Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“Vivia?” I whisper. There’s no response.
I look out at the open window before me and see something I recognize. Crashing waves, water lapping at the shore…
I sit up, ignoring the pain that ricochets through my nerves like a ringing bell.
I’m at The Castle. I’m home.
If they found Vivia—
I throw off the covers and pat my body, looking for a weapon.
“Jesus, take it easy, brother.”
The door flings open, and Romeo strides in.
“Where is she?” I ask. He doesn’t need me to tell him who “she” is.
“Lay down, Dario. You’re not ready to get up out of that bed.”
Like hell I’m not. If they found her, if they hurt her—
“Lay. Down,” he repeats, no longer friendly but my Don.
I have no choice but to obey. I lay back. “Tell me, Rome. What happened?”
He folds himself on a chair by my bed as Orlando walks into the room, sees I’m awake, and shuts the door firmly behind him. I watch as he spins the lock to the locked position, and when he turns to me, he puts his finger to his lips. “Shh,” he whispers. “They’re all here.”
Romeo looks up at him and doesn’t respond. Orlando sits on a chair next to Romeo.
“Why don’t you fill him in,” Romeo says, nodding to Orlando. Romeo, the eldest brother and leader of the Rossi family, dresses like he’s about to dine at Boston’s finest. He rarely raises his voice and leads with quiet confidence. His blue eyes are fixated on Orlando, who looks at me.
“How are you feeling?”
“I feel like shit, but I don’t care about that right now,” I tell him impatiently. “I wanna know—”
“Where Vivia is,” he finishes. “I know, but you were pretty bad off, brother.”
“And I want to know how you are, too,” Romeo says seriously. I blow out a breath. Fine, then, we’ll play it that way.
“I’m fine, I think. Head hurts, my body feels weirdly drugged and sluggish, but I think I’m alright. What the hell happened?”
“Patience,” Orlando says, clucking his tongue. I’m about ready to come up out of this bed and strangle him. He must see I’m not fucking around, because he holds up his hand in surrender and chuckles. “Alright, alright. Easy, Dar. I’ll tell you everything.” He raises his eyebrows. “And fast, okay?”
I nod. Romeo hands me a glass of water. “Drink,” he orders. I do what he says as I face Orlando.
“You were bitten, and badly, by a rabid coyote. I’m not sure how you escaped, but we found the body shot right outside the door to the cabin. Blood trail says you made it inside, or Vivia helped you. She called me. Must’ve used your thumbprint to open up the phone. The phone says she went through the records and called the last dialed.”
Why is he talking about all this in the past tense? If he hurt her… if any of them did…
I take in a deep breath to steady myself, though it doesn’t seem to be working that well.
“We had men in Rhode Island, sent an EMT crew to get you brought home and doctored and to bring Vivia into custody at The Castle. When they got there, she was gone.”
Good girl.
I’m surprised at the sudden warmth that spreads across my chest.
She saw her chance, and she got away. Even as my heart splinters, even as I want to leap out of this bed and run to find her, pride sweeps through my chest at the knowledge that she not only saved my life, she saved her own as well. My strong, brave girl.
“She escaped,” I whisper, looking at Romeo. “Jesus, I’m sorry.” I had one job, and I failed it.
He shakes his head. “Come off it, Dario,” Romeo says with a frown. “I’m not gonna take someone to task for nearly getting killed by a fuckin’ coyote. You’re strong and one of my most vicious fighters, but you’re not goddamn Superman.” He shrugs. “Plus, I’m not even sure she was guilty.”
Orlando looks at the door. “Sergio, on the other hand…”
Before this all went down, I fuckin’ liked Sergio.
“He ready to kill me?”
“I think if she’d come back here, he would have,” Orlando says honestly. He frowns. “She looked guilty as fuck, brother. We’ve found nothing to vindicate her.”
“After all that time,” I begin, but Orlando cuts me off.
“It’s only been a few days. We can’t find anything but incriminating evidence, and we’re no closer to finding out who took you into custody than we were before.”
“That’s bullshit,” I tell him. My head feels like it’ll split in two. Romeo puts his hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down.
“You’re not in trouble for her getting away,” Romeo tells me. “But you’re gonna stay right fuckin’ here until I know it’s safe.” He lowers his voice. “We’ve kept Sergio in the dark until now. He’s fit to kill. Pissed. If I let him in here right now, he’d shoot you, no question, and that would get really fucking messy. You hear me?”