Page 36

36

ADELINA

N o.

Raffaele says no.

Bound tightly with rope and fabric in the shadows of the warehouse, I can only watch as Raffaele walks right into the trap set by my father. I’ve fought against him every day he’s kept me captive, but this new side of him is terrifying.

Although, it’s not a new side. This is who he truly is and he’s merely hidden it from me because he saw how he could manipulate me. His own daughter. It doesn’t feel real. How can the man who raised me, who baked cookies with me on Sunday mornings and called me Addie like I was the most precious gem in his eye… How can that man be false?

A made-up mask over a cold, cruel, calculating man.

A man who held no qualms about dumping toxic waste into the reservoir, making hundreds, if not thousands, of people sick. I asked myself over and over how he had no empathy for the people falling ill from contaminated water, but I already knew the answer.

He didn’t care when my mother fell ill, so why would he care about the lives of strangers?

He let his own wife die without an ounce of sympathy or regret. Did he ever feel a real, human emotion in his entire life? Or has he always been this cold and calculating, obsessed with money and reputation that means nothing?

And now things feel at their worst. The man I love strides into this warehouse with some kind of plan in mind, but that plan will fail because my father has always been one step ahead. Whether it’s using the Irish to maintain social status or planting me next to Raffaele to act like some unknowing spy, he’s always been planning.

Working and waiting to remove the people who got in his way right when it was most advantageous to him. Like Carlos.

Poor Carlos.

“No?” Pascal’s short, sharp scoff pulls me out of my anxious, wandering thoughts and I fixate on the scene before me.

Pascal stands with his gun raised right at Raffaele’s head, wearing a cold smirk that makes my blood run cold. Raffaele appears more relaxed with one hand in his pocket and the cockiest smile I’ve ever seen on his face.

He looks so handsome. Am I about to watch him die?

My pulse thunders in my ears, flying to a rhythm of panic and fear. Being restrained makes me fight my own mind to prevent being dragged back to the night I was kidnapped, but the rising hopelessness in my chest is making that a losing battle.

I can’t do this again. I lost Carlos. I lost Marie.

Not Raffaele.

Please not Raffaele.

“No,” Raffaele repeats.

Of course. Why would he die for me? I’m the daughter of the monster who’s poisoning the city, the daughter of the man who’s been trying to kill him for months. He must think I’m a terrible person and a?—

“I won’t ever die for her because I would never leave her all alone in this world.” Raffaele lifts his chin defiantly and his smile spreads. “That’s the difference between you and I, Pascal. How many years have you sat whittling away your time with plans and schemes, grasping at power while people die around you? How many nights have you crawled into a cold, empty bed without an ounce of warmth to keep you company?”

A flash of rage passes over my father’s face.

“You’re a pathetic, lonely man. But me? I see the value in people, and Adelina? She’s the best person I have ever met. She’s sweet. Kind. Strong. She gets handed money and power, and what does she do with it? She buys a fucking hospital. That heart of gold clearly came from her mother. So no, I won’t die for her because I will not leave her side.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. His answer is like out of my wildest dreams when I would fantasize about someone being so incredibly in love with me that they would do everything and anything to be by my side. Dying for me is romantic in its own right, but Raffaele’s powerful words make my chest swell with love.

He won’t die because he wants to be here, right here, with me.

“But you know what I will do?” Raffaele’s smile fades in an instant. “I will kill for her. Anyone who has ever harmed her, anyone who has ever scared her or hurt her, or even brought a tear to those beautiful eyes. I will kill them. I would burn down the entire world—no, my entire empire—for her. Because I love her, and there is no sacrifice too big to ensure she ends up right back where she belongs. With me. In fact…” The smile returns briefly. “I’ve already started.”

What does he mean? I glance rapidly between the two of them, shifting where I lie, but my subtle movements are halted by a guard’s boot in my back. The weight forces a grunt of air through my nose, and I wince, struggling to focus on shallow breaths while unable to take my eyes off Raffaele.

He came for me.

Whatever else happens in this warehouse, whatever the outcome, I’ll remember this. I’ll remember that he came here for me and would burn the world for me.

Pascal’s arm wavers slightly and the aim of the gun dips from Raffaele’s forehead down to his chest as he rummages in his pocket for his phone. He stares down at the screen and his mustache twists.

“Expecting someone?” Raffaele asks casually. “Don’t tell me they’re late.”

What is he talking about? And how is he acting so relaxed while facing down certain death? I want to surge up and slap him, then demand he takes this more seriously.

Then again, maybe Raffaele’s made peace with how this is going to play out.

“What have you done?” Pascal lifts his head and his arm tightens, once again lifting the weapon to Raffaele’s face.

“I told you.” Raffaele’s eyes narrow to slits. “There’s nothing I won’t do to get back what’s mine. I imagine you were expecting the Irish to rush in right about now? So you could hand me over and go on about your merry way?” He lifts his other hand and wiggles his fingers, mimicking people running away. “They’re kind of preoccupied.”

“What?” Pascal’s mouth falls open.

“Has it clicked?” Raffaele taps a finger to his temple. “The Irish themselves are a powerhouse, so how could little old me distract them to the point that they wouldn’t even come here to deal with me? Let me think… The court of public opinion is intense. Especially when the public has been poisoned for the better part of fifteen years.”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Technically, I didn’t do anything.” Raffaele smirks. “Your boy Carlos did most of the leg work. I just gathered what he left behind and presented it to the right people. I think the Irish won’t be contacting you for a long time, although the FBI might be knocking down your door. They take things like water contamination very seriously.”

My father’s carefully constructed balance of power always rested on one thing. The Irish and their ability to protect him for their own good. In just a few words, that protection has gone up in smoke.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Pascal yells. “You’ve fucked me, oh, you’ve so fucked me. To think I was going to give you a clean kill, but you know what? You don’t fucking deserve that. I don’t need the Irish. I don’t need anyone! I am Pascal Castiglioni and I?—”

Pascal flies back into the arms of one of his guards as Raffaele surges forward and delivers a powerful punch to his face. A few of the guards raise their weapons, but uncertainty is clear on all their faces.

The Irish were their stability. No one is safe. Not anymore.

“Where is she?” Raffaele yells, surging at Pascal once again. “Now is the time where you tell me what the fuck you’ve done with my wife!”

The guard pinning me to the ground surges to life and steps off me, only to grab me by the rope binding my arms behind my back and pick me up. I grunt through my gag as the strain pulls painfully at my shoulders. As soon as he hauls me to my feet, I twist away from him and try to take a few steps, but he circles an arm around my waist and lifts me off the ground.

Kicking my legs out, I throw my head backward and collide with something hard and sharp—hopefully, his chin. My captor stumbles backward but maintains a firm grip around my abdomen. Desperation surges through me.

I have to let Raffaele know I’m here!

A brawl breaks out before me where Raffaele shows impressive strength in knocking out two of Pascal’s guards. I kick my legs again, twist my body left and right, and then bring both my legs down as hard as I can. The shift in weight makes my capture overbalance, and we both fall into a pile with a mixture of grunts and pained squeaks.

Rolling over, I twist my head into my shoulder and start trying to use the pressure of my shoulder to dislodge the gag. If they take me out of here, I’ll never see him again!

Just as the gag finally slides past my lips, my captor grabs a fistful of my hair and hauls me upward, drawing a scream of pain from my mouth.

Raffaele freezes, his fist poised over the bloodied, slack mouth of one of Pascal’s guards. His head snaps up and somehow, despite the darkness of shadows surrounding me, he looks at me.

Right at me.

Our gazes meet, and my racing heart jumps painfully in my chest while I renew my struggles against the guard fighting to drag me away.

“Raffaele!”

“Adelina!”

The guard under his fist is kicked away into Pascal, causing him to stumble and fall. Then Raffaele is sprinting toward me at full speed. His jacket trails behind him, his hair catches in the air and streaks back, and his shirt becomes like a second skin with how fast he’s sprinting.

The guard dragging me gasps in alarm and drops me. I fall like a rock, landing on my shoulder with a pained grunt, but I roll over immediately.

Then a gunshot rings out like a bark, echoing all around the warehouse, and Raffaele drops like a rock to the ground.

He doesn’t move.

“No!” A deeply pained, agonized scream tears out of me in my next breath and I force myself up onto my knees.

Pascal stands a few feet away, surrounded by the bodies of some of his guards with his gun raised and pointed at where Raffaele was a moment ago.

“No! No, no, no! You son of a bitch!” I screech as hot tears flood my eyes and blur my world. Sharp grief cracks open my chest as I stare at Raffaele’s unmoving body. “I hate you! I’m going to kill you, Pascal. I’m going to rid this world of your?—”

“Ow.” Raffaele plants one hand on the ground and slowly picks himself up, cutting off my furious tirade toward my father. My captor charges forward with his fist raised and he tackles Raffaele just as he makes it back to his feet.

“Raffaele!”

I look away to scan the darkness, seeking anything that will help me free my hands, but there’s nothing. Only cardboard, old crates, and some upturned, rusted paint cans.

“Fuck!” I have to help him. I have to! Kicking around in the dirt, I scramble about scanning the darkness for anything that can help me while Raffaele and my captor brawl against the shelves. Then, a sudden deafening crash erupts in the warehouse and I instinctually throw myself to the ground, fearing the worst.

I close my eyes and my mind runs rampant.

This is it. This is the end. This is how we die, and my father will walk out of here with his head held high and yet another lie on his foul lips.

“Adelina.”

Raffaele’s voice sounds so clear and loud in my mind that it’s almost like he’s right next to me. My chest throbs at the notion and I rack my brain for anything Caterina ever told me that can help me slip out of my bindings. Dislocating my thumb, maybe?

“Adelina.” His voice is louder, and warmth touches my cheek. I flinch away, and my eyes snap open only to come face to face with Raffaele.

“Raffaele?”

His lips crash into mine and he kisses me fiercely, cradling the back of my head with one hand and winding his other arm around my body. He pulls me up against him, kissing me like it’s our first and last kiss all wrapped up into one.

I can’t breathe. My head spins from exhilaration and confusion while everything else is drowned out by the thundering racing of my pulse in my ears. I curl my hands into fists, digging my nails into my palms and kissing Raffaele back with all the power of every unspoken feeling I hold in my heart.

If there’s not going to be time, then hopefully, the kiss tells him everything I never got a chance to say.

The kiss breaks but Raffaele remains in my space with his forehead pressed against mine, panting softly.

“Raffaele.” Tears flood my eyes once more and his handsome face blurs. “I—” Suddenly, the rapid pop of gunfire catches my attention. I look past Raffaele to see what feels like hundreds of his men pouring into the warehouse led by Vito, who’s currently gleefully forcing Pascal to his knees.

“Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

“You got shot,” I gasp, looking back into his eyes. “Oh, my God, you got shot.”

“It’s fine. Adelina, did they?—”

“It’s not fine, you got fucking shot! Don’t stand there and tell me it’s fine!”

“It is fine,” Raffaele insists in a gentle voice. “I’m fine?—”

“No! I saw you!” A sob tears out of my throat and I pull back, scanning his body through my tears in search of where there’s sure to be blood and guts pouring out of him. “We–We need to get you help! An ambulance to get you to the hospital because I can’t lose you, understand? I can’t?—”

“Adelina.” Both of Raffaele’s warm hands cup my trembling face and he forces me to look him in the eye. “I promise you I am okay. Look.” He moves one hand to his chest and swiftly unbuttons a few buttons on his shirt, revealing a grey vest underneath.

“You…” I stare down with wide eyes. “You wore armor?”

“Of course I did. I was coming to save you. Did you really think I would risk any other outcome?”

“I—” I can’t hold back the tears then and I collapse into Raffaele’s arms.

For a few terrifying seconds, I thought he was dead. My future was bleak and gray with my father leading his family to greater heights while the man I loved and everything he built crumbled under his heel.

But he’s fine. He’s alive. He’s unharmed.

“Hurt like a bitch.” His lips twitch. “But I’m okay. Now tell me, did they hurt you?”

I shake my head repeatedly as he moves around me and works swiftly at the bindings keeping my arms firmly behind my back. His warm hands close over my wrists, massaging them as he brings them to the front of my body and kisses my palms one at a time.

“I’m okay,” I croak. “I’m… I’m angry and I’m upset and I’m scared, but I’m okay.”

“That’s my girl.” Raffaele circles his arms around me and pulls me into a tight hug that’s only mildly uncomfortable due to the hard armored vest on his chest, but I soak it up like the comforting warmth of a heated bath.

He’s here. He came for me. He’s okay.

We stay like that until the commotion dies down and then Vito appears at Raffaele’s shoulder.

“Boss.”

“The fuck are you doing here?” Raffaele turns to him, his gaze hard. “I had this handled and you had your orders.”

Vito shrugs one shoulder. “Sorry, Boss, but I wasn’t taking any risks. As soon as you texted me, I pinged the cell towers and got here as fast as I could.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“That’s how you thank me for saving your life?”

“I had it handled.”

Vito scoffs sharply and shakes his head. “Sure, Boss.”

Raffaele clasps Vito’s shoulder and something quiet passes between them, like they’re having an unseen conversation. Then he turns to me and places a lingering kiss on my forehead. “Stay here.”

“What are you?—”

“Please.” He meets my eyes and smiles faintly. “Stay.”

I only agree because it’s him asking and I still can’t believe he isn’t dead. That gunshot sounded so final, and the thump of his body hitting the ground will haunt me for days. As Raffaele walks away from me, a visible limp becomes clear.

“He was stabbed,” Vito answers my questioning look in a low voice. “Long story.”

“Stabbed?” I hissed. What on earth did I miss?

Raffaele approaches Pascal, who kneels on the floor spitting venom at anyone who comes near. He looks up at Raffaele and his eyes harden into pure hatred. “You think you’ve won?”

“I know I’ve won,” Raffaele replies calmly. “I always win.”

“That cockiness will be your downfall.”

“Maybe. It’s working for me so far.”

One of Raffaele’s men walks up to him and hands him something I can’t quite see.

“Do it,” Pascal hisses.

“I’m going to,” Raffaele replies. “But first you need to know that this is your fault. We do a lot of fucked up shit in this line of work, and not all of it is nice. Not all of it is kind. But you?” His eyes narrow to pinpoints. “You spat on everything Italian to shack up with those Irish cunts and dumped their poisonous runoff into the reservoir that feeds water into our territory. You knowingly endangered the lives of thousands.”

Raffaele’s voice grows strained.

“How many people got sick and died? Carlos’ sister? My wife?”

“What?” Pascal glances at me. “The fuck are you talking about?”

Raffaele scoffs. “You didn’t do your research, did you? My first wife, Serena. She got sick. Died. No one knew how, but now I know because of that shitty doctor you paid off. Same as what happened to Adelina’s mother. You let your own wife die because of this shit, Pascal. And maybe I’d let that slide. Maybe we could exist in the world with me despising your existence but letting you live your life. Until you did the unthinkable.”

“Suddenly, you have morals,” Pascal growls between bloodied teeth.

“I always have. You just never saw them. But then your assassins attacked and assaulted my wife. And you hurt her mother. God knows how many of the sick kids she adores so much are ill because of you. And then you took her from me. My wife and my baby.”

My heart stalls in my chest and a rush of cold darts down my arms and legs. He knows? He knows I’m pregnant?

I glance at Vito and he smiles softly. “Caterina.”

“She’s alive?”

“Yes, she is.”

Holy shit, I need to sit down.

“Even by the standards of every Mafia family in this city, you have done the unforgivable. I hope you rot in hell like the scum you are.” Raffaele lifts his hand and in the same second that I realize that guard gave Raffaele a gun, he shoots my father several times.

Once in each leg, making him scream in pain. Twice in the chest. Then one in the head.

The silence afterward is deafening.

My heart races and a curl of nausea tightens in my gut as I stare at my father’s body bleeding out across the warehouse floor. Raffaele’s actions seem to be a signal as the rest of his men shoot the rest of my father’s guards.

Should I feel… sad? Seeing him lying there is an odd, out-of-body feeling. He was my father, so I feel like I should be heartbroken, but there’s currently nothing but relief pulsing through my body.

Then Raffaele is back in front of me but this time, he maintains distance.

“Adelina.” His voice is soft. “I love you. In fact, love isn’t even a strong enough word because ever since he took you from me, it’s like a part of me has been missing. And I understand if you hate me for this.” He gestures back to my dead father. “Or for anything that’s happened to you in your time with me. I understand and I don’t blame you. But I love you and even if you detest me, I will spend the rest of my life building the perfect life for you and our baby. I swear it. Because I love you, Adelina. I love you so much that even living with your hatred is better than not living with you at all.”

His voice quavers at the end of his speech and he swallows hard, watching me intently. Vito seems to melt away into the shadows until it’s just the two of us.

“Our baby?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.

“If you want it to be.” His eyes dart down to my belly.

“I was scared to tell you,” I admit. “And my father, he… he made good points about not telling you too early. I see now that it was part of his plan, but at the time, it…”

“You don’t need to explain,” Raffaele says as I stand there, struggling for words. “You did what you thought was best, and I won’t ever fault you for that.”

I step closer and reach out for him. Raffaele takes my hand immediately.

“I don’t hate you,” I say, studying his face.

“I just killed your father. It’s okay if you do.”

“But I don’t. That monster wasn’t my father.”

Uncertainty flits across Raffaele’s face. “Well, when this all sinks in and you hate me in a few days, that’s okay too.”

“I don’t hate you,” I repeat firmly, stepping into his arms and cupping his face. “I don’t.”

“You’re playing with my heart here,” he says with a breathy laugh.

“I mean it.” Leaning up onto my tiptoes, I press a gentle kiss to his lips. “You saved me. And that was all I wanted. I promise, Raffaele, I haven’t hated you for a long time.”