“The last time I checked I’m the mother of said baby, and you attempted murder on his aunt. Keep your precious advice to yourself. I think I know what’s best for his safety, which is going now, together because there’s no way I’m gonna let you near my sister alone, to kill the bad guys that threaten him and the rest of my family.”
I filled my lungs with the fresh sea breeze, my chest feeling better. Antibiotics and fresh air could do wonders. “How do you know it’s a he?”
She shrugged again. “It’s just a feeling.”
“Have you named him already?”
Her lips twisted, a slight twitch to her head. “Maybe.”
That put a smile on my face. “I know what you should name him. Leo.”
“The fuck? There’s no way in hell I’m naming my baby after you.”
“How ungrateful. I’m giving away my life for you and him. That’s the least you can do.”
She snorted. “Oh so you’re selflessly doing this for us now, and not because you want to have revenge on the people who fucked you over?”
“Well…that too. There’s nothing wrong with killing two birds with one stone.”
Eye rolling, she chuckled. “YouareTino’s son.”
Maybe, but I wasn’t him. “Would you believe me if I said I was doing this to protect you more than I was doing it for revenge?”
She stared at me incredulously. “No.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“So if I wasn’t here, pregnant, you wouldn’t get on that boat?”
“Until last night, there was nothing on my mind but killing those motherfuckers.” And taking back my wife.
“And then?”
My gaze stretched back to the locked cottage where I was leaving Ravenna.
“If you truly like her that much, why didn’t you tell me to fuck off and stayed with her? You have no obligation toward me or my baby, and you’re not a good guy, Leo, to be making noble, selfless sacrifices.”
“I know I’m not a good guy, and maybe I wasn’t obligated to help you. You’re not my family, and you hate my guts. But I need to save you, Nicky.”
“Why?”
“You won’t understand.” Ravenna did. She understood me better than I understood myself. That was why I had to go when I wanted nothing more than to stay. To save her, too, from myself before anyone else. “Just promise me, when the time comes, you won’t hesitate to put that bullet in my head you’ve been dying to put for so long.” It was the only way everyone I cared about would be safe.
The fisherman came back with the boat. I thanked him and offered him some cash, but he wouldn’t take it. He was the brother of that girl from college, and he said what he was doing for me was the least he could do to repay me for saving his sister that day. I took one last gaze at the cottage, telling him to burn the car and release Ravenna once I texted him from Palermo. Our first stop where we’d stay at a bed and breakfast owned by his cousin until we got another boat to Napoli. There we’d be smuggled on a cargo ship going to New York. I couldn’t risk going back to America from Palermo or any port in Sicily. Don Bellomo and the Lanzas must be watching those like hawks.
He helped Nicky and me on the boat and wished us a safe trip. I glanced at her face. “There’s no going back now. Are you ready?”
When she nodded, there was something different other than fury and hate under her frown when she gazed at me. Something I couldn’t decipher. All I knew it wasn’t good.
CHAPTER 24
Leo
“What should I do with the doctor’s phone? Her father keeps calling and texting. I ran out of ideas to stall him. Maybe I should throw it in the sea. It’s old and doesn’t have a Find My Phone or a GPS, but it’s better safe than sorry.” Nicky yelled over the motor as we cruised the Sicilian coast.
“Give it to me. We might still need it. The burner, too.”
“Why the burner?”
