messages. Then, just before the car pulls up to the aircraft, I make a different call.
“Maverick, was your mission a success?”
“Not entirely, I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
“Sophia has been returned to her family; I need to know where that is.”
“It will take a while, where are you?”
“On my way home. I’ll call you when we’re close, if you could arrange transport?”
“Of course. Consider it done.”
As I cut the call, I feel the anxiety tear me apart. What did my grandmother tell Sophia? Knowing her, it could be anything and that’s what worries me. If Sophia thinks I sent her away, then she will never take my calls. I need to find her and fast because my grandmother was wrong about one thing. I don’t need time to work out my feelings for Sophia Moretti, I did that when I met her jogging through the forest. It’s just taken this to drive the message home. I can’t lose her now, not when I’ve finally got my freedom. Now I need to arrange her own freedom and that will be the toughest mission of all.
32
Sophia
I feel like such a fool. In less than five minutes I am to be returned to my brother and he will be so angry. I’ve let him down; I know I have. By not choosing to leave with him, I’ve brought another family into our business and made him look weak. He also had to interrupt his honeymoon, which was his one shot at letting go of this tainted business by leaving it in the hands of his second in command—Matteo.
We are currently on a boat heading for the Hideaway. The Island my brother bought that, as its name suggests, is well hidden in the Pacific Ocean. The only way here is by boat and with charts that only my family have access to. Nobody will ever find me here and it should have always been the place I ran to. Not the Reapers. Not Maverick. Then again, the pain slices through my heart as I think about what I’ve left behind. Him. My one shot at a normal life with a man who sets my pulse racing and my heart fluttering.
As the shoreline comes into view, I swallow hard as I see I have a welcoming committee of one man. Tobias Moretti. Mafia Don and a man with no heart. My brother.
Blinking back the tears that sit behind the black shades that hide my pain, I prepare to meet him for the first time since before I was taken. He watches us approach with an impassive expression that he wears so well and I wonder what the outcome will be of this meeting.
As the boat docks at the side of the jetty, one of the guards jumps out and secures the rope and Matteo turns and lends me his hand as he prepares to hand me over to another.
As my foot touches the jetty, I prepare myself for the showdown I expect, but as it turns out what happens next takes me completely by surprise.
Stepping forward, Tobias pulls me toward him in his iron embrace and hold me so tightly I think I may break. I can feel his emotion as he whispers, “Thank God.”
The tears now have no hope of staying hidden as I sag against him and sob as if my heart is broken. This is exactly what I needed because for so long I have held it together but there is no need for that now - I’m home.
By the time we pull back, the guards are gone and it’s just the two of us alone on the jetty. Tobias looks completely different to the man I left and I can tell that marriage agrees with him. He looks tanned, healthy and content and I stare at him in wonder. “You look good, Tobias.”
“I wish I could say the same.”
His eyes narrow and I lower my eyes, which obviously irritates him because he says firmly, “Look at me, Sophia.”
I raise my eyes and he frowns. “The only thing that matters is you’re home. We can discuss the details later, but now you must settle in and get some rest.”
He half turns and I feel the walls closing in on me already, even though we are standing out in the open in a tropical paradise. “Tobias.”
I say his name with a softness that makes him turn and I say with fear, “What happens next?”
“What do you want to happen, Sophia?”
“Do I have a choice?”
He