Page 67 of Sicilian Savior

Luca had stepped behind me, clutching my pants while I’d kept forcing myself to breathe and stay calm.

“We’re gonna go for a little ride,” was what Victor had said.

I hadn’t even tried to run after seeing the gun peeking out of the front of his pants. Instead, I’d forced myself to carry my child to the car, hoping and praying Knox would pull up the drive before we drove away. But he hadn’t. I’d stared out the back window, not seeing his return as we’d driven away from town, and I’d held my sobbing, terrified son as Victor had pulled the car onto the highway.

Just stay alive. Knox will find you, I’d reminded myself as Victor had kept driving.

That was all that mattered. Staying alive. I’d known Knox was already searching for us, and with his talented team to help, he would find us. He had to. I had faith in him, and I’d forced myself to remain calm as the distance had grown between us and Mountain Springs.

We’d been in the car for hours now, and it was well past midnight.

“You were smart not to run,” Victor said, looking into the rearview mirror at me.

I glanced up at him, the reflection of his dark eyes narrowing as he glared at me.

I didn’t respond, only stroking Luca’s sleeping head softly.

“He’s not coming for you,” Victor said. “That man.” He spat out the last word.

He was wrong. Knox would come for me.

I held my tongue.

“I saw you with him today. You’re just a whore to him. He doesn’t care about you. No one would. You’re just a piece of trash.”

Those words would have hurt if I didn’t trust Knox’s feelings for me—his love for me and for Luca. I saw the way his eyes lit up when he looked at my son, and I knew the depths of his feelings for me. Knox would stop at nothing until we were back in his arms.

Victor guided the car through a non-descript neighborhood, somewhere I’d never been. I didn’t recognize anything around me and wondered where Victor was taking us. He pulled the car to a stop, taking out the keys and lifting his gun, dragging it to his lips while he gestured to Luca, whispering, “Shhhh.”

I dug down into the strength I didn’t even know I had inside me and smiled while I shook Luca awake. “We’re here, baby.”

He blinked up at me, tired eyes now searching the car. They widened when he saw Victor peering over the seat at us.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“We’re with Daddy, sweetheart. He’s brought us somewhere really neat.”

“Follow me inside,” Victor said on a snarl.

I didn’t argue, climbing out of the car and leading Luca by the hand. We walked through the white picket fence to the two-story house that Victor unlocked with a key.

“Where are we?” Luca asked again.

“This was your grandparent’s house,” Victor answered as he flipped on a light. “It’s my house now. I live here.”

Victor, who used to surround himself with nothing but the most luxurious things, now lived in the suburbs in some small unknown town. I’d wondered what had happened to him after we’d left Sicily, and now I knew. It had been Victor’s turn to go into hiding. The Vitalis must have driven him right out of Sicily, and the thought of him living in the same fear I had made me smile.

“You live here?” I asked, trying to keep things normal and relaxed for Luca’s sake. “It’s really nice.”

“It’s a fucking dump,” Victor spat.

Luca looked up at me to point out the swear word, but I just gently shook my head to silence him.

“And it’s your fault I’m stuck here in this shithole.”

“My fault?”

“Yeah. I finally figured it out. Took me a couple weeks to put it all together, but now I know that you worked with the Vitalis to get me taken out.”