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When we pull down our street, police lights flash red and blue on the curbside, and news agencies have their cameras parked right outside the gate.
“What the fuck?”
Wicked’s bike idles between my thighs before he squeezes the throttle and drives us through the wired gates as they part open. There’s a dark car parked at the curb, with a police vehicle. Men are walking out of the house dressed in blue plastic coveralls and white booties. Before Wicked has parked the bike, I unlatch myself from around him and fling my leg over, flying to where Papa is standing, talking with a police officer.
“Papa!”
He turns just in time to catch me, and I see all of the blood soaked into his suit shirt, smudged on his face and sticking his hair up.
“Wolf—” The words barely leave my mouth before Papa shakes me, holding my upper arms.
“No, principessa, he is with Val—” He points to where our secondary carport is and my heart rate slows, my shoulders slacking when I see him curled into Val’s big body, and watch asWicked makes his way to them both. My plan was to take it easy, introduce them slowly, but when Wolf’s dark blond head lifts off Val and his little arms fly out to Wicked instantly, a pang of guilt grips me around my throat. “But—”
I turn back to Papa, my mind no longer racing at speeds only a parent can understand. “What is it?”
“It’s your ma.”
I step backward, the floor shifting beneath my feet. “What?”
“We don’t know anything yet—”
He cuts me off, and before I can fall backward, an arm is holding me up and I can smell Wicked’s cologne all around me.
“Mama—” Wolf’s hand rests on my cheek, swiping my tears away.
I take his little chubby hand, pressing my lips to it and resting my forehead on his. “Mam—” I choke on the words. “I’ll be okay, baby.” I turn back to my father, who is now talking with his three right-hand men, his hands buried in his pockets as the police officer he was talking with moves back inside the house.
He notices me staring and makes his way back to us, now that cops are out of earshot. “You three should head to the penthouse.”
Shaking my head, I look back to the front door of our home, the once immaculate pearl white-washed door now smudged with crimson. I flinch away. “I want to see her.”
“No, Ruby.” Papa’s voice hardens before his hand comes to my cheek to gently bring my eyes up to his. Behind the hard exterior of Victor La Rosa, I see a broken husband. As if the years that he and Mama fought meant nothing, because now he has to walk this earth soulless. “Principessa, this wasn’t only a targeted hit. It was done for this—” Papa’s eyes shift over my shoulder for a second, meaning the media outside the gate. “This is the start of possibly the biggest war to ever become since the seventies. I need you all safe and away from here. “
Wicked’s fingers find mine. I don’t pull away from him, but I don’t back down from Papa either. “I held this fort down for years while you were gone. I can handle it!”
“No.” His tone hardens. “Now leave. I will come and see you all tomorrow.” I watch as his back retreats to Tony and Colin, his two main men. More suits arrive from the back of the house, made men, glaring at the police cars like they’re scum.
“Rubs, come on. You still keep all the keys hanging up in your garage?”
“Yeah.” I swipe the tears from my cheeks, my heart squeezing in my chest. I look up at the only window with a light on, the one that is on the third level and overlooking the driveway down below. Kissing my two fingers, I blow gently toward it and cross myself.
Ifeel lost more than loss. There’s an emptiness that throbs deep in my chest, and the more that time goes on, it only widens.I lost my mama.The one woman who was my constant. Who I took for granted most of the time. Guilt wraps his ugly hand around my throat as my knees weaken. I barely make it through the front door of the penthouse when I fall to the floor and tears stream down my face, pain hammering against my ribcage. I reach for my dress’s zipper, forcing it down and then kicking it off my body. I don’t see anything. My eyes burn from searing hot pain as I squeeze them closed.
“Come on, buddy. You want a shower?”
I push up from the floor, forcing the tears off my cheeks and straightening myself just as Wicked’s back is to me and he’s heading upstairs.
“I—”
He pauses his steps, looking over his shoulder at me. “Don’t, Ruby. Let yourself do what you need to do. I’ve got him.” I fall to the floor as soon as Wolf is out of sight and let the pain crawl over my skin. I don’t know how long I stay there, rolled into a ball and sobbing into the marble tiles. My face is wet and my eyes are puffy. It’s not until I feel my body shift off the floor and arms wrap around me that I feel the weight of time against my face. Curling into his warm chest, I rest my cheek against his neck, breathing in and out. A barrier of safety drops around me as he carries me up the stairs. The room is dim, the smell of eucalyptus misting in the air.
I sigh against his skin, pressing my lips against his chest. He stops and slowly lowers me down, until the mattress sinks beneath my weight.
“You remembered?” My voice cracks through my sadness. “About the diffuser oil.”
He doesn’t answer at first, and when my eyes finally travel up to his face, my heart squeezes in my chest. His body is roped with tight muscles, his abs deeply cut and defined. Wicked was always solid, but this is something else… The tattoos that crawl up his arm are no distraction to the masterpiece beneath them.
He lowers himself down slowly, resting his hand on his knee and turning toward me. “Yeah, I did.” He reaches toward me and my eyes close. As soon as his finger touches my temple, a shiver creeps down my spine and goose bumps rise on my flesh. “I’m sorry about Mama, baby.”
