Who knows, maybe this was all some ploy to separate us, to get something from the boys that they couldn’t live without. She knows how they care for me, how they’d walk through the hottest pits of hell just to keep me safe. Shit, maybe I’m not even her daughter at all.
The thought has an unladylike scoff pulling from deep in my chest, and the moment the sound passes my lips, Dreadlock Dude pulls back and drops his gaze to mine. “You good?” he questions, his dark eyes narrowed, looking like two deep pits of nothingness.
I slap a grin across my face, my eyes filled with venom. “Peachy,” I spit, watching the way he watches me back. It’s almost as though he’s trying to decide if he’s going to make my life a living hell or if he’ll take pity on the sad, broken girl.
His jaw tightens and he holds my stare for a moment longer before following Gia’s SUV off the side of the road. Dirt spits up under her tires as she hits the brakes, and I clench my eyes as that cloud of dust smacks me in the face. The motorbike comes to a stop behind the SUV, and I peer through the dirt cloud, wondering what the hell is about to happen.
Dreadlock Dude presses his hand to his ear as his gaze settles on the back window of Gia’s SUV, and I realize that she’s giving him instructions. He gives a firm nod, and before I can ask what’s going on, his strong arms scoop under my ass and he hauls me off his bike.
“Wha … What are you doing?” I rush out as panic tears through me. I cling to him, my gaze wide as I frantically search around. Is he going to ditch me here? Put a bullet through my head and leave me for the bears? Shit, if they were just going to kill me all along, I would have preferred to stay with the boys. At least that way I could have died in their arms with their sweet words telling me that it was all going to be okay.
The guy doesn’t respond, and as he starts to move away from the bike, my panic only escalates. “Let me go,” I spit, struggling against his hold, desperate to get back on my feet to give myself a chance to run. But where will I go? Back to the mansion to fight for the boys? I couldn’t, not without becoming fertilizer for the most pristine lawn in the country. Giovanni slaughtered his own sons, sons that I believed to be invincible. If he could do that to them, I can only imagine the shit he’d do to me.
If the boys weren’t already dead, they’d kill me themselves for even thinking of going back there. But I have to do something. I have to fight back and make this right, though nothing I do could ever bring them back to me. There has to be some other way.
I mean … Giovanni did mention that he wanted me to become his wife. The thought alone makes me sick, but it’s also a way to get close to him.
No. I can’t think like that. It’s a stupid plan that’s only going to end up backfiring on me just like everything else does.
What a fucking joke. Giovanni is delusional if he thinks there’s any way in hell that I would willingly marry him, sleep in his bed every night, bear him a child and grant him access to the Moretti empire. I’d sooner die than hand myself over like that. Besides, I couldn’t shit all over the boys’ memory by giving up now and becoming their father’s bride. I won’t do it, not even if it means bringing peace between the two families.
Dreadlock Dude holds on to me, caging me like a prisoner between his strong arms, and I resist the urge to claw his face. It would be a low blow. The guy truly does have a pretty face. He’s handsome with a sharp jaw and flawless dark skin. He’s older than me, maybe in his mid-thirties, and it’s clear from the way he holds himself that he’s seen some nasty shit, but that only adds to his allure. To ruin that would be a crime against humanity, but a shot to the junk wouldn’t go astray.
“I ain’t gonna hurt you, baby,” he mutters as he starts walking toward the backseat of Gia’s SUV. “But you keep fighting me like that, and I’ll have no choice but to put you out. You feel me? And trust me, after sobbing all over my fucking shirt, I won’t even feel bad about it.”
Well, shit.
My gaze snaps up to his, and I fix him with a lethal stare, one the boys would be proud of. “Then put me down.”
Dreadlock Dude tightens his hold around my waist before releasing his other hand. “Gladly,” he mutters just as he reaches around me and tears open the back passenger door of the SUV. I barely get a chance to scream before he tosses me straight on the backseat and slams the door before my body even hits the leather seat.
The momentum of his throw sends me sprawling against the backseat, and before I can even right myself, Gia hits the gas and takes off at a million miles per hour. I scramble to keep myself upright as I fly across the backseat and dive for the handle of the door. I pull hard, desperate to free myself, but the door won’t budge.
“Don’t waste your energy,” Gia mutters, her dark eyes flicking to mine through the rearview mirror. “The doors are locked, and trust me when I say, you’re going to need your energy.”
Pressing my hands against the leather on either side of my thighs, I meet Gia’s stare, hating how much it resembles mine. “What do you want with me?” I demand, my jaw clenching as my fingers ball into fists against the leather, quickly realizing that there’s no point in trying to run. The DeAngelis family are scary as shit, but the fact that they were all scared of the Moretti family tells me exactly what I need to know—dealing with the DeAngelis family was only a warm-up for what the Moretti family is capable of.
“I thought I made myself quite clear when we met in my warehouse this afternoon,” she says, her gaze falling away to focus on the road ahead as I hear the roar of the motorbike falling back into position behind us. “You, Shayne, are the heir to the Moretti empire, and you will take my place when the time comes.”
I shake my head, my brows pinching with confusion. “I know all of this,” I spit, my frustration getting the best of me as too many questions fly through my mind. “I just … you said that I could stay with the boys. You said I still had time.”
“The deal was that you could stay with the three DeAngelis sons while they could guarantee your safety. They’re dead now. They failed you, so I was left with no choice but to come save you before Giovanni took you as his own. You are the sole heir to my family, my empire, and I cannot risk you slipping back into Giovanni’s grasp.”
A lump forms in my throat as silent tears stream down my face. “They’re not dead,” I murmur, my voice lowering to a whisper. “They can’t be dead.”
Gia’s sigh fills the car as her gaze slices back up to the small mirror. “You saw what Giovanni did. You heard the gunshots. You’re only hurting yourself by holding on to the hope that they could have survived. I’ve been in this world a long time, Shayne. The likelihood of those boys surviving … it’s not possible. It’s best you move on now. A clean cut.”
“A clean cut?” I scoff. “Giovanni murdered them right in front of my eyes. I was in love with them. There’s no ‘clean cut’ about it.”
“It was just business, Shayne. Every mafia family experiences losses like this. It’s just part of the game.”
“This wasn’t business,” I spit. “It was personal. He killed them just to get them out of the way, so he could have me for himself. You know that, right? He’s planning on marrying me to gain access to your family. He killed them to get to you. That’s not business.”
Gia shakes her head as the convoy of SUVs finally catches up to us and gets in formation, leaving Gia driving directly between them all with Dreadlock Dude on his motorbike up ahead. “I know it’s hard for you to understand. You haven’t been in this world long enough for the loss to bounce off you yet, but soon enough you’ll see that it was a necessary move in a war that’s been going on long before your time.”
My eyes bug out of my head, the lump getting caught in my throat again. “A necessary move?” I splutter, unable to make sense of why she would say something like that.
“Yes,” she explains. “Giovanni’s sons were going to die at some point. Whether by their father’s hand or my own.”