Three policemen surrounded her as they cuffed her hands behind her back, helped her to her feet, and walked her to a squad car.
I followed, trying to grasp the magnitude of what she’d done.
She’d given up everything. Her freedom, our future together, to make sure Sergio would never hurt Lizzie again.
A female cop patted her down, respectfully. Sofia Russogot privileges, even after murdering a man, and for once, I was so fucking grateful for it.
“Could we have a moment?” I asked.
The cops looked at each other.
“She’s a Russo. She’s not going anywhere, and even if she did, you know exactly where she’d go.”
The cops nodded, stepping far enough away that we could pretend privacy.
Sofia turned to face me, her expression fierce.
“We’ll get you out,” I promised her, brushing my lips over her forehead.
The corners of her lips tipped up into a slight smile. “Lizzie’s safe. That’s all that matters.”
“Bullshit!” I exploded. “You matter too, sunshine, and we’re going to move heaven and earth to get you out as soon as we can.”
Her eyes turned sad. “I know you’ll do your best.”
My heart shattered on the rough asphalt of the campus drive, surrounded by the wails of police sirens.
She didn’t believe me. She didn’t trust us. Because we’d failed her time and time again.
She watched my face as I realized how alone she really felt, why she didn’t consult with us or ask. Because she didn’t trust us to keep our promises, to support her decisions, when it mattered.
Fuck. Fuck!
“Take care of Lizzie,” she entreated as she entered the backseat of the police car.
I bent down to kiss her one last time. “I will. I promise.”
46
SOFIA
The cops could have usedmy arrest as an excuse to beat the shit out of me. Instead, they gently guided me into the backseat of the black and white car, careful not to knock my head against the doorframe. My spine straight and gaze forward, I ignored the crowd that gathered to watch—nosey busybodies who cared only now that I’d been arrested. Where had their concern been when my parents had locked me up? When Sergio had been abusing me? When he threatened Lizzie?
Nowhere.
Absolutely fucking nowhere.
Sergio was dead. He would never threaten my daughter again. He would never threaten me again. I closed my eyes against the pain of separation from Lizzie, my worry about what would happen to her now overshadowing my fierce pride in killing the bastard.
I was so fucking tired.
After everything I’d done, everything my men had done, I’d lost, after all.
A lifetime of trying to escape my parents. Four years ofprotecting Lizzie from their well-intentioned cruelty, and now I was going to jail, and she was going to end up with them anyway. I’d left instructions to the contrary, a sheaf of papers on my parents’ dining room table, but I knew they’d be ignored, just as my other requests had been ignored my entire life.
No matter. She was IsabellafuckingRusso, and one day she would discover her strength, the same as every other goddamned woman in my family had.
By the time we arrived at the station, Dante Oscuro waited for us, arguing with my sister’s local lawyer, Olivia Gaines. My lips tilted up into a smile at the sight of Olivia, tiny, indomitable, in a skirt suit and stilettos, her long braids swinging as she poked her finger into Dante’s chest like a viper hissing at a larger predator to warn them off.