Page 56 of Under His Embrace

“I have no clue how to answer that,” I said honestly.

She sat, sipping an icy glass of water, and tapped the chair next to her. “Sit. Talk. I know from experience that it is not good to bottle this stuff in.”

“Ditto,” Tessa said as she came close. We sat, and the chairs scraping over the tiles summoned Eva to draw near to our patio table too. Under the glass of the conservatory ceiling, we were warm and cozy with the sounds of the kids splashing under the watchful eyes of Dante and Romeo.

“Spill.” Eva commanded it in that one-word instruction as Dante slipped out of the pool when Liam returned to it. The Mafia Boss took a chair at our table as well, holding Nina’s hand, and I fought through the intimidation he caused me to feel.

“I didn’t want to let anyone force me to have an abortion.” I stared at Caleb, watching him play as I spoke quietly. I gave the women and Dante a condensed version of the story, and then I waited fortheirjudgments too.

“I know I should’ve told Franco as soon as I saw him again.” I shook my head.

“But with Wes going after you, and all the active danger…” Tessa sighed. “It was a lot at once.”

“IfWes was the one who shot up that building,” Dante argued. “We don’t know if it was Wes who ordered that attack. While we can’t trace those shooters to anyone else, it’s a possibility, not a probability, that Wes ordered the shooters to target you.”

Eva shook her head. “No. That doesn’t make sense either. Why would he kill her? If he’s so obsessed with her, he’d want her alive.”

I frowned, thinking about what Caleb said, too. “If Wes knew that I was working at that deli, he would’ve been more likely to wait until I was done working and steal me away after a shift or something like that. But Caleb said that Wes was hanging out around him at Ethan’s apartment.”

“That doesn’t mean Wes couldn’t have hired men to shoot up your workplace,” Nina argued. “He wouldn’t have to be there to see that through.”

“But why kill her at all?” Eva asked. “If his MO is to stalk her and try to own her, why hire men to potentially kill her?” She shook her head. “I bet he tracked Caleb, maybe not knowing where you were, and planned to use Caleb to make you run to him.”

I shivered and rubbed my arms. It all sounded so terrible.

“But,” Tessa rushed to add, “none of that will matter anymore. You’re here. You’re safe. Both of you.”

I swallowed hard and risked a direct look at Dante. He was watching me, serious and stern, but not mean.

“That’s true. You’re safe here,” he said.

But what if I don’t belong here? What if Franco can’t ever get over this and wants me to leave after my lies and hiding his son?

I winced, entertaining a worse thought.What if he tries to keep Caleb here where it’s safe but get rid of me for how I broke his heart?

After more platitudes and a little more conversation, Dante cleared his throat. “I’d like to speak with Chloe for a few minutes.”

Oh, fuck.

Nina smiled at my expression. “You look like you were just summoned to the principal’s office.” She stood but leaned over to kiss his temple.

“Just to talk,” he said as the women filed away.

Alone with the big, bad Mafia Boss, I waited for him to speak.

“Why?” he asked. “Why did you have to run when Franco could have protected you?” He shook his head. “You met me. You met many of us. You knew that we took care of our own.”

I nodded. “But my parents also knew how close I was to Franco and your family. If they were so determined to kill my son, they wouldn’t have stopped just because I was under your family’s protection.”

He steepled his fingers on the wrought-iron table. “Are they coming to get you here now? You’ve been under our custody, a guest here, if you would, for a week now. Do you see them breaking in to find you?”

“They wouldn’t need to findme. They’d need to find Caleb, and they almost succeeded. Wes was at the apartment building where Caleb was staying. I suspect Wes has gone rogue. He’s on his own twisted mission to track me down or to find Caleb and use him to get me to go back to him. But if he still wants to bring me or Caleb back to my parents and is working for them, he almost reached him out there.”

Just saying the words hurt. I couldn’t fathom anything happening to my son.

“I was stuck. Then and now. If I came to Franco or anyone in your organization, it would’ve been another, easier way for them to find me. I have no doubt they would find out if I was here.”

“But you have doubts thatIcouldn’t keep my eyes on them?”

---