He reaches out, touching the back of my hand. “One day, we’ll be able to do what we want and go where we want, without worrying about any of this. It won’t always be like this.”
I turn my hand into his, lacing our fingers together. “Even if it is always like this, it wouldn’t change anything,” I tell him quietly. “I’ll love you and stay with you, no matter what. Even if it’s hard, even if we’re not as free as we want to be. It’s always been worth it for me, Max.”
“I’m sorry that I ever made you think that it wasn’t for me.” His hand tightens around mine. “I feel the same way. Whatever I have to give up, whatever I have to do–it will always be you, Sasha. It will always be us.”
“Where do you think we’ll go after this?” I bite my lip. “Do you think I’ll see Caterina, Anika, Yelena, and the babies again?”
“Eventually.” Max gives me a sad half-smile. “As for where we’ll go, I’m not sure. I trust Levin with that. He’ll tell us what’s best. He lived a long time with a target on his back. If there’s anyone who can keep us safe, it’s him.”
He couldn’t keep Lidiya safe.The thought hangs in the back of my mind, but I don’t say it aloud. All that Max would say in return is that it’s made Levin more vigilant, more careful that he never loses anyone again, and I know that’s true. In the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. Levin will do his best; I feel sure about that. The rest is up to us to follow his instructions and do our best to stay safe.
Even those thoughts can’t damper the happiness of the day. We walk back loose-limbed and relaxed, hand in hand, talking quietly about nothing as we wind through the late afternoon streets back to the villa, intent on sex and a nap before dinner. Things aren’t normal, far from it, but it’s a taste of a normal life.
It’s a reminder of what we can have one day, if we make it through this. I cling to that, because I have to. I have to have hope.
We’re stepping up onto the patio when there’s a buzzing, and Max frowns. “That’s my burner–” he reaches for it, his brows drawn together. “Only Levin should have this number, and surely he saw us coming–”
He flips it open, lowering his voice. “Hello? We’re outside on the patio. I don’t–”
Max’s voice trails off suddenly, his face turning ashen as his eyes widen. I stare at him, frozen, as he turns towards me with a dawning look of horror on his face.
“Giana?”
25
MAX
It’s hard to describe the horror that I feel at the sound of Giana’s soft, trembling voice on the other end of the line, threaded through with a terror that tells me that whatever is happening, it’s not good.
“Giana?” I say her name as calmly as I can, not wanting to make things worse than they already are. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”
I hear a polished male voice behind her, low and threatening, and something turns cold in my gut. “Giana?”
“Tesoro…” her voice trembles, and then she gives a small cry. “All right, all right! I will tell him!” She takes a shaky breath.
“Giana, what’s happening?”
“It’s Arturo–he’s here.” Her voice gets more tremulous by the moment, full of a fear I’ve never heard before. “He wants to know if Sasha is with you.”
More low words, and Giana lets out a fearful moan. “Please don’t lie,tesoro. He will know, and Tommas–”
“She is. But we’re far from there.”
“I–all right!” She cries out again. “He wants me to put the phone on speaker and for you to do the same.”
At the far end of the patio, I see the door open, and Levin steps out, his eyes widening when he sees the phone. I raise a finger to my lips, gesturing then for him to come closer as I hit the speaker button, Sasha frozen next to me.
A moment later, Art’s voice comes over the line.
“Brother. I hear despite all odds, your pretty little obsession managed to slither her way out of the jaws of death. A more romantic person might say that makes you perfect for one another–but it just pisses me off.”
“Cut the dramatics, Art,” I snap, feeling the ball of ice in my gut growing heavier and colder by the moment. “What have you done with Giana and Tommas?”
“Nothing yet.” The sneer in his voice is audible. “But I have a gun pointed at the old lady’s head. So unless you want to hear me splatter her brains all over this wall, you’re going to listen to me.”
“I’m listening,” I tell him, as calmly as I can manage. Next to me, I can see Sasha trembling, her hands fisted at her stomach in the sheer white fabric of her dress. “What do you want from me? You want the estate and the money? Take it. We’re not coming back.”
Art chuckles darkly. “No, I don’t think that’s enough any longer. You need to understand that you can’t just have whatever you want, Max, just because you were thegoodbrother. There has to be consequences. You were supposed to bedead.” He snarls the last word out, and I hear Giana whimper. It sends a black fury through me that tenses every muscle in my body, my hand tightening around the phone.