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“This could be any baby.” I handed the photo back to her, but she ignored me, turning back to face the curled up girl in bed.She’d be drugged out of her mind no doubt, which was why she hadn’t woken.
“You know it’s not, Tori.” Even as she said a name I had never heard before, my breathing thickened, as if my soul had recognized it. “This is Ruby’s twin sister. They’re his children, Tor. His. His girls.”
“You had that psycho’s babies?” The anger that erupted inside of me was unwarranted, and I knew that we only had a few more minutes before I was going to have to show them a body.
“It wasn’t consensual.” The words fell from her lips, unwashed. “Victor gave Ivy to the Russians as a payoff. She had been with them since. I couldn’t do anything about it, but when I heard that Anton Volkov had dropped her here and discarded her with the hopes that Skully wouldn’t know who he was killing, I needed to step in. I need to save her.”
“Well, that may be the case,” I said, dragging the tip of the machete down the cracks in the floors. “But I still need a body.”
“Take me…” she said, pointing to the girl. “Just kill me and it’ll buy her enough time to run.”
“She can’t run anywhere!” I pointed toward her. “She’s drugged up on a concoction of fucked-up shit.”
“Tori, the day that it happens. Where Victor collects you and brings you into our house, you have to protect Ruby. At all costs. He has been plotting her death since the day she was born.”
I walked toward the window, flicking off the latch. “Just get out.”
She grabbed the girl’s small and frail body, and it’s like seeing a complete replica of the girl I saw being carried in. “Hurry up.”
As soon as the window slammed closed, I counted to one hundred before popping the latch open and spreading it wide.Skully never had any kind of sanctions stationed anywhere because no one tried to run. It’s hard to run when you’re drugged.
Opening the door, I came face-to-face with him. His white eyes and withered skin. “Where is the girl?”
“Gone.” I blinked. “Came in and the window was open.” I stepped past him. “Maybe it’s time to invest in some security and tweak that drug recipe?”
I would keep my word.
I’d protect Ruby La Rosa any way I saw fit because I believed her. Hopefully she wasn’t difficult in order to do that.
“You what?” Ruby blinks up at me after I explained to Skully what had really happened that night. “You can’t give her to them, Wicked.”
“Shut up—” Skully’s hand flies through the air, connecting with Ruby’s cheek.
I launch forward, my hand around his throat, shoving him backward. Gunshots fire off in the distance and it’s not until I have Skully pressed up against the cross that I realize the rest of the Cosa Nostra are here for backup.
I squeeze his throat so hard I can feel bones crunch beneath the palm of my hand. “Oh, I’m not making this easy for you, or quick.” Tossing him to the ground, Khaos steps forward and yanks him up by his hair.
“Sorry, brother. We ran into an issue at the entry point.”
I clench my jaw, twirling my finger. “Take these two fuckers too. Throw them in the same room as Skully.” Then I reach for Ruby, an arm curled around her back as she falls into me.
I wipe the blood from her cheek and scoop her up in my arms. “I’m sorry, baby. We had to be careful.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s fine.” She jitters in my arms and I know she’s not fine. She’s tough as shit, but what just happened isn’tsomething you just move on from. Any fucker who lays a hand on a woman without her permission dies by the fucking sword.
I take the steps toward the back of the forest clearing, where it opens out onto the asylum at the front. He is smart. Do it here because he wants me here, only he doesn’t expect the distraction of Ivy, which gives us enough time.
“Baby?” As soon as her voice drifts through the air, Ruby’s body stiffens in my embrace, but then relaxes. “Give her to me, please.”
She stiffens again, this time bringing her head up off my chest and straight ahead to where a black SUV is parked.
“Mama?”
Pearl La Rosa’s arms stretch wide as tears roll down her cheeks.
Ruby bounces out of my arms and crashes into her mother. “Mama?” Her wails burn every single inch of my skin and I open the back doors, sliding them inside.
I go to close them in when Pearl stops the door, her warm eyes resting on mine. “Thank you, Vittorio. I will always be in your debt for taking care of all of us girls.” I decided a long time ago that Pearl would be the only person who would ever be allowed to call me my birth name.
