Forbidden Love: Book 1 in the Mackenzie Series (Leave Me Breathless World)

by Elizabeth Knox

  Before Liam goes on his tirade like most men do, I interject. “I’m only telling you this because we’re now partners in life and Liam, I need you to understand it is my goal to get my daughter back. If not now, one day. I will see my baby again . . . and I won’t ever give up on finding her.”

  Liam surprises me with how quickly he comes over, wrapping his arms around my body in a bear hug. “I’ve heard everything you’ve said and I will support your decision. But I want to say how sorry I am for what you’ve gone through. I am so sorry for the enormous amount of pain you’ve had to carry. It’s not fair.”

  If I’ve learned anything in life, it’s this— life is never fair. It will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you to deal with whatever it gave you.

  I pull away from Liam, looking around his room. There’s a king-sized bed against the wall to the left and a couch near the window. “I really would just love to get to bed.”

  “Alright. You take the bed and I’ll sleep on the couch.” I figured I’d be the one sleeping on the couch, but it looks like I went and found myself a gentleman.

  16

  “If your path demands you walk through Hell, walk as if you own the place.”

  ~ Unknown

  Caprice

  I wake up to the sound of birds chirping. Groggily and annoyed, I wrap the heavy duvet around me and walk toward the windows, wondering how they’re so loud. As I approach the windows, it’s evident they were opened overnight. For a split second, fear rushes through me and I wonder if someone has broken into the house, but nothing appears to be out of place. Simply looking like they were opened to allow fresh air to come in the room. I take in a deep breath, calming myself. Inhale the positive, exhale the negative.

  “Are you alright?” his grumbled, husky voice asks from behind me. I turn to face Liam, catching him in nothing but a pair of deep maroon pajama pants. His chest is completely bare, allowing me to get a fascinating look at his physique. I’m about to respond when he chuckles, catching me ogling him.

  “Sorry, I uh . . . ” I’m not sure how to reply. Hell, I don’t know what's more embarrassing, being caught practically eye-screwing him or the fact I didn’t come up with something smart to say.

  “It’s fine. I know what you were doing,” he teases, crossing his arms as he peers up at me from his seat on the couch. It’s taking everything in me not to follow the happy trail of hair that spans down from his belly button. No, Caprice, focus! Immediately, I redirect my eyes to his.

  Liam Mackenzie is the type of man who you can see in his eyes what he’s thinking. Many people give away their true thoughts in their eyes. Whether they’re angry or happy, with one glance to their eyes you can tell how they feel. Liam is obviously amused by what just transpired.

  “Don’t you blame this on me. I didn’t exactly expect you to wake up looking like you were prepping for a GQ shoot, all shirtless and stuff.”

  “Oh, so I look like a model?” Liam cocks his brow, his smirk growing with every quiet second that passes.

  “What time is it?” I ask, trying to change the subject.

  Liam snickers and looks to the silver watch on his wrist. “A little past eleven. I woke up earlier and went into town. Considering all your clothes were at your flat, I picked up some stuff. Wasn’t sure on sizes but I guessed. I tried to get a variety of things for a couple of days until I can take you back into town. There should be some for your sister as well,” he tells me after he grabs a bag from the corner of the room. I recognize the name because I used to walk by the boutique every day when I was heading into Maeve’s. It’s now I realize the restaurant is named after the woman I met last night. I’ll have to ask Liam more about her later.

  “Thank you. I didn’t expect you to do this for us,” I confess, approaching him.

  Liam hands me the bag and as I peek inside, I see a lacey bralette and try my hardest not to blush. I feel the heat rising in my cheeks and know there’s no use. My body, along with my olive skin tone, is betraying me right now. “You have an . . . interesting eye.” I choke my words out, trying to refrain from stuttering. It’s an incredibly annoying habit I have whenever I get nervous.

  Liam glances inside the bag, spotting the bra. “They had normal ones but I wasn’t going to play guessing games with your sizes. I figured you two could figure out what fits and we could go into town tomorrow and get you both some new things.”

  I take in a deep breath and look up at Liam. “I appreciate it, but Liam, I don’t have a lot of money. I only have the tips I made at Maeve’s. Alessandra and I have savings, but those are for actual emergencies where we’d need to skip town. I can’t use that money for clothes.”

  “You’re not understanding me, Caprice. You and Alessandra do not have to pay for anything. I’m covering it all. Now, get showered and dressed. I’ll take you to your sister.” Liam hands the other bag over to me and I take it in my free hand, baffled by what he’s said.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I try to argue, knowing very well how Alessandra and I will be screwed if he doesn’t. Still, I don’t want to be so reliant on Liam.

  Liam laughs, placing a hand on my shoulder, staring deep into my eyes. “Caprice, this is part of my duty to you. To take care of you. You need clothes so I’ll make sure you get them. I’m treating Alessandra because she’s your sister and is now married to my best friend. You’re a Mackenzie now, so it’d be best if you start accepting how you’ll be treated. Now, I won’t waste time and explain this further. Go get in the shower and get dressed. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.” Liam doesn’t give me an opportunity to respond because he walks straight out of our room.

  There are only two more doors in the room and I go to one, finding a closet. I head over to the other and the bathroom is revealed to me. A black clawfoot bathtub sits in the center of the room, overlooking the Mackenzies’ lands. Off in the distance, I can see a barn and fencing. Last night, I wasn’t able to tell they had horses, but I kind of hope I can snoop around the property and get out to the barn. I used to ride horses as a child, but when I turned thirteen my father didn’t allow me to do it anymore.

  I start the tub instead of the shower and enjoy a bit of soaking in the lavender vanilla bath, washing my hair and relaxing as much as I can. Liam said he’d be back in thirty minutes so I’m quick to dry off and open the cabinets under the double sink, finding a blow dryer. Plugging it in, I dry my hair while combing it through, giving myself a natural wave. I prefer my hair curly or straight, but it’ll have to do considering I don’t have a straightener or curling wand here.

  Wiping the towel over myself one more time, I walk back into the bedroom, grab one of the bags, and dig through. As I grab a pair of jegging-like pants, the door opens and Liam walks in on me clad in my birthday suit.

  Jesus Christ.

  17

  “The loudest one in the room is the weakest one.”

  ~ Frank Lucas

  Caprice

  “Gah!” I holler, diving down on the floor like it’s a damn pool. I realize how stupid it was, but my brain was telling me the floor would cover most of my body. Shit, I could’ve just grabbed a quilt or something. “Ouch,” I mumble as my knees slam against the wooden floor.

  Instead of Liam asking me if I’m alright, the bastard laughs like this is the funniest thing he’s ever seen in his life. “I’m turning around,” he barely gets out, continuing to cackle his ass off.

  I peer up from the floor, seeing that he is being honest, and I stand. The joints in my knees crack along the way and I slide into the jeggings as swiftly as possible, grabbing one of the bralettes he bought and putting it on. It takes me a minute to find a shirt that will work until I find a flannel. I slide my arms into the sleeves and button it up.

  “Are you decent?” he asks, still laughing.

  “I am,” I say, trying my hardest not to tell him off. Liam turns around to face me, smirking.

  “I didn’t realize my body was so funny,” I grumble. Taking th
e other bag in my hand, I pass him and walk next to the door, where I kicked off my shoes before we went to bed.

  “Your body is sinfully gorgeous. But your action was . . . unexpected. Why didn’t you grab a sheet?” He barely gets the last bit out before he starts back up, walking toward me. I smack him with one of the bags and he stops, growing quiet for a moment. For the first time since I’ve known Liam, I see something, maybe it’s a spark or maybe it’s amusement, I’m not sure, but there’s something inside me itching to find out.

  “Can you take me to my sister?” I ask, wanting to get away from him for a bit.

  “Yes, let’s go. My father and I have some business to attend to. Can you stay with Alessandra for a few hours until I get back?”

  “Sure,” I say, walking behind him down the hallway. We proceed to go down the stairwell and through the front door of the Mackenzie house. We turn left and I see another smaller house next to it. Liam takes me up to the door, opens it, and the two of us walkthrough.

  While I can see on the outside the two homes must’ve been built around the same era, the inside of this home is much more modern. Whereas the Mackenzie house still holds the traditional architecture, wallpaper, and flooring, the security house does not.

  We walk straight into a room with white walls and wood beams jutting out from one side of the vaulted ceiling to the other. I see a curved archway and hear a set of feet coming down a stairwell, although I can’t see the stairwell itself. It must be hidden behind the wall.

  Luca comes around the archway along the longest wall. “Saw you both coming in on the cameras.”

  Furrowing my brows, I tell him what I think. “I didn’t see any cameras.”

  “And that is exactly why I work for the Mackenzies. You might not see them, but they’re around.” He has a point. Only the best of the best work for families within the mafia realm.

  “Where is my sister?” I ask, not sure which direction I should go. The right leads to some sort of dining room, and going straight back where Luca came in must lead to a stairwell but I can see a door leading outside and part of a kitchen. To the left, I see another archway with a large wooden door that is closed. This house is confusing me.

  “She’s upstairs in our flat.”

  “Don’t you mean room?” I question, not understanding how this works.

  “No, flat. We have two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living area, but we share the kitchen, dining room, and game room with the other security guys. In total, there are four men in this house.” They only have four men on their security team? “I’m afraid I can’t tell you where the rest are. It’s top-secret,” Luca teases, adding a wink at the end. He waves his hand, urging me to go upstairs with him.

  “Luca will take you upstairs and then I’ll be back later today to bring you back to the house. Alright?” Liam says, and I give him a nod.

  “Okay, see you later,” I say, following Luca through the archway. Just as I thought, the stairwell is on the other side of the wall. We both go up the stairs and walk down a hallway. A heavy door like the one I saw downstairs is at the end of it. Luca punches a few numbers into a keypad and the door opens.

  “Alessandra is inside. She knows the code to get back into the flat. Please don’t leave this house. Liam and I haven’t briefed everyone on the team yet that we have two new faces on the property. Going into the shared areas are fine, but otherwise, wait for Liam before you leave.”

  “You got it,” I mutter, walking inside Luca and Alessandra’s flat. He shuts the door firmly and I hear a deadbolt locking behind me.

  I venture further into the flat and see the same white walls I saw only a few minutes before. There’s a small fireplace with wood next to the hot stove. A piece of barn wood acts as a mantle, where there sits photos of him, a cat, and him with a woman. I see something else which causes me to become concerned— a sonogram picture.

  A small modern coffee table with metal legs sits in the center of the geometric light green carpet which matches the two couches that sit on either side of it. A lavender candle burns in the center of the table. Everyone here seems to love lavender scents.

  I stare at the picture of the red-headed woman in the photo with Luca. They’re both smiling like they’re the happiest people on the planet. As footsteps approach behind me, I spot the sparkler on this woman’s finger. Nothing makes sense anymore. Was Luca engaged?

  “I asked him about the photographs last night,” Alessandra tells me. I turn around to face her, seeing her eyes are swollen. From the looks of it, she’s been crying all night. Out of every woman in my family, she’s the most delicate, like a flower.

  From the corner of my eye, I spot movement and see the biggest cat I’ve ever seen in my entire life. “Is that a panther?” I screech out, backing up. This thing has to be three feet long. It sits on the bay window, overlooking the back of the property. But at my screech, it hops down and comes toward me. This is no doubt the type of cat that could kill its owner.

  Alessandra looks back and giggles. While it's refreshing to see her laugh, I’m not amused right now.

  “No, this is Sylvester. He’s Luca’s Maine Coon.” Sylvester comes toward me, stalking with the grace of a lion. He has bronze eyes with a dash of green and is covered in gray, black, and brown fur. His mouth down to his chest is covered in white fur, and he has a few speckles of white along his toes. He brushes his body against my leg and I scratch under his jaw. As his eyes meet my own, I see he isn’t so terrifying after all. He’s just one hell of an oversized house cat.

  Since I’m not as scared as I was before, Alessandra and I need to dive into more important things. Lord knows she’s going to put up a fight, but we have to talk.

  18

  “I was quiet, but I was not blind.”

  ~ Unknown

  Caprice

  Sucking in a deep breath, I prepare to ask my sister the question that woke me up last night. One I hope she doesn’t have the answer to . . . because if she doesn’t, it means she wasn’t the one who put us in danger. Is it wrong I’m praying Alessandra doesn’t know? Some would want to know the truth, but I’d rather be able to keep the trust I have in her, not to break it.

  “Luca was engaged a year ago to a woman he’d known since they were children. She was six months pregnant when someone crashed into her vehicle on the interstate. The person who hit her left the scene, and the accident was during the middle of the night. No one found her until it was too late.”

  “Oh my God.” I bring my hand up to cover my mouth, imagining how difficult that must’ve been. Luca lost his woman and his child at the same time.

  “Yeah, so it’s been horrific to be in the house he was supposed to be sharing with someone else. The second bedroom still has all the nursery stuff in it, Caprice. The closet is still filled with her clothes. I feel so uncomfortable here.”

  “You need to get comfortable because you’re not going anywhere, Al. This is the one place where you’re safe— with your husband. People grieve on different spectrums. The only person who could ever imagine the type of loss Luca has experienced is someone who’s gone through the same,” I tell her. I don’t know what Alessandra is trying to achieve by admitting she’s uncomfortable, but it won’t help her. She just needs to grow up and be an adult. I know she’s not used to it yet, but the girl needs to learn quickly.

  “We could’ve found another way. Why did we both have to get married? I just became an adult and I’m already locked down when I was supposed to have freedom,” she cries from the other side of the room.

  Freedom. Freedom? This girl wants to preach to me about freedom. I don’t fucking think so. I march over to where she is and wrap my hand around her throat, forcing her to back up until her back is pressed against the wall. “I hate to break this to you, Alessandra, but life isn’t fair. If you didn’t marry Luca, you would’ve married Sergei, who would kill you within a year, and that would’ve happened after he ripped your ovaries out like he did to his last wife. He puni
shed her for not giving him a child when it was convenient for him. Is that the type of man you wanted to marry? A monster who would love nothing more than to see you cry, scream, become bloodied and bruised? I saved you from an impossibly worse fate and you’re here complaining about not having freedom? Isn’t it better than being dead?” I scream, tearing my hand from around her neck. Taking a few steps away from her, I try to gather myself, to bring myself back into this moment instead of being absorbed by my anger.

  There’s no doubt in my mind Alessandra had a vision of what her life would look like when she turned eighteen. I’m sure she wanted to go to college, obtain a degree, and work for the family. In fact, I heard our father promise her all these things. But he was only tricking her. Not one woman in our family has ever gone to college because the women are only here for one thing— to use as pawns. Whether it’s marrying someone who benefits our family, becoming a breeder, or being used in situations like my father put me in. Alessandra is a dreamer, but there’s a huge difference between that and what her reality would’ve been.

  Screw me for thinking this way, but I’m pretty certain her future will be magnitudes better than if Father had his way.

  “I hate you! I hate you so much! You will never understand me, Caprice. It’s why I called Francesca to come get me, but all this happened and now I’m sure she won’t come at all.”

  Almost as if I can physically feel the steam coming from my ears, rage takes ahold of me. “What did you say?” I ask her, speaking in a monotone voice. This is the only behavior I inherited from my father. Whenever he’s pissed, he’ll speak to whomever he’s talking to in the exact same way.