Gianni
“It was Luciano who hit her with the car,” Roger says, rather than leave the announcement to me.
“Are you fucking serious?” Her scream echoes through the dining room. We already had an audience. What’s more attention on us? “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“One thing at a time. We don’t know if he took her.” Or what he hopes to get out of this. I can’t imagine it wasn’t him. Especially if he confronted the girls earlier today. If one of them had told me about that, and I’d known he was in the area, I could’ve been on alert. I could’ve stopped this from happening.
“I have the signal from her phone.” Roger shows me the screen, where a blinking blue dot tells me she’s moving.
“Dad, please, find her. Please get her back!” Tatiana is weeping as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and walk her out of the dining room with Roger on our heels. A snap of my fingers and the pair of guards waiting under the awning in front of the restaurant jump to attention. Damn it, it never occurred to me to have any in the back. I wasn’t thinking. Why wasn’t I thinking? I’ll never forgive myself—
Stop it. Focus. She needs you.
“Take Tatiana home,” I tell them, raising my voice to be heard over the storm. “Then wait for further instructions.”
Roger heads for the second car and is already behind the wheel before I join him. The tires squeal across the pavement before I’ve closed the door.
“We can’t afford to chase them down,” Roger says as he speeds through the lot before bursting out onto the access road running behind the restaurant. “He might try to outrun us.”
He doesn’t have to say anything more. I’m as aware of how this could end up as he is, already playing out every possibility in my racing mind.
“That doesn’t mean you need to drive like an old woman. Move.” Luciano—if it is Luciano—is already miles ahead of us. What if he drives them both off a bridge? Or deliberately slam into the concrete wall of an overpass at top speed? The way Tatiana described him, he’s completely unpredictable.
I should have tried harder. Should have stopped at nothing before finding him.
“Where the fuck has he been?” I demand, punching the door.
“For all we know, he could’ve been living out of his car all this time.” He glances my way before weaving around a line of cars traveling too slowly. “You did everything you could.”
That doesn’t matter. “It wasn’t enough.”
And I will never forgive myself if my failure means losing her forever.
--
CATERINA
“You’re safe now. You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.”
All I can do is groan. My head is so heavy, just like my eyelids. I can’t open them. I’m so tired, and it feels like I’m still dreaming even though I know I’m awake. Stupid pain meds always mess me up like this.
Wait. No. I’m not taking them anymore.
The voice comes back, weaving its way through my foggy brain. “I know you didn’t want to listen to me. That’s why I had to do this. You left me no choice, but it’s for your own good. You’ll see.”
If I didn’t know better, I would swear it was Luciano talking. I must still be dreaming or caught between a dream and reality.
It’s storming outside, and the sound of thunder and fat raindrops hitting the windows makes me want to go back to sleep.
“Gianni…” I whisper while I curl into a ball. I want him close to me. I want to sleep safe and warm in his arms while a storm rages outside.
“You never have to be afraid of him again. I don’t care how long it takes. You’re going to forget Gianni Rossetti ever existed.”
Wait.
I’m not in Gianni’s bed.
And I am not dreaming.
That really is Luciano murmuring close to where I lie.
I force air into my nostrils. My mind is on the fringes of panic. Instead of the familiar, spicy scent of Gianni’s skin on the sheets, it’s wood I smell. Lots of wood, like I’m in a room filled with it. Or made of it. The mattress under me has springs that poke into my hip and shoulder.
Lightning flashes bright enough that I see it from behind my closed eyelids, and it’s followed by a clap of thunder that shakes the room. I can’t pretend to be asleep, not with Luciano so close. And I know he’s close. I smell his acrid sweat, the way I did outside the store and in the bathroom, where he knocked me out. Kidnapped me.
I should’ve taken him more seriously. Why did I think I was doing him a favor by letting him live?
“What… what’s going on?” I force my heavy eyelids open. My vision is blurry, and it takes me a moment to fully see the room. But once my eyes focus, I find him sitting in an armchair beside the bed. His intense stare makes my skin crawl.Stay calm.Reason with him.“Is this your parents’ cabin?”
A soft smile touches his lips. It’s obscene looking. “I knew you would remember.”