“I tried, Salem. When they realized I was going to fight them, it became a battle. I managed to take out all the men who came to end them, but not before the house was set on fire. I tried to get them out—to find them—to help them.”
It left me on a haggard moan.
Or maybe it was just Salem’s.
“Where?” she demanded.
“Los Angeles. Four years ago.”
A choked sob ripped up her throat as she struggled to break free of my hold.
I let her go as realization slammed me.
When I realized she saw me then.
The real me.
And she was going to leave me, too.
I didn’t want to even look at her, to see the fear and loathing that would no doubt be written on her face. But I couldn’t stop myself. Not when she scrambled away like she was the one being burned, choking and gasping and heaving out for the breaths that wheezed from her lungs.
“No,” she begged.
“I told you, Salem. Told you it was bad.” I forced myself to look back at her.
I nearly died right there when I saw her expression.
The horror.
The terror.
Tears streamed hot down her gorgeous face, and her mouth was trembling everywhere.
She slipped off the opposite edge of the bed. “No. No, Jud, no.”
Torment clotted my throat. “Would never hurt you.”
She backed away, her hands clutched to her chest, clawing at her heart like she was going to rip it out.
“Darlin’?” I was such a fuckin’ fool because I pushed to my feet and started around the bed like I could be worthy of holding some of her fear when I was the one who’d caused it.
“He…he…f-f-found us.” The words tripped from her tongue.
A frown curled my brow. “What?”
“He found us. No. He found us.” Frantic, she spun in a circle. She suddenly lurched forward, scrambling around on the floor until she found her shoes.
She jerked them on, hopping around to try to keep her balance.
I rounded the end of the bed, approaching her like she was a wild animal that’d been backed into a corner. “What are you saying? Who found you?”
A distressed sob raked from her throat and ricocheted against the walls. “He found us, Jud. Carlo. He found us.”
She may as well have bashed me with a sledgehammer. The way pain splintered through my head. I stumbled and my knees locked.
Sickness, hatred, and dread coiled through the room. A vortex that would suck us in and consume.
“Did you say Carlo? What are you saying, Salem? Tell me you’re not saying what I think you are.” The demand cracked through the heated air.
Carlo.
Marcello’s piece of shit older brother.
He was the family head. The one who’d called the shots. Gave the orders. He was the one I’d thought I’d have to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for, sure he’d be back for revenge. Thinking one day he’d come for me. Instead, the coward had up and disappeared after it’d all gone down.
The bastard who’d had his wife and babies killed. The one who was responsible for the deaths of the two officers posted to guard them. Not to mention his brother and two of his men who had been found on the scene—only those three had been compliments of me.
Carlo was one of LA’s most wanted. As far as I knew, he’d become dust. Vapor. There had been no sign of him for the last four years.
She backed away. “Did you do this? Oh my god, did you do this? Trap us?”
A disorder blustered through her words, and my brow pinched in pained confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about, Salem? Tell me what the hell you are saying. I would never hurt you. I love you. I fucking love you. Please, tell me what is happening.”
She gasped against my words then rushed for her purse, and she tossed out the words like they made perfect sense. “Not everyone died in that house, Jud.”
“What? Fuck, Salem, tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”
She flew around to look at me, her face soaked. “The news reported that we all died, Jud. My son…Lucas…he was in his crib. I lost him. Oh god. I lost him.” Her knees nearly buckled when she said it, and her hand darted to the table to steady herself. Her grief was so thick I could taste it. “But Juni and I…we got out.”
Sorrow trapped her in that dark, dark storm.
She squeezed her eyes shut before a rush of words tumbled from her mouth. “I was rocking Juni in the other room. We heard noises, and I went to go for him…I begged to go for him, Jud, but the officer…she forced us out the side door and said she would get him. She promised she would get him.”
The words broke on the last because she hadn’t.