Russo Saga Collection

by Nicolina Martin

  “What’s the matter, Reed?”

  “That was Christian.”

  Nathan is silent, waiting for me to go on.

  “The girl is alive. She survived.”

  “That’s good news.”

  I see Salvatore before me. Murderous. Lethal. “Yeah, I guess.”

  He thinks the same as I do. “You gotta talk to him.”

  “I know. Come with?”

  “Absolutely. Now?”

  I grab my phone, keys and wallet, shove my fingers through my unwashed hair and grab my jacket. “Yeah.”

  Salvatore is not impressed. “You brought backup?” He glances between Nathan and me.

  “Uncle,” says Nathan. “Can we have a word?”

  “Don’t fucking ‘uncle’ me,” he snarls. “Nathan snaps his mouth shut and shoots me a glance.

  “Back the fuck away from the girl, Luci,” I growl.

  “I fail to see the reason why I should leave a witness alive for the first time ever.”

  “You’ve let one live before,” I say.

  Salvatore clenches his jaw as he regards me. Silence mounts between us. “That was different,” he finally says, calmer.

  “How? Because your beloved Christian told you to?”

  “No. She fucking came to me. She never said a word to the cops. I knew I could trust her. Your lady ran to the cops first thing. She fucking had a picture made of you! She’s a snitch and she doesn’t get to live.”

  My heart pounds harder and harder as fury rises in me. “She didn’t know better!”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m not letting you fucking have her!” I growl.

  Salvatore laughs. It’s not a pleasant sound. “You think you can stop me?”

  I stare him down. I’m not afraid of the bastard. “I don’t think. I know.”

  “What do you think of this, Nathaniel?” says Salvatore and looks at the other man in the room.

  Nathan is dead serious as he meets his uncle’s hard gaze. “I understand where you’re coming from—”

  Salvatore spreads his arms and looks at me, a smirk on his face.

  “—but I think you need to review the situation with a cooler head. You’ve made it into a fucking power struggle, and for what? What do you gain from it? You’ll push Eric away for good, gain an enemy in your ranks, someone who knows everything about your operations and whom you’ll never be able to trust again. Kill her and you’re gonna have to kill him too.”

  I stare at Nathan. Was he always this level headed? I hadn’t even thought about the consequences myself, wrapped up in the present as I’ve been. He’s telling the truth. I’d become Salvatore’s deadliest enemy. I’d bide my time, and eventually I’d strike.

  “What happened to the girl Christian destroyed?” I turn back to Salvatore.

  In the corner of my eye I see Nathan looking between us.

  “Where is she now?” I add.

  I throw Nathan a glance, wondering how much he knows, then I look back at Salvatore, pinning him with my gaze.

  He tightens his lips. “She’s gone off the face of the earth.”

  “And how is Christian faring?”

  “I believe that’s none of your fucking business.”

  “It’s everybody’s business,” I growl. “You have a walking bomb in your organization because you couldn’t keep your man in check. Are you really looking to create more disturbances? You’ll have no one left.”

  I spin around and storm toward the exit, stopping when I hear my name.

  “Eric!” Salvatore throws out his arms. “I’ll think about it. All right?”

  I leave before I do something I’ll regret. I’m not leaving Anna’s life to Luci’s whims. There’ll be no ‘maybes’. I’ll keep her safe even if she doesn’t want to see me ever again.

  Anna

  The noises are too harsh. Hushed voices assault my ears. They talk to me and I understand the words, comforting words, words telling me of procedures, of medications, but I lose them right after they’ve been spoken.

  Light.

  It sears my eyes, burns my retinae.

  I whimper.

  Someone comes rushing to my side.

  “Anna. Are you awake?”

  Am I? I reach, try to feel my arms, hands, legs, feet. I wiggle my toes. I guess I am.

  “What… happened?” My voice is nothing but a whisper. My mouth is dry and my throat hurts. I cough and realize my chest hurts even worse.

  “I’m giving you something for the pain, honey.”

  I don’t know what she does, but it takes only a few moments before a blessed numbness spreads through my limbs and wraps my mind in cotton. I float.

  “You’re in Cedars-Sinai. You—”

  I soar. She talks, but I can’t hear the words.

  It’s still too bright. I squeeze my eyes shut, the pain shooting like a spear through my brain. It’s quiet. With my eyes still closed, I listen, but all I hear are distant traffic noises and a soft rhythmic hissing.

  I open my eyes slower this time, letting them get used to the light, and realize it isn’t as bright as I first thought. It’s just my eyes aren’t used to being open.

  As I can make out more details, I see a person sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room. It’s a man. He’s reading a paper. I try to lift my head, but the movement strains my damaged chest and I moan. He lowers the paper, folds it slowly, puts it on the table next to him and stands. He’s tall. He’s very tall. From where I’m lying it looks as if he reaches the ceiling. He comes toward me, and as he steps into the circle of light next to the bedside table, I recognize him. That night, he was nothing but a blur of dark hair and black eyes. Describing him to the police was impossible. With him here, though, a couple of feet away, I know without a doubt who it is.

  My body goes slack with fear. I glance around me for an alarm button, then I give out a hoarse wail and scramble to get out of bed, my heart pounding so hard I think it will burst open my chest. Christian clamps down a hand over my mouth, grips my hip with the other, preventing my already non-cooperative body from getting any further. He glances at the door and then back at me.

  Tears well up in my eyes and roll down my cheeks as our gazes meet. I try to shake my head, try to lift my arms to fight him off, but I’m too weak. There’s nothing I can do against this mountain of a man.

  “Don’t fucking scream, Anna. Don’t make a fuss.”

  I can barely get air and my chest aches. His gaze is cold as he regards me. I nod. What else can I do?

  “I’m removing my hand. Okay? Be quiet.”

  I nod again and he lifts his gigantic paw off my face. The imprint lingers, numbing my mouth and my cheeks.

  “Christian,” I whisper.

  I know full well he’s here to kill me, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do. I just wish he’d done it while I was unconscious. Maybe he wants to see my fear? Maybe he wants to know I felt pain? Eric said he is a sadist.

  “In the flesh,” he answers.

  My lower lip trembles. I can’t hold it in. I’m not brave. “Please just do it quick,” I whimper.

  He sighs. “Anna. I can’t blame you for freaking out, but I’m not here to fucking kill you, even though I still don’t think it’s a good idea letting you live. I’m here to protect you.”

  I laugh then. Despite myself, I croak out a half hysterical laugh. I regret it terribly when searing pain shoots through my chest, straining the still raw scar where they had to cut me open.

  “Want me to get the nurse?”

  I nod. I really do. For more than one reason. To my surprise, he disappears out the door and comes back with a nurse in tow.

  “Hi, sweetie. I’m so happy to see you awake. How are you feeling?”

  My gaze darts between her and Christian, shocked that she seems so at ease with him being here.

  “Who is he?” I whisper.

  She throws a glance at Christian, and I see something in her eyes that stuns me.
Admiration. Attraction.

  “Officer Jake is here for your protection. He’s very… dedicated.”

  I widen my eyes. Right. Of course they’d fake badges and everything.

  “I’ll get you something for the pain. You’re sweating, hon. I’ll be right back.” She disappears after a nod toward the huge hitman in my room.

  “Officer,” I scoff as I turn my head back to him.

  Christian grabs a chair and sits next to me, chewing on a toothpick. “Yep. Don’t I make a dashing cop?”

  I don’t answer. He does. But I won’t tell him that.

  “Look. I’m here because Eric asked me. You’re in serious fucking danger and he wants you to live for some reason.”

  Images of this man’s gun to my temple, how he crushed me to him, and his leery suggestion, rips through my mind.

  “Why would you do that? You want me dead too,” I whisper.

  His features lighten, and for a moment I see how handsome this brute actually is. Suddenly I understand the nurse. He’s probably got them all wrapped around his pinky. The sound of the door opening has us both jerking.

  “Got some of the good stuff.” The nurse holds a small tray with a syringe and a couple of pills on it.

  “What are you giving me? How am I by the way? I don’t know anything.”

  “This,” she points at the syringe, “is morphine with an instant effect. This,” she points at the two pills, “is to help you sleep, and a slow-releasing morphine that will last until morning. I’ll save the details of your condition to the doctor. She’ll come by tomorrow, before noon. You’re out of the woods, though. You’ll be fine, Anna. You were very lucky.”

  I huff inwardly and glance at Christian. Lucky. Right. I get a feeling he thinks what I’m thinking.

  “Nurse? I—I remember being shot. Then I don’t really remember anything, maybe fragments. What happened?”

  She lays a hand over mine and smiles, glancing at the big brute that looms on the other side of the bed. “I think you have the perfect man here to answer all those questions.”

  My heart sinks. I can’t expect anything truthful out of him. Can I?

  Drugs are administered, I swallow the pills, she removes an empty fluid bag, and bids me good night. I have no idea what time it is, but I’m already getting woozy. I’ll take it.

  “So,” I croak. “What happened? Do… do you know?”

  “Yeah, I know everything.”

  I widen my eyes.

  He laughs. “Not every single detail.”

  I clench my jaw, waiting for him to go on.

  “Your dad came. Tried to do Eric in, missed, shot you. Eric knocked out your dad and took you to the hospital. Then he went home, thinking you’d died. He wasn’t right in the fucking head. When I heard you were alive and told him, he sent me here in a flash.”

  “And you just went? Happily? I mean, what’s in it for you?”

  Christian grins. “I get Eric to be my bitch for the rest of his life. You don’t know him like I do. That’s no small thing.”

  “I—I don’t understand.”

  He sighs. “Our boss has put a price on your head. Your unfathomably stubborn refusal to take Eric up on his offer has made you the target of the most ruthless motherfucker on the West Coast. Eric has taken a liking to you and wants to keep you out of harm’s way.”

  I give him a once-over. “I kinda feel like I’m in harm’s way right now.”

  He laughs and pushes his fingers through his jaw-long hair. “Yeah, sorry about that. It made sense at the time. Wasn’t personal.”

  “It was to me,” I whisper.

  He purses his lips as he studies me. “Guess it feels that way.”

  His features blur and my eyelids are so heavy.

  “I think she drugged me,” I slur.

  “You’ve been drugged up good for a long time now.”

  I close my eyes. My heart slams in my chest. I don’t want to lose control, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m about to fall asleep alone in a room with one of the most dangerous men I’ve ever met.

  “How long?” I whisper, but I never hear an answer.

  It’s clearly in the middle of the night when I wake the next time. Through the little window I see the lights are dimmed in the corridor outside my room. In my room it’s dark, save for a little lamp that illuminates the surface of the sideboard.

  I strain to see what shadow may loom in the corners of my room. I live in a world where the monsters under the bed have all come to life.

  Seeing nothing, I try my voice on the darkness. “Christian?”

  There’s a rustle, then footsteps.

  A man I’ve never seen before appears in the less dark area next to my bed. He’s got pitch black, unruly hair, eerie light-blue eyes and a sharp jaw. He’s ridiculously handsome. He could be a model. My guess is, he’s not.

  “Wh—who are you?” My chest clenches. I’d never have thought I’d have wanted to see Christian. Is this man sent by Salvatore?

  “My name is Nathan Russo. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’ve watched you sleep more than my fair share. Nice to finally meet you.” His voice is well modulated, smooth, sensual. He sounds like a man who is used to being in control.

  “Russo,” I taste the name.

  He gives me his hand and I take it, with some trepidation, waiting for him to strike at any moment.

  “I’m Christian’s brother. I work with Eric.”

  My head falls back against the pillow, relief washing over me. “You’re also here—”

  “To make sure there are no attempts on your life, yeah.”

  “Why… why does everybody do this? I’m nobody.”

  He laughs and strokes my cheek. He freaking strokes my cheek. If this man is what Eric and Christian are and all he does is stroke me... I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. I’m Alice in Wonderland.

  “Eric is a very respected man. He’s also a very complex person. If you’ve caught his heart, you’re not nobody.”

  Heart?

  I’m not sure I’m hearing this right.

  Heart?

  What heart?

  I remember all too well his face of repulsion as he said I needed to wed him. As if it was some bitter pill to swallow.

  Christian and Nathan Russo take turns guarding me, twelve-hour shifts. Whenever I get a visitor, primarily Dad, but Mom also comes by, traveling back and forth between shows, they disappear. Where to, I don’t know. My parents ask. I tell them they’re cops. What else can I say? Whenever I’m alone again, they come back. Two looming reminders of the new and terrifying world I’m living in. Two reminders of a nightmare I will never wake from.

  One day they’re gone. No explanation.

  Renewed fear clutches my heart.

  I never thought I’d miss them, the two mobsters. My two guardians.

  All I’m left with is the knowledge that Darrell died the night that changed everything, that Myles died the same night Eric showed up in my apartment, that I’ll die by the hands of a faceless mob boss whose name I’ve heard too many times by now, and that I might as well, because my heart will never mend again.

  I’m in love with a professional hitman. If that doesn’t make me a very damaged woman, then I don’t know what will.

  I’m in love and I’ve chased him away.

  Chapter 27

  Anna

  Every day when I wake, I’m surprised I’m still alive. But maybe it won’t happen in the hospital? I refuse to ask the police for help. I have no idea who’s bought and who isn’t.

  The flowers come regularly from friends I didn’t know I had, and from Mom and Dad. This day one in particular catches my eye when I wake. Someone has snuck it in while I slept. A tall sunflower. Wide, yellow, filled with life. Standing in solitude.

  My fingers tremble as I open the letter that came attached to the flower.

  On the envelope it says in simple, bold letters: ANNA.

  I drop the small, white square and it dances to t
he floor next to the bed. The slight rustling sound of a paper being unfolded fills the quiet hospital room. Something about the flower, the envelope, the handwritten letters scares me.

  Anna,

  You’re wrong about me. I don’t want to marry you out of pity, or because I feel guilty. I want you in my life because you’re you, because you’re unique.

  When I thought you had died, I didn’t want to live. You made me feel something I didn’t know I was lacking.

  I’m sorry about everything.

  My offer still stands. Please, come with me.

  Please come with me because you want to, not because you’re afraid. I won’t push you.

  If you decide to come, then light that lamp in the kitchen window within the first month after your release, and let it shine. I’ll come and pick you up. If you decide not to, then know this, you’ll get to live your life without interference from any of us.

  E.

  I crumple the letter in my fist and choke out a cry, then I throw the little paper ball through the room. It hits the window with a barely audible thud, scaring a sparrow that was resting on the windowsill outside.

  Then there’s nothing but silence except for my labored breathing.

  I sigh and roll on my side. Pushing myself to a sitting position, I then stumble through the room with bare feet on the chilly floor.

  I pick up the letter and smooth it out.

  ‘Anna.

  You’re wrong about me.’

  The paper trembles in my hand and I can’t stifle the sob that tears through me.

  ‘Please, come with me.’

  I clench my fist and throw the paper again as my knees fold and I fall to the chilly floor. He rips everything open. He murdered Myles or had him killed. Same difference. I fought so hard to make everything right, and yet it’s all so wrong. I don’t want to feel. I don’t want to live this life of mine.

  “Damn you, Eric Reed.”

  Chapter 28