“For my mother,” Calvino says quietly, staring at Charlie. “You loved her. I know you did. My father can burn in hell for all I care, but my mother didn’t deserve what happened. Please, Charlie.”
She stares down at her hands and says nothing. Slowly, the tears stop, and she manages to get control of herself.
“If you can get me and Emilio away from the Sandtrap and somewhere safe, I will tell you everything. I swear I’ll tell you everything.”
“I have a safe house. We’re staying in it right now and there’s plenty of room for you and Emilio. From there, we can plan. I have plenty of money and resources. I can help you start over.”
Charlie nods once, battered and broken, but she’s not finished. She’s not lying down and dying and taking the abuse, and I admire her for it.
“When?” she asks, and I know this is going to happen, and I know this is right.
As much as it hurts, it’s right.
God, I miss Riley so much.
Charlie didn’t ask for Vince to do what he did. Vince killed Riley, or Vince had one of his guys do it, but either way Vince is at the center of everything.
I wish I’d stabbed him in the heart back when I drugged him and made him fall asleep—we could’ve avoided so much pain.
But revenge doesn’t matter right now. Getting Charlie and her little boy to safety matters, and everything else can follow after that.
“Keep your phone on,” Calvino says. “We’ll contact you as soon as we can.”
“Thank you,” she whispers. “Thank you both.”
“Just stay strong, okay? Stay safe and keep it together. We’ll get you out.” I stand and walk around the table to hug her again.
It hurts, hugging her, because I know she was tangentially involved in my cousin’s death, but I can feel the sadness in her, all the hurt and all the horror, and I don’t blame her, I can’t blame her.
In so many ways, she’s me, except she’s the version of me that never escaped from my nightmare back home. She’s the version that stayed with The Fist and suffered his degradations and his humiliations and all the pain he had to offer, again and again.
Charlie will keep on suffering if we don’t get her out, at least for her baby’s sake.
“I shouldn’t say this, but I feel like you have to know.” Charlie touches my cheek and smiles slightly. “Vince isn’t Emilio’s father. That’s why I’m going to run, more than anything else. For my baby.”
She drops her hand and walks to the coffee shop door. I stand there utterly stunned. “Wait! Who is the father then?”
But it’s too late. Charlie’s outside and Calvino grabs my wrist before I can chase her down.
“Let her go. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.” He pulls me against him and hugs me hard, and I can feel the anger radiating through his body, hot and sharp and intense. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. I’m numb right now, and I think this is going to hurt later, but I’m okay.”
“Fucking Vince.” He sounds like he’s going to break this coffee shop to bits. “We’ll make him pay. I promise.”
“I believe you.”
He kisses me for a long moment before he pulls me outside.
Chapter 29
Calvino
We get our chance a week after the coffee shop meeting.
It’s a quiet night a few minutes past one in the morning and the street around the Sandtrap is dead. My car is empty except for food wrappers and a big jug of water. I’ve been staking out the block since sundown and my back’s aching from sitting still and cooped up for so long. Grace is back at the apartment, and even though she begged me to let her come with, I couldn’t allow it. I couldn’t risk her, not again.
The last week was a beautiful flurry of sex and planning. Every moment we spent with each other was either in bed, in the shower, on the floor in the living room, or on the couch. I fucked her and tasted every inch of her body, and together we managed to drown out all the pain and the anger through intense, mind-breaking, sweat-churning sex.
And it was heaven. It was the best week of my life, and when Diego called with a time and a date, I wanted to tell him to fuck off.
I didn’t want it to end.
Being with Grace is something I never envisioned for myself. All my life I’ve been alone, either in my apartment or in my businesses, with only Diego as my close friend. I love my family, but I’ve always been an outsider with them and purposefully so—Dad set up that system where I would be the clean brother and separated from everyone else and we all obeyed his wishes, and we still do, even with him dead and buried.