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I wait. And I wait. And I wait. I finally realize that the phone is dead. What the hell? I look back at the surveillance camera, and it's been shut off.
Now I'm in a full panic.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“SHE’S GONE”
Ricco
Nick isn’t dead.
He isn’t dead.
What the fuck’s he playing at?
Of course, this news comes just when Dani’s asked me to give her space. I have to honor that. She wouldn’t believe me if I told her this now, and I need to find out why he’s still alive, why he framed me for his “murder,” and what his next move is going to be.
We’ll hunt him down.
And I do my best to give her the space she asked me for. But fuck, I hate this.
I knew I should've told her sooner. But we were too new, and she didn't trust me yet. I'm afraid I've dashed whatever hope I had of earning her trust forever.
Fuck.
I stomp to the room where we keep surveillance footage, because I haven't allowed myself to look at any of hers. But I want to see her. I need to see her. Her and Emmy, too, dammit. This morning, Marco asked where they were. I told him, honestly, that I didn't know.
And it killed me.
I’d allowed myself to imagine Dani as Marco's mom. Someone who could take care of him the way he deserves to be taken care of. Someone who would treat him with a mother’s touch that I can only imagine having.
And I’d fucked that up.
Even though my conscience tells me that watching the video footage of her is probably breaking some kind of rule, I do it anyway. But when I flip the switch, nothing comes up. Dammit. Of course. She disconnected them. There's no way that she'd allow me to still watch her studio.
I stomp down to Sergio's office. "She took down the video cameras."
His face registers only mild surprise, his eyebrows raised. "Of course she did."
"I need to see her," I say, scrubbing my hands through my hair. "I need to know she's alright.”
He leans back in his chair and doesn't speak at first. I pull out a chair and sit across from him.
“Sergio, imagine if that was Eden."
"But it's not," he says placidly.
"Why are you being such a douche about this?"
“You know why. I've explained it to you. It's not that I'm against you falling in love, Ricco. For fuck’s sake, you deserve that. So does Marco. But you can't fall in love with someone who can end everything for you. This is too complicated."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Your relationship with Eden put our family at war with a fucking Mexican cartel!"
Timeo appears at the end of the room, standing in the doorway in a stance that tells me he's ready to run if one of us decides to throw something at him.
"That's a really good point," he says. “Actually, now that I think about it…"
Sergio glares at him, and Timeo does duck just in time to avoid the stapler whacking him across the head.
Eh, he could've done worse.
"Fight me on it then," I say to Sergio. "You know as well as I do that marrying Eden made everything super fucking complicated here." And then I jerk my head at Timeo. "And we all know he's in love with her sister!"
"What? Don't you dare bring her up, Ricco," Timeo says. "She's just a kid, for fuck’s sake!"
"Not anymore," I counter. “And it doesn't mean that you didn't fall in love with her when she was off limits."
"I never touched her!”
"Thank fuck. My point is, I'm not the only one who fell in love with a woman that complicated shit.” I sigh. "I need to fucking see her."
I feel like a toddler, but I'm pissed. "Look, nothing’s easy. Listen to me. You, me, all of us, we buried our brother. That fucking sucked, worse than anything, and you know it as well as I do.” I swallow, hard. "I gave up my throne, my position of leadership, and yes, all the complications that were involved, and I'm aware of that, but I gave them up to you so that I could take care of my kid and my dying wife.” I swallow again, surprisingly emotional about all this shit.
"I wouldn't have married Martina if I’d had a choice, and you guys know that. We were best friends, though. We saw each other through thick and thin, so when she was dying, I was there. I was fucking there, holding her hand when she cried because her hair fell out. I was there when she started losing weight and couldn't eat anything. I was there when she grew too weak to hold our son. I was there when she died." I look away. She may not have been the love of my life, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t love her, that it wasn't easy to bury a woman who was my friend. "Yeah, this situation with Dani is complicated. But I didn't kill her husband on purpose. I defended my fucking brother." I stand. "And for God’s sake, I think I finally deserve a fucking break."
