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Later that night, after a highly intense and emotionally draining meeting with Carlos and two other men I’ve never seen, I discovered that the man who took me worked for the same man that hired Nathan Kress to steal the Lamborghini. Just as Carlos feared, when Callisto took care of Nathan, he initiated a war of sorts, a raging storm of greed and revenge.
Carlos even sent him to Miami the week before my graduation party to meet with the man and try to get him to see things as they were. Nathan Kress was a threat that needed to be extinguished. Nothing personal. The meeting didn’t go well, ending with the man telling Callisto that he would hear from him soon enough. I guess the message on my mirror was his way of saying that time was quickly approaching.
So that’s why he was eager to get me out of town. The Tahiti trip was a cover-up.
“So, he saw you as a threat to his operation?” I asked, making sure I grasped the situation.
“There are three things in life you just don’t mess with,” Carlos answered, “A man’s money,” he said, his dark brown eyes cutting a glance to Callisto. “Or a man’s woman.” This time he regarded me with a sincere grin.
“And the third?” I asked.
Callisto reached over and took my hand in his, and I don’t think I’d ever seen him smile any brighter.
“Oh, the third, my dear girl, is family,” Carlos told me.
It wasn’t until that moment that I truly understood what a family actually is. To the Suppato’s, family doesn’t always mean those in your bloodline. Family is who you make it. Carlos welcomed me into his family the moment I walked in his restaurant, a naïve young girl just starting out in life. I thought I had it all figured out then. Boy was I wrong. I spent my whole life thinking I had been abandoned by my family. But in reality, they were here all along. Brynn. Ryleigh. Carlos. My grandmother. My ride or dies. The people I’ve always been able to depend on. The people I’d do anything for. My family.
“Do you see why now?” Callisto asks as his fingertips trace delicate circles across my bare back. “Why I didn’t want you in my world?”
“Callisto, I’m fine. I’m here. Nothing happened.”
I prop my chin on his chest and look up into his beautiful, worried face.
“You were tied to a chair. That’s not fine.”
His hand moves from my back to my hair, pulling the thick strands through his fingers. I place feather-light kisses on his still damp skin. I love the way his body glistens after he fucks me breathless.
“I can’t lose you,” he says.
I look up into his dark blue eyes. “You won’t. Just like I won’t lose you.”
I never thought I would be able to say those words out loud. It’s taken me years to accept the fact that losing someone you love doesn’t equal losing everyone you love. I’ve spent so much time afraid of losing Callisto that I didn’t really appreciate the time I actually had with him.
I prop myself up on my elbows and wrap one leg around his. He’s adjusted the flames on the electric fireplace so that they glow a luminous blue, giving the feeling of moonlight seeping in through open windows. The shadows bounce off his face, revealing the concern still there.
“I knew it was bad when they shot Charlie. I shouldn’t have let you leave that party alone,” he says, his voice steady yet pained. “I thought we could get to them before they found you.”
“How did you find me?” I ask, because it’s something I’ve been wondering since the moment he spoke my name in that empty room.
“Earlier that night, we were coming back from collecting a payment for my father. I was tired, so Charlie drove my car. As soon as we pulled behind the restaurant and he stepped out, they hit him, probably thinking it was me.”
It could have been him.
It would have been him.
It wasn’t him.
“I caught a glimpse of the guy and the car. And that was it. I’m pretty good at finding people who don’t want to be found.”
I don’t doubt him for a minute.
“You taking care of Charlie just added fuel to the fire, baby. Really pissed them off,” he says with a chuckle as if he enjoyed their frustration. “We followed them. They must have parked their car and walked to your house because that car never left the hotel. By the time I figured it out, they already had you.”
He brings his lips to my forehead, and I close my eyes and savor the gentleness his mouth brings.
“I don’t want to talk anymore,” I say. I’ve heard all I need to hear, know all I need to know. Right now, I just want to focus on him and me.
The breathtaking grin I fell in love with the very first time I ever saw it so long ago spreads across his face, all the way up to his eyes.
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
In one fluid movement he rolls me over and claims me once again. Not that he has anything to claim. I am inexplicably and undeniably his. I’m starting to realize I always have been.
