by K. M. Scott
As long as I believed I’d protected her, I could die with some sense of peace.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nina
No matter how hard I tugged my arm, I couldn’t break Varo’s hold on me. I had no idea where he was taking me, and with each step away from Tristan, I feared I’d never see the man I loved again. I tried once more unsuccessfully to yank my arm free from his hand around my wrist, but he pulled me harder down walkway, hurrying me to some unknown place.
“Varo, you’re hurting me! Let me go! We need to go back to help Tristan.”
“We’re going to the plane. He’ll meet us there,” he said coldly.
I stopped walking, forcing him to drag me. “No! I won’t go without Tristan.”
For the first time since we left Accademia Bridge, Varo stopped walking and turned to face me. “Nina, I gave him my word that I’d keep you safe. That’s what I’m doing.”
“I don’t care what he made you sign when he hired you. That means nothing to me. We need to go back to help him.”
“I can’t let you do that. This has nothing to do with anything I signed for a job. He asked me before you left to come here to promise that I’d protect you if he couldn’t. I made that promise, Nina. You just have to trust that he’ll be okay.”
I hung my head in frustration. “He’s not going to be okay. Karl’s going to kill him. Why don’t you see that?”
“I can’t help that. I have a job to do, so let’s go.”
There had to be a way to get through to him. I knew he wasn’t the heartless bastard he seemed to be at that moment. That sweet guy who’d helped me when I didn’t think I could pretend to move on had to be in there somewhere.
“Gage, I know this is more than a job to you. You’re a good guy. I believe that in my heart. Please help me save Tristan. He needs us.”
“Nina, I can’t. Tristan needed to be sure you’d be safe. Just trust that he’ll be okay.”
I couldn’t fight him like this. “Do you understand what it’s like to be so in love with someone that you don’t feel like you can go on without them?”
He looked away and said in a low voice, “Don’t.”
“It’s like if they’re not in the world anymore, you don’t want to be either. Like if you lose that part of you, you’ll never be whole again.”
I saw by the look in those dark blue eyes that I was getting to him. He knew what it felt like to lose someone from when he lost Angela. It was a shitty thing to do, but I needed to manipulate that soft spot in his heart if I ever expected to get him to help me.
“Tell me you wouldn’t have given anything to save Angela if someone was trying to kill her. I know you would.”
“Nina, it’s not the same thing.”
“Yes, it is! You loved her, and if she was ever in danger, you would have given your life to save hers. How is that different from this? I’m not asking you to sacrifice yourself, but don’t tell me it’s wrong for me to do. I love Tristan more than I ever thought I could love anyone. Just help me find him. Please.”
He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. “I can’t let you get hurt, and I have no idea how we can help him. I don’t even know where they took him.”
The thought of Tristan already dead and floating face down in a side canal somewhere made my chest hurt. He might be dead already, but I had to try to find him. I had to save him, if I could. “There has to be a way for us to find him, Gage. He needs us. Please. There’s got to be a way.”
Gage was silent for a long time before he shook his head once again. “I can’t think of anything, Nina. They could be anywhere in Venice.”
His grip loosened, and I tore my arm from his hold. “I can’t give up on him. He needs me now, and I won’t just leave him. Don’t worry. Your conscience is clear. You did what you could, but I won’t go with you.”
Turning, I set off running toward the bridge, unsure of where to find Tristan but sure I’d never give up until I did. I heard Gage yell my name and then I felt his hand on my arm again. “No! Let me go!”
“I remembered something, Nina. There might be a way to find out where he is. Just stop so we can check.”
He held me tightly, giving me little chance to run, so I stopped trying to escape. “Tell me what it is and how we do it.”
Gage reached into his pocket and in seconds he was on the phone. “Daryl, they got him. We need to know where he is.”
Daryl said something that sounded like it was about me and Gage nodded. “Yeah. I know. Can you find out?”
As he waited for Daryl to answer his question, I looked around, worried we might be caught before we ever found out where Tristan was. “Gage, we don’t have time for this. We have to go.”
He nodded again and smiled. “Thanks, Daryl. You might be right about technology. I’ll tell Tristan you said hi.” Gage stuck his phone back into his pocket and pointed down the sidewalk toward The Richmont Venice. “They have him at the hotel.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t, but if his phone is still on him, that’s where he is. Did he have it when he left the hotel earlier?”
I nodded, unsure of how Gage knew Tristan’s phone was there but thrilled at the hope that he could still be alive. “Yes, he had it. He showed me a picture on it as we walked toward the museum.”
Taking my hand in his, Gage smiled. “Then let’s hope it’s still on him. Now we just have to figure out where in the hotel he is and how we get in without Karl’s thugs grabbing us.”
A tour group of what looked to be at least thirty people milled about the Richmont Venice lobby waiting to check in, so we attempted to blend in with them as we figured out where Karl could be holding Tristan. Unsure if the hotel staff were helping Karl and his men, I pulled Gage behind a marble pillar farthest away from the concierge desk to plan what to do next.
“There are any number of places he could be,” I whispered into his ear as I peered over his shoulder to make sure nobody had spotted us.
“The suite you two are in is on the fifth floor. There’s only one other suite on that floor, so I think we should start there and eliminate that possibility. The problem is how are we going to get up there without being seen? The main staircase is in the center of the building, and there’s no way we can get upstairs and not be noticed, even with all these tourists.”
My mind flashed back to something Tristan had told me the first time we visited the hotel. I closed my eyes and replayed the conversation that night after we’d made love and spent hours in each other’s arms. Suddenly, I remembered. “There’s a back staircase that’s only used by staff. It used to be a secret staircase back when this was a palace.”
Two women I recognized from the concierge staff walked past us trying to herd all the tourists toward the check-in desk, but one seemed too interested in Gage and me as we stood huddled behind the column. Her stare lingered just a second too long on us, making me worry. Did she recognize me from when Tristan and I returned to the hotel?
I turned my back to the crowd and whispered, “Gage, we need to get to that back staircase, but I don’t know where it is. All I know is that Tristan told me it existed.”
Gage moved to shield me and nodded his head toward a hallway that transected the lobby. “If this is the front stairway, then maybe the back one is down that hallway.”
“I think that could be right. We just need to get past the concierge, who I think might have recognized me from last night.”
An elderly female tourist backed into a large ornamental vase and knocked it from one of the lobby’s tables with her oversized purse at that very moment, and with its crash to the floor, we had a perfect diversion. She screamed in surprise, and the crowd formed in around her to see the results of her clumsiness, including the two hotel employees. Quickly, I yanked on Gage’s arm to lead him away from the scene. “Let’s go!”
We raced down the hallway until we reached a door that looked like a closet. Opening it, he found our back staircase.
“Come on. We’ve got four flights of stairs to climb.”
Compared to the front staircase with its gorgeous caramel colored marble walls, ornate cut outs, and candle sconces lighting the way, this staircase was sorely in need of repair. Old plaster peeled from the walls and except for a few small windows, the staircase was dark.
Perfect for someone trying to sneak around Tristan’s hotel.
We reached the top floor and quietly entered the hallway connecting the two suites. Listening near the door to the one Tristan and I shared, we heard no noises. I pointed to the room and shook my head to let Gage know I didn’t think that’s where they were holding him.
He whispered, “Did you see the people who were staying in the other suite?”
I shook my head again. “No. How are we going to find out who’s in there?”
Gage pointed to an alcove behind two columns on the left side of the hallway. I followed him there and watched as he moved toward the suite’s door. “What are you doing?”
He raised his hand to knock on the door. “Ding dong ditch.”
I hid behind the column and peeked my head around just enough to see him knock on the door and run behind the column across from me. After a few moments, a young blonde wearing very little opened the door and looked around to see who’d knocked. From inside the suite, I heard a man with a voice that sounded much older than she looked ask who it was.
“Nobody. I guess they were looking for the suite down the hall, honey,” she answered in squeaky voice and closed the door, leaving us standing there at least knowing Tristan wasn’t being held on that floor.
“I guess we can rule that out,” Gage said with a smile.
“Onto the fourth floor,” I said as we hurriedly crossed the hall and entered the back staircase again.
The floor below wasn’t going to be as easy to search. Unlike the top floor, this one had twenty rooms instead of two suites. Thankfully, it had alcoves too where we could hide as we searched, but ding dong ditching twenty rooms seemed like a poor way to find out what we needed.
Gage held the door as we exited the staircase in the middle of the floor and hurried to the nearest alcove. Five middle aged hotel patrons stood outside a room at the end of the hall as one man fumbled with the room key. They left immediately, so at least we could guess that room wasn’t where Tristan was.
“How are we going to find out if he’s in one of these rooms? This is going to take forever, and we don’t have that kind of time,” I said in frustration as we watched them walk by us.
Before Gage could answer, I saw his eyes grow wide as saucers and followed his gaze to someone getting off the elevator. I recognized him immediately. West. He walked quickly to a room at the opposite end of the hallway and knocked.
I leaned in close to Gage and whispered, “He’s in there! We need to get in there!”
Nodding, he held up his hand to calm me. “Give me a second to figure this out.”
The door closed and tears began to well in my eyes. Hanging my head, I leaned against the pillar, devastated. “We missed our chance, Gage.”
“You didn’t think we’d just barge in there, did you?” He put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me and quietly said, “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.”
“No need, buddy. I’ll get you in there right now.”
Terror raced through me, and I looked up to see West standing there with a gun to the back of Gage’s head. We were lost. Tristan would be killed and then they’d do the same to us. I’d blown it.
West led us down the hall into the room, and my first sight of Tristan nearly took my breath away. His left eye was black and blue and practically swollen shut from a beating. Blood trickled down his chin from a deep cut in his bottom lip. Even with all that, he was immediately worried about me.
“Nina, why are you here? Why didn’t you just leave with Gage?” he asked as he groaned in pain.
The man I recognized as the one from the museum grabbed my arms tightly, and when I moved to help Tristan, he roughly pulled me back, hurting me. I opened my mouth to answer, but Karl spoke up before I could say a word. “She didn’t leave because she loves you, Tristan. Now she’ll pay for that love with her life.”
“Why are you doing this?” I cried, finally needing to know what the hell I’d ever done to make this person hate me so much.
Karl turned to face me, his snake-like eyes scanning me from head to toe. “Why am I doing this? Because you’re the reason why everything fell apart. Just like your father and his fucking investigation. Because all Tristan had to do was throw some money at you to ease his guilt over your father and you would never have ended up here. He’d still have to die, but you wouldn’t be here. You’d be back in your little life serving the art world in your inconsequential way. But he didn’t do that. He fell in love with you and now we’re here at the end of the road.”
Tristan hung his head and said quietly, “I’m sorry, Nina. I’m sorry I ever waited for you that night in the alley behind the Anderson Gallery. If I hadn’t…”
His voice trailed off and he closed his eyes. I couldn’t let him think that I regretted one moment of our time together. He deserved better than that. “If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met you and fallen in love with the most incredible man in the world.”
“How touching. Now if we’re done with the staging of Romeo and Juliet, it’s time for this to end. You’ll be dead, and in a few years, I’ll be the head of Stone Worldwide. In the meantime, one of my friends on the board will make sure my company thrives in my absence.”
A large, bald man who looked nearly the size of Gage stood behind Tristan and violently yanked his head up, and Karl aimed his gun directly at him. I scrambled for anything to delay—to give Gage time to stop him—and blurted out, “Wait! Tell us how you got Rogers to turn on Tristan. He loved him like a son. He wouldn’t hurt him unless you did something horrible to him.”
Karl smiled, his gun still aimed at Tristan. “Ah, Rogers. I have to tell you, son, you certainly do have some very loyal people around you. Your girlfriend’s right. Rogers didn’t come easily. You were his world. He loved you more than your father did. It took me forever to figure out the angle to take with him. Nothing worked. Money didn’t matter. Threats didn’t work. But you know what did? When you fell in love with her, Rogers couldn’t take it. He was jealous. Go figure. Out of all the emotions to manipulate, I only had to wait for jealousy to rear its ugly head. Once it was obvious that you were going to marry her and wouldn’t need him anymore, he was putty in my hands.”
Tristan’s frown deepened as Karl detailed why the one person he’d always trusted betrayed him. It tore my heart apart to know I’d been the reason he’d lost Rogers.
“And then you killed him. Why, if he was helping you?” I asked.
“It seems those paternal feelings he’d always had never left after all. He was weak, and when you told him to get out of your life, I knew I couldn’t trust him to handle things anymore.”
I watched as Tristan hung his head and said sadly, barely above a whisper, “You made sure you took everyone from me.”
Karl smirked. “Not yet, son. Not yet.”
Just when I was sure he’d given up, Tristan looked over at West and said, “Obviously not everyone around me is loyal.”
Karl turned to look at West and smiled. “Oh, West? He was easy. Right, West? Not everyone thinks a man your age should have everything his heart desires.”
West mumbled something about Tristan being a spoiled rich boy, and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gage’s arm move. In a flash, I heard a gun go off and the man behind me released my arms. I dropped to the floor and covered my head as two more shots rang out. It all happened so fast. Somebody yelled “Get him!” and I heard the most terrifying sound I’d ever heard in my life. A body fell to the floor and a man’s voice moaned until another shot exploded and everything fell silent.
I opened my eyes and saw Karl and West on the floor in front of me a
nd blood everywhere. Gage stood over another man in the corner of the room who looked like he’d only been grazed by a bullet. Frantically, I searched the room for Tristan and saw him slumped over in the chair he’d been tied up in. Blood covered the side of his face, and he looked unconscious.
Running over, I knelt in front of him and looked up to see a bullet had hit his right shoulder and his left eye was bleeding. “Gage! Tristan’s been shot! He needs help!”
Behind me, Gage called for help while I gently lifted Tristan’s head. He didn’t respond to my touch, and the real fear that I’d lost him settled into my brain. Shaking my head, I let the tears roll down my cheeks as I pleaded for him to stay with me. “Tristan, don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you. Don’t leave me here all alone. Please, Tristan! Open your eyes. Open your eyes and let me know you’re going to be okay.”
His eyes remained closed as I sat there praying he’d survive. I heard the ambulance in the distance as it raced up the canal toward us, piercing the night with its shrill emergency cry. “The paramedics are coming. Just hang on for me, Tristan. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me, baby.”
Gage pulled me away as the paramedics entered the room, and I watched as they took him away, barking out directions about how to get to the hospital. In mere minutes, he was gone and I was left standing there sobbing, hoping against hope that I hadn’t lost him this time.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nina
I sat alone in the bedroom Tristan and I shared, my hands shaking as I thought about what I must do in mere minutes. Muffled voices from outside the door signaled it was nearly time. Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes and tried to calm my nerves.
The door opened and Jordan peeked her head in. “It’s time, sweetie.”
I pressed my hands to my thighs and took another deep breath. “Okay. I’m ready.”
She came to my side and held my hand as I stood from the bed on wobbly legs. “Just wait until you see the flowers. They’re really beautiful.”
“The flowers?”
