Page 92 of Convenient Mafia Vows

Terry and his men stand aside for him to pass. The Petrovs form a line opposite us, and the don keeps walking, accepting the gesture of peace, his pace halting. As he passes, he catches my eye and nods once, and I don’t try to stop him. He’s a proud man from one of the original Italian mafia families. I don’t know what happened to Olivia, but the other families will offer him the privacy and respect he deserves; whatever went down here, Olivia is his sole heir, and he will accept the consequences of her actions.

I watch Lev Petrov open the door for Don Dragonetti to leave. The area was secured by the Petrovs before I arrived, but it’s obvious now that the don’s arrival was part of the plan Lev refused to discuss with me. He will be free to leave, and the two remaining families will clear up the mess.

“Go get her.” Terry places his warm hand on my shoulder before following Lev outside.

Victoria watches me cross the room, her eyes large with tears. I help her onto her feet, run my fingers through her hair, and press her body against mine. I hold her close and breathe in the smell of her and make a silent vow to never let her go. She’s trembling, but she pulls away so that she can look at me.

“Caleb, I’m so sorry?—”

“Hey.” I cup her face with both hands and kiss her on the lips. “You don’t have to say anything.”

Her eyes grow large with tears. She throws her arms around me and rests her head on my chest, and I hold her while she lets it all out, and the warehouse starts to empty.

Eventually, she pulls away from my embrace and wipes her cheeks with the back of her hands. With a tentative smile, sheslips her hand into mine and takes me to Sienna. Ivan and his stalker-friend are already carrying an unconscious Mason outside. I trust that he’ll be in capable hands.

Sienna leans against Victoria for support, gripping her hand tightly. Her face is grimy and streaked with tears, her hair matted, and I can see the livid skin above the neckline of her sweater from the burns she suffered in the wreckBut she’s a striking woman, and there’s something familiar about her that I can’t quite place.

“Caleb, this is Sienna. She was in the car crash with Kyle on New Year’s five years ago.” She hesitates. “Kyle told me all about it.”

I don’t hear Kyle come up behind us until he’s standing beside me. “Ruby?”

There’s a tremor in his voice that makes me want to wrap him in cotton wool and protect him from the rest of the world. He’s a grown man, a brilliant and intelligent lawyer, and a loyal friend to everyone who knows him, but I will always feel like a superhero in his presence.

Sienna winces as if in pain. “You… You don’t look any different.”

“Apart from the hair.” Kyle rubs his hair self-consciously. He stuffs his hands inside his pockets and pulls them straight back out again, tugging the hem of his jacket. His eyes are all over the place, anywhere but on Sienna.

I step in; someone needs to give him a helping hand. “I’m Caleb, Kyle’s brother. Sienna, meet Kyle; Kyle, meet Sienna, not Ruby Tuesday or Wilma fromThe Flintstones.”

“Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” She chews her bottom lip in a habit that mimics Victoria’s, and eyes up Kylefrom beneath lowered eyelashes. “I thought…” Her already raspy voice cracks. “You probably don’t want to know what I thought.”

“Victoria told me.” Kyle seems to jolt to life and takes her hands, folding them between his own and raising them to his chest.

I’ve never seen him like this with a woman. Nervous. Timid. Frightened of saying the wrong thing. I mean, I know how much he struggled after the accident, but he never once expressed his feelings about Sienna. I thought it was all guilt.

“I never…” he begins. “I would never… I believed that you didn’t make it.” His voice trails off.

“His brother checked your pulse,” Victoria says. “Or rather, he couldn’t find one. I believe them, Si.”

Sienna closes her eyes, tears spilling over her bottom lashes. When she opens them again, she’s shaking her head, and it’s as if she has already checked out, already dismissed Kyle from her life a second time, as she snatches her hands away.

“Sienna, I can’t even begin to imagine what you went through.” I glance at Victoria, who is fighting to hold back her own tears. “My brothers should’ve pulled you from the wreckage. In hindsight, well, it’s as much my fault as theirs. I’m not making excuses for them. They thought they were doing the right thing by calling the emergency services and removing Kyle from the situation. If they’d been able to get hold of me, I’d have told them to stay with you.”

Would I have told them to stay with her? Hindsight has a habit of distorting the past to resemble something that doesn’t keep you awake at night. I’d have told them to pull her from the wreckage. I hope. But I know Kyle would’ve been my priority too, as it was for Cash and Bash.

Family first.

“Can you forgive me?” Kyle’s voice shrinks almost to nothing.

“I don’t know. I can’t just erase five years of knowing what you did to me.” She inhales deeply, and her shoulders slump on the exhale. “It isn’t just about that. It’s all this too.” She peers around the warehouse. “I don’t know if I can … live like this.”

“It isn’t always like this,” Kyle says. “I promise you.”

“How can you promise that?” she snaps. “Victoria meets your brother and the next thing I know, she’s married, and I’ve been abducted along with her brother.” Sienna’s voice is hardening.

“Why don’t you ask Victoria how she feels about me,” I suggest.

Victoria blinks, gap-mouthed, like I just told her to stand up and sing opera in front of an audience.

---