Claimed by the Enforcer: A Venturi Mafia Spin-off novel, page 18
"Okay."
"I mean it. Don't stay up too late. You need to rest all you can while growing my son in there."
"I'll turn in early. I promise."
What did it really matter? What else did I have to do?
I ended the call with Stefano, slipped into comfortable silk pajamas, and climbed into the empty king-sized bed with a good book.
A gloved hand over my mouth jolted me from a sound sleep and my book fell to the floor. I kicked and clawed at the figure pinning me to the bed. I tried to scream but only the slightest sound escaped the leather glove that had been clamped over my face. My eyes struggled to see anything in the limited silvery rays of moonlight that danced in the curtain of the open window. A window I was sure had been closed before settling into bed.
A million terrifying scenarios flashed through my mind in the seconds before a familiar voice whispered in my ear. "Shh. Mira, it's me."
Luca?
My body calmed instantly at the sound of his voice, adrenaline withdrawing as my muscles let me sink back into the mattress and Luca’s hand loosened on my mouth.
He gave me a look as if confirming that I understood and I gave a silent nod before he completely released me and crouched by my bedside.
"I'm sorry that I startled you. I didn't want to risk you screaming and alerting anyone to me being here."
"What are you doing here?"
"Mia said that something was off when she talked to you. I had Marco check your phone for bugs and found one. I figured you knew someone was listening or at least suspected it, so I came here myself to see if you were okay."
I was relieved and excited to see Luca, but nothing had changed. I couldn't leave no matter how miserable I was. But maybe, just maybe, I could confide in Luca about why I had to stay with Stefano.
Luca understood loyalty and while he wouldn't be happy with the circumstances, he would understand them. Maybe it was selfish but part of me wanted Luca to know the truth, the reason why I couldn't be with him and the reason why I had gone through with the wedding. Part of me wanted someone to share the information with and I wanted that to be Luca.
"Mira?" His sharp voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I'm okay.”
“What's going on? You’re not acting yourself and you haven’t been returning my phone calls. I know you’re probably still upset that I made such a scene at the wedding, but we have a lot of history. Tell me you aren’t going to throw that away over this.”
“Stefano saw how me, and you were together. He was jealous and I thought it was best not to fuel that jealousy, so I wanted to give us some space.”
“There's more to it than that. I came all this way and I want the truth. What is going on?”
I let out a reserved sigh and pushed myself to sit up in bed.
“If I tell you the truth I need you to promise me that you will not overreact, that it will stay just between us. I know how you are, especially when it comes to things with me. You can't react to this. I shouldn’t be telling you anything, but I can't keep it in any longer. I can't keep the secret inside.”
“Mira, you're worrying me. Now tell me what it is. I promise I won’t overreact.”
“I’m miserable,” I blurted out. “I don’t want to be married to Stefano. I didn’t want to, even on the wedding day.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“But you turned me down...”
“Does one thing have to have something to do with the other?”
“No. But, listen, just because you are pregnant with his kid doesn’t mean that you have to stay with him. You are a strong, independent, capable woman. You don’t need Stefano to take care of you or your baby.”
“That’s not the reason I chose to go through with the wedding.”
“Then why?”
“Stefano has information on our family, things that could put many people at risk.”
“What does he have on us? Who does he have it on?”
I blew out a heavy breath and met Luca’s gaze. “He knows about Brambilla.” I gave Luca a meaningful look, but he looked at me as if he needed more information, so I continued. “About who murdered him and who gave the order.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yeah, that.”
“We covered our tracks well with the police. There's no danger there.”
“He has evidence that shows that you were there in the office.”
“And the police report will state that I had met with Mia's father prior to his death, and we have people to corroborate that.”
“What about Mia finding out? Even if the police aren't an issue, I can't imagine that Mia would be okay with Teo hiding that information from her or the fact that our father was willing to kill her family lawyer just to scare her into the engagement.”
“That's what you're worried about? That's why you’re with Stefano?”
I nodded. “A big part of it, yeah. I mean, Teo is my brother and Mia is one of my best friends. I don’t want to see either of them hurt. I also didn’t want to see you get in trouble with the police, because Stefano told me that it was you who killed Brambilla.”
“Mira,” Luca sounded disappointed. “Teo told Mia about that a long time ago. He made sure that I was okay with it since it involved me. Mia’s my friend too. I understood why he didn't want to lie to her.”
“So, he told her?” I couldn't believe it.
Luca nodded.
“I went through with a wedding to a man I didn’t want to marry. A man who treats me like he owns me and our baby, all because he has useless information that can’t hurt our family?”
Luca nodded slowly. “It would seem that way.”
“And no one thought that it would be important for the family lawyer to be aware of this?”
“It happened well before you became the family lawyer, and a lot has been going on since. I’m sure Teo would have filled you in on everything at some point, but you should have come to us the moment that Stefano threatened you with this information. You’re free, Mira. There is nothing holding you here any longer.”
I rubbed my hand over my face, covering my mouth, and tried not to cry though I wasn’t sure if it was because I was sad about what I’d been through or because I was relieved that Stefano no longer had anything to hold over my head.
“But Stefano said that he would take the baby if I ever left him. He said that he’d have his family make sure that I never see my baby again.”
“I won’t let that happen. Teo and your father won’t let that happen. And you? You’re the best damn lawyer I know, so I have no doubt in my mind that you won’t let that happen either.”
I wrapped my arms around Luca’s neck and hugged him tight. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For setting me free.”
“You aren’t free yet. Come on.”
Luca stood, pulling me up along with him. Once I was out of bed, Luca stopped, his gaze falling to the slight baby bump I’d recently developed.
“Oh, yeah...” I self-consciously adjusted my pajamas.
“Wow.” There was a whisper of awe in his voice. “So there really is a baby in there.” I smiled, a rare occurrence since I’d left home.
He placed his hand as if cupping my belly but without touching. “May I?”
I nodded, rendered speechless from witnessing the new side to Luca.
He grinned and gently placed his hand to my belly. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?”
“Not yet. I should be able to find out soon though.”
“Have you felt him or her kick?”
I raised a curious brow and Luca gave a crooked smile. “What? I have sisters.”
“That’s right. I forgot, Uncle Luca. And not yet. The doctor says that’s normal, especially for a first pregnancy but I can’t wait.” I beamed, actually able to let myself feel hopeful for me and for my baby.
Luca blinked suddenly and shook his head, breaking the moment. “We should get you packed. Stefano’s not home but I don’t want him to show up and catch us.”
“You’re right. We should go.”
“You go get dressed. I’ll help you pack.” I nodded, grabbing the first outfit that I came to and headed for the ensuite bathroom.
I was quick to change, taking a moment to use the restroom since I wasn’t sure when the next pitstop would be. Traveling while pregnant was hard enough when you weren’t on the run.
I hurried back into the bedroom where Luca was just zipping up my suitcase.
“That was fast.”
“I didn’t bother folding. Shoes.” Luca nodded at my bare feet.
“Oh.” I quickly slipped on a pair of flats and started for the door, but Luca stopped me.
“Wait.” He pressed his ear to the crack in the door, waiting, before cracking the door and peeking out. He quickly jerked back into the room and carefully closed my door without making a sound. “Someone’s out there.”
“Then how are we going to get out of here? Stefano should be back soon.”
“We’ll have to go down the balcony.”
“You’re expecting a pregnant woman to scale down a balcony? Or were you thinking maybe I’d just propel down with some kind of climbing gear?”
“No. I brought an emergency rope ladder. You know, the kind they have in case of a fire.”
“Oh.”
“I figured you’d be able to handle that since you’re hardly even showing. Besides, I’d never let you fall.”
“Okay.” Luca grabbed my suitcase and tossed it into the bushes before letting me go first down the ladder.
Once I was on the ground, I looked expectantly up at him, waiting for him to climb down but instead, he removed the ladder, rolled it back up, and tossed it into the bushes with my bag.
“What are you doing?” I whisper-yelled.
“Can’t leave evidence.”
I looked around the dark yard nervously. “How are you going to get down?”
“The same way that I got up.”
Luca moved to the side of the balcony, climbing over the railing, and letting himself hang by his arms as low as he could bring himself to the ground, which being over six-feet tall, wasn’t all that far. He let himself drop, landing smoothly on his feet. He didn’t waste any time, grabbing the ladder and my bag.
“Admit it. You just wanted to show off,” I teased as I met him near the shrubbery, but Luca just smirked.
“Come on. We should hurry.” He grabbed my hand.
“Where’s your car?”
“I parked it on the road that abuts to the back of the property so we can completely avoid the frontage road. Come on.”
We ran across the back yard, slowing only for a moment once we reached the manicured treeline. Luca helped me through a hole in the fence right as the backyard spotlights lit up. I caught a glimpse of several armed men rushing toward us from a distance just as Luca ducked under the fence.
“Hurry, get in the car. They’ll be able to cut us off if we don’t get to the main road before they do.”
I scurried into the car while Luca tossed our stuff through the back-side window and jumped into the driver’s seat. We were already pulling out onto the back road before the first man made it to the fence.
The engine roared as Luca pushed it to its limit. We made it to the main road with no sign of Stefano’s men catching up. Luca’s knuckles whitened as he barely lifted his foot off the gas before taking the turn. The force of the turn had me bracing myself so that I wouldn’t slam into the door. I closed my eyes and prayed that the car wouldn’t flip.
"Where are you going?” I glanced back through the rear window. “The airport's the other way."
"We're not going to the airport. It's the first place Costa would look for you."
"Then where are we going? We’re on an island. It's not like we can drive home from here."
"We just have to make it to Messina." Luca didn’t take his eyes off the road, his hands gripping the wheel like a vice.
"Messina?"
Luca nodded. "I have a friend waiting to take us by boat across the strait to Reggio Calabria where the jet’s waiting to take us home."
"Wow, you really planned this all out."
“Shit,” Luca cursed as he glanced in the rearview mirror.
“What’s wrong?” I turned in my seat to look out the back, a set of headlights nearly blinding me in the dark.
“They’re behind us. Hold on.”
He pushed the gas pedal and the engine roared louder as the car struggled to go any faster but somehow Stefano’s men still gained on us.
“They must have modified their engines.”
“What does that mean?”
“They made them go faster. I can’t lose them.”
Panic coursed through me, my heart pounded in my throat and up into my ears. “What are we going to do?”
“If I can’t outrun them, then I’m going to have to outmaneuver them instead.”
“Okay.” I held on tight as Luca took a side road to our left at the last minute. Stefano’s men didn’t have time to react, sending them flying by us.
“There. That should by us a little...fuck.”
Headlights in my side window nearly blinded me only a heartbeat before a sickening metal crunch filled my ears, my body slung to the side, and everything went black.
Chapter 27
Mira
“Mira? Mira!” Luca’s panicked voice called from somewhere nearby. He sounded worried and I tried to answer but I couldn’t force the words to come out. I tried to open my eyes to look for him, but the sound of his voice faded away again.
Loud sirens whirred in my ears, startling me. Bright lights flashed in the dark and I flinched at the unexpected pain behind my eyes. I tried to look around, but everything moved too fast. Strangers rushed around me. I thrashed my head from side to side, squinting at the painfully bright lights, contrasting from the dark around us.
“Luca,” I cried out but one of the men firmly pressed my shoulders down onto a stretcher.
“You need to try to be still.”
“Where’s Luca?”
“The man you were with? My partner is just examining him to make sure he’s okay.”
“What happened? What’s going on?”
“Mira,” Luca’s panicked voice cut through the noise and his face suddenly appeared over me. He took my hand and my body sagged in relief.
“Luca, you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. You’re okay, we’re both going to be okay.”
All at once, the world shifted like I was on a tilt-a-whirl, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out or throw up. “I don’t feel—”
***
A steady beeping called me from the dark where I’d been lost for I didn’t know how long. I struggled to open my eyes and even the dim light of whatever room I was in was too bright.
After blinking several times, my eyes adjusted, and I was able to see the stark white and pale green decor of the hospital room. Luca sat in a chair to my left, slumped down, with slow, even breaths that only came with sleep.
There was a bandage on his head and bruises already forming along his cheek and sharp jaw.
"Luca?" I whispered quietly, not wanting to startle him, but he jumped anyway.
He scooted up in his chair and rolled his shoulders. "Hey, you're awake." His voice was gentler than I'd ever heard it. "How are you feeling?"
"Groggy and a bit confused."
Luca nodded. "Doc said that's to be expected. You have a concussion."
I nodded. "And you're okay?"
"Yeah.” Luca turned his eyes down, a look of despair painting his features. “The SUV mostly hit your side."
"How'd you get rid of Stefano’s men?"
"The cowards ran after the accident. I guess they thought it would be better to deal with Stefano getting mad at them for letting you escape rather than for causing an accident that put you in danger."
A horrifying thought came to mind and panic shot through my concussion haze. "The baby. Is the baby okay?"
