by Penelope Sky
“Yeah…I guess. I just know—”
“Don’t worry about me, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Oh my god, she’s the most precious thing.” Mother held her on the couch in the living room, her arms enveloping Martina in a warm gray blanket. “Aww…she has your eyes, honey.” She held her against her shoulder and gently swayed her from side to side. “She’s so perfect.”
Bates sat beside her, looking at the baby like he wasn’t entirely sure what it was.
Mother hogged Martina for a long time, ignoring the other two people who were there to see her. She patted the back of Martina’s head and hummed quietly under her breath like she was singing her to sleep.
I sat beside Siena on the other couch, my hand on her thigh. “Mother.”
“Oh, sorry,” she said as she handed the baby to Bates. “I’m just so happy to be a grandmother. You got her, honey?”
Bates moved his arms underneath her body then held her the way my mother did. “Like this?” He held her still and looked down into her face. “Hey, she does have my eyes.” He looked up and winked at Siena.
“You wanna die?” I threatened.
“Chill.” Bates looked down into Martina’s face. “I’m your uncle. When your father is driving you crazy, come to me. I’ll tell you how to handle him. Thank god you look like your mom. Cato as a woman would not be attractive.” He carried Martina to Landon next.
Landon was a lot more affectionate. “Hey, beautiful.” He leaned back in the armchair and held her close to his body, looking down into her face. “I see so much of my sister in you…and my mother.” Landon smiled as he looked at her, something he didn’t seem capable of doing. He was rigid and cold the way I was, but Martina broke down his walls—just the way she did with me.
Siena moved to the spot beside him, and they looked at her together. “I wish Mama were here.”
“Me too,” he said sadly. “Father too.”
“Yeah…”
“But we’re starting our own families,” Landon said. “You’ll have more babies, and maybe I’ll have some kids. Then our family can grow.”
“I thought you were a terminal bachelor?” she teased.
“Who said I won’t be?” he countered. “Doesn’t mean I can’t have some kids. You and Cato aren’t married, and you have a family.”
Siena lifted her gaze and looked at me. Affection was in her eyes, along with a drop of sadness. Then she looked down at our daughter once more, brushing off the moment. “True. You can still be a family.”
8
Siena
I worried what life would be like once Martina arrived. I didn’t know how Cato would respond to her, if he wouldn’t connect with the baby and then push us both away. I never expected him to take care of her for an entire week just so I could recover.
That man had a big heart.
A week of recovery helped me get back on my feet. My body didn’t ache as much anymore, and labor finally seemed like a distant memory. I had the energy to take care of Martina in the middle of the night, to feed her and rock her so Cato could get some rest.
After everything he’d done for me, I didn’t mind in the least.
It felt so good to take care of her, to feel like a mother. For the week I rested, I felt like a terrible mother. Even though I knew I needed to recover, I still felt guilty that I wasn’t the one spending time with her. Now that I was, my life felt complete.
She was the sweetest thing in the world.
I already wanted another one.
Landon and I were close in age, and I wanted the same for my children. I wanted them to experience the same challenges in life at the same time so those moments could bring them closer together. If something ever happened to Cato or me, I wanted them to always have each other—the way I always had Landon.
After giving her dinner and rocking her to sleep, I placed her in the crib.
She opened her eyes to look at me, to make sure I was still there, before she closed them again.
I loved sleeping with her, but I wanted to begin the separation process sooner rather than later. I wanted her to be independent, to get used to being alone without being scared. And in six weeks, the last thing I wanted was someone in between Cato and me…because we wanted our alone time.
Cato stepped into the room and lingered in the doorway.
I looked up and saw him in the darkness, but I didn’t speak out of fear of waking Martina.
His shadowed frame was difficult to make out, but those powerful shoulders were impossible to deny. He was rigid and stern, his silence somehow full of inexplicable hostility.
It must have been my imagination, because there wasn’t a single reason Cato could be upset with me. The last two weeks had been wonderful. He’d returned to work because I was strong enough to take care of Martina on my own. By the time he came home, Martina was so happy to see him. The second he walked in the door, he picked her up and looked at her like she’d been on his mind all day—not me.
Once Martina was asleep, I walked toward the doorway and got a better view of his expression. It was cold, guarded, and dangerous. As if we were eight months in the past, the cruel and bitter man had returned. His jaw was clenched in a way it hadn’t been in a long time. His blue eyes weren’t so pretty anymore.
He stepped out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
I shut the door behind me. “What’s wrong—”
He grabbed me by the elbow and yanked me down the hallway.
“Cato, what the hell are you doing?” I tried to twist out of his grasp, but it was too strong. He gripped me with the force of steel. “Cato!” I used all my body weight to get out of his hold, to get free of this man I didn’t know.
“I’m doing what I promised I would do.” He pulled me down the stairs.
Panic exploded inside me as the adrenaline circulated in my veins. Fear rang like a drum with every beat of my heart. I’d forgotten about his promise because it seemed irrelevant. He and I were different now. We loved each other. We had a daughter together. “You can’t be serious.” I pushed him off me and lost my footing.
He caught me before I fell, only to keep dragging me. “I am serious.”
Tears flooded my eyes, not from terror, but anger. “I’m the mother of your child—”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You can’t take me away from her!” Now I fought with everything I had, fought to get back to my little girl. “How dare you? What the hell is wrong with you?”
He continued to pull me down the stairs until we reached the entryway. “You betrayed me—twice. Let’s not forget that.”
“Only a pathetic man holds on to the past like that.” Tears ran down my cheeks like two warm rivers. “I love you and you love me. How could you do this to me? I make you happy—”
“Not happy enough.” He pulled me through the front door and into the chilly nighttime air. His men were gathered around, armed with guns. Bates was there too, smiling like this was the happiest day of his life.
I kicked Cato. “You’re better than this!”
He didn’t react to the hit. “No one crosses Cato Marino.”
“And no one gets close to him either. I feel sorry for you. I’m the one about to die—but you’re the person I pity.”
He left me on the concrete in front of the fountain. “Kneel.”
I spat in his face. “Fuck. You.”
He let the spit drip down his face until it left his chin. “I will make you, Siena. You don’t want that.”
I drew my hand back and slapped him across the face. “She will never forgive you. She will hate you. And I hate you.” I slapped him again, putting all my weight and ferocity into the hit. I’d never wanted to hurt him so much. If I had a gun, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him. “I can’t believe I ever loved you. I’m ashamed that I did.”
He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down. “Kneel.”
I let my knees buckle underneath me, and I fell to the concr
ete. The bullet wound in my head would drain my blood into the fountain and mix with blood from all his other victims. My body would be thrown into a pit somewhere in the countryside. My daughter wouldn’t remember me, not even the sound of my voice. The tears fell harder, and the cramps started in my sides.
Cato walked back to his brother and took the pistol offered to him.
I lifted my gaze and stared down the barrel, refusing to be weak in my final moments of life. I’d run away from this man because I’d feared this would be my fate. But then I fell for those blue eyes and those hot kisses. I slept beside him every night and fell deeper in love. For him to do this to me, despite all that, told me he was a psychopath. Putting up the Christmas tree meant nothing to him. The ornament I gave him meant nothing to him. The bracelet I wore on my wrist that very moment didn’t mean a damn thing. “You’ll regret this, Cato. My memory will haunt you every day for the rest of your life. You won’t be able to look at her without thinking of me. When she grows into a beautiful woman, you’ll see my face every fucking day—and you’ll hate yourself for what you did.”
He continued to point the gun at me. “Tell me you’re sorry.”
“Sorry?” I hissed. “I’m about to be shot, and you want me to apologize to you? Asshole, I’m not sorry. I’m not sorry that I lied to you to save my father. I’m not sorry I ran away to save my life. You call me a traitor, but I’m a survivor. And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. So fucking shoot me. Just fucking do it.”
He held the gun steady with his finger on the trigger. His expression was relaxed but angry. There didn’t seem to be any conflict in his gaze, no pain over the decision he had to make. There was no remorse for what he was about to do.
How did I fall in love with someone so evil?
Then Cato lowered the gun. “You’ve served your punishment. You can get up now.”
I stayed on my knees because the fear hadn’t passed just yet. A second ago, a gun had been pointed at me, and I thought my life would end. I would never see my daughter grow up, never attend her wedding. And then it turned out to be some sick punishment for the things I’d done. “You fucking—”
Bates drew his pistol, aimed at my head, and pulled the trigger.
Everything went black.
9
Cato
The gunshot rang in the air.
Siena collapsed to the ground. Blood seeped from her wound.
She didn’t move.
I’d seen everything that happened, but I couldn’t process the violence that had just occurred right in front of me. I’d executed hundreds of people in this very spot, and not once had I been so deeply disturbed. But now all the air left my lungs, and I couldn’t move a single inch.
Bates shot her.
So much rage. It was explosive, violent. I’d had my brother’s back until the end of time, but that loyalty had been severed in a single second. He tricked me into doing this, tricked me into this ruse so he could kill her himself.
My instinct was to draw my weapon and kill him right then and there.
But Siena was all that mattered.
I sprinted to her in front of the fountain. “Siena!” I cupped her face and checked her pulse.
She was still alive.
Blood matted her hair and hid the wound from view. I pulled it back and tried to examine the damage. “Baby, come on!” There was too much blood for me to see what happened, how deep the bullet went. “Get the car! Now! Someone tell Giovanni to watch the baby!”
My men worked to pull the car around so I could get to the hospital, and one ran inside to alert Giovanni.
“She’ll be fine,” Bates said. “I just grazed her scalp.”
I lifted Siena from the ground and carried her to the car. My arms were shaking from the fury deep inside my veins. It didn’t matter how mild the wound was. He’d fucking shot her. I slid her into the back seat then gave him a look full of threat. “When I get back, I will kill you. And I mean that literally.”
His face took on the color of fresh snow.
I didn’t have time to make good on my word, so I got into the back seat and told the driver to drive as fast as possible. “Siena, wake up.” I ripped a piece of my shirt and tied it around her head to stop the bleeding. The bullet injured her scalp just above her ear. Her blood dripped everywhere, getting on the leather and the carpeted floors.
She was losing a lot of blood for just a graze.
“Fuck.” I kept up the pressure and stared at her face, seeing her cheeks turn to milk. “Baby…stay with me.”
I got her to the hospital and into a room instantly. The doctor arrived just seconds after we did and examined the wound in her skull. The hair in the area had to be shaved so the doctor could figure out what to do.
I stood off to the side, never so scared in my entire life. I rubbed my hands together and rested them against my lips, hoping that she would pull through this, that the wound was as minor as my brother described.
The doctor finally provided information. “The bullet scraped against her scalp. It moved past the bone but didn’t pierce it. We’ll give her a blood transfusion because she’s lost so much, but she should be okay.”
Thank fucking god. “Why isn’t she awake?”
“Passing out is a natural defense to extreme trauma. It keeps the heart rate low and the blood pressure down. I’m sure she’ll come around in a few hours. I’m gonna patch her up and get that transfusion going. Just sit tight.”
I sat at her bedside and waited for her to wake up.
Gauze had been tied around her head, and an IV was placed in her hand. Her vitals were stable, so she would be okay.
But I wouldn’t be.
My phone rang, and Bates’s name appeared on the screen. My teeth clenched the second I looked at his name. My fingers ached to grasp a gun and pull the trigger. I wanted to execute him in front of my fountain like I did with all my other victims. I wanted to hang him from a noose and stab him in the gut.
I stepped outside and took it. “You have a lot of nerve.”
“I just wanted to see if she was okay.”
People passed me in the hallway but didn’t stop me from raising my voice. “Are you fucking kidding me? You shot her in the head, and you want to see if she’s okay? She’s been shot in the head, asshole. Of course she’s not okay.”
“What did the doctors say?”
“She’ll be fine. She’s asleep right now.”
“Good. I never meant to do any real damage—”
“Fuck. You.” My brother had pissed me off a lot over the years, but never like this. “You stabbed me in the fucking back. You betrayed me. You’re supposed to be the one person I trust most in this world, and now I can’t trust you at all.”
“We had to make it look real, Cato. We can’t let Micah and Damien know how much she means to you.”
I grabbed my hair and nearly yanked it out of my scalp. “Knock it off with that already!”
“And she needed to be punished for what she did. Let’s not forget how much of a betrayal it was.”
“We were supposed to scare her—not shoot her. You had no fucking right.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“Because I’m not a psychopath!”
“I never meant to seriously hurt her—”
“Fuck off, Bates. If I see you again, I will kill you.” I hung up and shoved my phone into my pocket.
When I returned to her bedside, she was awake. She stared at the monitor and examined her vitals as she tried to figure out where she was. When her eyes landed on me, they didn’t have that deep look of affection I was used to. She tensed noticeably, pulling her IV with her as she prepared to defend herself. Her lips were pressed tightly together like she was prepared to scream, and the terror in her eyes showed her complete disgust.
“Baby—”
“Don’t baby me. Don’t ever baby me again.”
Those simple words broke my heart. “Bates wasn’
t supposed to do that. That shouldn’t have happened.”
“But everything else was supposed to happen? I trusted you.” Moisture flooded her eyes as she looked at me with a mixture of hatred and heartbreak. “I give birth to your daughter, and then you do this to me? I thought we were a team. But then you fucking stabbed me in the back like the piece of shit that you are.”
“I was still upset about what happened. This gave me closure. It gave me justice. Now we can both move on.”
“Justice?” she whispered. “Pretending to execute me is justice? For me trying to save my father’s life? What about everything that’s happened after that? What about Martina? Christmas? How many times have I told you I loved you without you saying it back? I signed all that stupid paperwork to prove your money means nothing to me. I did all of that…but you really couldn’t let it go?”
I held her gaze without any idea what to say.
“You somehow found a woman who loves you for you…and you do this to her?”
“You aren’t so innocent—”
“We’ve come a long way since then. We’re different people now—both of us. We have a little girl at home right now, and you thought it was appropriate to pull this stunt? Fuck you. Just…fuck you.” She held up her hand and looked away, like my presence was too much for her.
I hated myself for how much I’d hurt her. I hated myself for being the cold and vicious man I was. “We’re even now. We can move forward and start over—clean slate.”
She gave a sarcastic laugh. “Let me shoot you in the head, and we’ll be even.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen. Bates shouldn’t have done that—”
“And you trusted that hotheaded psychopath? I bet he’s the one who talked you into doing it in the first place.”
I didn’t confirm it.
“Because the man I’ve been sleeping with wouldn’t have done that on his own.” She still wouldn’t look at me.