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“Sal.” The sound of her voice is like heaven, “you’re back!” Lucia comes running and the idiot that was with me moves out of her way as she jumps into my arms. “Oh my God.” She is crying when she kisses me.
“I told you I would come back for you.” I made a promise, and I kept it.
“I killed my father,” she says, “and the stupid radio in the boat keeps going off. Someone is looking for him. I don’t know what to do.” I know what to do, but she isn’t going to like it.
“Go back on land, take Raul and wait for me at the storm shelter,” I say quietly to her. “You,” I point to the man who walked me in, “go fetch Zagaia’s body and bring it on board.” His eyes go wide, but the fact I have a gun and he doesn’t, leaves him no room to argue. He takes the steps two at a time.
“Everyone else on this boat needs to be in this room in five minutes. Find your friends, fast.” I say the men who are hanging around with worried faces. They know this only ends one way, and that way is not good for them. Once the body of my enemy is on the boat, I instruct their captain to leave as soon as I get off the yacht.
Before I step off, I make sure there are no survivors besides the man driving, there can’t be any witnesses that saw her kill him. Her brothers will come for her if they know what she did. No one can know about this, and no one will.
Lucia and Raul are waiting for me. We can’t stay here, there is nowhere to stay, and it isn’t safe until I can have everything rebuilt. We have to leave but going home is not an option. We can’t take that chance. Thankfully I have friends in low-low places all over the world, and some of them are willing to harbor fugitives.
“We are leaving,” I say to her, “get what you need for the baby, it will need to last a day maybe two.” I can’t take too much with us in the chopper. Lucia scrambles to put his stuff into a small backpack and grabs some bottled water and his formula.
“Where are we going?” she asks me and I can see the fear in her eyes, she knows she is in trouble. “I killed my dad Sal, they are going to come for me.”
“No one knows what you did,” I say. “That boat is going to sink, and my Russian friends are going to take responsibility for it. Your father’s boat was found conducting business on their turf.” She’s crying again, and I wish I had the time to console her. “We will land the chopper on my friend Valentin’s yacht and sail with them as far as Croatia. I have people there who will keep all three of us safe.”
“What about your business, and Lorenzo, The Kings?” She’s rattling off her questions in one long sentence. Not one of things matter to me, all that matters is her and Raul.
“It doesn’t matter. For all anyone knows, we all got killed in the storm.” That is all anyone will know. I set plans in motion before I came back to completely disappear. I am a ghost, she is a missing person and no one is looking for either of us now. Lucia looks confused. “Don’t worry, we will be safe. All three of us.” I kiss her, wanting to show her how much I love her. “I won’t leave you again, I want to be with you Lucia. Forever.”
“Sal, we can’t,” she says, knowing what would await us at home.
“We can, and we are going to,” I say, “we need to leave, Lucia,” I urge. It’s getting dark and I cannot fly after sundown. Valentin is not far away, his boat is waiting for us in international waters. I can’t keep him waiting forever, it’s time to start over. This time I’d like to do things differently. “I will fix this place up, and we will come back.”
I liked living here with her, I want to come back. Lucia holds onto Raul, and the few things she has packed for him.
“I killed my father,” she whispers it this time, “he was going to kill the baby. I couldn’t let him, I had to choose.” It can’t have been an easy choice. Me, her blood enemy, over the loyalty to her family.
“You did the right thing Lucia.” I pull them both into a hug, holding my family in my arms. I love them, enough to risk everything for them both.
***
Valentin welcomes us on board his mega yacht, the man makes no attempt to hide his wealth. Notorious ladies’ man, and successful business owner in the public eye, not everyone knows his ties to the Bratva and other underworld organizations. Their family have been running arms and ammunitions for decades. They are like pirates, everything is done on the water making it hard to catch them or trace any sort of deals being done. They’re smart.
His boat, unlike her father’s one, is very tasteful but still flashy, he wants the world to know he has arrived. “Salvatore.” He shakes my hand and welcomes us with a smile, “Welcome aboard. It is good to see you.” It’s been a while since we saw one another in person, most of our business is done online, on the dark web where no one really exists.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” I say, grateful for his hospitality, “the storm has completely gutted the island. It will take some time to get it rebuilt, but I will send a team as soon as we are settled.” I need the island operational for business, and to live on. It’s critical to the logistics of our deal. “Thankfully Lucia and Raul were safe.” I take the chance to introduce her to him. “Valentin, this is Lucia, and my nephew Raul.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He tries his charm on Lucia, she just blushes and moves so she’s slightly closer to me. “I hope you’ll be comfortable on board with us. I had the steward order everything we thought you might need for this handsome little man.” He smiles at Raul and the baby obliges with a laugh.
“Thank you,” I say again, and he excuses himself to take care of business. The first steward on board takes us to where we will be staying on the beach deck of the boat. It is like a floating hotel, there is everything one needs to live at sea indefinitely. Looking around I know I will have to be better about how we run things on the island when it is rebuilt.
We need to have access to supplies and the things that will give Lucia the life she deserves. I know I wanted to make her suffer at first, but now I want us to live. There is a child to consider, and I don’t want him to grow up wanting for anything.
“Wow,” Lucia says, and she is no stranger to luxury, “this is really fancy.” It is beautiful, and so is the smile on her face when she looks around at the large cabin. “Only one bed,”she winks at me, and I melt. She has no idea what she does to me.
“We only need one,” I say pulling her into me, I have missed the way she fits so perfectly in my arms. I missed the way she smells, and the softness of her lips when she presses them against mine.
“One will do,” she whispers against my lips, “as long as we are not sharing it with the little one.” Oh, hell no. He is in the next room, they have set it up as a nursery for him.
“He has his own room, the little cock-blocker.” Lucia laughs at me, and I open the door to where he will sleep at night. “We won’t have to do this forever,” I say to her. “It’s temporary.”
“It’s fine, Sal,” she says putting Raul down in the crib, he’s surrounded by fluffy toys and cute things to keep his attention. “We are all alive, and I can’t go home, not after what I did. Even if I could, I don’t want to. You are my home, you, and Raul.”
She feels like home to me too.
