“Anna, where is the baby?” he asked again as he took his jacket off and covered me with it.
“In the dressing room in the area behind the mainstage but the access points were blocked, but I can go this way.”
He nodded and began to bark orders at his men, telling them where to go, where to wait, who to kill and who to take alive. It didn’t even register for me that his words were anything unusual. I knew exactly what it meant, what his way of life was,ourway of life.
“Let’s go.” He was already leading the way, with my hand back in his and his other hand holding a gun, presumably fully loaded. “I assume you remember how to shoot?”
“Of course.”
Dropping my hand, he reached into a harness that sat on his back and gave the weapon to me.
I checked this one was loaded and took the safety off. “What’s to stop me shooting you for killing my brother?”
“Nothing, except you know it had to happen, as did he. What he did–”
I cut him off. “You have no idea what he did or why, so you shut the fuck up and I won’t decorate the walls with your brains.”
He grinned. “Sounds fair.”
I studied him, tall, broad, handsome, and with the grin still breaking his face, he looked like the young and carefree boy I had known and called a friend. My dearest friend.
“I’ve missed you, Anna.”
I stared now but said nothing. I had missed him, too. Had done for years, from the time he had moved into the family business and essentially left anyone who didn’t go with him behind. He’d left me behind. Now wasn’t the time to say anything, perhaps there never would be a time for it, particularly not as he had killed my brother for no good reason, even if he didn’t realise that.
“This way.” We needed to get to my baby and not reminisce.
In a few minutes we had made our way to the dressing room. Opening the door I was greeted by the sight of Ro lying in a pool of blood and as sad as that made me, I was more concerned with where my baby was. The crib was empty and looking around there was no sign of Amina.
A loud, deep cry rattled around us as I realised that if my baby wasn’t here, someone had taken her. I willingly allowed Dante to pull me to him and hold me while he spoke into his phone, giving orders to stop anyone leaving and checking any suspicious packages, presumably concealing a baby, but even if they found her, would she come through this alive? Another cry tore from me at the pain the mere thought of losing my child evoked.
He sat me down and dropped to his haunches before me. “Anna, we need to go. I need to get you out of here.”
I couldn’t, I wouldn’t leave without her. My hand felt heavy and that is when I realised that I still held the gun in my hand. Raising it, I pointed it in Dante’s direction for a second but his expression didn’t betray anything that suggested he thought I would use it on him, and then I turned it on myself.
He cursed in Italian and his expression changed immediately, morphing into one of pain and worry. “Anna . . .” He seemed to be weighing up his options, deciding whether to grab the gun and take it from me or if that would be more dangerous than trying to talk me out of it. “We’ll find her. You know that family is more important to me than anything.”
“I am not your family. I have no family because of you.”
If I had blinked, I would have missed it, but for a split second a look of guilt flitted across his features.
“You are still family, my family, whether you like it or not.”
Suddenly, he leapt to his feet, startling me enough that my grip on the trigger tightened but not enough to fire it.
“Wait, please, do you hear that?” He rushed to the other side of the room, to a heavy wooden trunk and when he opened it he spoke again, softly. “Well, hello there, bella, Amina.”
Dropping the gun to the ground, I watched on as he reached into the trunk, and filled with gratitude and a little disbelief, saw my daughter appear as he lifted her from the box. She was safe, perfect, smiling at him, happily sitting in his hold and embrace as I rushed towards them both and pulled her into my arms, sobbing still but this time with nothing but love and relief.
CHAPTERTHREE
DANTE
Tonight had not turned out as I imagined it might. We had gone to the club to do business on neutral ground, or so we thought. When we had arrived, it had been busy, too busy, and the person I had expected to meet was a no show, however his men had been there, in huge numbers, but fortunately because we take no chances and I am a very suspicious man, we had numerous allies there too.
Seeing Anna had been the biggest surprise of all. I couldn’t quite believe it when I had seen her on that podium, wrapped around a pole in very little clothing. I had been furious knowing that those men there saw so much of her and likely viewed her in the most basic and disrespectful of terms. She shouldn’t have been there, not ever. The sight of her had distracted me from the hell fire that was about to descend and she had appeared rooted to the spot. Once the first shots were fired, she had been my destination. I had been looking for her for weeks, never expecting to find her there, but now I had found her, I wasn’t going to lose her again, and more than that, I needed to keep her safe.
Her resistance to me was to be expected, and I hated the sick swirling in my gut that I might be the likely reason for her ending up in that place, especially with a child. That had been a real surprise and as cute as Amina was, I had been shocked by her existence. There were so many questions, where was the baby’s father, why would he allow the mother of his child to work in that place never mind allowing his child to be there too, but my biggest question, who the fuck was he?
