Page 18 of Sicilian Savior

She dropped her head into her hands, and this time I didn’t hold back from doing what I wanted to do. I stepped forward and pulled her into my arms, wrapping them tight around her and enveloping her in my protective cocoon. This time she didn’t shrink back from my touch or jump out of my reach. This time she folded into me, pressing her face into my chest while I held her as she sobbed.

“I’m so alone. I don’t know what to do,” she said after I let her cry for a good two minutes. “And I can’t tell anyone because if I do, he could find me. I don’t even know if he’s looking for me, but if he found out I’m planning on trying to get Luca back again, then he’ll kill me for sure. Or Luca. He’s capable of anything.”

“I need you to tell me everything.” I rested my chin on the top of her head and held her tighter, careful not to hurt her with the power of my squeeze.

She sniffled again and pulled out of my embrace, wiping her eyes as she walked over to the old picnic table just outside her house.

I followed her over and sat down beside her, pressing a hand to her back. “You can trust me, Lucia. I can help you.”

Looking up, she shook her head. “You can’t help me, Knox. He’s too powerful.”

I snorted and straightened my shoulders. “You have told me something private, so in the name of fairness, I will do the same.”

She lifted her puffy eyes to meet mine.

“Do you want to know how I noticed all those things about you? How I knew you were being hunted? How I know that no matter who your ex-husband is, I can handle him?”

She nodded again.

“It’s because I was trained for this. When I told you I was a contractor after my time in the military, it wasn’t exactly a lie. I was a contractor, but it was for a very secret government division that not even the CIA knows about. To them and the rest of the world, we’re just rumors. Myths. Ghosts. But we do, in fact, exist, and I was one of the top operatives.”

“What... what did you do?” she asked, and I knew what she really wanted to ask.

“We took out threats.”

“Threats?” Her eyes widened.

“Yes. Threats. Threats to the government, threats to our foreign allies, threats to national security. We crippled criminal organizations, annihilated terrorists, and destroyed anything and anyone who was deemed a danger.”

“So, you... you were an assassin?” her voice quivered as it formed the last word.

“I was,” I stated plainly.

She stared at me, processing, and I was glad she didn’t get up and run. I’d never uttered those words to anyone other than my team before. Marcus, Piper, and Wes. The other members of my Elite Stealth Force team and the only people on this planet I cared about. Well, until now.

“I didn’t murder people, though,” I clarified. “I mean, I killed people, but they were the bad people. Dangerous people. I didn’t just go around murdering innocents. That’s the difference between killing and murdering. At least it’s that way in my head.”

She kept staring at me, blinking.

I went on. “So, when I tell you I can handle this ex of yours, I mean it. My team and me? We can find anyone, anywhere, anytime. Wes, my team’s computer and hacking expert, has never missed a mark. All you need to do is tell me who your ex-husband is, and Wes can find him. And he can find your son.”

“But even if you can find him, how can we get him back?”

I snorted. “Oh, we can get him back. We’re not just a bunch of assassins.” Then I shrugged. “I mean, we are, but we’re also experts in recon and extractions. We’ve gotten a lot of important people out of a lot of shitty situations. There’s no reason we can’t extract your son from some lowlife loser without issue.”

“My ex... he’s not just some lowlife loser. He’s Victor Caruso. The head of the Caruso crime family.”

Now it was my turn for my eyes to widen. “You married Victor Caruso?”

“You know him?”

I nodded. “Oh yeah. We know all the heavy hitters in the crime world. We never tangoed with him since he wasn’t a threat to national security, but I know who he is. You married him? Oof. Talk about bad taste in men.” I pulled an exaggerated yuck face, hoping to ease the tension.

“I didn’t know!” she defended. “I had no idea that he was involved in organized crime. I was just a poor eighteen-year-old girl who got swept away by a rich, charming man. He was twenty-five when we met, and he blinded me with his charm. Like a prince who whisked me away from my life and turned it into a fairytale. It wasn’t until after we married and I had Luca that I found out what he really did. When his father died, he took over the family business. Little did I know what that entailed. I just thought he was a powerful businessman. In the beginning, he was kind. Loving. And then... then I found out what was paying for my nice life.”

“Yeah.” I blew out a puff of air. “I hate to tell you that he’s a real bad motherfucker. The Caruso’s have dropped a lot of bodies and sold a lot of drugs. I’m sorry you got tangled up with him.”

“Me too. And once I found out, I tried to leave.” The tears started welling again. “I took Luca when he was two and moved out. I didn’t even make it forty-eight hours before Victor’s goons grabbed us and dragged us back.” She closed her eyes and exhaled a long sigh. “He beat me within an inch of my life that night, threatening to kill me if I tried it again.”