by Penelope Sky
He chuckled. “Like chocolate?”
“Not necessarily. Anything edible, really.”
“So if I picked you up on a date and brought you a sandwich, you would be impressed by that?”
I laughed because the image was ridiculous. “I guess so.”
“Well, if we ever go on a date again, I’ll keep that in mind.” He turned toward the dining room, walking with me. “How was your day?”
Terrible. Heartbreaking. Depressing. “Okay. Yours?”
“I had a lot of stuff to do at work today. Both restaurants were busy, and one of my managers called in sick.”
“That’s too bad.”
He shrugged. “It stops me from being lazy.”
We went into the dining room and gathered around the table together. I was seated across from Matteo, and I couldn’t help but wonder if even that was on purpose. We held our hands together, prayed, and then dug into the wine, bread, and Tuscan meal Laura had prepared for us. It didn’t seem so awkward when we were all together, but when Matteo kept staring at me across the table, in a similar way to what Bones did, I couldn’t help but feel guilty, like I was betraying Bones even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
We said goodbye at the entryway, and then Matteo started to walk me to the car while my parents continued to talk to Alessandra and Laura. Matteo walked with his hands in his pockets, keeping a respectable distance from me. “You should come by one of my restaurants this week. I’ll give you a special tour of the menu. Bring some friends.”
I noticed the way he encouraged me to bring people, like he was doing his best not to make it seem like a date. “I’ll see if they’re free, and I’ll let you know.” I had no intention of doing that, but Matteo was a nice guy and I didn’t want to shut him down coldly.
He stared at me, a slight look of amusement in his eyes. “Don’t make it obvious…but both of our parents are staring at us right now.”
My eye flicked to the front of the house, and of course, he was right. “They’re ridiculous. I thought arranged marriages were from the dark ages.”
“Actually, my parents are the product of an arranged marriage. My father’s parents were friends with my mother’s parents…and that’s just how it happened.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise. “They seem so happy.”
“They are happy. I’ve always known that they love each other…even all these years later.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and broke eye contact, feeling awkward talking about marriage when there was only one man I wanted to be with…but he was the worst choice on the planet. My life would be so much easier if I’d just fallen for the right guy. But no…I had to fall for a murdering psycho. “Give me a call. I’d love to entertain you and some of your friends.”
“Will you bring any friends?”
“Definitely. My guys are always looking for a chance to meet women. But don’t worry, I’ll tell them you’re off-limits.”
My eyebrows rose up my forehead. “Why?”
“You said you aren’t dating, right?” he asked. “I’ll save you the trouble of keeping the dogs away.” He wore his handsome smile, cool and confident. “And maybe so I can call dibs on you…whenever you are ready.”
If Bones heard that, Matteo would be dead right now, shot right between the eyes. I didn’t know where my relationship with Bones was going to go, probably nowhere, but I didn’t want to lead Matteo on. “You really shouldn’t waste your time with me, Matteo. I don’t know when I’m going to be ready, and when I am, I’m not sure if this would even happen.”
He took my coldness in stride. “I don’t think I’m wasting my time. It’s not like I’m putting my personal life on hold in the meantime. I have a date tomorrow night, and my dates usually end the same way. So whatever happens, even if nothing ever comes of it, that’s fine with me. You can never have too many friends, right?”
“True.”
“Goodnight, Vanessa.” He didn’t embrace me before he walked away, keeping his hands in his pockets. He moved back to the house just as my parents walked to the car.
My mom wore a slight smile on her face, and my father didn’t have any expression at all. We got in the car then drove back to my apartment, spending the entire ride in silence. I was tempted never to share this story with Bones, but that psychopath had a way of figuring things out anyway, even if he was in another country pulling off a covert assassination.
We reached my apartment fifteen minutes later, and my parents walked me to the door. My mom hugged me and kissed me goodbye before she stepped away so my father could move in next.
“Button, could you give us a second?” My father opened the front door to my apartment and let me walk inside first.
“Sure,” Mom said. “I’ll wait in the car.”
I stepped inside my living room, unsure what my father wanted to say that he couldn’t say in front of my mother. I had a different relationship with each of my parents, but they never operated in secrecy. I’d always seen them as a united team.
My father sat on one of the couches, right in the area where Bones usually sat when he watched TV. The two men couldn’t be more different from one another. My father had tanned skin and strong Italian features. Bones was white like milk, with bright eyes that looked like the tropical ocean.
I sat beside my father, unsure what he wanted to say. “Everything alright?”
“Yes.” His hands came together, both of his palms flat like he was praying. He usually had a drink in his hand, and when he didn’t, it was like he didn’t know what to do with himself. He looked at the rug on the floor of the living room. “You don’t like him.” I assumed he was talking about Matteo. Otherwise, I didn’t have a clue what he was referring to.
“I wouldn’t say that… He’s very nice. He’s been nothing but respectful toward me.”
“You know what I mean, tesoro.”
My father and I never had these conversations, and now they seemed to be happening more often. It was strange.
“I can intervene if you need me to. I don’t want him to bother you if it’s not something you want.”
“I don’t need you to do anything, Father. I can handle it myself.” He’d always taught me to be strong and independent. I had to fight my own battles and not rely on a man to do it for me. By allowing my father to fix my problems, I wasn’t upholding a lesson he ingrained in me a long time ago. “Matteo is a nice man. I just don’t see him like that, I guess.”
“Because of this other man?”
My heart actually stopped beating. My mother told him about my relationship, but I didn’t expect my father to actually bring it up. When it came to my romantic life, he steered far away.
“Your mother mentioned it,” he said quietly. “Mentioned that you loved him…”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Yeah…but he wasn’t right for me.”
“Why not?”
I loved and respected my father, but it felt strange talking about this. Mom was different because she was also my friend. My father would always be the overprotective and terrifying father who chased off any man that looked at me twice. He reminded me of Bones in some ways. “He just wasn’t…”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, not at all,” I said quickly. “I ended things with him. I didn’t see a future.”
He kept staring at the ground. “I know this is awkward…I’m not trying to make it that way. You usually talk to your mother about these sorts of things, which makes it easier for both of us. But if you’ve really fallen in love with someone, maybe you should trust your instincts.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a smart girl…woman.” He closed his eyes for a moment as he corrected himself. “You have high standards for all things. I don’t know this man or what it is about him that you don’t like, but when it comes to love, you don’t have to like everything about him.”
If only my father knew the truth, we wouldn’t be havi
ng this conversation.
“There were a lot of things your mother didn’t like about me…but she still loved me.”
My father’s crimes were petty compared to Bones’s.
“I just want you to be happy. When you’re with Matteo, you don’t seem happy…”
The only time I came close to that sense of joy was when Bones looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered. It was when he shared his bed with me, when he sat across from me at the dinner table. I was stupidly and hopelessly in love with a man who despised my family…and being with him made me truly happy. “Again, Matteo is very nice. But I don’t see anything happening with him.”
“Ever?”
I shook my head. “Probably not. It’s not his fault. If we met under different circumstances, it could have had another outcome. But right now…I’m not sure what I want.”
My father rubbed his hands together, his thoughts a mystery. “I’ve always tried to treat you and Conway the same, but honestly, I never have. Conway didn’t bring a woman around to the family until he was almost thirty, and I never questioned him about it. But with you, I’m constantly worried when I shouldn’t be. You’re a very smart and capable young woman. I should just keep my mouth shut the way I did with Conway. But when your mother told me you were in love with someone but ended things, I got concerned. Conway ended things with Sapphire when things got too serious, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake. I should let you figure this out on your own, but naturally, I can’t. I talked some sense into Conway, and I think that helped bring them back together. So now I’m doing the same with you…”
I knew his concern came from a good place, but he had no idea how tense the situation really was. He couldn’t even fathom that I would love a man so wrong for me. That I would be so deeply in love that I couldn’t leave him. “I know you mean well, but…it’s complicated.”
My father nodded slightly, rubbing his palms together. “Can I meet him?”
Only one man would walk out of that situation alive. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”
“Tesoro, I’ll be on my best behavior.”
My father could be in a coma, and it wouldn’t make a difference. He would still shoot Bones right between the eyes. “I don’t know…”
“Just think about it. That’s all I ask.” He raised his head and looked at me, discomfort in his eyes. “I’ll drop it now. Ball is in your court, tesoro. I just want to give you some advice…it’s rare to fall in love more than once, at least, not with the same intensity. If your mother and I hadn’t ended up together, I know I wouldn’t have ever felt that way again. If you love this man in the same way, you should hold on to it as long as you can. Don’t push him away because you’re scared or because he’s not exactly what you pictured in a husband. I wasn’t what your mother was looking for and I certainly didn’t deserve her, but I’ve become everything she’s ever wanted—because I love her.”
A knock sounded on my door.
It was ten in the evening, and I hadn’t left for Bones’s place yet just in case my parents were still watching the apartment. I knew it wasn’t Bones because he would have told me he was back the second he landed in Italy.
I pulled out the gun Bones gave me and slowly walked to the door, keeping my footsteps muffled as they tapped against the floor. I finally reached the peephole and looked on the other side.
It was Max.
“Open the door already. You sound like a bear when you breathe like that.”
I lowered the gun and opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing. You know Bones doesn’t want you here.”
“How did you even know I was here?”
He held up his phone to my face. “I’m watching your tracker.”
“Excuse me?” I hissed. I wasn’t even happy about it when Bones started to do it.
“He asked me,” Max explained. “It’s my job to look after you while he’s gone. I’m watching Shane’s wife too…who’s also a pain in the ass.”
“If we’re such pains, why don’t you just ignore us?”
“Can’t do that,” he said simply. “And if I ever leave a lady behind, as much of a pain as she is, Bones better stay on her. So now I’m here to haul your ass back to his place. Had a nice night with your family?”
So he really was watching what I was doing. “I can make it back myself.”
“I’ll follow you anyway. When you’re inside the building, I’ll leave.”
I rolled my eyes and walked back inside. “Now you’re the pain in the ass.”
Eleven
Bones
“You doing alright, man?”
Shane rested his forehead against the window, gauze wrapped around his torso where he’d been stabbed. His eyes were closed, but he was still breathing.
“Stay awake, Shane. We’re almost there.”
“Tell Cynthia—”
“Shut up. You aren’t going to die.”
“I don’t know, man. I feel so weak right now…” He’d bled out all over the seat in the Hummer. His breathing was getting heavier and shallower.
I drove as fast as I could down the dark road, knowing we only had a few minutes before they appeared behind us. We’d accomplished what we set out to do, but it didn’t go down as simply as we wanted.
I just had to reach the helicopter at the landing point, and we would be home free.
Then I saw the headlights behind me, the army of cars quickly catching up with us. I didn’t mention it to Shane, who was barely holding on.
I promised Vanessa I would come back, and I had to keep that promise—at all costs.
The Hummer was being pushed as hard as it would go, and I couldn’t do any faster. I was taking turns dangerously, but if I slowed down, they would catch up with us. Shane shifted left to right in the passenger seat, his body getting weaker and weaker. He looked in the rearview and saw them coming. “Shit.”
“We’ll be fine. We’ve been in worse situations.”
“No…I don’t think we have.”
The helicopter was sitting in the dark waiting for us, so I slammed on the brakes and turned the Hummer so it covered some of the chopper. “I can’t carry you, Shane. You need to run in there, get the engine going, and I’ll cover you.”
“Bones, this isn’t—”
“We’re getting out of this alive, alright? You’ve got a wife waiting for you, and now I have someone who promised to kill me if I didn’t come back. So we have to pull through this. Fight the pain. Just get that chopper off the ground. I’ll make sure a bullet doesn’t hit you, but you’ve got to make sure you get me out of here. Alright?”
I popped the door open and pulled out all the guns and ammunition we had. I had a machine gun, a few grenades, and a rocket launcher. “Haul ass, Shane.” I couldn’t look at him anymore because I was focused on the cars coming this way.
Shane clenched his jaw and screamed as he got out of the passenger seat. Half limping, half running, he darted into the chopper and got to work.
I loaded the rocket launcher and aimed precisely in front of the vehicles, wanting the first Hummer to run into the explosive at the perfect time. I pulled the trigger and watched the rocket fly, the smoke erupting out of the back of the tube.
It hit perfectly, causing the Hummer in the front to buck toward the sky and tip over, the engine exploding at the same time.
But that was just one car. I had three more.
The chopper started to hum to life, the power on and the rotors slowly starting to spin.
I launched another rocket, hitting the next big vehicle. I shot it right in the driver’s window, causing the driver to explode in a fiery death and send the Hummer exploding and spinning out of control at the same time.
The other cars were too close now, so I pulled out the machine gun and started firing.
They stopped their cars and got out, blocked by the car doors. They laid a line of bullets at me, forcing m
e to duck for cover.
The propellers were moving faster, but it still wasn’t quite ready yet.
I grabbed a few grenades and threw them backward over my Hummer, knowing my aim was true even if I couldn’t see it. I saw the explosions in the reflection of the chopper door, debris flying into the air.
I stood up again and kept firing the rounds, shooting the men who were still standing.
Shane opened the back door. “Get in. I’m taking off.”
I kept firing as I backed up, leaving myself exposed to bullets. But there was chaos among the men, the cars still on fire and the rounds hitting them in all different places. I hopped onto the runner then stood up, still firing. “Go!”
Shane pulled the chopper off the ground.
I saw one of the men pull a rocket launcher out of the back of the pickup. “Shit. Shane, we’ve got a rocket launcher.”
“The sniper rifle is on the wall. You better hit him, Bones.”
I dropped my gun and pulled the rifle out of the crate. The helicopter was vibrating so my accuracy wasn’t as strong as it usually was. But I steadied the gun, looking through the scope, and when I saw the man ready the rocket launcher, I fired.
Head shot. “Got him.”
“Good,” Shane shouted. “I need you to take over in a bit…I don’t think I can keep it up much longer.”
“You’ll be fine, Shane.” I shut the door and pulled on my helmet. I got on the radio and told our team we would be arriving soon, and Shane was seriously injured. He was becoming paler in the face by the second.
I took over the controls, and he moved to the passenger seat.
Shane clutched his stomach and breathed hard, his shirt soaked. “I’m not gonna make it, man.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m not…tell my wife—”
“I’m not telling her a goddamn thing. You can tell her when we get back.”
Once I landed at the rendezvous point, the medics took Shane and rushed him into surgery. We had a small medical team, but they’d been trained to handle emergency situations. I stayed behind and sat in one of the chairs in the hallway. I was caked with dirt and blood, and I still had my shotgun over my shoulder. I dragged my hands down my face.