by Ella Jade
“Nadia ran into some trouble last night. She was an innocent bystander to one of Franco’s alleged crimes.”
I guess that was an accurate statement since I didn’t see who fired the shots. It could have been the other guy.
“The warehouse job?” Dominick asked. “That was a clusterfuck to say the least.”
“Can you watch your language in front of the lady?” His father glared at him before returning his attention to me. Now I saw the fierceness in his expression. “Exactly how does one become a bystander in such an unfortunate situation?”
“Bad luck?” I pushed the hair from my face as I noticed, from the window, two men walking the perimeter of the property. Bodyguards? “I didn’t mean to see anything.”
“Vincenzo.” Dante looked at his son. “How did you get involved?”
“It was fate?” Vincenzo smiled at me. “Franco was chasing her and I intervened. That’s probably how the police got to the body first. He was occupied with catching her and left before the job was finished.”
“And you had no idea who Franco was?” Dominick asked.
“I did once he caught up with me.” My throat went dry as my head pounded. “I’d recognized him from the news.”
“You happened to run into Vince? By accident? Probably the only guy who could help you out of such a situation.” Dominick stood next to his father. “How incredibly lucky.”
“What are you suggesting?” I may not have been totally forthcoming with why I was at the dock but I had no idea I’d get help from Vincenzo.
“They’re not suggesting anything,” Vincenzo said. “You’re going to help her, right? You have to call Franco off. He was at her apartment this morning.”
“How did he find her?” Dominick asked.
“She dropped her phone last night. He must have traced it.”
“You let her go home after what she saw?” Dante didn’t look pleased. “What were you thinking?”
“It wasn’t his decision.” What year were we in? “I didn’t tell him where I lived. I came to him this morning when I found Franco inside my apartment. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You haven’t told anyone what you saw last night?” Dante asked. “No police? No one?”
“No.” I’d have to be crazy to tell what I saw. “I don’t want to relive that nightmare.”
“What were you doing on the dock?” Dominick was suspicious of me. I heard it in his tone. Recognized it in his expression. “It’s an unusual place to be that time of night.”
“I went for a walk and got turned around.”
“And you ended up in an empty warehouse?”
“I thought someone could tell me how to get back.”
“Hmm...” His brother stared at Vincenzo.
“It doesn’t matter what she was doing there,” Vincenzo defended me. “She needs our help. Dad, will you get her out of this?”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” Dante said with some regret. “It won’t be easy.”
“What?” I jumped up, a twinge of pain irritated my sore knee. “You’re not going to help me?” I looked to Vincenzo. “You said your father could keep me safe. Why did you bring me here if he wasn’t going to help?”
“Nadia.” Dante approached me. “You’re in a lot of trouble. What you saw last night could get you killed. You’re on Franco’s radar. I can keep you safe until we come up with a solution.” He spoke to Vince. “I’ll have Gianni take her to a safe house until I have more information.”
“What? No!” I yelled. “Who is Gianni? Safe house?”
“My brother.” Vince came toward me but I backed away. “That’s probably not the best solution,” he said to his dad. “She can stay with me.”
“No!” I made my way to the door. “I have a life. A business. I can’t go into hiding.”
“It’s us or witness protection, sweetheart.” Dominick blocked the door. “Trust me, you have a better shot with us.”
“Nadia,” Vincenzo said. “He’s right. You have to trust us.”
How could I trust these people? The same kind of people who did what Franco and Antonio did for a living. They hurt people. Ruined lives. Hunted innocent bystanders. Murdered associates.
“Get out of my way.” I pushed past Dominick who was like a solid wall of bricks. He didn’t budge so I pleaded with Vince to let me go. I didn’t have to say a word. He must have read my expression.
“Dominick.” Vincenzo sighed.
Dominick moved out of my way, so I opened the study door and ran down the foyer, not exactly sure where I was headed. I had no phone, no car, and no clothes. We were at the top of a cliff, for fuck sake. I couldn’t go home. I couldn’t call my mother. How was I going to get out of this?
I sat on the chair by the staircase, resting my face in my hands. How much more could I take?
Chapter Five
VINCENZO
What Choice Do I Have?
“Dominick,” I said. “Can you go after her?”
“What do you want me to do with her?”
“Just sit with her until I come out.”
“Something is off with her,” my brother warned. “But I’ll trust your instincts for now.”
“Thank you.” Nadia was hiding something but I believed her when she said Franco was after her. “Why can’t you call off Franco?” I asked my dad. “I know you can’t get involved in their dealings but you have enough history–”
“Don’t go there.” My dad held up his hand. “I wouldn’t want Antonio to come to me if the situation was reversed. If one of my son’s was caught in the middle of a job that would be our business.”
“You would never come after an innocent woman.”
“Are we sure she’s innocent?”
“Why would you say that?”
“The whole thing doesn’t feel right to me. What was she doing there? How did she manage to seek out your help? Too many coincidences. They don’t add up.”
“I’ll admit she’s hiding something but I don’t think it has anything to do with our family. There was no way she could know I’d be at that restaurant last night. She watched a man get killed. She doesn’t trust us. I don’t blame her. We’re cut from the same cloth as Franco.”
“No!” he yelled. “My sons are nothing like that animal.”
“Nadia doesn’t know that. She only knows what she sees in the news. She doesn't belong in this world. For whatever reason we crossed paths last night, and now I have to help her. I need your help to do that.”
“You don’t belong in this world either.”
“I’m already involved.”
“Let Dominick and Gianni handle this. You walk away.”
“I won’t do that to her. I made her come here. I can’t dump her now. I have to be with her. We can go to my place.”
“Why do you have to be the noble son?”
“It’s how you raised me. All of us. We don’t turn our backs on people.”
“No, we don’t.”
“There’s security in my building, and I have Tommy.”
“That won’t be enough if Franco deems her as a threat.” He shook his head. “Like your brother, I trust your instincts. You’re smart but your penthouse isn’t secure. I’ll send you and extra guards to the safe house with her. It’ll only be for a few days until I can figure this out.”
“What’s to figure out?” Given the silent feud going on between my dad and Antonio, I realized how difficult the situation would be to correct. I hated to put my father in this position.
“That doesn’t concern you. I didn’t pay for that Ivy League education for you to get caught up in any of this.”
“I didn’t mean to get involved.”
“Vincenzo, don’t make this personal.”
“Personal?”
“You know what I mean. You have no idea who this woman is and she’s gotten herself in quite the mess. Don’t get any more attached than you already are. Let me figure it out.”
“I
will.”
“You’ll be away from your practice for a few days. I’ll tell your brother Santino to step up in your absence.”
“He hasn’t even passed the bar yet.” Santino was the youngest of us. He’d just finished law school and had been working with me this summer but he wasn’t ready to take my place.
“It doesn’t mean he can’t help you. Run errands and take care of the office. He can manage while you’re away.”
“Tell him to call me and I’ll let him know what’s pressing. I’m going to need my laptop.”
“We’ll get it for you.”
There was a lot to consider. My father was strategic and calculated. He wanted to make sure we weren’t walking into a trap. He also needed to figure out who the dead man was and if there were any connections to Nadia. I had no choice but to let him work it all out. After they cleared her, he would help her and that was all that mattered to me. Now I had to convince that headstrong woman with the unfortunate timing to go into hiding with me.
“There you are.” Nadia got up from the chair in the foyer. “I need you to take me home.”
“She’s a riot.” Dominick laughed. “She doesn’t get that things are no longer normal. She can’t go home without getting killed.”
My brother was right. My family was used to being whisked out of the country when my father’s business got heated. We grew up with guards, we went to private schools that provided the highest security, and we didn’t spend much time outside of this fortress of our home that often. Things had settled down in recent years. My dad had been distancing himself but he would never fully be able to leave such a dangerous life. There were too many enemies. Too much bloodshed. He was privy to too many secrets.
“You can’t go home.” She had to know that. “Not today.”
“Vincenzo, please don’t make me go with your brother.” The fear in her eyes crushed me.
“You’re not.” My father joined us in the foyer. “Vince will take you to the safe house and stay with you.”
“What?” Dominick said. “That’s not a good idea.”
“You and Gianni will keep a close watch on them. I want a full security team in place,” my father instructed. “You vet them personally. If you think we can’t trust them then they aren’t on that team. Are we clear?”
“I’ll call Gianni and we’ll get on it right now. We’ll have the place stocked with everything you need. Text me a list of stuff you can’t live without.”
“How about my life?” Nadia paced the foyer. “I have family, friends, and a business. I can’t walk away from it.”
“What about Vince?” my brother asked. “He’s dropping everything for you. He doesn’t even know you. That’s the kind of person he is. Why don’t you think about that?”
“Dom, it’s okay.” I appreciated the back-up but I understood where Nadia was coming from. She was afraid. I had to assure her it would be okay. “Nadia, it won’t be that long. You can use my phone and call your family. Tell them you’re going on a business trip and you’ll be off the grid. Square things away with your company but don’t tell anyone where you are or who you’re with.”
“I don’t even know where I’m going.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “How is this going to work?”
“Just trust me, okay?” I stroked her cheek, catching my father’s disapproval out of the corner of my eye. “In a few days this will all be over.”
“What choice do I have?”
“You’re out of options,” Dominick said.
My brother was right.
NADIA
Two hours later we were in the woods. A secluded house nestled far from anything and anyone. A few days. I could do this. Dominick and Dante were skeptical of me. I couldn’t blame them. I was hiding my identity but under the circumstances it was best if no one ever figured out who I was. I shouldn’t have been able to figure it out.
Tommy opened the door for me, so I slipped out of the SUV.
“It’s all going to be fine,” he assured me. “This place is a little slice of heaven. You’ll see.”
“Except I’m not on vacation.”
Vincenzo joined me by the front steps.
“The porch is cozy.” I gazed around the property. Maybe Tommy was right. “This place is beautiful.”
“I know you don’t want to be here.”
“I’ll just pretend it’s a weekend getaway.” A serene home in the woods and a gorgeous guy to spend it with. What could go wrong?
“That’s the spirit. I could use a vacation.” He headed up the steps. “Do you want to see the inside?”
“Sure.” I winced when I climbed the steps.
“What’s wrong?” He came back down, looking me over.
“I twisted my knee last night when I was running away. It’s been sore all day but I’m fine.” The last thing I wanted to do was sound like a whiny complainer. Like Dominick said, Vincenzo put his whole life on hold for me.
“You don’t look fine.” He scooped me up in his arms and carried me up the steps.
“What are you doing?” I asked as Tommy concealed a smile when he opened the door for us.
“Getting you off your feet.”
“This isn’t necessary.” He brought me through the door and into the house. “Wow.” I glanced around while he hurried me into the family room. “No one lives here?”
“No.”
“It’s incredible.” When he set me on the couch, he propped my leg up under the throw pillows. I admired the open-concept floor plan that boasted the biggest kitchen I’d ever seen. State-of-the-art everything. My mother, who loved to cook, would go all Julia Child in there.
“Let’s take a look at that knee.” He rolled my pant leg up. “It’s swollen.”
“I need to rest it.”
“I’ll get you some ice.”
“You don’t have to be so kind to me.” I tried to get up but he placed his arm on my shoulder, keeping me in a seated position. “I’ve disrupted your life. Yesterday we didn’t even know one another and now today we’re living together. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“You’ve been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours. My family will figure out a way to fix this but in the meantime, let me take care of you.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to.”
“Ice would be appreciated.” I slipped the rubber band from my hair and shook out my bun. “Maybe a shower too.”
“I’ll show you to your room after I get the ice and some aspirin,” he said. “Dominick has stocked the fridge and Gianni made sure we have clothes and toiletries.”
“They work fast.”
“When you come to this place, you don’t get much notice.”
“I guess this is all commonplace for you.”
“Not really.” His strong frame and muscular body made him appear harder but there was a tenderness to him. One that I wished I’d get to see more of but when this was over I’d be staying far away from his world. “I’m sure you’ve read books and seen movies about families like mine. Some of it is true but other things are greatly exaggerated. I’ve gone to great lengths to distance myself from my father’s business.”
“That must have been difficult.”
“My parents wanted that for me. My mother didn’t want any of us involved but Dom and Gianni are so much like my dad that it couldn’t be helped. No matter what impression you have of us, we are not like Franco. My family has a code, morals, and loyalty. We’re nothing like the Collandras.”
“Isn’t there anything redeeming about them?” Did I really come from such an evil stock?
“Nothing I’ve ever seen.”
“Oh.” A sinking sensation settled inside my chest.
“You don’t have to worry.” When he reassuringly smiled, his eyes didn’t appear as dark. “Once this is over, you’ll never have to see them again.”
I hope you’re right.
Chapter Six
VINCENZO
How
Far Was I Willing To Take This?
After getting Nadia settled in for the night, I logged onto my laptop. I had a few contracts I had to look over and some emails to respond to. A few days in the woods wasn’t such a bad thing. I’d been so busy these past few months that I hadn’t taken anytime for myself. I needed to find the balance. I couldn’t even remember the last time I was on a date. Not that anyone had piqued my interest. Well, not until last night.
When Nadia stumbled into my arms, there was an instant attraction. One I hadn’t thought about all day. We’d been preoccupied with keeping her away from Franco. In the quiet of the moment, I had time to reflect. She was afraid. How couldn’t she be? But under that fear, there was a strong woman. I hoped I could get to know her better once this ordeal was over.
“Well, he’s not in bed with her, so that’s a good thing.” Dominick came into the house from the back patio.
“Not yet.” Gianni laughed. “But if she’s as hot as you say she is.”
“You did buy her underwear.” Dominick snickered.
So much for reflection time. “What are you two doing here?”
“Protecting you.” Dominick took his gun from the back of his pants and set it on the coffee table before taking a seat next to me.
“We have guards that do that,” I reminded him.
“Dad wanted us to check in,” Gianni said. “But we’re not protecting you from Franco.”
“You’re not?”
“I hear the damsel in distress is enticing.” Gianni plopped down on the chair across from us. “Where is she?”
“In bed.” Had my father really sent them to make sure I wasn’t having sex?
“Too bad.” Gianni glanced up at the staircase. “I wanted to meet her.”
“She had a long day.” What she’d witnessed was something that no one should ever have to endure. “She has no business being caught up in this.”
“Dad is running a full investigation on her,” Dominick informed me. “I thought you should know before you get too close to her.”
