Page 104 of The Temptation

“Ah, okay. Good.”

I don’t even question it. In our line of work, anything is possible, so safeguarding your loved ones is imperative.

“Hold on, I’ll pull up the app.” When he says, “Fuck,” a minute later, I know her phone is back at the safe house. “I’m going to make some calls. Keep me updated, and I’ll do the same.”

“Alright,” I reply, starting the car.

“Romeo,” he says before I end the call.

“Yeah?”

“You know there’s going to be repercussions for this. For your sake, you’d better hope we get her back unharmed.”

“I know,” I reply before disconnecting the call.

I deserve whatever’s coming. I had one fucking job, and that was to look after Lucia, and I failed miserably.

I glance down at my phone to search for Dominic’s number when a loud knock sounds on the driver’s side window. I’m so amped up, so on edge, that it startles me. I reach down for the gun that I dropped by my feet without thinking, but when I turn my head ready for another fight, I find my pitiful mother standing there with her arms wrapped around herself.

Instinctively, I wind down the window, but I don’t know why.

“Are you going to just leave me here?” she dares to ask.

“You made your bed, so now you can fucking lie in it.”

“You’re going to pick that woman over me?”

“She isn’t just a woman, Mum. She’smy fucking wife! And the truth is, I’d choose her over you any day of the week.”

“Your wife,” my mother says over a gasp. “You got married and didn’t tell me?”

“Are you honestly going to stand there and try to claim that you care?”

“I care, Romeo,” she murmurs as tears fill her eyes.

“Ha!” I scoff. “Do you really expect me to believe that? You never gave a fucking shit about me. All you care about is yourself and where your next fix is coming from. I was always just a means to an end for you.”

“That’s not true,” she whispers, stepping closer to the car. Tears are streaming down her face now, uncontrolled and desperate. Once upon a time, they would’ve gutted me … torn me apart. But not today. Not after what she did. “I … I gave up everything for you,” she chokes out.

“Bullshit. You’ve always put everything and everyone before me, Mum,” I growl.

She reaches out to grab my arm, but I flinch away. I don’t want her touch. I don’t need it. I may have craved affection from this woman growing up, but I no longer do.

“After your father died and I found out I was pregnant with you, I gave up my family to keep you. I chose you, Romeo. You were the only piece of him I had left.”

I shake my head in disgust; it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.

“I wish you didn’t. I never asked you to choose me. You should have gotten rid of me while you had the chance, because nothing I would’ve faced could’ve been worse than the hell you subjected me to.”

“I’m not perfect, but I did the best I could.”

“Enough,” I bellow. “I’m sick of your lies … I’m sick to fucking death of you and your bullshit. It all stops right now. I want nothing more to do with you.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I should’ve cut you loose years ago. Like Lucia said, you’re a waste of fucking air.” My voice catches in my throat with emotion as I shift the car into drive. “You just condemned the only woman I’ve ever loved. If they so much as touch her, if one fucking hair on her head is out of place when I find her, I’m coming for you. And when I do, you’ll wish you left me to rot in that hospital the day I was born.”

With that, I floor it, screeching out of the car park, and leaving my mother in a cloud of dust, all the while praying with everything I have that I can get to Lucia in time.