sip before answering.
“I do. It’s obvious that she didn’t leave the house.” I hope. I swear, if this broad is lying to me, no matter how much I like her, I’ll kill her.
“You sure about that? Why did she hide from me?” Matty’s still pissed that when he leaned into the bathroom to look for her, he missed her. It makes him look like something of a fucking idiot, and it’s not something that the family will soon forget.
“Because you’re ugly,” Valentino quips. He always knows how to break the tension, and everyone around the table smiles.
“Well, the contract is null and void now,” Pops says, drawing all of our attention back to him. “When her brother tried to kill you, it goes against some of the terms of the deal, so you can walk away.”
I raise my eyebrows. “She’s free to go back to her family?” That doesn’t make any fucking sense. The Torenti family is all about covering their ass, and just letting her walk away sounds as fucking stupid as can be.
“No. I said that you’re free to walk away, not that she was. If you decide to walk away from her, then she’s done. She’s either your wife, Arlo, or she’s a loose end, and we’ll take care of her accordingly.” Pops looks so serious that I know he’s not joking.
A loose end.
This is all that I’ve wanted since I found out that I was going to have to get married. A burst of hope rushes up in my chest as I think about walking out of this house a free man. There’s nothing tying her to me.
She’s a hot fucking mess, emphasis on the mess, and I can’t deny the fact that getting rid of her sounds really fucking good right now.
Still thinking hard, I take another sip, then finish my whiskey. As soon as I set the glass back down on the table, Pops leans over with the bottle and refills it for me. Whiskey makes it easier for us to think, and right now, we all have a lot of fucking thinking to do.
“So I can walk away? Life can go back to normal?” I can dip my dick into any wet pussy around. I can handle my shit the way I want to without having to worry about whether or not I’m doing what my family wants me to do.
“And I have to decide now?”
Pops nods again.
I finish my whiskey and slam the glass back down on the table.
“Great. Let me go talk to her.” Even as I stand up, I’m still not sure what I’m going to do, but I know that I better fucking figure it out fast. She’s just down the hall where I left her, I hope, and by the time I walk through that door, I better fucking know what I’m going to do with her.
Taking a deep breath, I steady myself. I want this broad. I don’t know that I can have her, or if I can keep her, but the thought of my cock in her sweet little cunt makes me hard. When I open the bedroom door, I fully expect her to be ready to make a run for it, but she’s still on the bed where I left her.
She’s made a little nest out of blankets and has curled up. I can see how her feet are sticking out from the covers. Ma did a great job bandaging her up, but I know for a fact that she’s going to hurt like hell for a while. Her feet were raw when we’d found her, and today didn’t help her heal any.
She perks up as I walk across the room to her, but then slips down under the covers a little.
“Everything okay? You look really angry.” Her voice is muffled and I yank the covers back so I can look at her.
Fuck, even cowering from me like this, she’s hot as hell.
Correction: especially cowering from me like this. She’s so sassy that it turns me on a little to know that she’s still a little afraid of me.
I remember what it was like to wrap my hand around her little throat and give it a squeeze until she clawed at me. I love dominating her.
“I am angry. You got the entire family all riled up, Hannah, and your fucking brother tried to kill me, or did you conveniently forget that?” Fuck yeah, I’m angry. I’m angry enough to bend her over and fuck her hard, but I won’t do that in Ma’s house.
Clenching my fists, I breathe deeply. Hannah needs to be punished for this shit. I know that she protected me and killed her brother for me, but we never should have been in that position in the first place.
