Her brown eyes were wide and bulging, finally grasping the situation. Tears ran down her face, yet somehow, she retained that fierce edge.
“You said you didn’t hurt kids…”
“I said I didn’t harm them. I never said I wouldn’t exploit them. You made a mistake coming here today, and you’re going to pay for it, one way or another. You cannot run from me. You cannot hide. If you’re really daring enough to try, you'd better succeed because the instant you turn eighteen, I’ll find you andtake my payment, limb by limb, organ by organ, until there is nothing left of you but an empty, bloodless husk. Are we clear?”
Gaze unfocused, she nodded.
“Ricco, get her a burner and see that she makes the bus stop as soon as possible. And Ms. Burch, you’d do well to remember, you work for me now. I always collect on debts.”
She still hadn’t recovered from her shock as Ricco escorted her out, only glancing back with a deadly glare a second before disappearing from view. I huffed a snort. As hardheaded as she was, there was something endearing about her.
She was like a child being told not to play with plugs or machinery. It reminded me of my sister growing up. With eight years difference between us, I had raised her with our mother. The moment I turned my back, she tested my rules, sticking her fingers where they didn’t belong. My first reaction was always irritation and anger, but now, years later, those feelings faded, and the memory left me warm and content.
Tore clicked his lighter open and shut. “Just riddle me this. How exactly is that girl going to pay for that car? You want her turning tricks once she’s legal?”
I smacked him upside the head.
“Idiot,” Vinny muttered. “With her family history, if she’s got the drive, long term, she’d make a good runner for family doctor.”
I nodded. “If she wises up. No more of this petty revenge bullshit. Until then, we’ll have apiccolamessenger bird.”
“And if she tries to snitch?”
“Bag her, and give her a front seat to our demonstration before the entire famiglia.”
“Aiming to scar the kid?” By his tone, I would almost think Vinny disapproved.
“If I have to, yes. She’ll fall in line. She got herself into this mess. There’ll be no getting herself out of it.”
Tore cackled. “I almost feel sorry for her.”
I cracked a smirk at his ridiculousness and palmed my buzzing phone. There were two new messages. One from Ricco, reporting he was leaving with Ms. Burch. The second from Persetta, giving an update of her day in Lyon, France, after accepting Adrien De Villier’s proposal yesterday.
I picked up a frame from my desk, my thumb trailing the edge of the photo, and walked out onto the balcony. My sister looked so young and carefree in the photo, posing and smiling for her high school senior pictures, happier than she’d been at home amid our father’s raging temper.
I sighed, gazing into her green eyes, the exact same shade as mine and our mother’s. Even knowing she was safe and happy with the French bastard, it felt like I’d failed her again, just like I did with our mother. I tried to protect them from Elio. I handed over profits and personal revenue, with his promise he’d keep his hands off our mother. When that didn’t work, I bought her an apartment in Los Angeles and promised to hide the two of them. I even offered to help her file for divorce. It wasn’t enough. She refused, afraid Elio would take custody of Persetta away from her. And when it mattered most, I wasn’t there to save them. Now my sister was choosing to live in a foreign country with a man I despised.
“Hey.” Vinny slapped me on the back. “Persetta’s happy. She’s safe. Take it for what it is.”
He leaned against the railing, his eyes locked on the horizon, always searching for anomalies, while Tore pressed his back to the railing, looking in and lighting a cigar.
“I expected to feel relieved, maybe even vindicated, when I found her.”
“Aren’t you?” Tore tossed his head back and blew out a smoke ring that lifted in the breeze.
I nodded, because I was, but a void in my chest remained since Persetta’s call two days ago.
With a sigh, I returned the frame to my desk.
“Let’s go over the recent profit margins. Did Natale and Ettore drop off their reports?”
Chapter 13
Ifumedtheentireway home, not just at him but at myself. How could I have been so stupid? God, my parents were probably rolling around in their graves.
I walked the few blocks from the bus stop to the Hayes house, new phone in hand. I couldn’t stop toying with it. Phone service. Internet. Games. Music. Honestly, I never appreciated how much the internet ruled my life until I didn’t have access to it anymore. I hadn’t had a working phone since Noah died, and Mr. Iannelli really hadn’t skimped out. It was new, sleek, and top of the line.
My hand and shoulders dropped with a sigh. I hated taking anything from that murderer, but throwing this away…I couldn’t do it. Seriously, who gave out the latest phone models to people who burned a hole in their overpriced car? It didn’t even matter that he or his goons might have put a tracker on it, or if they knew everything I searched online. This was a lifeline.
