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Chapter Thirteen - Luca
The girl sitting beside me in the back seat of my car slides a quick, embarrassed little look my way. “Thank you for going to all this trouble. I know you’ve probably got way better things to do than pick me up.”
“Don’t worry about it. It was a favor to your father—and I know my sister would want to make sure you’re safe.”
Olivia lets out a shaky breath when Jock rounds the front gate and we begin rolling up the driveway. “I always told myself I wasn’t ever going to come back here.”
“But now you see why it was so important to your father that you come back. It’s dangerous out there.”
“No kidding. There I was, thinking I could escape it.”
“Maybe you can,” I suggest. “But there has to be a better way to do it. No more running. Especially not right now, when there’s so much going on.”
Her head bobs up and down, her eyes never leaving the sprawling house now revealing itself a bit at a time through the trees. “You’re sure Beckett’s going to be alright? I really don’t think we should have left him.”
Interesting. There I was, figuring he was the last person she would care about right now. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure he’ll follow behind once the doctor is finished sewing him up.” It’s a good thing I got there when I did and was able to get a hold of the doc. Beckett wasn’t in great shape, even though the fighting had ended. But he kept Olivia safe.
“I hope so.” She offers a weak smile. “Thank you again. I hope you don’t think I’m—”
“I don’t think anything, and that’s the truth. But I do know your family will be happy to see you. And you can’t tell me this isn’t a step up from the way you lived before.”
“I guess I needed to learn there’s all kinds of boogeyman out in the world. Not just here.” That much, I can agree with.
The front doors open and out pours the Giordano family, with Olivia’s mother front and center, arms open wide. The kid can pretend all she wants that she didn’t want to come home, but there’s no way she can pretend she didn’t miss her family. Not when she practically throws herself out of the car and hurls herself into her mother’s arms, where she’s quickly surrounded by her sister and brothers. I wonder if she knows how lucky she is the men in her family even care about her. That’s not always the way.
I step out of the car, watching the scene over the roof. Paul steps away, smiling from ear to ear and extending his hand. I meet him halfway. “Safe and sound, not a scratch on her. But I’m not the one you have to thank for that,” I add when it looks like he’s about to. “Beckett took care of those assholes before I ever arrived.”
“He called to let me know he would arrive after Olivia. I owe you both a great debt of gratitude.”
“Think nothing of it.” I nod in the direction of the clustered family. “Go ahead. Catch up with your kid.”
“Thank you again. I’ll be in touch.” I watch him trot back to the rest of them, where he wraps his arms around his wife and daughter simultaneously. I can’t help but smile, though it’s a little wistful when I remember my parents and everything we lost.
My phone couldn’t ring at a better time. I need to halt this line of thinking before I end up spiraling. “All is well,” I confirm to Jock on answering the call. “I’ll be on my way back soon.”
“Delilah’s gone.”
Not what I expected to hear. “What? What are you talking about?”
“She left. I don’t know where she is.” Then, he adds, “For what it’s worth, Vincent isn’t here, either. Connor and Scott saw him pull out around twenty minutes ago and didn’t think anything of it until I raised the alarm that Delilah’s nowhere to be found. I told her you wanted her to go—”
Oh, shit. “Without confirming with me?”
“I was following your orders. What, did something change?”
Damn it all to hell. Yes, something changed, even if I can’t explain what. “And she got a ride from my brother, of all people?”
“It looks that way. She must’ve freaked out and convinced him to drive her home.”
With Bernardi’s men crawling all over the place, too. He has no idea where he’s taking her or whether she’ll be safe there. That reckless bastard. “He’s going to get us all killed someday.”
“I can send somebody out looking, but that would mean losing bodies here at the house.”
I can’t wrap my head around this. One minute I’m helping Paul rescue his damn daughter, now my brother runs off with a woman I woke up beside this morning. At least there’s one aspect of this situation I have a handle on. “No, there’s no need for that. Remember, we made allowances for this kind of thing.”
Jock snorts. “I almost forgot.” Maybe he can forget, but I never will. I know my brother means well, but I don’t trust him. And this is exactly why. Bullshit stunts like this.
Where would she go? And why would she go with him?
