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Moving swiftly to the window, I judged the distance down to the bushes below. Risky, but doable. I'd survived higher jumps during recent escapades. Tonight I just had to achieve one last disappearing act, then I could finally be free of it all.
Securing my bag, I climbed onto the sill and leapt without hesitation, bending my knees to absorb impact. I straightened quickly, miraculously unharmed. Home free, as long as I reached my car before anyone spotted my escape.
Keeping to the shadows, I raced towards the garage, pulse thundering. Every snapped twig made me flinch, imagining pursuit on my heels. But miraculously, I made it safely inside the cavernous building and slid into the nondescript sedan I had stashed earlier, nothing flashy.
Starting the engine as quietly as possible, I held my breath listening for any signs of alarm from the house. After several endless seconds of silence, I finally shifted into drive and coasted down the driveway, wincing as the gates creaked open automatically. But still no shouting guards came after me. I was in the clear.
Once distance stretched safely between me and the looming mansion, I finally breathed again, lead foot hitting the gas. Cool night air whipped through the open windows, whipping my hair wildly. I almost felt lightheaded from sheer exhilaration. No one was chasing me or holding me back anymore. Against all odds, I had made my own daring escape, seizing freedom with both hands.
The open road unfurled ahead, unknown but thrilling in its possibility. I could reinvent myself entirely if I wished. Become someone totally apart from the polish and pretense of mafia royalty. It was terrifying but intoxicating too after a lifetime confined behind imposing walls and expectations.
As city lights faded to darkness in the rearview, hints of trepidation crept in. I was really doing this - turning my back on everything and everyone familiar, with zero plan in place yet. Itwas rash, reckless even. The nagging doubts I had muffled came creeping back now that euphoria was ebbing.
Could I really survive out here alone? Never see those I loved again for their own protection? The yawning emptiness of the path before me suddenly felt daunting instead of liberating.
Maybe I should turn around, take more time to think this through... But as I debated internally, the gas gauge distracted me as it crept alarmingly close to E. How had I not noticed until now? Adrenaline had made me oblivious.
….
My hands were clamped so tight on the steering wheel my knuckles looked bloodless. But I couldn't loosen my death grip as I tore through the rain-slicked streets like a bat out of hell. The windshield wipers were working overtime trying to keep up with the crazy downpour, but nothing could stop the storm raging inside me.
I had taken off from home in an utter panic after overhearing my dad screaming about getting revenge against "that Delacruz scum who messed with my daughter." He had found out about me and Leonardo. Which meant Leonardo's life was now in severe freaking danger.
My foot pressed the gas pedal closer to the floor. I had do one last thing. We only had a tiny tried to shut up the panicked voice in my head telling me I was definitely already too late.
My father’s threats kept echoing in my head, the thought of Leonardo , the man I loved, being harmed by my own dad made me want to puke.
No way. I couldn't think like that. Leonardo was a survivor - slick and lethal when necessary. If anyone could dodge an ambush, it was him. I just had to keep believing that. Stay hopeful against the odds.
The city streets flew by in a blur outside as I raced on recklessly. Our fiery first meeting at that seedy downtown casino felt like it happened forever ago now instead of just months. That night, the connection between us had been instant, magnetic, heedless of any warnings or common sense. Maybe we should have just walked away right then, kept our worlds from colliding so freaking disastrously. But the fire between us had been too powerful to resist.
My hands clenched the wheel tighter remembering our very first kiss, hidden away in that dark corner of the bar. The taste and feel of Leonardo's mouth totally devouring mine had shaken me right down to my core. I was instantly hooked, desperate for more of his raw, electric kisses and the exhilaration of our crazy intense chemistry. Caution went up in flames real quick under the scorching heat blazing between us.
That was the night I rebelled for the first time, slipping the leash of my family's control and expectations to sneak off and meet this tempting stranger who sensed my longing for adventure. With Leonardo, I could temporarily shed the constraints ofbeing a mafia princess. In his arms, I felt wild, desired, gloriously free.
Falling for Leonardo had been as terrifying and inevitable as getting caught up in a riptide. Each secret meet up left me absolutely aching for our next stolen moment together. No matter how many times my dad's thugs dragged me back home after running off to see Leonardo again, I always found a way to get back to him eventually. His fierce kisses and sly laughter lit me up unlike anything in my gilded mafia life ever had.
It felt like barely any time had passed before Leonardo totally consumed my world. Just seeing his tall silhouette waiting for me in our hidden spots could make my pulse flutter like crazy. Being with him gave me this giddy, reckless joy I craved more than oxygen. All the shadows of who we were outside those rendezvous seemed to just fall away when we were intertwined, nothing existing beyond our white-hot passion in those moments.
When Leonardo first brought up us running away together, leaving the city and families determined to keep us apart, I had agreed completely. Our love had become the only thing that truly mattered anymore. We were willing to sacrifice it all, cut every tie if it just meant we could finally be together without rules or secrecy.
That pivotal night was still so damn painfully vivid in my mind - waiting anxiously by the private airfield for our escape, only to walk straight into a deadly ambush.
Leonardo and I were survivors. We fought our way out against impossible odds, refusing to become freaking casualties of my dad's insane vengeance. Even then though, I think I knew with sinking dread it was only a matter of time before we faced blowback again. Forbidden love was an inferno bound to eventually consume everything in its path.
And tonight, that dreaded reckoning had come crashing down at long last. The angry storm outside seemed to match the tempest whirling inside me. As lightning crackled, I thought of Leonardo, praying he was safe somewhere indoors. Many thoughts went through my head but my desperate escape plan was just wishful thinking - we had nowhere left to hide now that the ugly truth was finally exposed.
Leonardo and I knew the codes of loyalty ruling these streets only too well. We weren't star-crossed innocents, but willing defectors from our blood oaths. My father would show zero mercy on either of us for that sin. And neither would Leonardo's people when they learned of his ultimate betrayal.
The storm was really picking up now, rattling the car fiercely as I raced on at reckless speeds. But I was past caring if I lost control and just crashed at this point. Because if I was already too late, if Leonardo had been snatched away forever by my dad's ruthless vengeance, then I wanted any end that could reunite us again.
At last Leonardo's sleek high rise building came into view between jagged streaks of lightning. I skidded to an abrupt stop outside, half throwing myself out of the car without even waitingto throw it in park. The pouring rain soaked me instantly as I sprinted inside heedless of anything else. I must have looked deranged based on the panicked stares from the doorman and staff. But I didn't wait for the elevator, shoving through the door to the stairwell instead and running up those countless flights faster than I thought possible, soaked dress and slippery heels be damned.
Once my breathing slowed from wheezing gasps to something more normal, I straightened up and just stood outside Leonardo's door for a minute, working up the courage to knock.
My hand hovered in the air as my crazy thoughts and emotions threatened to drown me. I was so damn terrified that I was already too late. That pounding on Leonardo's door would be met with only hollow silence because he was already gone, wiped out by my father's insane vengeance.
Thinking about never seeing Leonardo again made me want to just sink down right there on the carpet and sob until I had no tears left. Because Leonardo had become my entire world these past months together. Just looking at his handsome face or hearing his deep voice say my name could instantly lift my mood, no matter how crappy things were otherwise.
