Page 38 of Dare To Free Us

But at the same time she was incredibly lucky. If she hadn’t attacked me and remained in her seat when the truck hit us, she would’ve been killed. We didn’t roll but the truck caved in the whole left side of the car and shoved us fifteen feet sideways. Our driver was somewhere in the hospital on life support and I was damn lucky to not have suffered some sort of injury myself simply from the impact. But with Arianna not strapped in— despite how tight I held her, crushing her ribs in the process— she’d been flung back and forth like a rag-doll and smacked the window.

Once the sirens got close the others scattered. We lost a man in the gun fight and two more were injured. If it had been a private fight out of the public view, all the men would have gone to our medial safe-house for attention, but with it all going down in the middle of the day on a busy street; the first responders were on us before we knew it.

Cops showed up in an uproar. We were forced to lay down our weapons and were in the process of being cuffed— myself snarling like a damn animal as they came for me— when a call came in over the radio to not arrest us. Someone down at City Hall was earning their pay, but I knew it was too good to think it was over.

I’d picked up Arianna and ran for the first ambulance to arrive. I cursed at anyone who tried to stop me or take her out of my arms. It wasn’t until I had her in the back of the ambulance that I set her down.

The drive to the hospital was the longest drive of my life. I knew the police would come looking for me, either to get a statement or try to arrest me again, although I couldn’t imagine why, we were the ones attacked. Unless they were going to try and tack some illegal gun charges on me— that would never stick— they had nothing to hold me on.

Nico was at the scene and would deal with everything. That was his job. To clean up the mess when I was unavailable, and I wouldn’t be until Arianna woke up allowing me to look into her eyes and see that she was ok.

While she was out they performed an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still doing good. The test had shown a strong, healthy heartbeat. I nearly fell to my knees in relief, especially for Arianna’s sake.

The fear in her eyes sliced me in two when she panicked at the possibility of our baby being harmed. For me, my entire focus had been on her. When she passed out, chilling dread bathed me in a cold sweat that still lingered hours later.

There was never a time I could remember being so scared.

Sitting there thinking back on the moment made my eyes burn. Hot liquid gathered at the corners of my eyes. I was six the last time I cried due to emotion. Father didn’t tolerate crying. I pressed my forehead to the back of Arianna’s hand and squeezed my eyes shut. My shoulders scrunched as my breathing shook.

“Matteo?”

My head shot up in surprise. Arianna was awake, her unfocused gaze skipped around the room trying to snag on something. My movement caught her attention. I stood and leaned over her, placing my hand on her cheek, stroking gently with my thumb.

“I’m here, Beautiful,” I whispered.

Her tongue poked out to lick her dry lips. “I’m thirsty,” she rasped sleepily.

Reaching over to the rolling table I took the cup of water and pressed it to her lips while helping her sit up slightly.

After taking a long swig she sighed and laid back. Arianna looked up at me and scowled. “You’re hurt.” I caught her hand before she could touch the bruise and small cut on the side on my head.

“It’s nothing.” The seat belt saved me from being tossed too hard against the window, unlike Arianna.

Her lips turned into a frown as tears formed in her eyes and her hands reached for her stomach. “The baby?”

“It’s fine. Perfectly fine.”

Air rushed from her lungs as scared tears turned to relieved ones. “What happened?” One hand came up to press against her forehead. The bruising on the left side of her skull stretched out from behind her hairline to her eye and halfway across her forehead. No doubt she had a raging headache.

“A bread truck hit us. But we don’t need to talk about that right now. You need to rest.”

“No Matteo, I need to know. I know it wasn’t an accident. Tell me why someone would attack us in broad daylight like that?”

“Arianna this is not the place.” Public places had too many ears. Too many possibilities of some nosy eavesdropper to overhear things they shouldn’t.

“Please, Matteo. I have to know.” Her hands moved across her stomach again. How could I deny her? Arianna needed closure on why our baby had been put at so much risk.

“Hold on.” I crossed the room and closed the door. Then I sat next to her and took her hand mine. She shifted to make room and see me better. The hiss of pain she let out churned my stomach.

I took a deep breath and tried to decide how to start. Best to start from the beginning, I figured.

“It has to do with the girl you were asking me about.” Arianna’s eyes grew wide, her body froze but her hand pulled back in retreat. I held on tight. “I never cheated on you Arianna. I love you. The fact that you thought that kills me, but I understand why you misunderstood my conversation. Arianna, you are my everything, there is no one else.”

“Then why were you so desperate to keep her a secret?” Fuck, her sad, little voice just about killed me.

I sighed again to collect my train of thought. “That night, when the plan to intercept Shura happened, it wasn’t that we failed to catch him. He wasn’t in the vehicle at all.” Her cute little brow furrowed in confusion as to how and why the two things were connected. “But his fifteen-year old sister was.”

Realization struck as she sucked in a breath. “You took her. Didn’t you?”

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