the man I once adored.
So I packed. I gathered my belongings. I tossed my clothes in a trash bag and combed the small space I'd pretended was home for the last three months. After packing up my computer equipment and monitors, I stood in the living room, feeling lonelier than I'd felt in ages.
It would be better if I left without a trace and became the ghost my employers wanted me so desperately to be. But instead, I pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen to write a note. It was the goodbye I was denied all those years ago.
I'm sorry. Please stop looking for me.
I love you.
I didn't include the last part. Love was just a tease. I knew it would make them look harder.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Chapter Four
Grace
I turned my phone off for the flight, not wanting to give my brother any access to me. My brother and I weren’t close. Like Alessandro, he kept me around out of guilt. He didn’t want a sister, he just wanted to right the wrongs of our neglectful father. He was a Moretti, and I was the bastard daughter of a stripper. I didn’t mind my past, it made me stronger.
When we landed, I kept my cell phone off just to prolong the inevitable. Unfortunately, Alessandro had my brother on the line the moment the plane landed on the tarmac.
“He wants to speak to you,” the cocky bastard said while holding out his smartphone. I stared at the screen for a moment before taking it from his palm. When I held it up to my ear, Alessandro started gathering our luggage.
“Hello,” I answered cautiously.
“You’re in so much trouble,” Gavriel growled. He’d become so overprotective since I was captured by Santobello’s men. I couldn’t blame him, but certainly he knew this was one mission I wouldn’t budge on. Nix was my person. I bet if it were Sunshine hiding in some apartment in Mexico, he would do whatever it took to get to her.
“Have you talked to Sunshine yet?” I asked, changing the subject.
“She told you,” Gavriel replied. His voice didn’t sound like a question but a statement.
“Congrats! I can’t wait to be an auntie.”
“Stop changing the fucking subject,” Gavriel snapped, “...and thank you.” His voice sounded distant, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it sounded like he was freaking the fuck out—or at least, Gavriel’s version of freaking out. Which basically just meant he’d be murdering someone for sport later.
I let out a sigh while walking down the steps of my brother’s private plane, meeting Alessandro by a parked black Escalade on the runway. He had his shades pulled down, even though it was dark outside. “I’m not coming back, Gav. I know you worry, but I’ll be okay.”
“Let me speak to Alessandro, please,” Gavriel replied. His voice was void of all emotion. My brother was hard to read. I think the only people he ever truly let in were the Bullets and Sunshine. I didn’t mind. We danced around caring for one another, but at the end of the day, we were just blood—blood that didn’t really mean anything. So what if we weren’t friendly? We didn’t really do the whole family thing, which was fine with me. I liked the casual nature of our relationship; it made disobeying him that much easier. Once you were in my brother’s web, he didn’t give a fuck about right or wrong. The entire world became one big gray area of doing whatever he pleased.
He cared about me. He was protective of me. But I wasn’t in that special circle of people he locked in his heart, and I was thankful for it. Loving my brother cost many people their freedom. And maybe sometimes I looked at their group and wished I could find my own special place amongst them, but I consoled myself with the fact that it was easier this way.
Alessandro took the phone as I let myself into the back seat. I didn’t really want to listen to them argue about how dangerous this potentially was. I didn’t really care. I craved answers like my dead mother craved drugs. I was no stranger to hardship, death, or danger. I knew what could possibly happen and wasn’t scared to look evil in the eye. I was a Moretti, after all.
Alessandro stood outside for a moment, listening to my brother rant while the driver put our belongings in the back. I dug