by Penelope Sky
Bates grabbed Martina’s carrier. “Let’s move.”
“Stay awake.” Siena gently slapped my cheek.
My eyes opened again, and I saw Bates flying the chopper. I had no idea how much time had passed. It seemed like hours, but it could only have been minutes. My eyes closed once more, and I felt myself drift away.
“Come on, Cato.” Siena slapped me again. “Look at Martina.”
I peered down into her face, seeing the little headset covering her ears. She stared at me with fascination, like this chopper ride was fun. I started to slump forward as the weakness overtook me.
Giovanni grabbed me and pushed me back. “How much farther?”
Bates spoke over the radio. “Almost there.”
We landed on the roof of a hospital. Personnel came out with a gurney to wheel me away.
All I could think about were Siena and Martina. “What about them?” I asked my brother over the radio.
Bates shut down the helicopter and pulled off his headset. “Don’t worry about them. I’ll take care of them.” He grabbed my arm and helped me out of the chopper so I could get on the gurney.
The second my back hit the support, I grabbed my brother by the arm. “If I die, I need you to take care of them, alright?”
“You know I will.”
“I mean it. They’re your responsibility. I want Siena to have all my assets. Everything. Give it to her.”
“You have my word. But that’s not gonna happen.” He kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
14
Siena
They wheeled him away and took him inside the hospital.
I didn’t say goodbye because there wasn’t time. He’d needed medical attention hours ago. Every moment he waited hurt his odds of surviving. So I let him go without a kiss because he already knew I loved him.
I’d proved it a million times over.
“What now?” I held Martina against my chest as we stood on the rooftop of a hospital in London. We’d had to touch down to refuel once along the way, but Bates insisted this hospital was our best option. The London Eye was across the river, visible as the sun rose and struck it with its brilliance. It was my first time in the city, but I didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it.
“I have an apartment here. You guys will stay there and lay low.” Bates pulled back his sleeve and looked at the time. “I’ll escort you there and come back to the hospital.”
“Why can’t we stay here too?”
“The hospital is no place for a baby without an immune system,” Bates said. “And if Micah’s men are as furious as I think they are, they’re going to keep looking for Cato. I’ve got to keep you hidden. And I’ve got to stay here and protect Cato.” He must have seen the concerned look on my face because he added, “You’ve done everything you can. Now you need to take care of Martina. Let me handle Cato.”
I felt wrong leaving Cato there. I wanted to be there when he woke up, for him to see my face and know everything was okay. “Call me when any little thing comes up. I mean it. I want to know everything.”
“I know. Now let’s get off this roof.”
Bates had a nice apartment in north London, an apartment that was bigger than a lot of houses. It had bulletproof windows, a large kitchen, a big living room, and plenty of space for the three of us. “I bought this place under one of my shell corporations. It’s possible to trace it back to me, but it would take some time. You should be safe here. There are guns on the top shelves of all the closets if you need any.” He turned to Giovanni. “Get some groceries, baby food, diapers, and whatever else Siena needs. I’ll check in when there’s something to report.”
Giovanni nodded then left the apartment.
I stood in the room alone, holding my daughter as the darkness started to overtake me.
Bates stepped closer to me, looking at me with new eyes. “Are you okay?”
“We don’t need to worry about me right now…” All I could think about was Cato, the strongest man in the world reduced to a pile of broken bones. “When I walked into the cell, he was on the ground…covered in blood. There was a bloody hammer on the table.” My eyes watered at the memory. “If I’d gotten there any later…he probably wouldn’t have hands.” A tear escaped and rolled down my cheek.
Bates wore an agonized expression, the idea of his brother in pain hurting him too.
“When they took Cato away, Damien wanted me to suck his dick. I started jerking him off, and when he closed his eyes, I cut off his dick.”
Bates’s eyes widened, his mouth gaping open in shock.
“I smothered him with a pillow until he died.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“I shot a few men on the way out. I’m not even sure how I escaped… I just got lucky.”
“No. You’re a determined badass. That’s how you got out, Siena. You saved my brother’s life.”
“I don’t feel bad for what I did. But that memory of Cato on the ground will haunt me forever.”
“I know…”
“So, no, I’m not okay. I won’t be okay until Cato is okay.”
“He’ll pull through this. I know he will.”
“He better.” Tears broke the surface of my eyes and streamed down my cheeks.
Bates moved in to hug me, but then he stepped back like he thought that was a bad idea. “This is a nightmare for all of us…a memory that won’t fade easily. But Cato will be alright. Micah will be pissed and try to annihilate us, but that’s a good thing because they’ll be easy to take out in the open. We’ll gather all our allies and destroy them once and for all.”
“Why would they challenge you if they’re outnumbered?”
“Because they thought they could take Cato, get me to cooperate, and wipe us out. But since their plan didn’t work, they have to kill us off now. So, they’ll be looking for Cato. They’ll know he’s in the UK because the healthcare is the best here. But it’ll still be difficult to pinpoint his location.”
“Couldn’t they see he’s been checked in to a hospital?”
“He’s under a fake name.”
“Oh…that’s good.”
“Cato asked me to take care of you while he’s indisposed. So, you’re going to have to listen to me for a while…even though you probably don’t want to. I need you to stay here and don’t draw any attention to yourself.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out a phone. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Okay.” I took the phone and slipped it into my pocket.
He stared at me for a while, like there was more he wanted to say. “You have bigger balls than I do, Siena. No one else would have the strength to go down there and do what you did.”
“Love makes you brave. Love makes you feel like you can do anything…because you have too much to lose. Even if that had turned out differently, I still would have done it. Seeing Cato like that…I never want to see him like that again.”
“Hopefully, you won’t have to.” He stepped away. “I’ll call you when I know something.”
“Alright.” I watched him walk out the door and leave us alone in the living room. I stood with Martina in my arms, the only comfort I had after the horrible things I’d just experienced. I felt like I was stuck in a nightmare. I couldn’t wake myself up, and I was subjected to the horror indefinitely.
I looked down at my daughter. “Daddy is going to be okay…we’ll have him back in no time.”
15
Cato
My eyes were closed, but I felt my consciousness rise. I heard my brother talking on the phone.
“Claw, Micah took out a hit on Cato. We managed to get out of there, but Cato is too injured to fight. I need you guys to help us take out Micah once and for all.” He sat at my bedside, keeping his voice low.
Claw was audible over the phone. “You want our help?” he asked, somewhat comically.
“He took out most of our men. When we draw them out into the open, we need your assistance wiping them out
for good. I know you have all the weapons to make it happen—since I paid for them.”
Claw responded, “Just because you gave us a couple loans doesn’t mean we owe you. You have to make it worth my while. The loans are eradicated.”
Bates chuckled into the phone. “So you basically want eight hundred million for your trouble?”
“Depends. How much do you want to get rid of Micah?”
Bates considered the question for a while. “I’ll cut the total loan in half. Four hundred million. Same interest rate on the reduced amount. Take it or leave it.”
Claw didn’t hesitate. “We have a deal. Call me when you’re ready.”
Bates hung up.
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. It took a moment for my eyes to focus. Everything slowly came into view, the white walls of the hospital room and the monitor to my left.
The first thing I thought about was Siena.
I sat up to look for her.
Bates grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back down. “She’s at my apartment in the city with Giovanni. Perfectly safe.”
“Why isn’t she here?” I asked in a raspy voice.
“I thought she would be safer somewhere else. Micah is probably hunting you down as we speak.”
That was true. Siena had escaped and made him look like an idiot. He wouldn’t be happy about that. “She’s okay?”
“Perfectly okay.”
“Martina?”
“She’s with her.” He patted my arm. “You’re going to be here for a few days. They had to give you a few blood transfusions because you lost a third of your own blood. You have internal bleeding, a few broken ribs, and fractures in your arms. But the good news is, you should be okay.”
I didn’t feel okay. I felt pain everywhere. “What the fuck happened, Bates? Why the hell did Siena take my place like that? You better not have been a part of that.”
He lowered his gaze and didn’t make eye contact with me.
“If I weren’t so weak, I would kill you right now.”
“I tried to talk her out of it, I swear. But she was going to do it with or without my help, so I decided to help her.”
I shook my head and felt the pain throbbing in my body. “You helped my woman get raped to save my life?”
“She was never raped, Cato. She got out of there before anything happened. That was the plan all along.”
That took away all the pain inside my chest. I feared my woman had been pinned down by another man, that he’d taken advantage of her when he had no right. I would rather die than let that happen. I would have taken that hammer to the ribs a million times rather than accept that fate. “How did she escape?”
“She killed Damien.”
My head turned his way, shocked by what I heard. “With her bare hands?”
“No. She had a knife hidden in her hair. He took off all his clothes as he prepared to…you know. He sat on the bed with his hard dick hanging out, and that’s when Siena cut it off. She smothered him with a pillow as he bled to death.”
I smiled through the pain, so proud of what he’d said. “That’s my baby…”
“Then she snuck out of the hatch and back to the surface. She had to kill a few men on the way, but she made it outside without a scratch. I picked her up and headed back to the house.”
Siena saved my life and kicked ass in the process. She got revenge for what Damien did to her, did to me, and did to her father. She saved both of us without having to give herself up. I never would have wanted her to risk herself in the first place…but at least everything turned out well. “No one else would have done that for me. Any other woman would just go through my stuff and take everything they could find while I was being tortured to death. You were wrong about her, Bates. So fucking wrong.”
“Yeah…I realize that.”
Now I missed her even more. And I felt guilty for subjecting her to that ridiculous torment. I never should have put her on her knees and scared her like that. It was stupid, and I wished I could take it back. “I want to see her.”
“I think it’s best she stays where she is. When you’re better, we’ll stop by the apartment, and you can see both of them.”
“Then give me your phone.” I extended my hand.
He called Siena before he handed it to me and stepped out of the room.
Siena answered right away, Martina crying in the background. “What do you know?”
I treasured the terror in her voice, the way she audibly cared for me. “It’s me.”
She turned silent, Martina still continuing to cry. Then Siena started to cry too, her quiet tears making it over the line. Her emotion flowed through the phone, heavy and heartbreaking. Every time she tried to silence herself, she just cried harder.
I let her get it out, let her bare her soul to me. “It’s okay, baby. I’m okay.” Listening to her cry elicited my own tears…but I didn’t let them carry over the phone. I let the moisture build up in my eyes, making my vision slightly blurry.
“Thank god…” She sniffed.
Martina stopped crying.
“I was so worried. I couldn’t sleep…I couldn’t eat.”
“Well, when we get off the phone, you should do those things. You need to rest. You need to eat.”
“Okay…”
“Martina needs you to be strong for her.”
“I know…”
I listened to her quiet sniffles slowly fade away. “Bates said I’ll be here for a few days. After that, we’ll head home.”
“You’re going to be okay?”
“Just a few scratches and bruises.”
“Cato.”
I sighed into the phone. “I lost a lot of blood. Broke some ribs. Have fractures in my arms. I’m in bad shape, but it won’t kill me. It’ll be a while before I recover.”
She sighed in relief. “Good…I’m glad you’ll be okay. I’ve been so worried.”
“I know. The worst is over.”
“Yes…” She sighed into the phone, her pain still audible.
I wanted to tell her how I felt, to tell her that I loved her from the bottom of my heart. But I didn’t want to do it over the phone. That was why I wanted her to visit me, so I could have the opportunity to do this right. “Bates told me you killed Damien.”
“Yeah…I did.”
“You’re one hell of a woman.”
She stayed quiet.
“I’m not happy you did that…but I’m proud of you for pulling it off.”
“I don’t care if you’re mad at me, Cato. I would have done it a million times. I wasn’t going to let you stay down there. I knew if I didn’t get away, you would find a way to rescue me.”
While being Damien’s plaything in the meantime. “You cut off his dick?”
“Right at the base.”
“That’s my baby.”
“I’m glad he’s gone. It was such a relief to watch him die…to know he couldn’t bother us ever again. I needed revenge for what he did to you. Seeing you so weak…it broke my heart. It broke my heart more than losing my mother or my father. This was a whole new kind of pain…I can’t even describe it.”
“I know.”
“It was so hard leaving Martina behind, but I knew I had to do it. If I didn’t come back, she would understand one day.”
She would understand her mother sacrificed herself to save her father. What could be more romantic than that? “It’s over now, so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.”
“I’ll feel better when I see your face…when I can touch you.”
“Me too.”
“What do we do when you’re released from the hospital?”
There was only one thing on the agenda. “We return to Tuscany and finish this.”
“Take out Micah and the rest?”
“Yes. We’ll work with our allies to bring him down. Now, we’ve declared war. Only there won’t be two sides. It’ll only be us annihilating them. Micah will go into his bunker for a while where we
can’t get to him. But when he comes out, which he will, we’ll hit him hard. Then it’ll be over for good.”
“I can’t wait until that moment comes. We can finally be free.”
“Yes.” I would make sure nothing happened to the three of us ever again. I would annihilate my enemies, and they would know not to mess with me again. I was an enemy you didn’t want to have. “How’s our girl?”
“She’s very fussy. We’re in a new place, and her father isn’t here. I think she’s just uncomfortable.”
“I’ll see her soon.”
“She knows. She knows you love her too.”
She wasn’t the only one I loved. “You feel safe there with Giovanni? I can send Bates to you.”
“No, we’re fine. We’re just counting the moments until you’re out of there.”
I wanted to stay on the phone with her forever, but Bates walked back into the room. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Alright. Bye.”
I hung up and returned the phone.
“How is she?” Bates asked.
“Better now that she knows I’m okay.”
“Good. I know she’s eager to see you.”
“I’m eager to see her too.” As much as I wanted her here with me, I preferred to keep her safe. I was the target, not her. So, as long as she wasn’t near me, nothing should happen to her.
“How’s Martina?”
“Siena says she’s fussy.”
“Probably misses you.”
“I know she does,” I whispered.
Bates leaned back in the chair and relaxed. “Claw is on board with us. Said he’ll help us destroy Micah if we only make him pay back half of the loans.”
“That’s fine.” I didn’t care about money right now. I didn’t care about pride. I just wanted Micah to be gone in whatever way possible. “I don’t care.”
“So, when we’re ready, I’ll call him. I figured we would return to Tuscany and decide what to do then.”