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“I want to know what it was,” I insisted.
Dario glanced at me, and for once, I saw softness in his gaze. “I can tell you, but now isn’t the time.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, turning to look at the road again. He clearly knew the road like the back of his hand as he anticipated all the twists and turns. I saw headlights behind us, and my heart started to race again.
I turned in my seat, looking behind me, accidentally hitting my elbow against the door.
I winced. I’d attempted to catch myself on my elbows when Dario pushed me out of the way to stop the car from running us both over.
Was the baby okay? I put my hand over my stomach, then realized what I was doing and pulled it away. I hadn’t fallen on my stomach, so the baby would be fine, right?
My hand found its way to my neck and stroked the locket there. Instantly, I felt calmer. For the millionth time, I thought of her.
My mother was strong. She had been a force to reckon with. She would have been brave in the face of this kind of threat.
Suddenly, I felt the same way. I knew the enormity of the situation. I was pregnant and scared, married to a Mafia kingpin who clearly had a price on his head. And mine.
But as I looked over at Dario, I knew that he was trying to keep us safe.
With sudden, shocking clarity, I knew that there was no way to escape this. All I could do was lean into it, embrace it, and hope that there was light on the other side of this terrible situation.
A pair of headlights approached us. Oh God, were there more people coming for us?
Panic gripped me, even after the car went around us and drove out of sight without incident.
“Are you okay over there?” Dario glanced at me with a stoical expression on his face. However, I could see a hint of concern in his eyes that he was desperately trying to hide.
“Fine,” I breathed out. I wasn’t. I was having a panic attack.
The events of the night were all pounding in my head. I couldn’t shake them. I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom.
I started to shiver, but it wasn’t even that I was cold. I just couldn’t seem to stop.
“Just breathe, Mya. Breathe. Close your eyes and breathe,” he told me as he navigated another turn. He reached out and gripped my freezing-cold hands with his own.
I closed my eyes and did as he told me. He kept my hands in his, holding them tightly. I breathed in and out, trying to calm down. I was holding his hand so tightly that I wondered if I was hurting him.
I felt silly at the thought. There’s nothing I could do to hurt him. He was so strong and unyielding.
It was a quality I admired in him, I found myself thinking. Could the qualities I hated in him be ones I could come to admire as well? That thought jolted me to the present.
When had I started admiring the man who had roped me into a marriage I didn’t want?
It took a herculean effort to pull my hands from his. It was then that I realized that I was crying. To my surprise, he brought his hand up and gently wiped away my tears before looking back at the road.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said simply. “Look at me, Mya.”
I forced myself to meet his eyes.
“You’re going to be okay. I know you’re tired. I know you’re scared. But just hang in there, okay? We’re going to be safe.”
An emotion I wasn’t ready to acknowledge made my heart skip a beat. I trusted him. When had things changed between us?
Suddenly, I had found myself trusting this man. I was conflicted. I couldn’t feel this way about him.
But what if I did? Jason’s goodness, the belief in his perfection, had been a shield I used to hold Dario off, to keep myself stuck in the past.
But what if he hadn’t been so good after all? What if he had been doing something terrible behind my back?