Entice

by Rachel Van Dyken

  “You’re not helping.”

  Tex grinned.

  “Ready?” Mo clapped, looking right through Tex to me.

  “Yes. I think.” I started pacing. “What if she thinks it’s a terrible idea?”

  “She won’t,” Mo said while Tex said, “She may.”

  “Nixon?” Mil walked into the waiting room. “I think everything’s ready to go.”

  “Thanks, Mil.” I was relieved the tension was gone between us. Well, as gone as tension can be when you’ve shot at the person your best friend married. Whoops. “Is Chase ready?”

  Mil saluted. “Clothed in his best-man clothes and grinning like a fool.”

  “Damn morphine.”

  “He uh…” Mil’s eyes bore into mine. “He forwent his pain meds this last hour. He wanted to remember everything.”

  “I bet he did.” I laughed. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  I went into the small hospital chapel, followed by Mil and Tex. Mo was on Trace-duty. She’d lied to Trace and told her we were going out to a really nice dinner. She’d even taken her to a stylist so she could pick out a kick-ass dress. My way of apologizing, again, for a vacation that had ended up in bloodshed.

  “Why are we here again?” Trace’s voice echoed down the hall.

  “Oh, I thought we should say goodbye to everyone. They decided to hang out with Chase since he’s so bored.”

  “Chase gets bored all the time. What else is new? And did they move his room?”

  Chase chuckled from the front pew.

  “Here they are!” The doors to the chapel burst open.

  Mo may have overdone it with the surprise in her voice, but it was all worth it to see Trace’s face. Her eyes narrowed in on the flowers filling the room, and then she looked at Mil, dressed in a pink flowing dress, Chase dressed in a tux, Tex in a tux, and then me.

  “What’s going on? Are we all going to dinner or something? And why are we in a church? Oh my gosh.” Her face paled, “Chase, you’re okay, right?”

  “Ready?” Luca cleared his throat ignoring Trace. He walked to the front and held out a Bible.

  Really, it was shocking that he was allowed to even hold a Bible, let alone conduct a ceremony. Then again, my whole life I’d played by the rules. I’d bled for them. I’d fought for them. For once, I wanted to break them. I was going to break Catholic tradition. I was going to break the whole long engagement tradition, and I was going to marry my lover, my best friend, in a hospital, with one of the scariest men I’d ever known conducting the ceremony.

  “Do you have the rings?” he asked.

  “Rings?” Trace whispered, her lower lip trembling.

  “You did say yes.” I stalked toward her. “Didn’t you?”

  She nodded her head, a solitary tear streaming down her right cheek. I caught it. I would catch every tear. Every piece of sadness. I’d catch — and never release.

  “I want to marry you,” I whispered. “Here. Right now.”

  “But that’s so romantic!”

  Chase burst out laughing. I turned around and glared. He held up his hands in surrender. Damn it, where was my gun?

  “I found a little romance.” I winked.

  Trace took my outstretched arm and walked with me, but I held up my finger. “Frank?”

  “Here.” He stepped into the chapel. “Sorry I was late.” He had tears brimming at the corners of his eyes as he held out his hands to Trace. “Now, I believe it’s time to escort my favorite granddaughter down the aisle.”

  Trace ran into his arms and hugged him. He kissed her cheek and embraced her. “Your grandmother would be so proud.”

  “She’d be proud of both of us.” Trace stepped back and looped her arm in his. “Now we’re ready.”

  Luca grinned. “Who has the rings?”

  “I do.” Chase’s voice was loud — clear — strong. He stood from the pew and slowly walked over to Trace’s side. He still wasn’t a hundred percent, but he swore he could make it a few feet without breaking any stitches. He wanted to do this. He was part of her life too. And I would never deny him that, no matter how many times his love for her had almost destroyed me.

  “Trace.” Chase reached for her hands. “I wanted to give you away.” He looked behind her to Frank and sighed. “But it seems I was beat.” He grinned. “I wanted to give you away because I love you. You helped me realize what love was. Being your best friend, being with you — it prepared me for Mil. For my wife. I love you with my whole heart. I love Nixon too. Never in a million years would I have guessed that this is how our story would end. But it’s better than I could have ever imagined. I’m so damn proud of the woman you’ve become, the man you make Nixon be. So I bless you, on your wedding day.” He kissed her right cheek, then her left. “May you have many more years filled with love, happiness, laughter…” He laughed. “…and wine. Lots of wine.”

  “Here, here.” Mo cheered.

  Trace hugged Chase tight and kissed him back on the cheek. He walked back over to Mil and kissed her full on the mouth.

  Our story was evidence that sometimes when you try to write it yourself, you get stuck. You can’t see every possible outcome. Maybe that’s why it’s better to let life happen — because sometimes it surprises you.

  “Do you, Trace Alfero, take Nixon Abandonato to be your loving husband from this day forward, in sickness and health, through gunfire and hell—”

  I shot a glare to an amused Luca.

  “—for as long as you both shall live?”

  “Yes,” Trace whispered. “Even through gunfire.”

  Her wink about had me mauling her.

  “And Nixon.” Luca cleared his throat. “Do you take this woman, from this day forward, in sickness and health, through gunfire, hell, your terrible moods, inability to calm your temper and—”

  I put up my hand; he winked.

  “—for as long as you both shall live?”

  “Forever. I take her for as many lifetimes as she’ll give me.”

  “Then, by the power vested in me by the Internet and the lovely state of Nevada, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your—”

  I drowned him out.

  Her. I just wanted to kiss her. Love her. Be hers.

  Trace wrapped her arms around my neck and sighed.

  “So, Mrs. Abandonato.” I licked my lips. “How’s that for romance?”

  “You’re getting better.” She teased. “What’s next?”

  “Dinner.” I shot her a smug smile. “And then who knows? Maybe a nice long vacation.”

  “Amen,” Luca muttered under his breath.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Tex

  “What crawled up your ass and died?” Chase threw a tennis ball at my face and winked.

  “I’m here providing entertainment to your poor broken body, and you’re making fun of me?” I taunted, throwing the ball harder, not to hurt him. No, I just wanted to warn him not to mess with me.

  “Whoa there.” Chase chuckled. “Low blood sugar? Grouchy because you need food? The girls will be here soon. Do you need like a cracker or something?”

  “Stop talking.”

  “Wow, you know something’s wrong when the kettle’s pissed about its own color.”

  “Dude—”

  “And a dude comment?” Chase’s eyebrows rose as he threw the ball back at me.

  I was seriously going to abandon my Good Samaritan nature and actually lose my shit for the first time in years if he didn’t stop poking me.

  “I’m just tired.” I’d been tired for months. Ever since Mo had broken my heart by actually walking away when I told her it was what was best. I’d figured she’d fight for me. I’d figured she’d at least yell and throw a fit and tell me that she wasn’t going anywhere.

  But she’d walked away.

  She’d actually listened to me. She’d done the smart thing for once in her life. The one time I’d wanted someone — no, needed someone — to shut the hell up. And she’d
easily left.

  When I heard her crying in her room, I’d wanted to make it better.

  So I’d brought over girl after girl in hopes that instead of being sad — she’d hate me. I wanted her hate. Craved it like a man starving in the desert. If I couldn’t have her love, I wanted her hate, because at least it was something. And now… now she wouldn’t even look at me. It was as if I didn’t exist, as if we didn’t exist.

  “It’s hunger.” I nodded. “And sleep deprivation.”

  “You aren’t smiling.” Chase pointed out.

  “Hunger should make me smile?”

  “No.” He shrugged. “But you always smile when you complain. You avert your eyes when you lie. So what gives?”

  Damn him.

  “Nothing.” I smiled.

  “Nicely played.” Chase threw the ball back to me as we fell into a comfortable silence.

  “Food is here!” Mil announced, walking into the hospital room with a bag of food that made my stomach grumble. She’d been sporting sweats all week, since she’d been staying with Chase every single damn night.

  It pissed me off how easily they’d fallen for each other — how easy it seemed for them. Everyone had someone; everyone was blissfully happy. So yeah, I felt a bit like bawling black sheep. Sue me.

  The smell of marinara floated through the air. Thank God. I needed something to distract me from wanting to bang my head against the wall. Maybe I should be the one taking an extended vacation. I deserved it. But Luca had told me I needed to stay in the country while the rest of the families figured out what was going to happen to Campisi’s empire — my empire. Was I the boss? Had I been reinstated as the son? Was my mother even alive? She’d fallen off the face of the planet since that fateful night.

  I hated that, while the drama of Nixon, Chase, and Mil was all solved, my puzzle had just gotten more difficult. Scratch that. The pieces had been freaking mailed to the Seven Wonders of the World, and I’d been left trying to put together a puzzle without a stupid box to look at for guidance.

  I froze, letting the ball drop to the floor. It bounced toward the door. Mo would be coming through that door any minute. I could feel it.

  I knew she was following the food because the minute the smell of pasta dissipated, the smell of her apple perfume filled the air. I closed my eyes. I just had to smile. Smile and pretend like I’m careless. Play the part, be Tex — fun-loving, idiotic Tex — who doesn’t have a care in the world.

  Right.

  I could play dumb.

  I’d been doing it all my life.

  I got off the floor and started helping Mil take the food out of the boxes. My hand touched a few paper plates and was instantly covered by one I’d memorized for hours.

  Her hand.

  I knew every crevice, the arch of her palm, the feminine curve of her thumb. Damn, I memorized things for a living, and I’d done a fair share of memorizing her. I could tell from the softness of her skin if she was out of lotion, or if she’d gotten less sleep by the darkness of circles under her eyes. I knew exactly how many eyelashes she had on any given day, give or take two.

  Obsessed? I was a man living for one thing. Monroe Abandonato. And she hated me. She wasn’t alone in that. I hated me.

  “Tex?” Mo chewed her lower lip. She had purple circles under her eyes, and her hand was clammy.

  “Are you sick?” It was out of my mouth before I could do anything about it. I felt her forehead. She didn’t feel warm, but something about her was off. Her eyes looked glassy like she’d been crying, and her body looked frail. “Why aren’t you eating?”

  “Stop.” She forced a smile. “Stop analyzing me.”

  I’d forgotten how much she hated that. “Sorry.”

  “Come with me for a second?”

  “Sure.” I followed her out of the hospital room. I told myself it was wrong to watch her hips as they swayed — it would be better if my memory wasn’t so photographic. I’d be replaying images of her ass in those jeans all week long. Damn it.

  Mo stopped at one of the abandoned waiting rooms and sat down, leaning forward so her elbows were on her thighs.

  I knelt down so I was on eye level. “Mo? What’s wrong?”

  Tears streamed down her face; she wiped them away with shaking hands. “I just had to be sure. I mean, I had to… be sure, you know?”

  “Sure of what?”

  “Because it happens all the time to girls. They get stressed and—”

  “Mo—” I took her face in my hands. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  Her eyes closed. She wouldn’t even look at me. “I’m pregnant.”

  My world stopped. Not what I expected. My stomach rolled, and my heart started hammering against my chest. We’d always, and I do mean always, used protection. I’d never put her in that position. Logically I couldn’t explain it.

  “I need you to pretend it’s yours,” she whispered, and then fell into full-on sobs against my chest.

  “Pretend?” I choked out. “What do you mean pretend?”

  “It was one guy!” She shook. “One guy, one night. I was mad at you, too drunk. I was so angry you’d left me. So, so angry—” She started trembling in my arms and I knew. I would protect her until my dying day. But first? I had a bastard to go kill.

  I shouldn’t have given in so easily. But love has a way of making you do crazy things. So in that hospital waiting room, with the love of my life in my arms, I said in a choked voice, “Okay.”

  Epilogue

  Nixon

  “Admit it.” I kissed the top of Trace’s forehead. “It was romantic.”

  She turned in my arms, her naked body sliding against mine as she straddled me, her hair falling in a current across her face. “Fine. I’ll admit it.”

  “All you have to do is say the words.” I put my hands behind my head and smirked.

  “You suck.”

  “Say it.”

  “You’re a romantic sex god with mafia mojo.”

  “And that…” I smacked her ass. “…is what you get for saying I lacked in the romance department when I hired Luca to marry us.”

  “He tried to kill you,” she said through clenched teeth. “I apologize if I don’t find your killer marrying us romantic.”

  “It’s pretty bad ass when you think about it.” I shrugged. “Like your husband.”

  “This marriage isn’t big enough for you and your ego.”

  “Guess that means you’ll have to go…” My voice died off.

  Trace smacked me in the arm then reached for her gun on the nightstand.

  “Have I ever told you how hot it is when you point a gun at me? No?”

  She put the gun down and kissed me instead. Much better. We’d decided to honeymoon in Vegas for the next week and plan an escape vacation in another month, once things had settled a bit with Tex and his situation with the Campisi family. The way it looked was that one of us was going to have to go to Sicily for an extended stay.

  At the sharp pounding on the door, I clenched my fists and yelled, “Go away!”

  They knocked harder.

  Grumbling, I got out of bed, threw on a bathrobe, and pulled open the door. Chase was standing there as if he’d just seen a ghost.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Tex and Mo.” He shook his head. “They’re gone.”

  Elicit

  Eagle Elite Book 4

  Elicit: To evoke or draw out (a response or an answer or fact) from someone in reaction to one’s own actions or questions. Example: A corrupt heart elicits in an hour all that is bad in us.

  Prologue

  Tex

  Rage consumed me as I looked around the building. A sea of familiar faces stared right through me. It was as if the past twenty-five years of my life meant nothing at all.

  Had I been nothing to them?

  Nothing but a joke.

  The reality of my situation hit me full force as I fought to suck in even long breaths of the stale dusty air.<
br />
  “It is your choice,” the voice said in an even steady tone, piercing the air with its finality.

  “Wrong.” I stared at the cement floor, the muted color of grey was stained with spots of blood, “If I’d had a choice, I would have chosen to die in the womb. I would have drowned myself when I was three. I would have shot myself when I had the chance. You’ve given me no damn choice, and you know it.”

  “You do not fear death?” the voice mocked.

  Slowly, my head rose, I locked eyes with Mo and whispered, “It’s life. Life scares the hell out of me.”

  A single tear fell from her chin and in that moment I knew what I had to do. After all, life was about choices. And I was about to make mine. Without hesitation. I grabbed the gun from my back pocket, pointed it at Mo and pulled the trigger.

  With a gasp she fell to the ground. A bullet grazed my shoulder as I knelt taking time to reach for my semi-automatic from underneath my pant leg. When I stood, I let loose a string of ammo, the sound of it hitting cement, brick, bodies, chairs, filled me with more peace than I’d had in a lifetime of war.

  I stalked toward him, the man I was going to kill, the man who had made me feel like my existence meant nothing. I held the gun to his chest and squeezed the trigger, and when he collapsed in front of me, it was with a smile on his face, his eyes still open in amusement.

  Chaos reigned around me and then suddenly, everything stopped.

  When I turned it was to see at least twenty dead, and Nixon staring at me like he didn’t know me at all — but maybe he never had. And wasn’t that a bitch.

  He took a step forward his hand in the air, “Tex—”

  “No.” I smirked. “Not Tex. To you?” I pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. “I’m the Capo.”

  Part One: A Rise To Power

  Chapter One

  Two weeks before the incident…

  Tex

  “No! No! Stop!” Mo tossed and turned in her sleep, her arms flying around the bed as if she was trying to punch someone — though really she was only landing blows to the air.