Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I should bide my time. Wait for a better opening.
Instead, I slip out from under the covers and crouch down, waiting in the dark. Luca doesn’t stir.
I sneak into the bathroom. Under the sink, behind a stack of hair care products and soap, I find a small gym bag I stashed there earlier in the day. It’s filled with clothing, practical and comfortable clothing, plus some cash I found in one of Luca’s drawers. It’s not much, but it’ll be enough to get me started. I take the bag and creep out of the bedroom, taking everything slow.
Once I’m in the sitting room, I get changed. I put on sneakers, leggings, a sweatshirt. I pull it up over my head, put the bag on my shoulder, and slip into the hall.
My heart’s racing wildly and I’m sweating. I’ve gone over this escape a dozen times in my head and now that I’m doing it, I feel like I’ve forgotten everything. Luca’s still in bed, he’s still asleep, and the only thing standing between me and the outside world is a single staircase and a back door. There might be guards and there will probably be staff, but if I’m careful and lucky I can get past them.
I can do it.
I take a step and pause before looking back at Luca’s door. I think of Perico getting shot in the chest and the head and the way Luca walked into my room with that shit-eating grin like he hadn’t just murdered the closest thing I had to a father in cold blood. I should go back in there and drive a knife into Luca’s chest, for my brothers and my father and Perico, for my poor dead family.
Luca deserves it. He deserves pain and humiliation and worse. He deserves death at my hands, and there’s a part of me that wants to do it. I’m the daughter of a crime lord, I should want revenge for my family. I should want blood.
I turn away, a shiver running down my spine.
I don’t want any of that. I think of him in that towel this morning, the water dripping down his skin. I think of his hands on my waist, his lips against mine. His slow, rhythmic breathing in sleep, and his deep, controlled breathing while out for a run. I think of the way he put himself between me and the Russians.
I hate him for what he did to my family. But I don’t want to kill him.
“Sorry,” I whisper and slip down the hall.
Chapter 15
Kacia
I creep down the back staircase, going as slowly as I can. At the bottom, I slip down a dark hallway and pause outside of the kitchen. It’s silent and empty in there, and as I tiptoe over the threshold, past the stainless-steel professional equipment, I think of the cooks in here working twelve hours a day, of the men and women that work for the Valverde Famiglia as staff, as people that aren’t a part of the criminal enterprise but just regular employees. I can’t imagine what their lives are like and what they’ve seen in this house, but right now, none of it matters.
I reach the back door and hesitate before pushing it open.
The yard is dark and quiet. I spot a single guard at the far end near the fence, smoking a cigarette. The cherry flame glows bright pink in the darkness and his face is lit up from the blue light of his phone. He’s staring at something, intent on whatever it is, and I decide to make a break for it while he’s distracted. I hurry out and onto the concrete patio before turning right and rushing around the corner.
There’s a five-foot-wide gap between the privacy fence and the house. I squeeze past trash cans, air-conditioning compressors, and reach the latch. It’s locked, but I climb up and over, tumbling down roughly on the far side and landing in an inelegant heap on the sidewalk.
I sit there for a second. I’m in shadows, listening. There are no pedestrians around, no cars. I’m on the other side, and for the first time in months, I taste real freedom. It’s dizzying and disorienting—I’m on my own right now with nobody else to step in and help me if I fuck up. My choices are my problem, my failures are all mine, and it feels wonderful.
I turn from the Valverde house and begin to walk fast.
The bastards. I grin from ear to ear. They’re too busy keeping people from sneaking in that they didn’t notice me escaping. The more distance I put between me and the house, the bigger my smile gets.
Until I reach an intersection and realize I have no clue where I am or where I’m going or even how I’m going to get all the way out to LA to check on Adrienne.