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“Rafe, you’re not making any sense.” I try to decipher what he’s telling me.
“Gioele.” He whispers the name weakly. “He’s Gina’s Father.”
“What!” I pull back in shock. I’ve only ever met the old man a handful of times, but I know he’s important to Rafe. He runs most of his business and is his confidant.
“I couldn’t risk losing him. He was too valuable to me,” Rafe explains.
“What does he think happened to her?”
“I’m sure he tortures himself every day wondering. She was reported as a missing person, and that’s how she’s remained since. Our families were close, so I saw the effect it had on them. Gina’s mother was heartbroken so bad it couldn’t be fixed, and they separated. The man lost everything because of me. I carry the weight of that guilt every time I look the man in his eyes and let him help me, and over the years, it has turned me to stone.
I thought I was numb to emotion, that I’d become indestructible, and then I saw you.” He strokes his thumb over my cheek to catch my tears, and his eyes are so full of the sorrow of his past that I don’t know how I should feel.
“I had to have you, Riley. I wanted more from you than just sex. I wanted everything. A family, a life, and I was prepared to give everything up once again in return. I still will if you can promise me that you can love me despite all that I’ve done.
I’ll be the man you deserve. I want us to start again. We can move to Italy and raise our children away from all the bad.” His hand strokes over my stomach as if I’m already carrying a child inside me.
“I’m sorry I was going to run from you,” I tell him, knowing I have no choice but to go along with his plan. What Rafe has been through makes him easier to understand, but it doesn’t make him any less dangerous. “I’ll go wherever you want us to go,” I promise, taking his face in my hands and forcing his eyes to look into mine. “I belong to you, Rafe. We’re a family.” I hope my words sound convincing because they are the only thing that can save me now.
“There’s a safe house a few miles from here. I want you, Sylvia, and Gabriel to go there and wait for me.” He suddenly switches back to his demanding self, reminding me I can’t drop my guard around him, even if my heart wants me to.
“And where are you going?” I ask.
“I’m going to take care of shit, so my past doesn’t follow us.”
“Don’t do anything dangerous,” I tell him, meaning every word. I may be unsure who the man in front of me is, but I know I’d be devastated if any harm came to him. His hand slides behind my ear softly, and he cradles my head the way he used to before I broke his heart. “Riley, I would never put myself at risk. Not when I have so much to live for.” His dark eyes glisten with hope, and I feel like I’m betraying him.
“Nico will take care of you all. He knows the plan. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but we will have our new start, Riley. I will make you happy.”
He stands up from his chair, his body tight against mine and his lips crashing over my mouth. The kiss is so forceful and intense that it makes me want him to take me all over again, and I could cry from how messed up that is.
“You need to leave tonight.” He drags his lips away from mine.
“And Riley, never deceive me again.” He pulls away and heads toward the door of his office.
“Rafe,” I call out his name, stopping him before he can leave.
When he turns around and looks back at me, I even wonder if maybe there could be hope for us.
“I want you to tell me more about Gina someday. She shouldn’t be forgotten about.”
He allows a small, sad smile to grace his beautiful face and nods his head before turning around and leaving me. I quickly rush to get some clothes so I can find Gabriel and finally hold him in my arms again.
I hate being apart from them. I hate having to trust Nico with everything in the world that’s precious to me, and I hate the Souls for causing enough shit that I’ve been forced to leave her and deal with them.
It turns out the Souls weren’t as clever as I gave them credit for, and like some kind of vigilantes, they took that girl they stole from me back to her family. To the low-life father who sold her to me in the first place.
And now they are heading in numbers toward one of my abandoned houses, where they will expect to find me, thanks to the trail Gioele’s laid for them.
Gioele had negotiated a contract with Murray Cutler’s crew, and they are waiting on my order, watching the club compound from a safe distance and willing to kill whatever stragglers they’ve left behind to protect the women that I will take. The Souls will pay for the inconvenience they have caused, and they will suffer the fear of loss for tormenting me.
“I want the tech girl and Brax’s bitch,” I tell my trainer, Pablo. He has a thing for the girl the Souls took from one of my auctions. He kept her far too long and got himself attached. Now that she’s no doubt been broken by one, or maybe all of them, I know he’s going to want some time with her once her drugs have worn off.
“We will have work to do when Murray arrives with the Souls’ bitches,” I inform him, sitting back in the chair of my office in Peyton.
This one is my best-kept secret. It’s secluded and surrounded by woodland and so pretty from the outside.
“I’ll go see the girl now.” Pablo rubs his greedy hands together as he leaves my office. I think about messaging Murray for an update. I want to know that the Souls are far enough away before I make my move. Then once the women have been taken, I’ll have the tech girl forge the documents I need for Riley’s new life. She can clear the system of her name too before I offer her a choice, her loyalty or her life.
