Page 216 of The Consequences of Love and Vengeance

What the hell?

I look to my sister-in-law who forces a smile. “You’re right. It’s been forever, but we’re both too busy right now.” She licks her lips.

“Yeah,” Jackson agrees, slipping from my grasp. “We need to run actually. We both have a flight at LAX.” Jackson flicks his wrist, looking at his watch. “I’m off to Seattle for an overnight business trip.”

“You guys should come back down soon. Maybe getting to know Drago, and even his younger brother and sister would help ease your minds. I think you’d both like Drago if you gave him a chance and really got to know him.”

“Maybe,” Jackson says, sliding out of the booth. I follow, doing the same. Alana is the last one out.

After hugs and goodbyes, we walk out, and I stay long enough to see them head off in a cab with a sinking feeling that something major is going on between the two of them and it’s not a good feeling. With everything I have on my plate though, I can’t worry about them or question it.

Still... I wonder what it could be.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

DRAGO

Trying to give Bri the space she needs isn’t easy for me. I’ve known from the moment I met her that she is a strong-willed, independent woman. I love that about her, but it goes against every protective instinct coursing through my veins.

She didn’t have to tell me where she was going this morning when she mentioned she had an errand to run. I had Luca hack into the GPS device on her car months ago. Every time her car moves, I’m alerted on my phone with coordinates. Every time she stops, I’m also alerted. It’s how I knew she was at the docks the day I killed Diaz, before E called me. It’s how I got to her before he did.

I won’t apologize for tracking her. Hell, I’m not even the one that put the damn device on her car, but had her brother not beat me to it, I would have. I have the exact same model on my sibling’s vehicles. Although mine, knew about it from the beginning. I never keep things from Luca or CC unless I feel it’s absolutely necessary for their safety.

I met Bri’s brother, Jackson, once. He seemed like a stand-up businessman. What I didn’t know until a few months ago was that one of his biggest business rivals was his own wife. That has to be interesting—and weird.

Bri and I haven’t had a real conversation about our future. I know her father, surprisingly, is the one who helped her get temporary custody of my son. Had he not, I would have figured out a way to do it myself. I know Bri has an untapped savings account that her father supplied her with. She likely would have used some of it had Robert not come through for her.

I can imagine her family isn’t thrilled with the idea of Bri raising Gabriel as her son. As much as I’m going to hate to do it, I do need to thank Robert personally. He may be a ruthless businessman, but from everything I’ve witnessed with his interactions with Bri, he’s a good father and nothing like the man who is mine.

As parents, we have to make tough decisions. I’m guessing Robert has had to make a few of them alone since his wife’s death. Gabriel shouldn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want him to. It’s just a fact—I was wronged when my father set out to trap me with a kid. Allowing my father to use him to his advantage and holding his life over my head can’t be an option. The only out I saw was making everyone think I wanted nothing to do with Gabe.

But life being life, being uncontrollable at times, I fell in love with the one woman who loves my son like he’s her own flesh and blood. And then I went and knocked her up—again. Life is fucking terrifying. Anyone who says differently is lying to themselves.

My gut tells me I’m running out of time. I have to end my father’s reign before he hurts another person in my life. He hasn’t contacted me, or even Luca or CC since he’s been back. CC only briefly saw him arriving last week before she slipped out of his house and came to mine.

It’s one thing to know my father, Vincent Acerbi, murdered my own mother, his wife, this whole time. It’s another entirely to go after Bri. But instead of killing her, he terminated her first pregnancy, our unborn child. It was my mother’s murder that fueled my anger to become an undercover DEA agent in hopes I could be the one to single-handedly betray him, taking him down. At this point, I’m not certain I have the mental or physical strength to hold myself back from putting a bullet in him for killing my mother and unborn child, but I have to try.

Even before my mother’s death, I vowed to myself I’d be the one to kill my father. It wasn’t until a year later when my mom made me promise to her that I’d always look after Luca and CC and keep them safe, that I knew I had to find another way to take him out. She died a week later. Thinking back on it, it was like she knew her end was closing in.Perhaps she did.

I thought I could work through Eric’s dad as his informant. A rat. After all, I’d witnessed deals, even a murder once. They just weren’t on U.S. soil. Funny how every time my father took me with him— training as he would say—it always took place in Mexico. Everything he does is careful and calculated. I have to be better. I have to be one step ahead. I figured by biding my time that he would eventually slip up, then he left.

Being home won’t do any good, except maybe force his hand in doing something drastic.

“Are you planning on telling me why I’m here, or are you going to continue sitting there like you’re about to shit your pants, Acerbi?” Summers leans back, kicking his feet up onto my desk, crossing one ankle over the other. Most likely in an attempt to piss me off or get a rise out of me. Seems he and I can’t be in the same room for more than five minutes without one of us poking the other.

“I’m calling in that favor you owe me.”

Two years ago, his wife Paris propositioned me. Luca was still trying to make things work with Mia’s mother and Paris being her sister thought it would be easy to get with me. Unbeknownst to her or anyone, Summers and I knew each other well. We may not be buddy-buddy, and probably never will be, but I respect the man—mostly. I’d never sleep with his wife. But I did let her show her cards long enough to prove to him who she really was. I can’t really blame him for hating me just a little. I am the one that gave him a reason to leave her.

“What makes you think I owe you, of all people?” Arching an eyebrow is all it takes for him to see the angle I’m playing. “Oh, right. And because of that I only see my daughter every other week.”

“Look.” I stand, folding my arms over my chest. “Hate me. Dislike me. I don’t care. We’re both on the same team. I have your back. You have mine. All I’m asking is that you have my back in a different way right now.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“With my father back, I need an extra set of eyes on my sister. I need someone I can trust to watch her and keep her safe should she need it.”

“Why would she need to be kept safe? Is she in some kind of danger?”

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