Page 63 of Convenient Mafia Vows

I don’t know where I’m going. But I do know that I can’t sit around waiting for Sienna to call me back and let me know that she’s okay.

I stop to get my bearings and catch the eye of a young man clad head-to-toe in black. He half-turns away and peers into a store window. I don’t know why, but I wait for him to look around and meet my eye again, which he does.

My knees tremble. Is he following us? He can’t be one of Caleb’s men because he would come over and make himself known. Perhaps this is simply my overactive imagination making something out of nothing.

I keep walking, chatting to Abigail about what we should do for the rest of the day, and stop again. Spinning around abruptly, I notice the man in black peering into another store window, the distance between us having closed a little.

I crouch in front of Abigail again. “Sweetie don’t look around, but the station is behind us. We’re going to go inside and find somewhere quiet to sit down for a while.”

“Why?” Abigail blinks her wide eyes at me but doesn’t look around.

“Because I’m tired. Aren’t you?”

She wrinkles her nose. “I guess.”

I glance over her shoulder; the guy is still watching us, hands in his pockets, trying to look nonchalant while tourists and pedestrians mill around him. “Then we can think about where Auntie Sienna might be.”

“Okay.”

“Good girl.” I straighten. Now is not the time to think about Caleb praising me for being a good girl too.

We walk as fast as we can without drawing attention to ourselves. Inside the station, lots of people are wandering around or sitting on benches waiting for friends or family to arrive. But the space is so huge that the guy will spot us the instant he walks in.

I realize that time is limited. If he is following us as I suspect, he will have reacted the instant he saw us dart inside the station. My heart is thumping, but my brain is thinking logically. I try to get inside his head. Where would he instinctively look for us? The restrooms are the first place that spring to mind.

Shrugging out of my coat, I drape it over a carryon while the owner is looking the other way and tell Abigail to take off her coat. Fastening her coat around my waist by the sleeves, I cut through the middle of a ticket booth line and make Abigail wait for me behind a giant stone planter. He will be looking for a woman and a child. I pray that he won’t pay too much attention as I turn around and make conversation with the blonde woman waiting in line behind me.

I spot him standing just inside the entrance and force a wide smile, tugging my hair forward to half-cover my face. He turns three-sixty, eyes narrowed, scanning the vast atrium. His gaze skims past the line as he starts heading towards the food court.

“Hey, the line is moving,” the blonde woman says.

“What?” My eyes dart back to the gap in front of me, and I instinctively move forward. But when I turn back, the guy in black is gone.

“What the hell…”

I step out of line. Where did he go? Abigail is still hiding behind the planter, but I can’t risk him finding her. I realize with a jolt that this would never have happened if I hadn’t lost Martin and the driver. I reach for my phone to call Caleb, but I left it in my coat pocket, and my coat is nowhere to be seen.

I grab Abigail and start running.

18

CALEB

Victoria almost collideshead-first with me as I enter Penn Station.

“Whoa!” I don’t think she even realizes that it’s me until I pick Abigail up and reach for Victoria’s hand. “What’s wrong?” My gaze instinctively slides towards the busy station entrance like it might be on fire. “What’s happened?”

“Caleb?” She pulls away from me, her eyes darting back and forth between me and the building. “What are you… How did you find us?”

“It doesn’t matter. Stop. Take a deep breath. And tell me what’s going on.”

When Martin alerted me to their disappearance in Macy’s, I hoped it was simply Victoria making a stand against me offering her and Abigail protection. I blamed myself. Even after the shooting incident, I refused to cloud her image of my dazzling world of casinos, designer outfits, and friends in high places because… Well, because her innocence is all part of this inexplicably overwhelming attraction I feel towards her.

I see now that it’s too late. Victoria’s life will never go back to the way it was before. Not that it was an enviable position to be in. But she’s a part of this world now whether she likes it or not.

“A man was following us.” Victoria’s breathing is shallow, sweat beading on her forehead.

I set Abigail down between me and Martin who comes running up behind us. I focus on Victoria. “Listen to me. I need you to concentrate and copy me. Breathe in.” I suck in a deep breath through my nose and hold it along with her gaze. On the count of five, I breathe out through my mouth.

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