While Rocco coaches Smith on what to say to Isabelle—if he can get past her husband—I lean over the privacy partition so I can redirect the driver to a secondary location.
“Are you sure this is what Dimitri would want?” asks Preacher, uneased I’m guiding a fleet of pricy vehicles to an area well-known for its love of hotwiring.
“I’m sure,” I reply, hopeful I’m not making a mistake.
It’s rare for people to get the chance to redeem themselves, so I can only hope my mother doesn’t squander the opportunity. If she hurts my babies while I endeavor to safe their father, I’ll let Dimitri kill her as he wanted to years ago, and I won’t shed a tear while he does it.
The unease twisting in my stomach gets a moment of reprieve when I glance back down at the tablet. Dimitri’s reflection is still in the middle of the frame. He isn’t alone. A blonde-haired female agent is pushing swatches of material onto his stomach while screaming for a medic.
Seeing Ellie in her element pops a brilliant idea into my head. It will ensure we will never be friends, but if it gets the father of my children out of the carnage alive, I’ll accept it.
“Mama loves you, baby boy.” Matteo’s dark hair tickles my lips when I press them to his temple. He’s passed out cold, the hour drive in the car too much for his little body at this late hour.
I wouldn’t be here unless I truly believed this is the last place Dimitri’s enemies would look for the heir to the Petretti monarch. Dimitri said we were being evacuated from our family home because the crew endeavoring to topple Nikolai’s reign knew too much for him to believe we were safe there. If that ‘too much’ involves our children, I have to take drastic measures to keep them out of harm’s way.
This is as drastic as it gets for me. Even with my mother remaining in rehab for over a year, I cut her out of my life. I didn’t want my children to question why my relationship with their grandmother was estranged, so I took the cowards way out and buried the truth under a whole heap of dirt. It made it seem as if I were suffocating the past three years, but its grip around my throat isn’t close to the painful squeeze my heart is currently facing.
“It’s okay, mama,” Fien assures when she spots the wetness in my eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to him.” She snuggles in close to Matteo’s side like she’ll forever protect him as I’ll always protect her. “Girls can be brave too.”
My heart melts a little. “They sure can, Fien. You’ve shown me that more than once.” After kissing her head as I did Matteo, I tuck them in tight before exiting my mother’s room.
Although she was issued a full pardon from Dimitri, her life isn’t anything close to glamourous. Her apartment is two blocks over from the rat-infested pad Estelle and I shared years ago. Bills are piling up on her kitchen counter, and the last time I had Smith hack into her bank account, she only had a few dollars to her name, but in all honesty, her life is still better than it was. She doesn’t have to sell her body to fund her husband’s drug addiction, she’s not beaten when she fails to live up to his unachievable expectations, and her daughter is happy. At the end of the day, the latter is all any parent should ever strive for.
“Preacher will be stationed in the living room—”
“I won’t hurt them,” my mother promises, stepping closer to me. She looks healthy now. Gone is the gaunt, waif-like woman I saw walk out of rehab three years ago. Replaced with one who looks like she wants to get her life on track, but she doesn’t know how. “I never meant to hurt you either, Roxie.”
“Now is not the time to re-hatch decade-old conversations.”
She pats my arm in an understanding manner. “I understand. I’m sorry.”
The soar in my pulse Fien’s comment caused nosedives past my toes. I didn’t mean to snap at her like my father always did. It just truly isn’t the time for this conversation. Last update I was given, Dimitri was being transported to Ravenshoe Private Hospital. Theater is prepped and ready, and thanks to Isaac Holt, Dimitri’s name is at the very top of the list. It gives us a few hours to work my plan through the grinder to smooth out any hidden skeletons my panic has me overlooking, but time won’t get Dimitri out of the woods. The resilience of his team without its leader isallhe has to count on.
I really fucking hope I don’t let him down.
9
Roxanne
“Are you ready?”
Strands of thick, dark hair fall into my eyes when I bob my head to Rocco’s question. I look nothing like me, but the warrior inside of me can’t be concealed by a wig, contacts, and an outfit that aged me by a decade without the need for makeup. “I was born ready.”
Rocco’s smile is the first one I’ve seen the past thirty-six hours. Dimitri’s team haven’t stopped since he was admitted to Ravenshoe Private Hospital under a guarded watch. The Bureau believes he is so dangerous, even his thirteen-hour long surgery was viewed by three agents.
In a way, I’m grateful for the Bureau’s panic. Their inability to trust means I didn’t have to watch proceedings unfold from the outside in. I was a part of Dimitri’s operation even with us being miles apart.
I didn’t watch him be operated on because I’m a weirdo who gets her kicks from blood and gore. I did it because he’d know I was watching. You don’t have to see someone directly in front of you to know they’re there. You can sense them. No one is ever truly alone. You just have to close your eyes, and everyone you’ve ever loved is right there in front of you.
Rocco thrusts a blueprint of Ravenshoe Private Hospital to my side of the van Smith is commanding. Its quality has improved from the vehicle he had when Dimitri arrived at the prison Claudia was incarcerated at, but its outer shell gives no indication to the value of the equipment hiding inside of it. “Do you want to do a final once over before you head in?”
I shake my head. “It’s all in here.” I tap my temple to get across my point.
“All right,” Rocco replies, a little uneased. “In and out as fast as you can. Henry’s men are waiting in the service elevator, so all you need to do is get himinthe elevator.”
I swallow the lump in my throat before nodding again. “In and out. Got it.”
Before the nerves in my stomach have the chance to announce their arrival, I lock my eyes with Smith’s in the rearview mirror, wordlessly thank him for his assistance before leaning into Rocco’s side. Since our embrace has nothing to do with riling Dimitri, it’s quick. However, it is also filled with emotion. If I hadn’t bestowed Estelle with the title of being my best friend when we were teens, I would have granted it to Rocco years ago. He truly is one of my best friends, and I’d be lost without him.
