Page 63 of Dangerous Contract: Part 2

"And?" Raz yelled. "What happened next? Tell me all of it in one go. Stop fucking pausing."

"They took her," Cas rushed to say. "They took all of them, Raz. They'd already taken them by the time we reached the hospital."

"Who?" Raz growled, voice low, dangerous, deadly.

"Frillman's men. When we got here and found them gone, we knew it had to be his men who'd taken them. Using Frillman's phone, we reached out and scheduled a meet-up, stating that wewanted them all alive. When we got there, and Frillman's men saw that it was us, they threatened to kill them. After we showed them Frillman's head, they changed their tune. They agreed to return them to us alive if we paid them the money Frillman had promised them. Outnumbered, all we could do at the time was agree to their demands to ensure they didn't hurt Monique and her friends. They wanted the money in cash. We had our consigliere deliver it to us right then and there. It took two hours to handle the paperwork and go through the proper channels to release that amount of cash, but we got it done."

"Good," Raz stated, feeling hopeful. "Great! That was the right thing to do. So, where is she?"

"Once we had them safely in our cars," Cas continued as if Raz hadn't just asked him a question. "We killed Frillman's men and took our money back. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have done that in front of them. I guess you can say we were working off instinct at the time and not being very smart. Meka and her friends saw it all. They saw us murder Frillman's guys. They saw Frillman's severed head in our possession. They saw... everything."

Fuck!"Where's Monique?" Raz asked again.

"After everything was over, I asked them if they were okay," Cas continued. "I tried touching Meka's hand to check her for bruises. But... she jerked away from me. She didn't want me near her." Cas cleared his throat. "They stared at me like I was a monster. Like I was the one who'd taken them. Like I was wrong for killing Frillman's men, even though we'd done so to save them. I did the right thing, Raz. I swear."

His brother looked like he was about to have a breakdown, and Raz didn't have the energy to deal with that right now.

"Cas, tell me where the fuck Monique is," Raz growled.

"I did the right thing, didn't I?"

"Cas!"

"Didn't I, Raz? Just tell me. Did I do the right thing? Or did I fuck everything up?"

"You did the right thing," Raz yelled. "You did what I would've done."

"So why did Monique want to come see you in the hospital despite everything that went down, but Meka wanted to get as far away from me as fast as she could?"

Even after all she'd seen, Monique had wanted to come to him. Raz needed to go to her.

"Is she here? Cas, focus. Tell me where she is now. I need to know. I promise to help you with Meka. First, I need to know where Monique is, brother," Raz stated, feeling a desperation he'd never felt before.

"Home," Cas answered, voice void of any emotion. "They went home."

"And you just let them?"

"I... yeah. I let them. I didn't feel it was safe for them to come here. We went through Frillman's phone. The bastard hadn't sent only one crew after them. He'd sent multiple crews. And they all knew about this hospital because they'd found footage of Monique being brought here. Rome went online and erased all images and videos he could find of Monique and her friends, even deleting their social media pages. He erased all records of their addresses, jobs, education, all of that. If you search for them online now, you'll get nothing. That was the only way to keep those who hadn't known of Frillman's death from searching for her. Plus, we suspect Uncle had a few people looking for her also. I thought keeping them close would keep them safe, but I realized keeping them close was what was putting them in danger."

Raz opened his mouth to say something, only to close it as he thought over Cas's words. His brother was right.Fuck!If he'dnever entered Monique's life, she would've never been put in harm's way.

Was this a sign that maybe it was time to release her before he destroyed her? He'd convinced himself that he was Orazio Cattaneo, the future don of the Cattaneo family; therefore, he could protect her from anyone, from anything. Yet, he'd failed at every turn.

All he'd done was put her in greater danger with every move he made. His enemies weren't the problem. He was. That's why Cas hadn't let her come to him. Beside him was where the danger lurked.

"So, yeah," Cas continued. "That's why I let them go home, where they could be safe. But I told them to all stay at Monique's place until we made sure things were truly safe. They hadn't like that, especially Toya. But they agreed, even though Monique was adamant about seeing you. She's actually been calling every day, wanting to talk to you. I didn't want to let her know you were unconscious, so I just told her you were busy. I had to keep her away because the police were watching this place, waiting for a chance to talk to you. I didn't want her to get on their radar. If they knew she was your woman, she'd never be able to live a normal life."

Cas had even thought of that, another thing Raz hadn't considered. The police and the Cattaneos didn't have a good relationship. If the cops learned Monique was dating him, they'd start watching her the way they watched his family.

The crooked officers would even try to implicate her in things that had nothing to do with him, his family, or her. She'd be on their radar for the rest of her life. What the fuck had Raz been thinking, falling in love with a woman like her?

A woman with a pure heart, a woman who was far too good for the likes of him. And though he knew he wasn't right for her, his heart was still pushing him to go to her, to keep her in his life.

The same way his father had done his mother.Fuck!He was no better than his dad. In fact, he was worse. Monique had almost died because of him and his love. His love wasn't worth shit if it couldn't guarantee her protection.

"But their safety isn't the only reason I let them go home. I also had a selfish reason," Cas told him. "I'd wanted to give them, mainly Meka, a chance to cool off. A chance to calm down after everything they'd been through and had seen. A chance to realize that I'd done what I needed to do. I stationed guards outside their house. I provided them with money because, after everything that happened and after missing so many days of work, Meka and Toya had lost their jobs. Right now, they're still at Monique's, waiting for me to give the all-clear for Meka and Toya to go home and for Monique to be able to see you again. I wanted to wait until you woke up before I made that call. Actually, I wanted you to make that call yourself."

Raz didn't feel he was qualified to make that call. Not now. Sighing, he stared up at the ceiling. They'd truly turned those three women's lives upside down, hadn't they? He'd thought he could give his Rosa the world. All he'd done was destroy her world.

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