“Oh my God. You are, aren’t you? Why the fuck did you leave him then? You love him so much you’re going to cry just thinking something happened to him but you left. What’s it matter?”
“I still love him!” I said defensively and then shook my head. “He told you I left? So, he’s okay then?”
“I mean he told me you left like I didn’t see you walk out with your suitcase on the security footage,” he said like we were a bunch of idiots.
“That’s really creepy, Cade.”
“Anyway, you need to get back to your penthouse.”
“What?” I shook my head, then started to back out from my parking spot.
“You need to get back there. Or the security team can drive you or whatever. Bastian’s on a call with the president right now, I think, but it looks like he’s coming your way anyway.”
“I’m not going back to him.”
“You love him. Why not? You going to cry when he’s gone but not enjoy him when he’s there?”
“That’s not… you can mourn the death of someone, Cade. It’s different from protecting your heart. This is for the best.”
“It’s not.”
“Why? Give me a reason.” I needed a good one or maybe just any one because my resolve wasn’t the best on this.
“You know when my mom died, she’d only taught Bastian how to cook,” Cade said. “I didn’t care about learning and she’d focused on him. He was the first-born son in the family anyway. I think my dad punished him for that. He wanted every form of passion that reminded him of my mother gone from Bastian. But Bastian and my mother were close. She used to run her hands through his hair and say, ‘You got my love for the world, Bast, and Cade got all our smarts.’”
I held my breath at his words as sat in my pickup, taking in every detail he gave me about their childhood.
“I remember the first time Bastian came home from a deal that must have ended in bloodshed. He didn’t say a word. He just cooked. Then he turned to me and said, ‘Let’s learn to make peace.’ And he meant it. He doesn’t want to fight anyone. But he will. He is. He’s bringing down that refinery partly for you and partly because he found they were still illegally trafficking women. He’ll kill the man if you don’t go back. I’m sure of it, Morina.”
“He can’t,” I whispered.
I got it now. The peace in him was his way of fighting.
He fought with alliances and peace and wanted happiness instead of hate. It was possible to rule with respect rather than fear, and I believed he was one of the only people who could do it… But only if I took on his darkness behind closed doors.
I wanted Sebastian’s pain and dominance and fury in the dark of the night where I could soothe him back to light by morning.
“I’ll be back there soon.” I turned the key in the ignition, ready now more than ever to go back.
“Thought you might say that. He should be at the last beach you stopped at. You can meet there. I’ll text him.”
I hung up and turned on the radio to try to calm down. The news didn’t let me.
“...Refinery hacked only hours before, demanding compensation for trafficked families,” the host said. “We have the votes going on whether we should commend the hackers or call them terrorists. I’m leaning toward commending them. Word is, this might be some sort of broken empire, with the mob families and syndicates fighting against one another.”
The other host laughed. “I don’t think it’s the 80s anymore. Mob families are dead. This is just businessmen playing with their money and getting hacked by the people who want justice. I’m for it. I hope they end up having to pay that ransom.”
I smacked the radio dial off. “Breathe, Morina,” I told myself.
This time, I turned the crystal ring on my finger and drove fast enough down the coast to meet Bastian in a half an hour.
The sun was setting as I parked and I saw his navy suit out on the sand. He still looked completely and utterly out of place there, but it was picturesque, the juxtaposition of his luxury suit being dirtied by the sand and sea.
I stood too long thinking about us together, letting my mind run away with itself. I was too wrapped up in my own confusion and in my love for him that I didn’t hear the man coming from behind me until he grabbed me by the neck so hard, I barely got out a scream.
The cold metal of his gun pressed into my temple but he wasn't the one who spoke.
A man with hair so inky it must have been dyed black stepped into view. “I really wish Bastian had held up his part of the deal so I didn’t have to force this sort of transaction.”
I wheezed just as Bastian whipped around.
Only about twenty feet separated us but when a dragon broke from its chains and came out of the cave, the world felt it.
“Boss…” The guy holding me murmured as my husband took a step toward us, his eyes fixed on the gun at my head. “He’s trained. You better act fast because her security will be here any minute too. They’ll be setting up snipers and he’ll signal.”
“You got a gun to this pretty girl, here, boy.” He said to the guy holding the gun to my head. “Don’t worry. He won’t do a thing. He’s a businessman.”
“You’re wrong,” I whispered.
The man whipped the gun fast across my mouth. “Shut up. You don’t know anything.”
As black spots came into my vision and I tasted blood from the lip he hit, though, there was something I was sure of, something I did know.
I knew that before me stood Sebastian Armanelli, the mafia king. My protector. My lover.
Before the man could cut off any more oxygen from my lungs, my husband stood with the sparkling ocean at his back and moved like lightning to whip out his gun and pull the trigger.
I felt the hand slacken before my gasp even came out. The weight of a body fell from my back.
“Bastian,” I whispered but he wasn’t looking at me.
He had his gun aimed at the black-haired man. “Did you think you could come here to negotiate?”
“Bastian, please…” He chuckled, his eyes darting back and forth. “I’m so sorry. That man, I thought he had the decency to just talk. He’s been an employee of mine but I didn’t know–”
“Shut up,” Bastian commanded. “Do I look stupid to you?”
“Of course not.”
“Do you think my wife is up for leverage?”
“I thought that was just an arrangement. I was sure the stories I heard–”
“My wife, and no other woman for that matter, is meant to be dragged into this.”
“Bastian, you pulled a pretty big stunt on my oil refinery. Let’s be fair–”
“Fair?” he asked like suddenly the word was poison in his mouth. “Fair?”
He stalked up to him and now I knew I needed to intervene. “Bastian, hold on.”
His dark eyes shot to mine, pain so deep I wouldn’t have found the end of it, even if I swam in it for days. “Ragazza, mi amore, I could have lost you.”
With that, his dark eyes turned to the hardest sort of crystal and he pulled the trigger again.
Another body dropped.
Closing the space between us, Bastian holstered his weapon and pulled me into his arms so tight, I lost my breath.