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Instead, I steal his car keys and flee the mountain.
42
MASSIMO
“It’s not what you think.”
I can’t believe I said that to her. I sounded like an asshole who’s been caught with his pants down.
I call Nico. “Bianca just fled.”
“What happened?”
“She found out about the plan.”
“I knew this was going to blow up in your face the moment you hired her.”
“Your told you sos will have to wait. We need to find her.”
“I’m ten minutes away.”
I hang up from my brother. I had asked him to the mountain to talk to Bianca. If I wanted a future with her, then she needed to know that my brother was still alive. And that’s what I want—a future with her. Because I wasn’t lying when I told her I am in love with her.
I’ve never been in love, but I know this is how it feels. It has to be.
I’m batshit crazy for her.
Nico and I had fought about it. He thought it was a colossal mistake, but I told him I wanted to marry Bianca and that meant revealing the truth about him still being alive.
No secrets.
I remember the promise we gave each other.
And I’d meant it. I had every intention of coming clean and telling her. But I wanted to find her money first.
Now I feel gutted. Seeing her face crack with the pain of knowing what I did to her is killing me.
What I told her is all true. I approached Harrison to embezzle her money because I wanted to see who she turned to in her hour of need.
I wasn’t expecting it to be me.
But then she showed up wanting my help, and I thought it would make it easier to keep an eye on her and whoever she was aligned with.
I tried to keep her at arm’s length.
Tried to control my emotions.
But the truth is, the moment she stepped into my club, I knew I was in trouble. Because I hadn’t forgotten that stolen kiss or how soft and supple she felt to touch.
And I wasn’t counting on it to cut as deep when I realized she was completely alone. And as soon as I realized she had no alliances and was trying to heal from her devastating circumstances, I tried to contact Harrison.
Only I couldn’t find him.
He had vanished.
Finding him dead and zip-tied to a chair in his apartment in Soho came as a surprise.
Not to mention a worry.
It was then I realized I had lost control of the situation, and the Vinocelli massacre only drove that realization home.
Because it meant someone else had joined the game.
An unknown ghost.
Now she hates me, and she has every right to.
But I need to push that aside and focus on finding her.
Because the unknown player is still out there, and I have a feeling Bianca is playing right into their hands.
“I’ll have the location of the truck for you in a minute,” Axel says on the other end of the phone. “It has a tracking device attached to it.”
I listen to him tapping on a keyboard. The seconds tick over slowly. I’m anxious; I need to find Bianca before whoever else is looking for her does.
“Okay, I found the truck’s location. It’s heading down the mountain toward town.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Wait, she might dump it though. Let me grab her location using her phone.”
“You can do that?”
“There’s not a lot I can’t do. But hacking into the system is going to take a few minutes.”
“Okay, do that and call me back.”
I pace the floorboards, feeling helpless.
Feeling like an asshole.
I hear the sound of tires on the gravel outside and stalk over to the window, hoping against hope that it’s Bianca. But it’s not. It’s my brother.
I run my palm over the back of my head.
I fucked up.
I always knew this day would come. I just didn’t realize it was going to hurt this much.
The door opens and Nico appears. “What a fucking mess.” He steps inside. “Have you heard from her?”
I shake my head. “But Axel is tracking her phone. Once he gets a lock on it he will call me back.”
“Then what?”
“Then we go get her.”
43
BIANCA
I swipe tears from my face as I drive down the mountain. Heartbreak numbs my body, but it doesn’t stop the tears from flowing, and I know it’s only a matter of time before the agony sets in.
The roads are almost empty, but occasionally I see another car traveling in the opposite direction, and I wonder if Nico is in any of them. On his way to the cabin to help Massimo get rid of the last piece of the puzzle. Me.
My fingers grip the steering wheel so tight they are white-knuckled.
It’s almost too crazy to believe. But crazy is what I’ve been the entire time since my father died.
Crazy to think I could force the enemy to help me.
