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“Wait,” I say, throwing my hair up in a clip before pulling the Glock from my purse. His eyes narrow as he watches me slide it in to the back pocket of my pants, then slip my knife into my sock underneath my jeans before he has the door open and mouths “Let’s go” and half-drags me down the hallway.
Just as we reach the stairs, he holds me back.
“Roger that,” Matt says and I glance up, noticing for the first time the earpiece and the mic hanging from his shirt. That equipment is not standard bodyguard issue, and damn if I don’t know where that shit came from. The ding of the elevator alerts us to the arrival of others, and Matt steps in front of me with a hand on his piece.
I would have rested easier a few minutes ago, with his hand on me, guiding me to safety, but now that I’ve seen his equipment, I don’t know what to think or who he’s really working for. He places his hand on the small of my back and I tense, knowing I’ll never be able to get the Glock from him if he chooses to use it at this point. I still have my knife, but he knows exactly how and where I’m armed, and if this man is working for who I think, he’s been trained to fight as good, if not better than me.
He continues to lead me down the stairs, silencing me with the tip of his finger on my lip as an elevator dings in the distance. We wait until we hear voices in the distance laughing, heading the opposite direction. He guides me down the few remaining steps, out the back door and into an awaiting limo.
Nate has the door held open and the team that have surrounded us get us to the car. “Get out of here. We’ll find out who they are and won’t be far behind you.”
“Thanks, Nate,” Matt says before the man closes my door and Matt slides into the backseat beside me, and Nate jumps into the front seat. “Floor it,” Matt says, as the driver peels away from the hotel, heading toward the coast, and after a short while begins expertly navigating the sharp curves and terrain of the Amalfi Coast.
“Where are we going, Matt? I knew someone would be coming for me, but I didn’t think it would be the people you work for, although it’s pretty clear now,” I say.
He scowls slightly and turns his steely eyes at me. “You think the people I work for are coming for you? I’m not tracking, Princess.”
“Who do you work for Matt, really? Are you still with the mafia, are you working for the Interpol sleazes?”
He considers my question, and his eyes don’t waver. “No to both, Marenah. The mafia life is well in the past, but I think I’m going to need some clarification around Interpol. You’ve kept the fact you’re working as a spy from me, and that you’re the granddaughter of the Russian Mafiosi. You think I’m working for people that want to hurt you, and think Interpol are the bad guys?” Matt asks.
I take in a deep breath. I know better than a slip like that. I shrug, playing it off. “I was just throwing names out there, hoping something stuck,” I say, but he levels those steely eyes at me. He knows more than I thought, and for his own good, and that of his team, more than he should. I can’t change who I’m related to or what I do for a living. If he decides it’s too much of a mess, then so be it. Just another reason I’ve always avoided relationships.
“My grandfather, he has eyes all over the place. I know you thought you avoided them at the restaurant, but you can’t, not in this city, not in this country, and not anywhere in the world. The men that came after us tonight weren’t part of my grandfather’s team though. He wouldn’t have sent his goons in that way for his beloved granddaughter. He’d be more apt to make me come to him,” I say.
He doesn’t have a chance to answer though as headlights blare into the back of the car and our driver accelerates around the cliffs heading further south into the Amalfi Coast.
“We’ve got enemies crawling up our ass. Tell me someone’s got a line of sight on these fuckers,” Matt says into his mic. He nods, but I can’t hear the response on the other end of the line. “Roger that, as long as you have a plan,” Matt says, and I glance out the window, taking in all the beautiful city lights resting so many feet below us as we careen dangerously around the curves above them, knowing that we have no possibility of help or a relationship if he is working for Interpol.
He surveys me for a moment, then pulls me so close I can feel his heart beat. “The Chicago Mafia isn’t about to let us go without a fight. I knew they would come for me, but you need to tell me why they’re coming after you if I’m going to protect you, Princess,” Matt says.
He knows who my father is, how tangled of a mess the entire relationship is, and yet he wants to protect me. I don’t succumb to emotion, I don’t cry about what life throws my way, but the fact that this man saved me and then came across the globe to be with me and is willing to risk his life to protect me does bring a tear to my eye.
Matt lifts my chin so that I have no choice but to look into the intense steely grey eyes holding me with their gaze. “Tell me.”
I nod, knowing that I can’t do that, and that if I’m going to keep him safe, I will somehow need to find a way to distance myself from the one man that I’ve ever let past my walls. I decide to use the truth. He already knows about the Russian side of my family, and surely it won’t be long before Sasha or Jay divulges the history of the Chicago side of our family, if they haven’t already. “A long time ago my mother had an affair with Frederik Bernatelli. My sister Sasha and I are the dirty little secret. If my grandfather ever found out, there would be out and out war,” I say, but while he’s listening to me, he’s getting intel from that headset of his.
“Get down,” Matt says, pushing my face into his lap and covering me with his jacket. “They’ve got drones overhead. Stay down unless you want your picture splattered all over the underground channels,” Matt growls.
If my picture gets released, my death warrant is signed and I know it. There will be nowhere that I can hide that they won’t find me. I am a threat to their livelihood. Matt is caressing my neck, calming me, and I’m almost lulled into a false sense of security when all hell breaks loose. I hear a distinctive crack and the squeal of tires before we are bashed from behind.
“Step on the gas, they got past car two and they’ve got fire power overhead,” Matt says, cool and calm, caressing the back of my neck like we’re not in the middle of a shit storm while I shift in his lap, trying to reach the button on my belt that will alert my team that I’m in trouble.
“Tell me you’re out there, Cole,” Matt says.
A man’s voice comes over the speaker of the car. “We just took out the drone and I’m about to have your driver ram that car right up this fucker’s ass,” Cole says as Matt continues to caress my neck, and I make the decision not to push the button, feeling Matt’s body begin to relax beneath me.
“Roger that,” Matt says just as the sounds of steel against steel and the squeal of braking rubber fill the air.
18
MATT
I pullMarenah’s head inward, making sure she’s braced against my body in the event we get hit, and a split second later we do. The car slams into us from the rear with a ton of force, causing our car to spin sideways, and I know how fucking close we are to these goddamn cliffs. Our driver navigates us out of a spin and puts his foot down, gaining us a little separation from the dead man that just put my princess in jeopardy.
While we may have gained a little distance, they are still too close, and the driver floors it on a straight stretch and I relax, knowing exactly what the fuck is going to happen in about two minutes. I turn and watch as the other car begins accelerating on the straightaway just as we begin slowing for the hair-pin turn. I brace myself, pulling Marenah against me even tighter, hugging her close even though I have every faith in Cole’s abilities to hire a driver with skill.
He doesn’t let me down, just brakes hard, spinning our car three-sixty on a dime. The sound of squealing rubber howls into the night as the tires of our assailants try desperately to grip the road and slow to a stop, but it’s no use. At their speed, all it takes from our driver is a tap on the side front panel to send them spinning across the narrow highway and careening over the side of the treacherous cliffs and into the sea below.
