Breaking out into a run, I hastily made my way to the bathroom with Jeff and the others following behind me. When I got to the door, what was left of my composure slipped away from me. The corpses of the men who had been watching her for weeks as she took her exams laid on the floor, stacked onto each other in front of the door. The women screamed when they saw the bodies. "Don't look," said Kenny, ushering the women away from the scene. I beat Jeff through the bathroom door, stepping over the bodies. We kicked open stall doors, but they were all empty. "Fuck," a ugly scream let loose from my throat. I started pacing and dragging my fingers through my hair. No. No. No. She was gone. She was fucking gone and it was all my fault. I never should have let her out of my sight tonight. Luca warned me I was endangering her, but I just had to know better. I was so sure Don Angelo would never do anything to hurt her because I knew I never would. I thought we were the same, at lea
"You can't go in there. They won't side with you. Not with Don Angelo on the loose. They will cower at my father's feet. Walking in there is suicide," said Jenny's voice through the phone. "She's right," said Jeff, the mere sound of his voice setting Luca off. "What the fuck were you thinking, bringing a fed with you?" Luca asked, glaring at me. There I was, in a car with the next Don Angelo and Jeff. They didn't trust each other and I didn't trust them. It was the perfect storm. To bring Stacy home though, I was willing to use everything and everyone at my disposal. The real surprise wasn't Luca getting pissed at me for bringing Jeff. It was Jeff getting in Luca's car in the first place. "He's not just a fed anymore. He's the director of the FBI," I said, to Jeff's surprise. "What? Did you think you were in this car because I wanted to bond with you? I keep tabs on you too, Jeff. I know your promotion to director came directly after Don Angelo's arrest. New job. Must be a l
"They'll fall in line. They have to. I didn't work this hard to take down Don Angelo just to hand him over to the feds," a hot headed Luca insisted, his judgment clouded by his desire for vengeance. "You and Jen Jen are just going to have to trust me." "I don't understand why you think we need him. We have the full force of the FBI behind us. Let him go get himself killed if he wants to. We can find them ourselves," said Jeff, his stupid pride clouding his judgment. "Like you found me after I walked out of a hotel right under your agents' noses? Even knowing where I was, you couldn't get onto Cattaneo property. He has intel. Access. Connections. Things you don't have. If I have to choose between the two of you, I will pick him," I spat back at Jeff, getting pissed off at their narrow mindedness. This had Luca grinning back at Jeff smugly in the rearview mirror. My baby was in danger. The one thing I swore to myself she would never be again and these idiots had me sitting in a car
"FBI headquarters. No arresting Luca while we're there. Your word, dad," I said, already knowing the idea of walking in there wouldn't sit well with Luca. Yes I threw in the dad bit to throw Jeff off his game, but like I said, I wasn't above anything. "He is off the hook for anything revealed that directly leads to finding Don Angelo and Stacy. Anything else is fair game. I'm the director of the FBI, Scott. That's the best I can do," said Jeff with a shrug. My fuse was so fucking short at this point I had half a mind to throw them both out of the car. I must have done something right though, because my father and Luca finally found some common ground. "Like I want to tell you anything anyway," said Luca dismissively. "Jen Jen, where are you?" "Still in the house. I will stall them as long as I can," she said, completely unfazed by the dons she was currently sharing a house with. Something in me softened for just a second. She was definitely Stacy's sister. Fucking brave to
Things were tense, with Luca's men waiting right outside Jeff's office. Only the three of us and a small team of Jeff's most trusted agents were allowed in the room. Luca wasn't winning any popularity contests and neither was I. "They shouldn't be in here. This is official FBI business," said Tanya, clearly still pissed that I gave her the slip. It was nice to know the pure hatred directed at Luca trumped her disdain for me though. "Working with a don to take out another don? Respectfully sir—" she said with folded arms. "Wrong map. Wrong city. They're in Chicago," said Luca, cool and self assured. "How could you possibly know that?" Tanya asked, exasperated. "Because of him. It's all about you, Scott," he said, tilting his head towards me. "I don't follow,* I said, irritated with Luca's cryptic words. "All Don Angelo wants, in the whole world, is to have his heir back. The woman who swore allegiance to him at age ten. Until a year ago, until you, she never went
"Chicago is safer for Don Angelo, since it's his domain, but we have every available agent out looking for him. Why would he risk travelling with a hostage?" Tanya insisted, frustrating Luca. "Make your case, Cattaneo," Jeff insisted. "I guess you don't get it. New York makes her happy. Comforts her. Makes her feel like a good person. New York is where she got off on Scott's dick for the first time. New York is you, Scott. If Don Angelo wants his Stacy back, he won't stay here," said Luca. "He'll take her home, where he fucking tortured her for years. He'll try to fuck with her head. Familiar surroundings. Old words she hasn't heard in a year. He'll try to—" my nostrils flared. Like a bull in a china shop, I couldn't stop seeing red. I wanted to rip his fucking head off. "Hey," Luca snapped, slapping the back of my neck and grabbing a hold of me. Responding to the images in my head of the fucked up shit Don Angelo put Stacy through, I sucker punched Luca. "You get one of th
Opening it up, I took her photo out, caressing it carefully. It was fucking falling apart at this point. I handled it way too much. She had pigtails the day I met her. Mascara running down her face from crying. She was a fucking mess. This was still the most beautiful photo I had ever taken though. She was crouching on the ground, glaring up at me for the intrusion. We were outside a frat house, at a party that neither of us wanted to be at. Despite being a hermit my first semester at NYU, I couldn't stop myself from talking to her. So fucking beautiful. Sexy and cute at the same time. A girl had never terrified me more. The moment she opened her mouth and called me a weirdo for taking her photo was when I fell for her. Then I spent the next seven years acting like she wasn't the only woman I would ever love like a dumbass. I'll never forgive myself for waiting so long if I can't have forever with you, baby. "You touch him again, and I'll throw you in a cell. Even if I hav
Whose name was the property in? Jenny? Collette? Joey? Not mine. Never mine. Come on Stacy, whose fucking name was the property in? By my count of sunrises and sunsets, this was day three of being out here in these woods. My throat was as dry as a desert, my head throbbed painfully and the hunger pains were kicking my ass. That's how I got the lovely gift in my arm, courtesy of Joey. The little pip squeak wasn't getting another bullet in me. I'd sooner blow my own brains out than go out like that. Collette. The woods I was currently roaming belonged to Collette. At least on paper. She didn't come out here. When Don Angelo brought me hunting as a child, it was just the two of us. Despite the bad bitch Collette thought she was, she really couldn't handle the nitty gritty of being a don's wife. The one time Don Angelo brought her along and I killed a deer so he wouldn't beat her that night, she damn near lost her fucking mind. You're welcome, mom. Remembering the answer that time to
That last part was such a her thing to say. Was that really what she thought? It would explain how I apparently caught her off guard. "Please, for the love of God, let me sleep and shower first. There are dark circles under my eyes. And my make up—" What the fuck was she talking about? She was fucking flawless. Perfect in all her imperfections. "Shut up. I won the bet about Kenny and Marlene," I said, laying the phone down on the ground and starting the five minute timer. "So now Scott says shut up. You've said more than enough in the last few hours. Now just listen." She clasped her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth nervously, her eyes dropping to the timer. Words failed me. I had a whole speech and everything. Even if I didn't, I was me. I always knew what to say, except right that second I was tongue tied. "That photo's taunting me," I said, spitting out the thought in my he
By this point, she had me watching her from behind a lens. Flashes of the thousands of times she had me taking her photo went through my mind. Watching her was my favorite thing to do until she started letting me touch her. I loved every last one of them. Studied the thousands of photos frequently, especially this past week, like some junkie trying to get a fix. The sweet ones where she looked like an angel. The dirty ones where she looked like the perfect whore. The goofy ones that I made sure I was a part of. The everyday ones where she had a pencil in her hair while she read or picked something out at the grocery store. Every last photo I took of her and every memory attached to it flooded my brain. "Fucking stunning every time," I said, trying to calm my raging heart as the sun began to rise, the silhouette of her before it. Slightly trembling fingers took several photos, as the excitement of holding a camera surg
"Can't we do this another time? Surises come along every day and it's been such a long night," Stacy moped. Not this sunrise. Not this moment I wanted to give her. It was all she could do to hold onto the tripod towards the end, so I let her get on my back and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way up my mountain. "You knew this was coming. I warned you I'd be making you miserable by bringing you out here before the crack of dawn while we were in Fiji. Sacrifices have to be made to please your future husband, Stace," I said, enjoying the feel of her body pressed up against my back. The morning was chilly, contrasting with her body heat. Or was I sweating? Maybe she was right and this just wasn't our moment. It would come once though. The sunrise of our one year anniversary. I had this picture of how it was going to go down in my head and I just wasn't ready to give it up. "On our anniversary? We just spent two ho
"Is the world's greatest commitment phobe still proposing today after this shit storm?" Kenny asked me as I watched Stacy sit across from Jeff to read through her immunity deal. "You just get the champagne ready. Be on standby, Ken. Call in sick. You'll get the call soon," I said, sharing an excited smile with him before I opened the door to Jeff's office to sit down next to Stacy. "You can have your lawyer look it over before you sign. Take your time," said Jeff, waiting patiently on her. "She's her own lawyer. She's like two classes away from being one?" I boasted as I watched her brilliant mind go to work while she read. "Three," she corrected me, eyes still darting over the words on the page. "Besides, we trust you. Don't we, Scott?" That's what she said, but she carried on combing the document. In about two minutes, she'd have tons of questions for him. "Yes, we do," I said to my fath
"I will never let anyone hurt him, Ken. On my life, I will always keep him safe," she professed one more time. "I know you will, Stace. For the record, you were always my favorite best friend," he said, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as he started sobbing. "Same Ken," she said, returning his embrace readily, rubbing his back. Eyes still on me, she stuck her tongue out at me, making me chuckle as I got up to join them. "Un-fucking-believable. What am I, chopped liver?" I said, watching Kenny pull back as I shot him a nasty look. "You're okay. Tolerable. Second best. I keep you around because of her," he said, wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves. "I can't believe you fucking told her you were proposing. What the fuck is wrong with you? How will you survive marriage?" His stupid remark had us chuckling between the three of us. We all wrapped an arm around the other an
There was that promise of forever she said I couldn't have until I asked her to marry me. It was as good as a yes to my proposal. My heart was doing flip flops in my chest. I knew it was for their benefit, maybe even just because she was nervous about talking to them instead of me, but her words were aimed directly at me. Sweeping me right off my feet. Claiming every bit of me as hers. Allowing me to let go of the tiny part of me that wondered if she really could have killed me in those woods. It wasn't just luck or the words I said to her that made her want to save me. I was happy if I gave her the strength to do what she needed to do, but I firmly believed she would have gotten there anyway. She had been doing it for eight years. From the moment we met, she had been protecting me. Even when she pushed me away. She chose me for eight years. Came back again and again, no matter how many times Don Angelo called her home, to make me fall dee
He pulled out a chair for himself, then one for me, urging me to sit next to him. With a resigned sigh, I sat down two chairs away from Kenny, as close to Stacy as I could. I gave Willow and my mom a pleading look so they would follow suite across the table. Stacy took her seat and folded her hands in front of her. Folding her hands was her tell for when she was nervous. They all looked away uncomfortably. No anger. No malice. Just sadness and fear. It was all I could do to stay seated. Not grab Stacy's hand and storm out. She asked me to let her do this though. All I could do was sit back and watch helplessly. "Marlene, you're right. We should have reached out and talked to you all about what happened. It sucked that she was the only one of you to come by and ask us what happened though. Instead of going off the news and wherever else you got your information from. Still, I'm sorry we didn't reach out either. We were trying to figure things out betwe
"No, you're not leaving," said Marlene, grabbing Kenny's arms and turning him towards Stacy and I. "Your best friends are getting engaged today. You've been brooding about this whole situation for over a week and I'm sick of it. Deal with your shit, Kenny," said Marlene, her arms folded and chin jutted out. Go Marlene. Marriage looked good on her. She surprised me more and more all the time. "Does everyone know I'm proposing today?" I asked, focusing on the wrong thing entirely. It got my nervous, half asleep girlfriend to smile though. I'd take that. "You weren't exactly trying very hard to hide it," said Stacy, momentarily caught up in my eyes. I wished I could have her look like that for the rest of the day. A light blush tainted her cheeks and her smile was enough to bring armies to their knees. The way she looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people alive. As much as I appreciated wha
"Soooo… Do you think there's more?" he asked in his most innocent voice. "I'll kill you if you try and find out today," I said, equally as breathless and sweaty as him. It took me a moment to realize I just threatened him without flinching or apologizing. I forced myself to let it go and enjoy the afterglow of the best sex of my life. The heat and sweat coming off our bodies should have been enough to get me off him, but it wasn't. Despite my threat to get off him, his arms wrapped around me gently. "No promises. I love you," he said, completely at ease as he started stroking my hair. "I expect to be told about all future… Locations and phrases." "I love you too. That's no fun. I'm not doing that," I said, out right refusing his request. "Is that right? We'll see," he said cheekily, kissing my temple. "Let me take you to lunch. I want you to enjoy your first day of freedom."