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She didn’t answer, just took my hand in hers and started walking but I could only keep up for a few steps, because a shiver shook me. Something didn’t feel right, like the air has changed around us somehow, getting colder.
I looked around to see there were only a few other cars in the parking lot and they seemed deserted by their owners. There was no one there, but something in me was quivering. It was a feeling I’d never had before, but it felt very much like a warning. My heart started slamming in my chest and I started scanning our surroundings, hoping that somehow Salvatore would show up there. I wanted my husband. Ineededmy husband.
Someone showed up in the corner of my eye, but it wasn’t Sasa. The man was not very tall, not very handsome, dressed in not so flashy clothes – a chameleon – and I wouldn’t have noticed his presence if I wasn’t on edge. He looked at me and the hood of his cream-colored jacket fell back, letting his face be visible. I froze.
Silvio Bianchi. Italian born but raised somewhere in Serbia, he was the man the families in Italy hired when they wanted the trash to be taken out without getting their hands dirty. I wouldn’t call him a friend of my father’s, but he came to many Caputo parties, and definitely, business existed between them.
The focused look in his eye and the gun silencer that was peeking from under his shirt left no room for interpretation. He was here on business. I was the business.
It only took a second for my blood to drain from my face and leave me cold. I knew what was going to happen before he had a chance to move. Shot in broad daylight, that was the fate I was given.
Turning to Chiara, I pushed her with all my strength and she went flying across the concrete, falling on her knees. She might have been hurt, I had no idea, but it didn’t matter as long as there was distance between the two of us.
Time moved slow, like fate was being lazy and not wanting to fulfill herself, but no miracle lasts forever. Bianchi raised his hands and his gun shone under the Sicilian sun. With the little time I had to react I tried running behind a car, but I didn’t make it far.
My instinct told me to duck. The quiet of the plaza was shattered with one bullet that shattered the window of my car, and echoes attacked me from every direction. My heart swelled so much in my throat, it choked me, and I couldn’t breathe anymore.
There was a moment, after the noises stopped when I thought that it was over, but then I heard Silvio’s voice yelling.
“First bullet was a warning, second is for the Caputo name!”
He fired again and I felt sharp, burning metal hitting me in the back. I couldn’t pinpoint where, because the pain dripped down everywhere in my body. The fear crippled me and I couldn’t think straight. I wasn’t scared of the pain, even if it was worse than anything I’d felt before, and I wasn’t scared for my life. I was terrified that I didn’t have a chance to look into Sasa’s eyes again.
I made a mistake and if it would cost me my life, I never got the chance to say goodbye to the man I loved. I broke my wedding vows and left my husband alone.
When I saw black and passed out, I wasn’t sure if it was the pain or the guilt that pushed me into the abyss.
And I wasn’t sure of my eyes would ever open again.
Second is for Caputo… My name was used against me. For Fabiano Caputo I was no longer just his disgraced daughter. I was a problem, and he hired a mercenary to get rid of me.
God save those who were left behind to face the anger of my husband.
Chapter 30
The courier that came by the house just dropped the package and left. The moment I was told about the ruby that was out on the black market, I wanted it for Grazia, and my jeweler put it in a beautiful pendant. It was fit for an empress and that was exactly what my wife was. I would make her crowns and build her thrones if she’d let me, to show the world how regal she was.
After admiring the gem, I locked in the safe in my office with a smile. I couldn’t wait for her to come back and see it.
I lowered back in my chair and relaxed, feeling fulfilled. My life was complete. Thefamigliawas prospering; I had my men’s respect, maybe even more than my father, and I had their loyalty. That made me a good Capo. And I had Grazia. That made me a happy man.
She filled every empty space in this big house with her love and warmth, and I got addicted to her presence. My wife has been in my blood like poison since I was old enough to know what a woman could mean to a man, but finally having her fully, was a new heaven I got to discover.
My love for her had no boundaries, it never has. Father once told me that it was wrong to let one person hold my heart with both hands; that it made me weak. It was the only reason he ever had to doubt the arrangement he made with Fabiano, to have Grazia and I married. Everyone expected us to follow the words of ourDon’s, but no one believed we’d fall for each other the way we did. Father was wrong, she didn’t make me weak. I was strong when Grazia was next to me.
A knock on the door interrupted my string of thought and Yannis entered.
“You didn’t wait for me to say you can enter.” I pinned him with a hard look.
“In your business study?”
“As long as my wife is in this house, everything is off limits. I plan on making love to her on every inch of this damn house.”
“Understood. I’ll wait next time. Do you want me to leave and come back later?”
“No. Grazia isn’t home. She took Chiara out for dinner. What can I do for you, my lieutenant?”
“Pietro sent some men out to try and find out who was tailing you earlier. He will take your car out to try and lure them to us.”
