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As I got back into our car, only one thought was in my mind: when we caught Juliana, she would be sorry that she ever lied to me.
CHAPTER 32
JULIANA
I drove solidly for the thirty hours it took to get to L.A.
I stopped only for gas, food, and coffee along the way, plus twice I took a half-hour break to take a quick nap.
I knew that Marco would try to find me. It was a race against time. I ate the food as I drove and the coffee had triple-shots of caffeine, providing me with sustenance for the grueling journey.
Worries kept niggling at me, but I had come this far, and I couldn’t turn back now.
MARCO
As Alessio drove our SUV, I sat next to him in the passenger seat, dark emotions rolling off me in waves.
“Even if we don’t manage to cut her off before she reaches her family, we’ll still find a way to get her back,” said Alessio in a grim voice.
I wished I could believe that. If she made it into the Società’s hands, I knew they would never let her go.
Her running away and her rejection of me was like a red-hot blade piercing my heart. Especially because I’d thought that she’d begun to accept our relationship and life together. I’d even thought that she’d started to develop feelings for me.
It had bothered me when I saw that she was upset about her sister, but the thought of losing her was even worse—it was unbearable.
JULIANA
It was dark when I reached L.A. the following evening. The last day and a half had seemed like a week; I was utterly exhausted.
I headed straight for my father’s mansion. The adrenaline pumping through my body kept me alert. I had to talk to Jessica.
I parked a short distance away and left Palmina’s car there. I walked up to the edge of the mansion’s grounds, keeping to the shadows.
I knew that my father had soldiers patrolling the perimeter. I watched them on their regular patrol route and when I judged it safe, I quickly headed to the side gate.
I didn’t have a keycard, but I could try entering the code via the number pad. I held my breath as I typed in the security code and thanked the heavens that the code hadn’t been changed as the gate opened, allowing me to slip in.
Once I was in the grounds, I kept myself pressed up as close to the house as possible so that it would shadow me from view. My heart was beating so fast that I was sure it would give me away. I tried to steady my breathing, but nothing would calm my nerves.
I moved around the house until I got just underneath Jess’s bedroom window. I had picked up a few small pieces of gravel from the driveway and aimed a piece at a time at Jess’s window. The first two pieces missed, my aim not being helped by my shaking hands.
I told myself to calm down and wiped my hands against the sides of my jeans. Then I tried again and this time the gravel hit its target. I waited but no one came to the window. Damn
I threw three more pieces of gravel against the window and a minute later I saw Jess’s drapes twitch.
I stepped out from the shadows finally so that Jess could see me in the moonlight. I saw surprise and confusion break out across her face and I put my finger to my lips, warning her to be quiet. She quickly went to open her window.
“Juliana, what are you doing here?” she said in a loud whisper. “Does Father know that you’re here?”
“No. No one can know but you. Come down to the garden. I’ll meet you by the big oak tree and I’ll explain everything. Bring Jake with you.”
I made my way to what we had always called ‘the big oak tree’. It was big, but now that we were grown up, it didn’t seem nearly as enormous as it had when we were small children. In that way it had lost a little of its magic, but then I guess the same thing happened in life when you grew up and learned the realities of the world.
The tree had a circular bench that wrapped around the trunk. It was mine and Jessica’s favorite place to go when we had wanted to get away from Mother and Father.
The night air was chilly, but I hardly felt it as I waited for Jessica. I needed to talk to Jessica alone to try and get out of her what was troubling her. Once I got to the bottom of the issue, I would speak to Jake as well—I really needed to see him, to check how he was and to apologize for what he had gone through at the hands of Marco.
A couple of minutes later Jessica appeared, having put a robe on and her sneakers. As soon as she saw me, she flew into my arms and started sobbing.
