PROLOGUE
Capri
A waterfallof tears streamed steadily down my cheeks.
I pressed my hand firmly to my mouth to silence the sobs and the scream trying to break free, but I didn’t know if that would be able to contain them.
Without success, I willed my gaze to leave the two bodies that lay deathly still, their eyes lifeless and void of the love that usually shined in them every day.
Love forme.
They’d never get to share their wisdom with me again. I’d never get to sit and listen to the details of their love story that I loved to hear so much. And I’d never feel their arms wrapped around me when I needed it the most.
Like now.
It was my fault that my parents were dead.
I knew in my gut they’d been protecting me.
My mother and father shouldn’t have been involved with any of the corruption that I’d stumbled upon just days earlier. I wanted to go back to the horrid day and erase it altogether. Make it as if it never happened.
If I could, they’d still be alive.
So many lies, years of deceit, and all from the one person I should’ve been able to trust with my heart, body, and soul when I said, “I do.”
Instead—
“We need to clean this mess up and call the boss,” one of the men said, dragging my mind back to the trouble standing twenty feet from where I was hiding. “Let him know we didn’t find the bitch.”
I sucked in a harsh breath and two heads turned in my direction. Desperately, I wished I could squeeze my eyes shut and unsee the evil faces of the men who killed my family. But I needed them wide open to run.
My heart hammered as I stood from where I was crouched in the backroom. I’d been getting supplies when I heard yelling and then gunshots. I’d run toward the front of the bakery and skidded to a stop to peek through the door before bursting into the shop.
That was when I saw everything I loved had been taken from me.
“Go check it out and kill anyone you find,” the bigger of the two men said.
On shaky legs, I fled toward the back exit, tears still pouring down my face as I left my mother and father behind.
I gulped in air, fighting to breathe as I snagged my purse off the hook on the wall and shot out the back door into the cool, misty air. At five in the morning, the dark sky surrounded me as I ran for my life down the alley.
When I heard a door slam and feet pounding on the pavement behind me, I picked up my pace. Never had I been more thankful that I wore tennis shoes when I went to the bakery to get things ready to open up for the day.
I’d been working at my parents' shop since I was a young girl and baking was my passion, just as itwasmy mother’s. As the thought passed through my head, the sobs I was trying to keep under wraps broke free, making it even more difficult to breathe as I ran.
Knowing I had to hide, I turned the corner onto the main street and then quickly slid down another alley that came up on my right, trying to get out of sight from the man behind me. I ducked into the back entrance to a store and checked the door, but to my dismay it was locked.
Panic seized my lungs and I once again covered my mouth to silence any sounds so he didn’t hear me. As I peeked around the corner of the cove I hid in, I saw the man run right past the alley. It was exactly what I hoped for, giving me a second to try and calm my erratic heart. But knowing I didn’t have long, a minute later, I took off like a bat out of hell to the opposite end of the road I’d come in on.
When I reached another main road, I paused for a split second. I knew if I stayed on the public street, I’d be a sitting duck. Looking across the road, I cringed at my only option for escape. With fear racing through my body, I made my way through the cemetery. A cold, eerie tingle shot down my spine as I moved through the headstones as fast as I could.
Finally breaking out on the other side, I saw exactly what I was looking for.
The police station.
It was where I thought I’d be safe. A place I thought I would be protected. And the very spot I thought would help bring this nightmare to an end.
None of that happened.
