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CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Dario

“Mya, come on, Mya. Wake up, Mya. Wake up.”

She was lying across my lap, in the back of the car. Fear, my new constant companion, gripped my heart.

She was breathing, but that wasn’t enough for me. I needed to see her open her eyes. I needed her to tell me that she was okay.

“Mya, come on. Wake up, Mya. You can do it, open your eyes.”

“She’s fine, Dario,” Luis said sitting next to me.

He’d arrived just in the nick of time. I’d needed help and he had delivered.

Joseph had brought him just in time. He was the piece of the puzzle I hadn’t revealed to Mya. And where was Joseph?

Luis was my inside man on the police force.

“What do you want me to do about Matteo?” Joseph asked.

“Kill him.”

“Roger that.”

“Nope,” Luis called to Joseph. “Not on my watch. Matteo’s going to jail.”

“He’ll just walk,” I said.

Luis shook his head. “No, I’ll see to it that he doesn’t.”

Joseph stared at me, waiting for me to make a decision. I imagined the look on Mya’s face if she knew I’d had Matteo killed in cold blood. I was trying to be better for the both of us. “Just watch him. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

I had watched as Joseph shot Nico. And Matteo had lost his shit when it happened.

That had been all the distraction we’d needed to get the upper hand. Now Matteo was bloody and bruised, tied up in the back of a car.

Mya stirred in my arms. She was waking up.

“Mya?”

“Dario?” Tears filled her eyes as she sat up and embraced me like she never wanted to let me go. “I thought you were dead. I thought—” I buried my face in her hair, feeling my own eyes grow damp.

“Shh…I’m fine. The bullet went right through my shoulder. It fucking hurts but otherwise, I’m okay.”

“Where’s Nico?” she said suddenly, fear showing in her eyes.

“Dead,” I said quietly. “Joseph took care of him. He was going to kill you.”

“Oh my God. I remember…” she breathed in deeply and looked like she was about to faint again.

I hugged her to me, holding her tight. I said to Luis. “You’re on the force. What are our next steps?”

“I’m not in the business of making those types of decisions. And Nico got what he deserved as far as I’m concerned.”

“Luis?”

She had just realized he was there.

“Hey, Mya…”

She reached out to hug him. She started to sob and it took all my strength not to pull her back into my arms. Luis held her tight.

“I was so scared,” she said pulling back and looking at me and then him. She caught my face in her hands and stared at me, her lips trembling. “I thought you were dead?—”

“Just really banged up. I lost a lot of blood, but the bullet didn’t hit anything vital. Luis and Joseph arrived and well if it weren’t for?—”

“Luis?” she said, turning again toward him. “What are you doing here? I thought I was seeing things.”

“Luis started working for me shortly after we got married,” I explained. “He helped me make sure you stayed safe.”

“What?” She looked confused.

“I know. It’s a lot to take in, but it’s true,” Luis said. “At first, I said no, and then Dario told me the whole story, and I knew you were in deep shit. Excuse my language.”

“What?”

“He told me about your plan to kill Nico and said he needed an extra pair of eyes on the inside, someone who wasn’t part of his inner circle. Someone he could trust.”

“And so, you volunteered?”

He shrugged, “Jason was my best friend. I couldn’t protect him from himself, but I could protect you…so I did.”

She teared up. “So, Jason really was laundering money?”

He nodded, “I’m sorry. He was, but?—”

Mya blinked back tears and turned to Dario. “So, everything you told me was true?”

“Yes, but I never told you why he did it.” This was the hard part. “Jason was trying to get close to Matteo. You see, he figured out the car accident that killed his parents was caused by Matteo. Matteo was drunk. And a minor. It was a hit-and-run. He never served any time. My father bribed all the right people, so Matteo was never charged. He wasn’t even questioned.”

“So, Jason wasn’t trying to do anything illegal, but he got in too deep and couldn’t find a way out. He was trying to find something to pin on Matteo, but Matteo had pulled him in too deep.” Luis swallowed hard, unable to finish.

“He had him killed,” she finished.

“Yes,” I said. “And that letter you found, I never saw it. I’m guessing Ivan put it there for you to find. I’m sorry, Mya. I really am.”

She wiped away a few tears, and I took her hands in mine.

Luis looked at the two of us and excused himself saying, “I’ll be back.” As he hopped out of the car.

He walked away, but I never took my eyes off Mya. My beautiful, Mya. She deserved more than what I could offer her. I had to tie up the loose ends.

“I’ll be right back.”

I went to find Matteo. The hatred that was in his eyes as he looked at me would have made a lesser man shrink.

“I should kill you. But I won’t. I’m giving you what you want. My empire. My contacts. You can have it all…but I swear if you ever try to find us again, I’ll kill you slowly. Is that understood?”

I didn’t wait for an answer, I just turned around and walked away. I knew Matteo would lawyer up and find a way to beat the charges. Luis meant well, but I knew what power could do.

It made people like Matteo think they were above the law, and unfortunately, sometimes they were.

I turned to Joseph and said, “Drive him home. There’s nowhere he can run. The cops will come for him soon enough.”

Finally, back at Mya’s side, I sat down and took her hand in mine.

“I’m sorry, for everything. For not telling you the whole truth, for having you believe that Jason was a criminal. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing what I needed to protect you?—”

“No, you wanted to give me a reason to hate Jason and to love you.”

I felt like my heart was out in the open and I hated it. But she was correct. “You’re right. From the moment I saw you on the steps outside the courtroom, I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I wanted you. And to say I’m obsessed with you would be the truth. I’m sorry for everything I put you through. You don’t have to forgive me, but I wanted you to know that I care about you. I love you, Mya.”

She sat back away from me, and I couldn’t read her expression. I waited for her to say something, anything, but she didn’t say anything at all.

That hurt worse than my shoulder. It hurt almost as much as...I couldn’t let myself think about that. I never thought about that. But what had I expected?

That she would forgive everything and go flying into my arms? Declare her undying love for me? This was the real world. That wasn’t going to happen.

“Dario!” I heard Joseph call out.

“Where were you?” I asked, and then I noticed the handcuffs. Why were his hands handcuffed?

“What happened?—”

“It was Ivan, he?—”

The sound of Matteo’s scream pierced the air right before the sound of two shots.

I looked in the direction of the car and saw Ivan standing there, looming over Matteo’s body, the gun in his hand.

“I told you to take him home.”

Luis had his gun drawn on Ivan, and Joseph looked from me to Luis, to Ivan.

“He handcuffed me to a fucking tree—” Joseph started.

“Quit your bellyaching,” Ivan said, “I could have killed you instead.”

“Ivan,” I said, “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m eliminating the competition.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You think you’re the only bastard your dad sired? Or should I say, our dad? Surprise, big brother.”

I had heard rumors that there was another, but I had chalked it up to just that…rumors. So, Ivan was my brother. This whole time. I didn’t know.

“You’re my favorite. So, let’s let bygones be bygones. I did you a favor. Nico was an idiot. And well, Matteo, he was greedy and messy. What he did to Vicky?—”

My head began to pound. “What do you know about Vicky?”

“Vicky?” I heard Mya ask, a question in her voice.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” Ivan said. “It was meant to be you. So, as you can see, I did you a favor, two birds with one stone…or one gun, so to speak.”

“So, what happens next, Ivan? Are you going to kill me too?”

“Too many witnesses. Maybe some other time. But I plan to rebuild what you left behind. Thanks for that. I’ll see you around, bro.”

Slowly a car pulled up behind him, and he kept his gun on us the whole time until he had climbed in. And just like that, he was gone.