I walk to him, reaching on my tiptoes, stealing his lips. “It’s perfect,” I say in between pecks.
“Come, let me show you everything else.” Luca leads me back downstairs to the door off the kitchen. When he opens it, I’m taken aback.
"This is a panic room, and it's fully stocked." There is a week's worth of groceries, guns, and bullets. Once I’m fully in, he closes the door behind us and shows how to engage the steel-enforced door. Turning a circular gear and I hear the locks engaging.
“There is also a satellite phone.”
He’s thought of everything.
I look at him, confused.
“With the line of work I’m in, we can never be too safe, Rowan. I need to know that you're safe if I'm not here.” He pauses. “And with everything else going on,” he spits out between his teeth.
“No, I think this is very smart.”
Following him out of the panic room and watching him shut the door, he says, “Hopefully you’ll never have to use it, but if so.”
He shows me the rest of the house. There are three other empty rooms upstairs, along with an office. And two more bedrooms downstairs.
“In the back, there is a shooting range.”
“Of course there is.” I laugh.
Over the next few days, Luca is constantly on the phone or his laptop. In constant communication with the guys. Making plans and having houses raided. And everything has still come up empty.
The fact that it’s been over a week, and Damian is still gone, fucks us all up. We barely sleep, especially Luca. I can see the toll it’s taking on him. The way his eyes are black, his hair a mess from constantly running his hands through it.
No one can find Briggs. They believe he’s left town, but we’re not all sold on that fact. He’s here, hiding somewhere like a fucking rat. With Catherine gone, he will not leave. It’s just where the fuck is he?
While all our minds are on Damian, a minor part of mine is on my father. He’s the monster still left untouched in my story, and that isn’t right. He’s the reason everything happened to me and for the pain I feel, and for him to go on about his life like he didn’t fuck mine up, that can’t happen. I haven’t brought it or him up to Luca, but he deserves to feel the pain I felt while I was in that tomb a year ago. He wrote part of my story, but he didn’t finish it.
I can’t go on living my life knowing he’s out there, still. How will I ever be able to fully heal if he’s still out there? I won’t be able to, so for that, to heal my crimson heart, I need to make my fathers bleed.
Chapter Four
Luca
I’ve been tossing and turning all night. My new hobby is not sleeping. The sun is peaking in the sky, and I know I may have only slept for thirty minutes. To be truthful, I’m exhausted and overwhelmed.
I look at Rowan, who is sound asleep, the blanket mostly off her body due to me not being able to stay still and pulling it from her. I try to fix them gently, but her eyes open slowly.
“Baby?” she asks groggily.
“Shh, go back to sleep.”
She inches over to me, laying her head on my chest, using my heartbeats to lull her back to sleep as I run my hand through her hair.
My cell phone ringing sounds so invasive in the early morning. Leaning over, I grab it off the nightstand; the number comes up as unknown.
Contorting my face, I answer it.
“Hello?” It comes out like a question.
The line is silent for a moment until I hear his tired voice. “Luca. It’s me.”
Jumping up and pulling sleeping Rowan up at the same time, I scream into the phone, “Fuck, Damian. Oh my God, where are you?”
Rowan’s eyes go wide at hearing Damian's name.
