Chapter 25: Chapter Twenty-Five

June

Frankie adjusted the bowtie around his neck for the umpteenth time that night. He situated the bouquet of red roses in the crook of his elbow, lifted his hand and knocked. He stepped to the side of the door so when she looked out through the peep-hole she wouldn’t be able to see him. He plucked at the rose petals as he waited. He could hear the shuffle of her feet, the slight ‘tink’ of the peephole being opened, then the various locks being turned over.

He swiveled and stood as close to the door as possible so that when she opened it… Lilah’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped and she took a startled step back. Mission accomplished.

“Hello, Lilah,” Frankie cooed, lifting the right side of his mouth in a smirk.

“What…” She looked out into the hallway. “What are you doing here?”

Her eyes ventured over the tux he’d rented for the night. His body hummed with excitement as her pupils dilated and her tongue slowly wet her lips before her gaze returned to his face. He cleaned up pretty nicely, if he did say so himself. He’d even combed his hair and styled it with gel.

“You look…”

“Hot as hell? Yeah, I know,” Frankie said, leaning against the doorframe. “Here, these are for you.”

Frankie extended the bouquet of flowers and she took them with a look of wonder that made his stomach tighten. She glanced up and analyzed his expression.

“What are you doing here, Frankie?” Lilah asked again.

He shrugged. “I have an event to go to tonight. Thought I’d let you see me all gussied up before I went. It’s a rare sighting after all.”

“Well… thank you for the, uh, privilege, but I’m pretty busy so…” Lilah started to close the door but he stopped it with his foot, wincing as the loafers he was wearing didn’t cushion the blow like his boot would. She looked down at his foot then back to meet his eyes.

“Are you not going to invite me in?”

“Why? Are you a vampire?”

“Good point,” Frankie said, shoving the door open and walking in without permission.

“Hey!”

Frankie glanced around the apartment, his eyes moving from the stacks of neatly folded clothes on the coffee table to the empty luggage sitting open on the couch, the trash bags placed around the various rooms and the cleaning supplies leaning against the kitchen counter.

“What are you doing, Gloria?” he asked, as she set the bouquet down on the kitchen counter to resume bustling around the apartment.

She walked to the coffee table and started putting clothes into the bags. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re what?” he asked again, the pleasure of her dilated pupils evaporating like smoke to be replaced with a heavy sludge of fear that stuck to his gut.

She sighed and started shoving clothes into the bag with more force. “I’m leaving.”

“No,” Frankie said with a laugh filled with absolutely no humor. “You’re not leaving. You’re not going anywhere, Gloria.”

She huffed and moved around the couch to grab some belongings she’d set on a table behind it. “Look, you don’t know me and you don’t know the kind of people who…” She stopped mid-tangent. One of her hands was still in the bag, the other was stalled in midair reaching for her laptop. Her honey-gold eyes flicked up and for the first time since they’d met, he saw fear cloud them over. “Wh-what did you just call me?”

Frankie stalked toward her. “I called you by your name, Gloria. Your real one.”

“H-how did you…”

Frankie caught her by the throat and backed her up until she slammed into the wall. “Did you not hear me the other night or were you drugged too?” he asked on a growl. “You’re mine now. I make it my mission to learn everything I can about the things I’ve claimed. I’m funny that way.”

“I’m not yo…”

His grip on her throat tightened. “I didn’t ask for your opinion on the matter,” Frankie hissed, his heart squeezing so tightly it choked out every other emotion besides anger.

“Let go,” she pleaded softly.

Frankie growled and released her. He walked to the nearest bag and turned it over, emptying its contents onto the floor before flinging the bag somewhere behind him. “You’ll leave over my dead body” he stated, his voice sharp.

“What are you? A toddler throwing a temper tantrum?” she asked, retrieving the bag and proceeding to refill it while he went for the next one and performed the same childlike behavior. “The people I’m running from have been spotted in New York, okay?”

“Who?”

Gloria scoffed. “I thought you ‘made it your mission to learn everything about what you’ve claimed’?,” Gloria mocked.

Frankie picked up a mug sitting on the ledge of the coffee table and hurled it at the wall. She didn’t even flinch as it shattered and rained cold coffee on the floor. He pointed a shaky finger at her.

“Don’t.” Frankie walked up to her and she squared her shoulders rather than balk. He stood over her, trying to intimidate but only succeeding in setting his blood to boiling at their proximity. “A Russian princess doesn’t run, she stands her ground especially with someone like me at her back. Who is it you’re so scared of?”

She swallowed and shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Why?” he hissed between his teeth. “You doubt my ability to protect you? If so, that’s the most insulting thing anyone has ever thought about me.”

She looked down at his chest which rose and fell heavy with his breathing. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. “Nora is moving me to another house in Florida. She is going to get me set up at a college down there so I can get my nursing degree and start a fresh life. I don’t want this, Frankie,” she whispered, opening her eyes to reveal them to be shimmering with unshed tears. “I don’t want you to go chasing after him. I don’t want you to fight for my honor. I don’t want a blood bath in my name while one man fights for what the other thinks he owns. I just want to be normal.”

He clasped her throat, but this time his touch was gentle. He lowered his head so they were eye-level. “You’re not normal. You’re the only child of a Russian mobster. There is no ‘getting out’ for you.”

Gloria closed her eyes and he watched a tear track down her cheek. “I don’t want you.”

“Liar.”

“I want to go to Florida.”

“Stop it.”

“I want to be free.”

“You are. You felt it. When I kissed you. You felt it too.”

Gloria sighed. She raised her hand and clasped his wrist. She took in a deep breath and it was ten seconds before she spoke again. Her eyes opened and he nearly dropped his hold on her due to the defiance and finality in her gaze, as if she’d removed the innocent facade she’d erected and he was finally looking at her, the real her.

“No. I didn’t,” she said, her voice firm, sharp, hardened. “All I am is a fascination. The moment you get to the bottom of who I am and who I’m running from, you’ll lose interest. Or something will happen and someone will get hurt and you’ll blame me. I have never wanted you, Frankie Donati. You just kept inserting yourself in my life and I had no power to turn you away.”

Her pulse beneath his fingers was slow and steady. Not a single spike. Not a single deception. He removed his hand as if he’d been burned. His stomach churned with a rejection he’d never felt before. He laughed once through his nose and stepped back. She did nothing but watch him. His phone started to buzz in his pocket and her eyes followed the noise. He pulled the phone out and checked the text from Leo.

His eyes flicked up but she didn’t even blink at the hostility she saw there. He stepped forward again, crowding her space. “This isn’t finished. I don’t know how you managed to lie to me but I know that’s what you just did. Don’t even think about leaving town, Gloria. There’s no running from me,” he warned.

Frankie stepped around her and made for the door, wishing to get as much space between them as possible before he did something crazy like take her to his penthouse and lock her in his death chamber until she agreed to be honest with herself. As he reached the door she called out to him. He stopped, his right hand gripping the door jam tight enough to splinter the wood.

“Here, I don’t feel right keeping these,” she whispered, extending the bouquet of roses toward him.

He took them without a word, his mind already lost in what he would have to do to keep her from running.

“Fucking Royale,” he whispered under his breath.

“What?” she asked, a foreign hint of fear in her voice.

He looked back to find her face a shade paler than before. “What?”

“You said something about the Royale? The Royale is happening tonight?”

Frankie turned to face her fully so he could analyze her expression. She wasn’t just afraid, she was terrified. “How the fuck do you know what the Royale is Gloria?” Frankie’s phone started to buzz again and he sighed. He gripped her chestnut hair in his hand and yanked her head back so she would be forced to look up at him. “This isn’t finished. Don’t step a single foot outside of this apartment until I get back.”

He didn’t give her a chance to argue. He turned on his heel and headed for the stairs. It wasn’t until he was pushing open the front door of the apartment building that he realized he was still holding the bouquet of roses.

Frankie jumped into the passenger seat of Leo’s SUV, slammed the door shut and threw the fucking bouquet in the back seat. Leo didn’t say anything as they headed in the direction of Accardi’s apartment.

It wasn’t until they were a couple blocks out that Leo said, “If you don’t want Accardi asking questions, give the bouquet to Gen.”

“I’ll just throw it out the fucking window,” Frankie grumbled. “He’ll think it’s weird if I got her flowers.”

“He’ll still see the petals on the floorboard, jackass. It’ll intrigue him more to wonder why there were flowers in the car and you know it. He won’t stop until he figures out you’ve been playing hide the candlestick with one of Nora’s girls.”

“Candlestick? Really? You’re that old?”

“Old enough to know a fucking sucker when I see one.”

Frankie let his head fall back against the seat as Leo pulled up in front of the apartment building. Leo shoved his car door open and Frankie groaned as he did the same.

“Where you want it?” Leo asked, coming around the back of the SUV.

“Not in the face,” Frankie decided.

There was no buildup. Leo just plowed his fist into Frankie’s gut, forcing the air from his lungs. Pain sliced up from his abdomen, traveling through his nervous system to his insular cortex, clearing his overloaded brain until there was only the task ahead of them. Leo kept a steadying hand on Frankie’s shoulder as he recovered, only letting go when Frankie managed to stand up straight again.

“Better?” Leo asked, pulling the bouquet out and thrusting it against Frankie’s bruising abdomen. Frankie nodded as he pushed a stray lock of hair back into place. Leo smacked his cheek for good measure. “Good. Get up there and retrieve the boss and his lady. We have work to do.”