Page 9 of Under His Embrace

“I can’t…”

“No. Fuck that, Chloe,” Franco growled.

“Do you…” The blond man volleyed his stern gaze between us. “Do you know her?”

“I can’t.” I shook my head, frantic to get up and bolt out of here. I ran from him once, and I had to again—now more than ever if he was involved with the shooting at my new workplace. My new former workplace.

“You’re coming with us,” Franco demanded, not moving out of my way.

Clumsy and shaken from all the fear, then being knocked out so suddenly, my attempt to get away was too weak to be effective. I slumped to the carpet, grimacing at the jolt of pain up my body from the drop. Stinky odors crept too close for comfort, and I scrambled to get on my hands and knees again.

“Get her, Liam,” he ordered the other man.

“No. Please.” I resisted Liam from grabbing my arms, but he was gentle. He guided me to stand and didn’t release me as we left the nasty motel room. If he hadn’t held onto my arms, I would’ve fallen. And if he’d taken his hands off me, I would’ve tried to escape anyway.

I couldn’t trust Franco. Not with my heart, nor to know where he intended to take me.

I was on my own—again—but I could hang on to the fact that Caleb, my son, was safe. He would always be safe as long as he was far from Franco and everything he represented. But I couldn’t assume the same for myself.

I would never repeat the mistake of thinking I could ever be safe with Franco again.

5

FRANCO

Ican’t believe it.

Of all the people who could’ve been the only surviving employee from the A&J Deli, it had to be her. Of all the people in the world. Of all the people in New York City, which sometimes seemed to be a world of its own.

It had to be her, the woman who got away from me.

Nothing could’ve prepared me for actually seeing her again. I spent the last ten years of my life wondering about her. She was always on my mind, whether I wanted her there or not. Thinking about Chloe had me running through a gamut of emotions—pain, anger, disdain, and loneliness. They hadn’t readied me for ever seeing her again, but now that I had in one of the unlikeliest situations ever, I could reconcile my dreams of running into her with the reality facing me now.

Chloe Dawson was the employee who ran from the deli. And she would need to be questioned about her involvement there, or what she saw.

Iwasn’t ready to question her. First, I had to get over this shock of seeing her. Likewise, I couldn’t touch her and physically keep her under my grip. If I could lay hands on her… I wasn’t sure how I’d react. If I’d want to strangle her for leaving meso cruelly, if I’d want to hold her and comfort her for what happened at the shooting, or if I’d want to hug her tight and beg her to never leave me again. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to ever let her go again, because despite the despair she’d caused me, my heart had never moved on. I wasn’t sure it could. My heart belonged to her, whether I wanted it to or not.

Fortunately, Liam understood that. He seemed to realize quite quickly that I knew this woman and that she was personally aware of who I was. Without my needing to explain a thing, he intuited that he had to take charge for me here. While he handled her, I took the time to try to adjust and get over the shock. It crippled me, and I needed more time to feel like I could handle this how I was expected to as the highest-ranking capo of the Constella Family.

“Franco,” Andy, one of our loyal soldiers, said as he approached.

Liam guided Chloe out the room, and I trailed behind him, taking the chance to really rake my gaze over her to better know that she was here, in my life, not a dream or memory. Her golden locks fell over her shoulders, and those gray-blue eyes were the same captivating orbs that sucked me in as they had before. She was always tall and athletic, very slender and trim, but she had aged into more of a womanly figure over the years with curves to make her all the more enticing.

I nodded at Andy, tearing my gaze from Chloe. I’d asked a crew to follow Liam and me out here, but they’d taken a little longer to arrive.

Thank fuck you’re here now.

“Take…” I sighed, catching myself from uttering her name.

“Take the witness,” Liam instructed as he handed her over to Andy and the other Constella soldier who’d arrived with him.

“Yes, sir,” Andy said, showing no issue with deferring to Liam regardless of how long he’d been working for us. All of themunderstood that I’d delegated Liam to a higher status from the beginning.

As Andy maneuvered Chloe toward the SUV he’d come in, I tore my stare from her and focused on getting back into my car to resist the temptation of looking at her. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was in our custody, and while Andy drove her back to the Constella properties in the city, Liam and I would follow behind them.

Once we were in the car, I exhaled the full breath that I’d been holding in. Now that I was out of her presence, I could try to steady myself—and prepare to face her again. Seeing her was such a physical hit that I had to work through the stress of such a surprise.

There weren’t many things that could render me feeling like a rug had been swept out from beneath my feet, but encountering Chloe did.

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