His blue eyes sparkled with admiration and amusement beneath a baseball cap. He was dressed all in black, in combat trousers and a black zip-up, and looked like a real-life action man coming to my fucking rescue. He grabbed my jaw firmly to keep me still and assessed my injuries.
“What were you trying to do? Get yourself killed?”
“Something like that,” I choked and he smiled.
He opened the black rucksack he had with him, lifted his head to scan the forest and check we were still alone, then pulled out a medical bag. He set to work cleaning and bandaging my injuries to stop the bleeding, then threw me over his shoulder, army-style, as if I didn’t weigh 220 pounds. When we reached a parked car, he shoved me into the passenger seat and skidded over the bonnet to the other side. The engine roared to life, and he sped through Manhattan, heading back towards New Jersey.
It took me a good few minutes to speak again without feeling like I would vomit, and I turned to look at him, still in shock that I was fucking alive.
“How did you know where I was?”
“I followed you,” he answered. “I saw you leave the hotel with Frankie, and I knew you were about to do something stupidly heroic.”
“You knew?”
“I knew you’d die for Finn. I knew you’d die for Neri. And I knew, deep down, you’d die for me too. I couldn’t have that on my conscience. Not when my best friend is so hopelessly in love with you.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “I’ve got to hand it to you, though. That was a beautiful shot. Joey didn’t even know he was dead.”
“You saw that?”
“I filmed the whole fucking thing, from the moment you climbed into the trunk of Frankie’s car. How else do you think I persuaded him not to shoot you in the head?”
My eyes widened. Holy fuck. That’s why Alessio Barberi was the fucking King of Italy. He was a bloody genius at manipulation.
“You blackmailed Frankie to bury me alive instead of killing me.”
“Sent him the video as soon as you started running across the roof like a maniac, auditioning for the next James Bond film,” he chuckled. “Frankie and I made a deal. For the war to end, he was right. You had to die for Joey’s death. I told Frankie to fake your death just enough to let me save you.”
“So…” my brain was scrambled. “Frankie knows I’m alive?”
“Si. And he’s the only one, besides you and me, who does. He won’t say a word to anyone unless he wants everyone to know he was the man behind his nephew's assassination. I have Frankie Galiz by the fucking balls forever because of you, Aiani. I might even like you now.”
“Oh my fucking god,” I breathed, unable to believe we had just twisted the whole thing in our favour. “But what happens when I go back to Italy and the Americans—” I paused as the reality of the situation sank in. Alessio tightened his grip on the steering wheel and kept his eyes fixed on the road. “I can never go back to Italy.”
“No,” he answered. “You’re dead. Enzo Aiani is dead.”
I swallowed. “And Finn?”
“He’s with our men. The ones Frankie didn’t fucking slaughter. He was unconscious, but he’ll be fine. Frankie’s soldiers beat him so badly he wouldn’t be able to come after you. He’ll be waiting for me on the plane by now, probably losing his mind. I told the soldiers to sedate him if it came to it.”
I lifted my hand to cover my mouth as a sudden wave of emotion hit me so abruptly that I struggled to hold it in. I wasn’t sure what was worse; never seeing him again because I was dead or because I wasn’t.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To a friend in New Jersey. A doctor. He’ll patch you up and sort you out with a new ID. Then we’ll get you out of America.”
I nodded, brushing away the stray tear that escaped. I started chuckling and shaking my head.
“What?” Alessio asked, giving me a sideways glance that said he was questioning my sanity.
“I’m finally free,” I choked out, overcome with emotion. “Enzo Aiani is dead, and I can be whoever the fuck I want. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a kid, and now…”
Alessio frowned. “And now?”
“It feels empty.”
A heavy silence filled the air, and then he said, “Because you don’t have Finn.”
I exhaled a shaky breath and nodded. I allowed one more moment to feel sorry for myself, then got it together. “But this is how it needs to be. This will keep them both safe. Finn and Neri.”
