Chapter 23—Claudius, Present day
The cold night air caressed my cheek as I walked across the gravelly surface of the roof.
This was one of the warehouses on the very docks where Marissa was killed. Hers was a few warehouses down. A new one had been built since, but of course, the memory of her would always be in my mind.
The first thing I always thought of was how she must have suffered. The pain she must have gone through, then death. Who could explain what it was like to die in such an awful way?
We could guess. I could guess, but unless it happened to me, that was all I could do.
Dante and Gio had David tied to a chair. The edge of the roof was only a few feet away.
The man was begging for his life. Dante and Gio remained silent, standing on either side of him.
No sign of Alex or Jude though. Where were they? Where were they indeed? They were supposed to come here.
I proceeded toward the three, and David’s eyes went wide when he saw me. I must have looked scary with my long black coat rising in the wind behind me as I came closer. My hair whipped up too, and I carried a Beretta in each hand. I meant business.
Night had fallen long ago, giving us the perfect cover of darkness to get the info I needed from this son of a bitch.
This was just like last time. Where I’d been a fucking pawn in a game.
Yes, the job Joe Manello had offered me was simple, but there had been more at work. I was to lead a crew of six bikers in an attempt to divert a military envoy carrying some sort of nano tech chips. I didn’t know that part. Didn’t make it any better though. The feds must have gotten tipped off and intercepted, and the van carrying the chips got away. Goliath lost his chance to steal them. He blamed me for the mess-up because I was in charge.
My simple job had cost Marissa’s life and created this life of watching Ava from the shadows.
I walked up to David, lifted my leg, and pushed my heavy steel-toe boot between his legs. He cried out as I pushed the chair backwards and stopped on the edge with nothing to stop me from pushing him right over.
Dante and Gio took their place at my side.
I aimed the guns at David and snarled. “Talk. You have one minute.”
“Please don’t kill me,” he begged.
“Wrong answer.” Since he was most likely a pawn too in whatever game we were playing, I thought I’d show some compassion and not shoot off any body parts. If he didn’t piss me off the wrong way and I ended up allowing him to live, people would have questions if I blew off an arm or two.
That was my rage.
I fired a shot at his crotch right between where my foot had stopped.
He screamed.
Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Dante flinch.
“Let’s try this again. Talk. Who are you working for?”
“Please,” he begged.
“I’ll shoot your fucking dick off, then push you over the edge. I mean it. You don’t screw with mobsters, and you sure as shit don’t screw with me. So, talk… Who sent you? Why do you really need the shipping company?”
Jesus, the fact that this guy was still not talking told me whoever he was working for must have been scarier than me. Scarier than being in this situation.
“Please. They’ll kill my wife and my child.” Tears rolled down his cheeks.
I eased back and looked from Dante to Gio.
Wife and child.
Everything was a reminder of what I once had. A painful reminder.
“Who is they? Don’t mess with me. Answer the fucking question.”
“I can’t.”
“Do you want to die? Do I look like the understanding type to you?” I got up in his face and stared at him long and hard. That, however, still didn’t seem to faze him.
In rage, I flipped the chair around and shoved it hard, so now he was hovering dangerously close to the edge, and he could see his destruction. The fate that awaited him.
“You have a wife and child? How dare you put them in such danger. Nothing is worth that. Answer the question, David, or I’ll drop you right the hell now.” I actually wouldn’t do that.
I’d never done that even though I’d threatened it many times, but that was mindless killing. Killing out of spite. I doubt though that if Ava saw me like this, she’d understand. Right now, I looked like a damn monster. Like something straight from the chasm of hell.
“Joe Manello,” David said quickly. “Joe Manello.”
So, Joe really was back.
I pulled him back and flipped the chair back to face me. Against the moonlight and the soft haze of lights on the rooftop, David’s face was a sickly green color.
“Why does Joe Manello want the shipping company?”
“He needed transport. The shipping company has passage to England and clearance.”
“I’m aware what my fucking company has. What does he need transport for?”
“I don’t know. He came and approached me with an offer I couldn’t refuse. A billion dollars to get you to sell me the shipping company. It would be easier to—”
A single gunshot pierced through the night, and I actually felt the bullet whiz past me. It whizzed past me and lodged straight smack between David’s eyes.
Dante and Gio jumped into action, so did I, looking around frantically in the direction the bullet had come from.
Fucking hell. This was it. War had started. Whoever shot him didn’t want him to talk.
And again, they knew we were on the roof.
Alex and Jude…
Was it them?
Dante and Gio dispersed to search. I stayed where I was.
I didn’t know what affected me more. The knowledge of what was going on or my fears about what would happen next.
Ava I straightened on the bed the minute Claudius walked into the room.
He looked awful and… there was blood on his face.
Blood, more blood, just like at the restaurant.
He didn’t say anything to me. He just looked at me, then walked into the ensuite bathroom.
I slid off the bed and made my way to him.
I’d worried myself sick the whole night. Worried about what he was doing, worried that something could happen to him, worried about what I was getting myself into.
Now he was back, with blood on his face.
“Claudius,” I spoke in a soft, hushed voice.
He’d taken off his jacket and shirt and stood shirtless in front of the mirror. He turned on the tap and splashed water on his face, splashing it so hard it went all over the floor.
I moved closer seeing his distress and pressed my hand to his back. He turned to face me, and through the water I could see one single tear run from his brown eye, down his cheek, staining the inky black of the cross.
“What happened?”
He shook his head.
“Did you kill someone?” I was afraid of the answer.
“No. Not yet.”
I pressed down hard on my lip.
“I need you to go to Luc’s tomorrow and stay there. I know you have plans Friday and it’s a busy week for you, but I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“I want to stay with you.” Earlier, I’d been a mess. I’d been so shaken up by what happened at the restaurant. But I wanted to stay with him. The same way he protected me, I wanted to make sure he didn’t go out and get himself killed.
“You can’t. Not at all.”
It was the way he said it and what he said that stung my heart.
“What does that mean, Claudius? Not at all?”
“Ten years ago, Luc and I were walking down the street near Delizioso. He wanted Mexican for lunch, and I wanted Italian. I wanted to go back to Delizioso. The place we’d discovered a few weeks back and kept going back to dinner, and I wanted to try the lunch special. Luc tossed a coin. Heads, we go to the Mexican place, tails, we go to Delizioso. Landed on tails, and in we went to Delizioso. I must have just picked up the menu when I saw you and decided you had to be mine.”
A tear ran down my cheek. That was a day I’d never forget because of the magic and the chemistry we shared. I’d wanted him to be mine too.
“Claudius…” I hated the helpless feeling that coursed through me. That helpless feeling that reminded me that there was nothing I could do. Nothing to fix the situation, nothing to make things the way they should have been. And… love wasn’t enough.
He cupped my face. “There are some things in this world that are so precious they should be left alone. I should have gone to the Mexican place. I should have left you alone.”
He placed a kiss on my forehead and walked away.
All I could do was stare as my heart broke again, and my soul wept.