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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Dario

The fear I felt chilled me to the bone when I realized she was gone. I’d gone on a rampage, threatening anyone who didn’t give me answers fast enough.

I’d underestimated her. I had slipped up, and now she was gone. I didn’t think she had planned to leave like this. She hadn’t taken anything with her.

I was scared that she had been taken by someone who might want to harm her. Not for the first time, I felt like an idiot for withholding the truth from her.

I had to find Mya. I had to know she was okay.

“We’re checking all avenues, sir. We’ll find her,” Ivan said to me, fear in his voice.

He was right to be afraid. How well did I know Ivan?

He was a few years younger than me. He’d been part of the family since I could remember. His parents had been friends with my father.

I’d known him longer than Joseph, who I knew little about besides the basics. I’d done a background check on Ivan years ago and nothing had stood out.

But my gut told me that there was something I was missing. Something that was right under my nose. I would figure it out, but I had to find Mya first.

I didn’t think she had been kidnapped. There weren’t any signs of a struggle, and I know she was a firecracker, so she would have at least thrown a punch or two. No, this was smooth. A quick smash-and-grab job. Someone had known how to get into the elevator and she had gone with them.

Had she thought it was me coming to rescue her? Or had she just leaped at the chance to escape my control?

It took all my strength to not shove someone through the closest window and watch them fall and crumple to the ground like a ragdoll.

I had already pictured a hundred different ways to murder whomever it was who took her. Those thoughts calmed me.

Joseph took a call and walked away from me. Could he be on the phone with the people who took Mya? Was he pretending to report to me while feeding information to the enemy?

I shook my head. I didn’t have time to be paranoid. Mya’s life was on the line.

“We found her,” Joseph said to me.

“Let’s go,” Ivan said.

“I need you to watch the house,” I said to Ivan sharply. He stared at me and I stared back at him.

Finally, he nodded. It had been a calculated choice. I couldn’t trust Joseph or Ivan.

And I couldn’t defend myself if they both turned out to be working for someone else. I was determined to keep them separated.

What if all this time I thought it was just one person working on the inside, but it turned out to be both of them?

I followed Joseph out.

“What was that all about?” he asked once we were at the car.

“I think Ivan is working for Matteo.” I wanted to see how Joseph reacted. I wanted to see what his face would reveal.

Nothing, he looked stoic as ever.

“You sure? Who told you that?” Then he paused and said, “That cop you met with the other day?”

I nodded and slid into the car. He climbed in, and I asked, “So, where is she?”

“Safe. You were right to put cameras up and monitor the doctor’s homes.”

“She’s at his house? Which one?”

“The downtown location.”

“Of course….”

I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. The doctor had homes near my own so that if I ever needed him, he would have a place to stay.

He liked his privacy and had never stayed under my roof or my father’s. He also had a fondness for locations that shared the same names as famous cities. He had houses in Rome, Georgia as well as Rome, Italy, for example. It amused him.

He was an odd man. And I should have kept better tabs on him. How had he contacted her? How had she known about his house?

And could I get to her before Matteo did?

As we drove, Joseph told me that someone fitting her description had checked into a hospital not too far away and that’s how they had been able to track her.

“Hospital? Is she?—”

“According to what I could find out, she’s fine and so is the baby. She tricked some EMT into getting her an Uber out to the doctor’s address.”

“Of course she did.”

It troubled me that even though he was nowhere near her, he had still managed to help her escape. He had helped her to betray my trust.

If I couldn’t trust Dr. Kali, or Joseph, or Ivan, who could I trust?

I felt that Mya’s presence had opened up a can of worms or maybe Pandora’s Box. My life was completely out of whack.

I didn’t want to admit it, but she was my kryptonite, my Achilles’ heel. But I couldn’t live without her. Now that I knew what it felt like to have her as a part of my life, there was no going back.

She was mine. And for better or worse, I was hers.

And I hated that Matteo was using Mya as a pawn in his game. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t the only one looking for Mya.

I just hoped I would find her first. And if I was walking into a trap, so be it.

Mya’s safety was my top priority. Even if she hadn’t been carrying my child, her well-being came first.

Trap or not, it didn’t matter. I had to make sure Mya was okay. I had to protect her. I had to convince her to trust me so that I could make sure she was safe.

She would probably spit in my face and would try to shoot me again, but I’d take a million bullets for her.

“Joseph?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Drive faster.”

“On it…”

The house was very nondescript.

Trees lined the street, and a group of kids were playing hide and seek between the cars parked on the street. A mother yelled for the kids to come inside and they all raced toward their house.

I got out as soon as Joseph slowed down, not waiting for him to get the door for me. My hands were shaking.

Was she safe here? Did someone find her before us?

That’s when I saw the blinds open and close immediately. She was here. I raced up the few steps and rang the doorbell.

Then I got frustrated and knocked on the door hard. She was taking too long to answer the door.

I needed to see her, all of her, with my own eyes to make sure she was ok.

“Mya, I know you’re in there. Open up now.”

I didn’t hear anything for a long time. I signaled to Joseph to go around back. I didn’t want to make a scene.

The last thing I needed now was for the cops to think I was some unhinged stalker threatening a pregnant woman.

“Mya!” I tried again and then I heard someone swear from the backyard.

I ran to the back and saw her standing next to a pool with a golf club in her hand, pointing it menacingly at Joseph, who just looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

I felt the same. How was I supposed to handle this situation?

She was really pregnant now, definitely showing. I couldn’t just toss her over my shoulder and make a run for it, not without hurting her or the baby.

But I didn’t know how much time we had. We’d gotten to her first, but I figured we were being followed, and Matteo and his goons would be there soon.

“Mya, listen to me, we have to leave. You’re not safe here.”

“Shut up!” she said swinging the club in Joseph’s direction when he tried to come a little closer.

“Mya, please.”

I was feeling desperate now. “I need you to come with me, okay? I have to get you out of here. You’re not safe?—”

“You’re lying,” she looked from me to Joseph. “Don’t come any closer.”

“Mya—” I took a step toward her and she turned towards me and swung the golf club close enough to my head that I was able to grab it from her.

She seemed shocked and then started backing away. I tossed the golf club into the pool.

“Mya, you’re playing a dangerous game. You’re not safe here. The baby’s not safe here. Do you understand what I’m saying? They’re coming for you. They’ll kill you and the baby. Please.”

“You’re lying. You just want to lock me up again. You want to use me as a fucking incubator until the baby is born. You want to control me. No. You’re not going to win, Dario. Your family has fucked up my life enough, I’m not letting you anywhere near my child.”

“Mya, all I’m asking is the opportunity to keep you safe. You can pick the place. And you’ll never have to see my face, I just need to get you out of here now. I can’t protect you if?—”

“Protect me?” she laughed humorlessly. “You’re the reason I’m in this predicament. Your lies. Your family’s lies. You think I don’t know that I’m just a pawn? I’m tired of being a part of this game between you and your brothers. I want out. Just let me leave…please,” her voice cracked. “Just let me disappear.”

I didn’t know what to say. She was hurting. I was hurting her. I couldn’t change the past. I couldn’t undo what my brothers had done, but I could change her future…our future…if she’d let me.

So, I decided then to tell her about the future I was trying to build for us. Maybe then she would see, maybe she would understand that I wasn’t a threat to her. Maybe then she would trust me.

She was right. All I’d fed her was lies. She needed the truth.

“Mya, you’re right. You are being used. And it’s not okay. This isn’t the life I want for you or for our child.”

She took a deep breath, and her eyes filled with tears.

I kept pushing, hoping I could reach her. “I’m giving it all up, Mya. My position in the organization. Everything. I’ve started dismantling and untangling myself from it all. All those late nights, all the meetings, all those times I disappeared…I was meeting with some key players trying to find a way to distance myself, turning over my operations to people I hope I can trust. I’m walking away from it all, Mya…for you…for the baby.”

She wiped away tears and shook her head. “You’re lying. I can’t believe a word you say. I can’t trust you.”

“You can trust me, Mya. Why else would I be here?”

“To control me. Because you can’t stand the thought that something is outside your sphere of influence. Your pride can’t take it.”

My pride. Wasn’t that always a man’s downfall? She knew me too well.

Control mattered to me, like water mattered to a fish. She was right. But where had that control gotten me? Here.

To a point where the woman I had finally realized I loved would rather face death and uncertainty than trust me.

I’d miscalculated. I’d fallen for her. And all she saw was a monster without feelings, without love…someone who just wanted control over her.

But who could blame her? Up until recently, that’s exactly who I was. But she’d changed me. For the better.

It was too bad she wouldn’t give me the opportunity to show her.

What now? What did I do now? I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t want to force her to come with me and end up hurting her or the baby. What were my options?

“Sir,” I heard Joseph say. I’d forgotten he was there. For a moment, the world seemed so far away and there was only Mya.

“What is it?”

“We have company.”

I heard the doors open and feet hit the sidewalk. It was too late now. “Mya, they’re coming for us. It’s now or never.”