Feeling the comforting kick of a tiny foot, reminding me that I wouldn’t ever have to feel alone again, I smiled to myself.Unlocking the driver’s door, I tossed my stuff in and carefully got behind the wheel.After all the excitement, the baby was being super active, and I was freaking starving.
“Vay?”
Yelping, I startled and turned to find a woman walking toward me out of the shadows.Another chill slithered up my spine as I watched her come closer, the moon washing over her in an eerie sort of way.I knew who she was—of course I did.Not just because she was Sammy and Vaughn’s mother, although the resemblance to her daughter was uncanny.Especially with those blue eyes that seemed to see everything at once, including what a person was thinking.Whatever her skin care routine was, I wanted to adopt it.There was barely a fine line on her face.
Anya had popped up when I’d done my first internet search on the name Vitucci.Her name was linked to every top-tier crime family around the globe.Before marrying Cristiano Vitucci and adopting his son Ryan, she had an alleged hobby of eliminating problems for people.
Anya Vitucci stopped a few feet away, her eyes drifting over me before going to the birthing center, her shoulders tense.Vulnerability flashed across her face for only a moment before she blanked her expression.In my gut, I knew she’d allowed me to witness that small trace of emotion.To remind me she was just as human as I was, maybe to set me at ease.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”She held up a bag, the scent of food making my stomach rumble.“I picked this up for you before Aggie’s closed.Figured you would be hungry.Once I made it through the morning sickness phase with Samara, I felt perpetually empty.”
I hesitated, wanting to stuff whatever that heavenly smell was into my mouth, but there was the whole taking-food-from-strangers thing.And I wondered if maybe she had ever eliminated a “problem” by poisoning a hungry person’s food.
Her lips twitched, once again leading me to wonder if she could read my mind.“It’s just a cheeseburger, Vay.A tiny thank-you for helping my daughter-in-law tonight.”
“One, she’s my friend.Of course I would help her.Two, it’s also my job.I love what I do.”Aggie’s had the best cheeseburgers in the freaking country, and I couldn’t turn that down.After another small hesitation, and an insistent kick from the little person growing inside me, I took the bag from her.“Thank you.”
She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat.“How are you settling in?Are the locals treating you well?”
I stiffened.It wasn’t that I hadn’t spoken to Anya before.Abi had introduced us when I’d seen them out shopping one Saturday the month before.Anya lived in New York, but apparently she visited her children here often.
When Abi had introduced us, she’d told her mother-in-law that I was new to the area.Our conversation hadn’t lasted more than ten minutes, with Abi doing most of the talking.Then Sammy joined them and told Abi they were getting lunch.They’d invited me to join them, but I’d made up an excuse, uncomfortable with how Anya kept looking at me.
She looked at me with eyes that cut through the layers of concrete and steel that I’d built around the pain and emptiness that weighed me down.As if she saw the me I didn’t want to be, the person who gave away every piece of herself for free, without expecting anything in return.The girl who had loved with her whole heart but was now crushed by men who’d given worthless promises of love and a future together.
Fuck, it had even felt like she could see that little girl who had been tossed into foster care.No family.Always running because nowhere felt safe enough to close her eyes at night.That sullen kid who was given one last chance in the form of a group home.All the broken, angry, hurting versions of me, right there on display for her to see.She hadn’t radiated judgment, just…knowledge.
And I hated that.
I’d been raw that day as Anya’s blue eyes had scraped over me, every part of me aching like an invisible bruise, but I’d worked on healing.It took a little while, but I’d found something new.Not better, just real and mine.Piece by piece, I’d been working on putting myself back together after being shattered.
This life I was making for my child and myself wasn’t perfect, but it would be ours.
“I’m finding my stride,” I finally answered with a shrug.Another grumble of my stomach had me extracting the to-go box, popping off the top and grabbing the burger.It was a big, beautiful mess of thick, perfectly seasoned ground beef patty, American cheese, lettuce, red onion, thick slices of tomato, and spicy dill pickles stacked high.It was so big, I had to practically unhinge my jaw to take that first bite, but it was worth it.
“OhGod.”Moaning, I licked my lips.“Sorry.Also, again, thank you.”
She smiled, a genuinely pleased smile, and let me eat in silence for a few more huge bites.
“So…” she said when I’d devoured half the burger.“You’re happy here?”
The food suddenly felt very heavy in my stomach, a sharp kick from a tiny foot reminding me that I needed to be careful.“Yes, I’m happy.”
“Happier than you were back in Philly, or happy enough?”
Tears instantly blurred my vision, fear choking me.“Why does it matter?”I whispered.“What do you want from me?”
I wasn’t going to ask how she knew where I was from.Only a few people knew the truth, my legal name, where I used to live, and who I was hiding from.Having ended up in a small town with ties to the world’s most powerful crime family, I was aware that someone had placed me in their periphery on purpose.But Sammy, Abi, and even Vaughn hadn’t mentioned anything about my past.
Regret flashed over Anya’s face.“I owe someone a favor, and he called it in.”
Vega
Twisting the soft,pretty material of my dress in my fingers, I looked up at the mega-mansion.This house was where Sammy had grown up, or so Anya had told me on the flight.A flight that we’d taken on her private jet.And then there was the whole Secret Service-style caravan of soldiers in dark suits that had been waiting for us on the tarmac and followed us.Apparently, there was rich, and then there was Vitucci-rich.That made for a huge difference, one I was struggling to believe was reality, and I had been dropped right in the middle of the surreal experience.
Private planes.An estate that spanned square miles, with a freaking wall surrounding the entire property.Men in suits with military-grade guns in hand.A house that was the size of an island.
Sammy had grown up playing hide-and-seek in that house.
