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Timothy took her bag. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Elenore looked like she wanted to argue.
“I know you’re pissed at me.”
She turned to him. “I’m not pissed at you. I’m afraid for you.”
“This will protect you. I trust Timothy.”
“I trust you. No one is going to have your back. I need to be with you.”
He cupped her face and kissed her lips. “You will always be with me. Not a single moment will go by when I don’t think about you. I can’t win against my father if you’re there as a pawn.” He wiped the tears away. “Please, do this for me.”
“I am doing it for you but you’ve got to come back to me, yes?”
“Yes.” He didn’t know if he’d told her a lie or not at that moment. They walked into Timothy’s home, and he waited as his friend showed her where she’d be staying.
As he waited, he got a call from Antonio. He wanted to meet.
He needed to wrap this up so he could figure out what his friend wanted and if he was friend or foe. Antonio had known about him taking Elenore but he hadn’t reported him, at least not that he was aware of.
Timothy came back. “She’s settling in. I’ll call you with updates and let you know she’s fine.”
“Good.”
“Did you tell her you loved her?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I’m not an idiot, Raphael. You can treat me like one sure, but it’s not going to change the fact you could die. Your father is a powerful man. You’ve got to be willing to make a great deal of sacrifices and I don’t think you’re capable of it.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about everything else and you focus on keeping her safe and being a doctor?” he said.
After leaving Timothy’s home, he went back, shut the trunk, and climbed behind the wheel. Running away from his problems would be so much easier. He’d find a way for him and Elenore to be together. Fake identities, never staying in one place too long. He’d make it work, but with the problem of constantly looking over his shoulder. He refused to live by that rule. He wasn’t a coward. There was no way he’d run away.
Fuck that. He’d fight every single chance he got. The first fight was only a matter of time.
Driving toward the location Antonio mentioned, he found him waiting outside of one of his father’s many warehouses. It was one of the few places that didn’t have cameras or detectors to alert people of a break-in. With his father, he had a lot of people all over the place.
Antonio stood, gun in his hand.
“Fuck,” Raphael said.
He climbed out of his car, unhooking his own gun, sliding off the safety, and approaching. He stayed a couple of feet away.
“You want to kill me?”
“I want to know what it is that’s going on, Raphael,” he said. “Your father claims to have proof you’re planning on turning rat. I’ve got a lot of shit in my past and now, I can’t afford for Ellie to even be aware of some of the shit I’ve done.”
“My father claimed I’d gone rat?”
“Yes. He showed me pictures of your talking to a cop, a Fed.”
“You’ve got that all wrong.”
Antonio reached into his pocket, pulling out a photo and throwing it to the ground. “You call this all wrong? I kept my word and didn’t say anything to your father about the slave girl, but if you’re a rat, I’m taking you the fuck out.”
“I’m not a rat. I can’t even see the fucking picture to know who you’re talking about!” He yelled each word. He held the gun at his friend. “I don’t want to kill you.”
“You won’t kill me, Raphael. You may be Giavanni’s son but we both know I’m the better hit between the two of us.”
“You’re right. You kill. It’s what you’ve been trained to do and I accept that. I know I’m not better than you, but I know I’m better than my father. He’s poison, Antonio. I have no intention of turning a rat. You want to know my real plan? It’s to overthrow his power. To take his place, not because I want to but because he’s ruining everything he touches. The drugs, the women, all of it, he kills capos who question him. It’s only a matter of time before he gets us all killed. Maybe even Ellie.” He knew it was a low blow bringing in his woman, but he had to make Antonio see reason.
Even though Ellie was the one to make Antonio lose his mind, at least it made him think clearly. Completely fucked up, but he had to get through to him.
“I don’t want to kill you.”
“As if you could.”
“When I take my father’s place, I will hand you over every single piece of incriminating evidence he has.”
