Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4)

by Bethany-Kris

  Had the Outfit ever really felt like those things?

  Abriella couldn’t remember a time when it had without some sort of underlying issue causing problems, but it could be like that. She knew it could. Her friends, her family, and the lives they were starting was proof that it could be better. They wanted it to be better.

  It could be happy.

  “Dad,” Abriella said, never taking her eyes off her work.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m not happy, but I want to be.”

  “I know, Ella.”

  “Tommy.”

  “Hey, Ella.”

  Tommas’ voice was a soothing balm to Abriella’s tired heart. After being cornered by the detectives at her college the day before, she had been on edge ever since. When she arrived back to her wing of the mansion, she found Joel gone. According to the cook, Joel said he had business to do and didn’t offer any information about when he would be back.

  Abriella took the chance to call Tommas with the mansion’s home phone. She still hadn’t gotten her burner phone back from Tommas after forgetting it and her text book in his car.

  “It was my mother,” Tommas said.

  Abriella’s brow furrowed at his random statement. “What?”

  “My mother—she was the one who gave the info about our relationship to the officials.”

  “Are you sure?”

  That didn’t sound right to her. Serena Rossi was a vile woman, to be sure, but turning rat on her own son seemed low even for her. Not to mention, what good would it do for people to know that Tommas had been in a long-term relationship of sorts with Abriella?

  Other than to piss off Joel, that was.

  “Positive,” Tommas finally replied. “I took care of it. Don’t worry about that nonsense. Joel hasn’t given you back your cell?”

  Abriella scowled. “No.”

  “It’s been a couple months since he took it.”

  “I know. But Joel left this morning to do business. Or that was the message he left behind about where he was going. No one is here but me and the cook. Dad is in the other wing.”

  “How’s Peter doing?”

  “Terribly.”

  Tommas hummed a sad sound. “I’m sorry, Ella. I tried to stop it once I knew your mother was—”

  “I know you did, Tommy.”

  And that, more than anything, meant the world to Abriella. Just the fact that Tommas had his plans for Joel set in stone; the fact that he could have had the seat as the boss, and he attempted to call it off to keep her mother from possibly being hurt in the process meant everything.

  He tried.

  He hadn’t meant to hurt Abriella.

  Tommas proved he would have given up what was right at the tips of his fingers if it meant that Abriella wouldn’t have lost her mother.

  “I know you tried, Tommy,” Abriella said again.

  “Still kills me,” Tommas murmured.

  “Talk about something else, hmm?”

  “I’m buying a new restaurant this week.”

  Abriella laughed. “Why?”

  “I’ve been looking at a specific one for a while, but I’ve gone back and forth on whether the risk and cost of opening was worth the price. I thought you might like a seafood place or something.”

  “Maybe.”

  “But that’s not the only reason I’m buying it,” he admitted.

  “Why are you being strange, Tommy?”

  “I’m always strange, Ella. Nonetheless, I need a restaurant that is untouched and unknown by your brother. He called me early in the morning—too early, frankly. He wants a sit-down.”

  Abriella’s head snapped up at those words. “You can’t be serious.”

  “As a heart attack. I don’t trust him, but he’s given me control of all the planning for it and how it should go down. He’s agreeable as long as I let him have his men check mine when we arrive. He suggested something …”

  “Tell me.”

  “The Outfit, Ella. He suggested we split the Outfit between us.”

  Abriella’s heart stopped dead in her chest. “Split … Like two bosses?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But—”

  “He made it sound good,” Tommas cut in quickly. “As if that’s what would be the best thing. Joel made it seem like he didn’t want this feud to continue, because there might not be a damn thing left standing when it’s done. And he’s got a point. A good one, Abriella.”

  “Sure,” she admitted, though it left a bad taste in her mouth.

  “He’s playing on it. He’s toying with it, and he wants me to believe it.”

  “But you don’t.”

  “Of course not.”

  Abriella’s heart started beating again as relief washed through her bloodstream. Tommas was not a stupid man. Joel liked to play his manipulative games, but Tommas could see those manipulations coming long before it could hurt him in some way.

  “What is my brother planning?” Abriella asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tommas said. “What I do know, however, is that this might be a chance for me to finish it. Somehow, I don’t know. I want to be careful with everything.”

  “Yeah, I get that.”

  “Especially with me and you.”

  Abriella stilled on the spot, and she clutched the cordless phone tighter. “What in the hell does that mean?”

  “It means that I’m going to keep a distance for the next little while. Just until I get wind of what Joel might be planning. Call me if it’s safe, or if you can. But I won’t be showing up like I have been over these last couple of months. I don’t want to risk it. As it is, the detectives have information about us. Unfounded right now, sure, but what if that gets out?”

  Abriella shuddered. “It won’t.”

  “It could,” Tommas pressed. “I have to stay away for a while.”

  Her heart cracked all over again.

  “But … I don’t get to see you as it is. Not enough.”

  “I’m sorry, baby. In a few years, once this is all said and done, maybe you’ll wake up one day and wish that you didn’t have to see my face as much as you do. When that happens, I will remind you of this. Sound good?”

  “No,” Abriella said sadly.

  “It won’t be for long.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do,” Tommas said, so confident, smooth, and sure. “Because your brother started the ball rolling on something. Joel, like he always has, plans and plans until he’s ready for action. He’s clearly ready. Keep an eye and an ear out for me, okay?”

  “You know I will.”

  “Loyal like nobody else,” Tommas said, chuckling. “I love you, Ella.”

  Abriella smiled. “I love you, too, Tommy.”

  “No crazy stunts, right?”

  “I promise. Hey, about your mother?”

  “What about her?”

  The coldness in his tone shocked Abriella, but she brushed it aside.

  “You’re positive it was her that talked to the detectives?” she asked.

  “Yeah, baby. No doubt. She’s been doing it since my dad died. In her mind, it was payback for what I had done to her.”

  That was just … sickening.

  “And how did you handle her?”

  Tommas rattled off a television station. “Watch the news. I have to go. Nate is waiting to take me to the lawyer’s office to sign some paperwork. He’s fucking impatient.”

  Abriella didn’t want to hang up, but this was their reality. It sucked sometimes, but mostly, it was wonderful.

  She was tired of hiding.

  “Okay. Be careful, Tommas.”

  Tommas laughed darkly. “I don’t know how to be anything else, Ella.”

  After hanging up the phone, Abriella grabbed the remote for the television and turned the flat screen on. She perched on the edge of the couch as she flicked through the satellite channels to find the one that Tommas had mentioned. The moment she found it, she knew something was w
rong.

  Abriella watched, fascinated and horrified, as a stretcher was rolled out of a familiar house. The news report flashed back and forth between the reporter on the case, the surrounding images, and the anchors back at the station.

  There was only one person who could be the one being wheeled out of that house, dead in the body bag. It was surreal. The more the reporter talked, the sicker Abriella felt. He’d handled it. That’s what Tommas said.

  Abriella knew how much her lover despised his mother. He’d told her stories of his past, the abuse and the addiction; he explained the neglect and the pain.

  Could he have done this?

  Did Tommas kill his mother?

  The middle-aged female reporter flashed back on the screen. “Serena Rossi, now deceased, was the longtime wife of Outfit member, Laurent Rossi. Laurent’s death months ago has been under an active investigation when the man suffered a gunshot wound pointblank to the face. His wife was sleeping upstairs, although the investigators cleared her of any suspicion in her husband’s murder.

  “We’re just being told now that cause of death is likely suicide, although the investigators refuse to give more information on exactly how Serena Rossi took her own life,” the reporter continued. “We do know that the body was found in the upstairs bathroom and that the house was locked and empty as it usually is when the maid comes to clean. It is possible that this death is in no way related to Laurent’s, or the current issues the Outfit has been facing with the street war happening between influential families. We will keep you updated as this breaking news develops.”

  Abriella turned off the television. She didn’t need to know more.

  This was more than enough.

  The rest of the day passed Abriella by in silence. Well, it felt that way. She heard nothing from Tommas. Her father had left the mansion after their breakfast together without a word. Even her brother had come home, went to his office without stopping to talk to her, and thankfully, left Abriella alone.

  Unfortunately, Joel still managed to wrangle Abriella in for a meal at the table with him. Like it always had been, the dinner was awkward and thick with tension.

  “Leave us for a minute,” she heard her brother say.

  Abriella looked up from her plate. She found it easier to focus on the food being served and eating than she did trying to strike up some kind of awful conversation with her brother. Talking with Joel never ended well.

  With a nod, the cook placed the chicken dish on the table and scurried from the dining room.

  “And you, Darryl,” Joel added. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

  The enforcer sitting at the middle of the table between the siblings had been coming around to the house a lot more often. Mostly, the guy left Abriella alone unless she was out of the house for school. Then, he was on her ass like he was her new best friend.

  “I could use a smoke before supper, I guess,” the enforcer said.

  “Ten minutes at the most,” Joel replied. “We should be done by then.”

  Done what?

  Confused, Abriella watched the enforcer leave the room. Joel plucked up the napkin resting beside his plate, flicked it open, and tossed it over his lap. His casual nature and calm expression almost lulled Abriella into the idea that her brother might be in a good mood.

  Almost.

  She didn’t trust Joel enough to relax around him.

  “I wanted to give you a decent forewarning about what will be coming in the next couple of weeks,” Joel stated.

  Abriella arched a brow, choosing to wade into the conversation carefully. “Oh? What’s happening?”

  “A sit-down between Tommas Rossi and me. Actually, the majority of the Outfit will be invited, or the people who matter the most, anyway. Tommas and I, well, we’ve decided to come to a truce of sorts. Or that’s how it seems.”

  Nothing about this little chat felt right to Abriella. She allowed her brother to continue.

  “You see, Tommas asked for something at the last sit-down,” Joel said.

  Abriella swallowed back the nervousness tightening in her throat. “He asked for a marriage to be arranged between him and I, right?”

  “He did. Guarantee was the word he used.”

  “So?”

  Joel’s gaze snapped up, cutting into Abriella with a fierce knowing. “So, it started the ball rolling for me. It made me wonder why a man like Tommas, so intent and focused on his desire to become the boss, would offer something as crazy as giving up the seat in exchange for a guarantee like a marriage. Not just any marriage, mind you, but one to my sister.”

  Abriella’s hands balled into tight fists on her lap. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at, Joel.”

  “When did you catch the man’s eye?”

  “I haven’t—”

  “Before you think to lie, don’t bother. I simply want you to tell me when you caught Tommas Rossi’s attention, Abriella.”

  Abriella wet her lips, considering her words. “I don’t know when.”

  “But he is interested.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I told you why,” Joel said, his jaw tightening. “The ball began to roll, and I followed it. There are rumors in the Outfit of Tommas’ involvement with a woman that he keeps on the low. The night his vehicle was caught up in that unfortunate bomb, it is highly likely that a woman was with him. I had people ask around, but no one had a clear answer for me. And now …”

  “What now, Joel?”

  “Now, with his mother showing up dead this afternoon, it makes a person wonder. Especially considering her death was an apparent suicide, yet the officials are all over that like flies on shit. That’s all.”

  “You’re talking me in circles, Joel.”

  “It’s not nice to be left out of the loop, is it, Ella?” her brother asked scathingly.

  Abriella felt the familiar drip of dread fall down her spine. “What am I missing?”

  “You had visitors while you were at school. Again, I guess. That’s what they explained to Darryl when he stopped them from accosting you. He couldn’t say for sure if they had gotten past him later in the day as the halls were full of people during your class switches.”

  Air caught painfully in her throat.

  “The detectives, you mean?” she asked.

  Joel nodded once. “Yes, them. They wouldn’t say very much to Darryl, but when I went in to find out why my sister had suddenly become such an interest to police detectives, imagine my surprise to find out they believed you to be in a relationship with Tommas Rossi.”

  “I—”

  “I had already started to go back through some things before this, you see,” Joel interrupted, cocking a brow.

  The sight alone made Abriella wince. It felt like violence and Joel’s tone rang of rage.

  “Like what?” she dared to ask.

  “Phone records, for one. Being in control of the account for your cell phone allows me that privilege. You seemed to make a lot of calls to a number I don’t recognize.”

  Abriella chewed on her inner cheek, refusing to give Joel a reaction. “So?”

  “I called it early this morning. Guess who picked up?”

  A sting radiated over Abriella’s eyes, but she fought the tears for all she was worth.

  “Tommas,” she said.

  “Yes. I offered a sit-down the moment he picked up. He didn’t even realize that I had called his private cell phone, and not his home. That forewarning,” Joel said sharply, making Abriella wince. “I think you should know it now.”

  Abriella struggled for words, and thoughts. This had been a very real possibility that Joel would get word of what the officials knew about her and Tommas. She almost expected it to come out, despite Tommas wanting them to keep a distance from one another and be careful.

  Sometimes, you just couldn’t be careful enough.

  “What do you want, Joel?” Abriella asked.

  “When this sit-down happens, I’m going to give
Tommas exactly what he wants.”

  Abriella blinked, stunned. “The marriage?”

  “Yes.” Impassive and unreadable, Joel watched Abriella like she might bolt at any minute. “And you will happily go along with whatever is arranged. You will keep quiet, you will be agreeable, and you will somehow manage to keep that mouth of yours shut about what I know.”

  “But … why?”

  “Because this is how it needs to be,” Joel said frankly.

  Abriella was so confused that it wasn’t even funny. “How what needs to be, Joel?”

  “The Outfit, of course. And let me be very clear on something, Ella. If you can’t manage to do those four very simple things for me, then I have no problem with finishing this feud out in an entirely different way. You see, if Tommas has been stupid enough to be messing around with you, then you have also been dumb enough to play around with him. He’s not the only one who cares between the two of you. So, you’ll do as I ask, and you’ll do it well, or I will finish it.”

  Nothing about what her brother just said made sense. Tommas was right, Abriella realized. Joel was planning something. The bigger problem was that no one knew what exactly his plans were. That made things all the more dangerous.

  “Why?” Abriella asked again.

  “I already told you.”

  This is how it needs to be …

  Tommas wouldn’t give up the boss’s seat. Abriella knew it. Joel had to know it, too. Her brother wouldn’t give up what he wanted, either. For Abriella, that could only mean one thing.

  Joel was going to make his final move.

  But what was it?

  “Oh, and Ella?”

  Abriella slammed back into reality with a bang. Her brother smiled coldly at her from the other end of the table.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “To make sure you follow my rules, since you’re so damned good at breaking them, and to guarantee this conversation of ours doesn’t get out before the sit-down happens, you won’t be leaving the house.”

  Abriella stiffened in the chair. “At all?”

  “No actually, you won’t be leaving the upstairs wing. You have all you need up there, after all. The cook can bring you food. As we speak, Darryl is removing all the phones, computers, and whatever else might let you contact someone. Think of it as a timeout. A moment to get your priorities straight and think about what you really want, Ella.”