Born in Blood Collection Volume 1 - Cora Reilly Page 0,246

turned to my father’s men. “We’re done here.”

Stan looked like he wanted to protest but the other guy nudged his shoulder. With a glare at me, Stan opened the door and checked the corridor. “Clear. Let’s go.”

I turned to Sid’s body again. Matteo wrapped an arm around my waist. I didn’t look his way. I couldn’t avert my eyes from Sid as if my attention was the only thing that anchored him to life. He was long gone. Pieces of his brain dotted the red sea on the ground.

Matteo steered me toward the door, then down the corridor. Stan was in front of us, while the other man made up the rear. Surrounded. I was surrounded. I should have tried to run away. The odds had always been against me. It had never stopped me before. Maybe this was my last chance to escape. Once back in the States, I’d be trapped. Giving up wasn’t in my nature. I’d always fought my own battles, but so far only I had to pay the price for my courage. Tonight, an innocent, someone who’d never been sullied by the darkness of my world had paid with his life for my dreams, for my wish for freedom, for my selfishness. I’d thought I could evade fate, could outrun a world of blood, but had inadvertently dragged innocents into that world.

Could I live with that?

I wasn’t sure.

Maybe it was in our nature to bring misery and death to everyone around us. Maybe that was why it was best for us to stay among ourselves. Hadn’t Aria said something along those lines a long time ago?

Aria. I’d finally see her again. That was the good news I was clinging to right now. She’d get me through this. She always did.

Matteo’s grip on my wrist was painful. His eyes held a clear message, now that he’d caught me, he would never let me get away again.

* * *

Everything seemed to happen behind a fog. I was pushed into the back of a car and Matteo slipped into the back seat beside me then we drove off with squealing tires. I watched the place I’d called home for the last two months disappear. I pressed my forehead against the cold window. I hardly dared to blink. Every time I closed my eyes, crimson flashed behind my eyelids. Sid was dead because of me.

I could hear Matteo talking to someone on the phone in the background but I couldn’t focus. Everything was over. He’d take me back to my father now, and I had no doubt that I couldn’t expect any kind of mercy. I had betrayed not only the Outfit but also New York, had made my father and Matteo lose face. I would be punished. I glanced at Matteo who was glaring at the back of the front seat. I quickly fastened my bra again and put it back in place. Of course Matteo noticed.

I could tell he was furious. I wondered what kind of punishment he had in mind for me. I’d been on the run for six months. He couldn’t possibly want me for any other reason than revenge. I knew the rules. I wasn’t worthy of marriage anymore. Matteo probably already had a new fiancée and once he’d dealt with me, he’d move on with his life. If he’d wanted to kill me, he would have done so already. That didn’t mean Father wouldn’t do it the moment I set foot on Chicago ground.

We pulled up in front of an airport hotel, and Matteo turned to me, his eyes holding a clear warning. “We’ll spend the next few hours until our flight here. If you try to ask anyone for help, this will end in a bloodbath, understood?”

I nodded. Then Matteo pulled me out of the car with him and led me inside. Nobody paid us any attention as we headed toward the elevators and rode up to the fourth floor.

Matteo led me through the long hallway until we arrived in front of a simple white door.

Stan and the other Outfit man stopped too. “She should come into our room with Carmine and me. She’s still part of the Outfit,” Stan said, his eyes sliding over my body. I knew what he and the other guy would do to me if I came into a room with them.

“She’s mine. I won’t let her out of my eyes again. Now fuck off. Gianna and I have matters to discuss,” Matteo growled. He slid the