Page 19 of Sicilian Savior

That blood-red I’d seen before? It returned and hit a new shade of red I didn’t think existed other than in my enraged mind. I hadn’t necessarily enjoyed killing people before, but I’d been fine with it. Just a day on the job taking out the assholes of the world. But this guy? Victor Caruso? Oh, I was going to enjoy every second of watching the life exit his body.

“I stayed for a year after that,” she went on. “But once I knew who he was and didn’t want him to touch me, the beatings got regular. The mask was off, and the monster behind it enjoyed seeing my pain to punish me for leaving him. Then one day, I saw him hit Luca. I couldn’t stay. I knew I had to get out.”

“So, you ran?”

“No,” she said on a sigh. “I filed for divorce.”

“And he let you?”

“He didn’t have a choice. I just marched into the courthouse and got the paperwork and filed. It was already done. I made it public, hoping that would protect me, knowing he wasn’t stupid enough to take me out with that information out there. Everyone would suspect him. But I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when I told him. I’d been so terrified that day I marched into his office and said it was over and I’d already filed. Pure evil stared back at me.”

“And then he took Luca?”

“No.” She shook her head. “He told me he was done with me anyway, and he’d be keeping Luca. I told him over my dead body, which he, of course, said he could make possible. But instead, we met in court. I’d been smart, taking photos of the aftermath of his beatings, and I even hid a camera and recorded one. I thought it was a guarantee I’d get full custody of Luca since I had so much proof. But all my proof miraculously disappeared, and suddenly there was manufactured proof that I was the abusive one. I’m almost certain he paid off the judge. Or maybe threatened him. I’m not sure, but all I know was I got nothing. Not even visiting rights.”

“Jesus,” I breathed.

“Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know why I trusted the justice system to help me, but I did, and I lost my son over it. And that day leaving court, Victor told me that he would raise Luca to take over for him. He wants to turn my sweet, sweet Luca into a monster just like him. I couldn’t let him.” She stiffened her back and lifted her chin. “So, then I stole Luca a few days later and bolted off with him.”

Her bravery astounded me. She’d been through so much, and yet, here she was still fighting to find a way back to her son.

“We managed to stay hidden for almost a year, but last year he found us. I still don’t know how. He beat me again within an inch of my life and told me if I ever tried again that he’d kill Luca before letting me have him back. And I believe him. He’s a psychopath. And I don’t say that mildly. He truly is. He’s extremely manipulative and dangerous and feels nothing for anyone... not even his own son. I found out a couple years ago that before his death, Victor’s father had decided he was too dangerous to run the organization, so he was making moves to groom Victor’s younger brother, Roberto, to take over after he retired. They said Victor went wild with anger since he was being passed over, and then they both died in a car explosion a month later, and Victor inherited everything. No one dared to go against him, and no one ever brought it up, but everyone knows he did it. He killed his own father and his little brother. And now he has my son.”

Tears spilled from her eyes again. I slid my hand up her back and over her shoulder, pulling her under my arm.

“Luca is a good boy. He’s nothing like Victor. I can’t let this be his life. So, I disappeared, but I haven’t given up. I’m going to make a life, get some money together, and find my son again. This time I’ll make sure he can’t find us. That’s why I’m here in Mountain Springs. I’m building a new life here, so when I find a way to get Luca back, we’ll have a life together here. I even have his bedroom ready for when he comes. And hopefully, I’ll have us so far under the radar that he’ll never find us again.”

“You’re so brave,” I said. “I can’t believe how much you’ve been through. I can’t imagine.”

“Even though I know he’s probably not searching for me since he has Luca, I still spend every second of every day looking over my shoulder. I have to stay alive, even if just to get my son away from that monster to raise him right. I wouldn’t care about my own life if it weren’t for that fact, but Luca needs me. He needs a mother. What if he thinks I left because I don’t love him?”

Her hot tears soaked my chest, and I stroked the top of her head.

“We’ll find him, Lucia. We’ll get him back.”

“I don’t even think he’s in the States anymore. The last time I searched the web, I discovered that he finally got in hot water in the States, so he picked up and left to avoid the feds. He has houses all over the world, and I have no idea how to find him.”

“Wes can find him,” I stated with certainty.

“How do you know that?”

“Wes can find anyone. He can get into any computer in the world, hack cameras, control airplanes, for Christ’s sake. He’s the top hacker on the planet. He’ll find him. Hell, he found me, and I was prisoner underground in a cave for six months.”

“What?” she looked up. “You were a prisoner?”

“Yes. But my team found me. There’s four of us. Me, Marcus, Piper, and Wes. We all have different specialties and combined, they make us unstoppable. Marcus is our brains and the best sniper in the world. He plans our missions, and most of the time, he can take out a target without any of us lifting a finger. That’s always the goal since stealth is our MO. Being a top-secret organization, the less footprint we leave behind, the better, and no one is stealthier than Marcus.”

I paused and chuckled, visions of Piper in her many disguises flipping through my mind. “Well, other than Piper. She’s a chameleon. She can go undercover and gain access anywhere, anytime. And she’s absolutely lethal. Even I wouldn’t want to go hand-to-hand with her. Finally, there’s Wesley. He’s our computer geek. Guy hacked the FBI when he was in college, and since he accidentally saw a bunch of shit he wasn’t supposed to see, they gave him a choice: black site for life or join up. Lucky for us, he joined up. He’s the best in the world. And my specialty is kind of the human equivalent of a tank. I was the one who went in anytime the stealth mission went south. I was the bombs blowing, bullets flying, heavy artillery guy. And one mission did go south, and Piper and Marcus got stuck inside. I had to go big to get them out, so I came in guns blazing. It was a shitshow.” I blew out a breath, remembering it well. “Things were looking bad for the three of us. We had one means of a clean escape, so I sent Marcus and Piper out and said I’d be right behind them. But I knew I had to stay behind to hold off the enemies.”

“You stayed behind and let yourself get captured?”

“Honestly? I stayed behind, expecting to get killed. Turns out even six bullets didn’t take me down, and I ended up a fucking prisoner.”

“Oh, Knox. I can’t imagine.”

The memories that still sat me up at night in cold sweats poured through my mind. “Yeah. It was bad. Six months of being tortured to the point I’d stop breathing, and I’d be grateful for the end, only to bring me back again to do it all over the next day.”

Her hand slid over mine, wrapping around it and squeezing tight.