by Kate Stewart
“Rocco, what a surprise.”
His eyes narrowed as he stood, his arms crossed. “You are already dead, whore.”
“Nice to see you too.” I gave him a wink as I turned and wiped my hands on the waiting linen. “Can I buy you a drink?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a text before he lasered his focus on me. I gripped my bag as casually as I could right before he snatched me by the hair.
“It disgusts me he was going to go legitimate for you.”
Shock filled me, and I winced as he pressed me against the wall with a hate-filled face.
“You have done nothing but bring ruin to our family.”
“Your family?” I spit out with pure contempt. “Not what I heard. I heard you were an orphan.”
He slammed my head into the tile wall as I pressed the Glock I’d already gripped to his crotch.
Ignoring the throb at the back of my head, I dug into him. “You started this fight motherfucker and I’m about to end it.”
Rocco laughed despite the gun firmly pressed to his dick.
“You have no idea how wrong you are.”
“I’m pretty sure I have the upper hand at the moment. Turn around and open the door.”
“I don’t think so.” Rocco smiled and leaned in. “How is your sister?”
In a split second, the butt of my gun connected with his chin before I pressed it to his temple. Rocco leaned in with zero restraint or fear of my itchy trigger finger. “I could have her dead by morning.”
“Fuck you!”
His laughter echoed throughout the bathroom. “You think killing me will fix your problems, cagna? They have only just begun.”
“What the fuck did I ever do to you?”
“You exist. We had him close, and then he dreams of a life making puppies with you.”
“Close to what?” Rocco grabbed the barrel of my gun, and it took everything in me not to pull the trigger.
Rocco feigned a sigh, “It doesn’t matter. Daniello will do what he must.”
Against my better judgment, I pleaded with him. “My sister is innocent, Rocco. She knows nothing. Jesus Christ, I know nothing!” I gripped his hand and placed my gun inside of it. “Take me somewhere. Let’s end this.”
Rocco barked out another laugh before he took a step back and spit a mouth full of blood on the floor between us. “I could shoot you now and have the busboy clean the blood from my shoes. Like I said, whore, you are already dead. And I will not have to lift a finger.” He watched my face twist as he took another jab. “You are now the price he has to pay. And make no mistake, he will pay it.”
He let the gun drop from his hand. “You keep your toy. You need it more than I do.”
He pulled the door open and walked out without a backward glance. Even with me in Barga, my sister wasn’t safe. I pulled out my cell phone.
Cedric answered on the first ring.
“Taylor.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes. I’m with her now.”
“Cedric, don’t let her out of your sight.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
I paced the bathroom and shoved my Glock back into my purse. My voice was hoarse as I admitted my worst fear. “She’s not safe, no matter what I do. You are being watched.”
“I won’t leave her side, Taylor. What the fuck happened!?”
“I don’t know.”
“Taylor, talk to me.”
“I’m fine. Nothing happened. Cedric, just keep her safe. It’s time for a Hail Mary. I need you to promise me.”
“Goddamnit, Taylor. I won’t. That’s a promise.”
“No matter what?”
“Taylor, please tell me his name.”
I shook my head, unwilling to bring him into the crosshairs. He already knew too much. “We both knew I wasn’t going to live through this. Take care of my family. I love you.”
I hung up as I sank against the wall.
“Taylor?” Gian was at the door.
“I’ll be right there.”
Mustering up all my strength to keep it together, I pulled my dress back into place and ran my hands through my hair. I reapplied my lipstick and met Gian at the bar. “Where is Omero?”
“His wife called. He had to return home.” He gave me a sly grin as he handed me a whiskey. Apparently, there had been a conversation between the two men and Gian wanted to claim his prize. I gulped down the drink and ordered another.
“Are you okay?” Gian resumed his grip around my waist, and I nodded. I was anything but okay. I was terrified to walk out the door, unable to think about anything but an impending fight I had no chance of winning. I tossed the whiskey back and let it burn.
If I ended up buried in Barga that night, there was no guarantee that my sister wouldn’t suffer the same fate. That fear kept me planted as I tried to think of a way out of it.
But there wasn’t a way out. I still had no idea what I was dealing with. And if Rocco hadn’t bothered with the opportunity to take me out, there was only one other person that would do it.
The rest of my hope sank inside of me like a heavy stone drifting into the dark depths of Mediterranean. I was no closer to saving my family even as I sat as a sacrificial lamb for slaughter.
I needed to relocate. I needed to grab the rest of my ammo. I had to figure it out. I pushed away my drink and turned to Gian, who watched me carefully.
“Gian, take me to my hotel?”
Gian threw some bills on the bar and leaned in close, his tone low. “Show me the way.”
Outside the bar, a step from the door, he made a sudden move to press me to the brick wall in an attempt to kiss me, and I refused him. He was a smoke screen, and I’d got the attention I sought out, but looking at Gian’s eager face, it was an easy decision. I’d been selfish with people’s lives long enough.
“Actually, Gian, I’m not feeling well. I’ll see myself to the hotel. Goodnight.”
“Oh, woman, you cannot do this to me now.” He was all smiles, eager and ready for the chase as I opened the driver door and sat in my seat. He blocked my attempt to close it as he leaned in to save what would never happen. Daniello had made me a monogamous woman.
Bastard.
Determined to get the poor man out of harm’s way, I opened my mouth to speak and felt a whoosh of air.
Before I knew what was happening, Daniello had him pinned to the hood, his hands wrapped around his neck, his face twisted in rage. “Leave now, and I will spare your life.”
Gian screeched in terror as I pulled my Glock from my purse and pointed my Glock at Daniello’s temple.
“Let him go.”
“Do not test me, Taylor.” I watched Daniello, his eyes trained on Gian—the same eyes that I saw that day in Florida.
Guns meant shit to these men.
Gian’s eyes flitted between us as he choked under a death grip. I lowered my gun.
“Okay, just let him go, please.” Daniello gripped the hand Gian had on his shirt and I heard the crack of bones before he screamed.
“Stop!”
He released him abruptly, and Gian gave no fight as he bounced off the car and made a beeline for the safety of the bar. Daniello turned to me, a picture of darkness.
“Get in the fucking car.”
Sirens sounded in the distance as I weighed my options. Daniello came toward me, a flash of lightning. Thirty seconds later, we were speeding away from the bar.
Daniello was excruciatingly silent as we rode out of town toward his villa. I made peace with fate as I tried to appeal to the man who once cared for me.
“Please don’t let them hurt Amber. Please, Daniello. Call them off! She doesn’t know anything. They don’t even know your name!”
Daniello sped up and into his driveway then slid to a stop, forcing us both forward.
“I’m begging you. If I mean anything to you at all, don’t let them hurt her. You know I know nothing!”
He slammed his hand o
n the dash and killed the running car as he turned toward me with dark eyes.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done by coming here?!” I moved to get out of the hatchback, but he gripped my wrist. I slapped him hard as he took all the air out of the space between us with his roar. “Do you know what you’ve done, Taylor?!”
“What I’ve done?! How could you let him hurt her! How could you let him come after me!”
I escaped the car before he could reach for me. He got out on the opposite side, peering at me in shock. It separated us enough that I was able to let my anger fly.
“You horrible bastard! How could you let him hurt me this way! After everything . . .” I let my tears fall as my anger consumed me. “You were too much of a coward to do it yourself, and your fucking dog shot my sister!”
Daniello studied me with confusion as I crumbled in front of him. “So finish this, but do it yourself, you bastard, because I can’t live with this.” I gripped my hands to my chest. “But you tell them to leave my Amber out of it!”
Daniello stood deathly still as he spoke. “Taylor—”
“God, I should have known I wouldn’t matter. Why am I so damn stupid when it comes to you? I’ll make it easy for you.” I leaned in the car, pulled the purse from the seat, and aimed my gun at my temple. “Tell me you will spare her life, and I will pull the trigger right now.”
Daniello flinched in front of the headlights. “Taylor! Stop!”
“No.” I shook my head as he moved toward me and pressed the ready gun into my skin. My body racked with sobs. I was hysterical as he inched toward me, and I took a step away. “If you wanted to destroy me, you’ve done it. I’m a woman with no control. I’ve lost everything. And I would do anything for her. Anything! Promise me!”
His words came out in a low rush. “I cannot make that promise.”
I crumbled as I tapped the gun against my head in frustration.
“Then I won’t give you a goddamned easy way out,” I said before I threw the gun at his feet. “Do it yourself.”
In three angry strides, he was in front of me. His hands gripped my face. “You think I would kill you, Taylor? You think I would do this to you? To Amber?”
I sobbed as he gripped me tightly. “I could never hurt you.”
“Liar!”
“Phoenix, believe me.”
Overwhelmed and exhausted, I gripped his shoulders as I sank into the darkness.
I gripped my phone as I watched her sleep. “I want a meeting. Now.”
“Ah, cousin, are you happy to have returned to your present? I would have delivered it myself, but she was busy whoring at the bar. I thought it was far better you saw her true colors.”
“You will die for this, Rocco.”
“You cannot touch me, cousin. You forget you have your mother’s name for protection. That name is the only reason she is still breathing. His orders.”
“Meeting. Now,” I seethed.
“Perhaps tomorrow after the party. That would work best. I have ordered a special doll.”
“You have gone too far.”
“But you will bend now, won’t you, cousin?” I threw the phone against the wall and Taylor shot up from the bed. Her face paled as she took in her surroundings and her eyes found mine.
I was the first to speak. “I did not know. I did not know.”
“I don’t care anymore.” She lay back down and turned to face away from me. “We probably should have died in that house in Dyer anyway.”
I moved my mother’s old sewing chair next to my bed. Taylor kept her eyes on the floor. “I would not hurt you this way, Phoenix.”
Taylor’s eyes closed as she sank into the bed. “I’m tired of the fight. I’m just tired. Surviving shouldn’t be this hard.” Her face twisted as she touched the back of her head.
“You are hurt.” I moved to inspect her as she spit her venom. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me.” My chest ripped open as she glared in my direction. “My mother beat me over half of my life. I can handle a bump on my head.”
Her words struck me hard as I gripped the chair next to me. “Broom handles, anything that was close. She damned near killed me with a can of Lysol. But Amber—” she closed her eyes as she confessed her deepest hurt “—she tore her apart. She doesn’t deserve the life she was born into. She was so little,” she choked out as she kept her cries inside.
I scrubbed my face as she gripped the pillow beneath her. The fiery woman I met was breaking in front of me. “Don’t look away from me, Amon,” she snapped. “I’m showing you who I am. Not so fucking pretty, now, am I? Not so alluring. Did you know I was a whore?”
“Stop.”
She met my eyes. “I was a whore for a wealthy man to ensure I had a place to sleep while my sister was beaten.”
“No more,” I growled before I stood to look out the window next to her.
“He used me and threw me away like trash. Because make no mistake, lover, that’s what I am. Rocco was right.”
“Stop! Right now, stop!” I clenched my fists beside her.
“I really should start believing people when they tell me who they are. But I think it’s because I have been a liar for so long. I’m not powerful. I’m not strong. I’m a chicken shit. But I guess it doesn’t matter.” Her phone buzzed in her purse on the bedside table. She didn’t even glance that way as she looked at me, her eyes void of soul. “This body is a lie. It’s a shell.”
“Phoenix.”
“I wanted you so much, I buried myself.” She laughed without humor. “That’s my addiction: beautiful men without souls.” Despair of the worst kind filled my body as she gave up on me. “How could I convince you to love me when I have no fucking idea who I am?”
“Phoenix—”
“You don’t have to love me. But I’m asking you to save me. For the first time in my life, I’m asking a man to save me. I’m begging you, Daniello, finish this. Finish me.”
I knelt by her side, my eyes intent on hers. “I would never harm you, Taylor.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Her phone buzzed again, and I searched her purse then answered the call.
“Taylor?” The voice on the end of the line was that of a man destroyed.
“Cedric. She is safe. She is with me.”
“Goddamn you, man. I swear to God if you hurt her—”
Taylor looked up at me with no sign of hope as I spoke. “She will be home soon.”
“Put her on the phone.”
“She cannot talk.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you in a few hours.”
My patience ran out. “Do not threaten me, bald man. You should not have let her come.”
“Really? Have you met the woman? How the fuck was I supposed to stop her? Call your goddamned dogs off. I just stuffed my trunk with two.”
“I will work on that.”
“I’m not letting this go until I hear her voice. You aren’t the only motherfucker with friends overseas.”
I did the only thing I could do to try to convince them both. “My name is Amon Daniello Stamatio Di Giovanni. I will not let any harm come to her or Amber. I will keep them safe. I promise on my life.”
Taylor’s eyes held mine as she sat up on the bed and grabbed the phone before she spoke softly. “It’s almost over.” She glanced at me warily and without trust. “It’s almost over, Cedric.”
She ended the call and handed it to me. “Your move, lover.”
She turned over as her body shook silently in my bed before her breath went shallow and her shoulders stopped moving.
“Taylor.”
I opened my eyes to see Daniello towering over me, his face etched with hours of lost sleep. “I need you to dress.”
He pulled out my suitcase he must have retrieved from my hotel. I glanced down at it and turned over in his bed, staring out his iron-covered bay window at the statue in the center of his large patio. It was filled with dancing angels, and the water trickled do
wn their joyful faces.
“Why am I still alive?”
“I never would have harmed you.”
“Lie.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed. “I threatened you to keep you safe and from asking questions.”
“I don’t care.”
He gripped my shoulder and turned me to face him. “It is truth. I had to convince Rocco I had no feelings for you. I failed.” He pulled at my hand until I stood in front of him and snapped the spaghetti straps of my dress before he pulled it off of me. Still sitting on the bed, his eyes roamed my body as he pulled me toward him and buried his head in my stomach. My hands lay lax at my sides.
“Forgive me, Phoenix.”
Naked and raw, I looked down as he gripped me tightly to him. “I have ruined us both.”
“Just do it, Daniello.”
“No,” he snapped as he looked up at me. “No.” He placed a soft kiss against my stomach.
“Rocco told me you would be the one to kill me. What the fuck are you waiting for!?” I pushed at his shoulders as he gripped me tighter.
“Don’t lie to me anymore. Don’t be such a goddamned coward. Don’t drag this out!”
He stood and lifted me, carrying us into the bathroom as I fumed. He started the shower and brought us both in.
“You think fucking me is going to make this go away?! I hate you!”
Daniello pulled off his T-shirt and jeans as I glared at him from under the running water.
He remained mute as he washed his hair and then mine. I pulled away from him and soaped my own body as he watched.
