Fate Book Two (21 page)

He leaned down to whisper, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the room, “Slow down, princess. You know I can’t say anything.”

“Horse, I’m begging you. Please, please tell me what you know. Remember who you’re talking to. I was there for you when you needed help.”

He scratched his blond stubble and blew out a breath.

“Please.” My eyes filled with tears. “I’m begging you to do me this one favor. Put me out of my misery.”

He grumbled something under his breath about hating to see women cry. “Okay. Fine. But we never had this conversation.
Capisci
?”

“
Si, capisci
, or whatever.” I nodded eagerly.

He took a deep breath. “I was just about to leave for Naples and get on a flight when Felix showed up at our cousin’s home in the country where I was hiding. Felix was in very bad shape but didn’t want to go to the hospital for obvious reasons. Then he disappeared. When the police showed up, I knew he’d tipped them off.”

“How did he know where we were going to meet?”

“I wrote it down on the back of my airline ticket. He must’ve found it along with my fake passport.”

He continued, “After that, I was taken to some secret detention center where Nikki told me everything—Felix tipping off my uncle, Paolo being taken by my uncles before your father’s people arrested my family. Then they asked for my help to find Paolo. And at the same time, they were looking everywhere for Felix. I told Nikki everything I knew.”

“So, did they find Paolo? Is he alive?”

Horse’s expression looked troubled. Like he didn’t want to tell me whatever it was that he knew.

“Please. I just want to know if he’s dead or alive.”

He took another breath and blew it out. “
Si
. He’s alive. They found him locked up in a warehouse outside of Rome. Dehydrated, but otherwise fine. As soon as he was able, he helped us look for Felix. And once we finally traced the bastard to Chicago, we knew you were with him—but they didn’t get to you in time.”

“Wait. Paolo was found before I was shot?” I was confused.

“
Si
.”

I didn’t understand. My father had said he was going to bring Paolo back to me. But if Paolo had already been found, my father must’ve known. And why hadn’t Paolo contacted me?

Because he didn’t want to, Dakota. He didn’t want to…

“Oh. I see,” I said.

“I’m sorry, princess. I know it must hurt, but I was there when your father showed up in Rome after you’d been shot. The conversation wasn’t pretty, and the two almost killed each other.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Paolo felt like you were better off without him in your life. He blamed himself for Felix shooting you.”

“You mean my father tried to talk him into coming back to me?”

Horse nodded. “
Si.
But Paolo wouldn’t budge. He said he was a danger to you—that somehow our family might end up getting out of prison and come after him, which would only put you in the crosshairs. Your father told him that he’d make it so no one ever came looking. For him, me, or Paolo, but Paolo still wouldn’t budge. He said it was only a matter of time before someone somewhere figured it out.”

Dammit!
I wanted to scream. I mean, I understood that Paolo’s plan had been to quietly slip away after the operation was over, and the Abelli family wasn’t supposed to ever know he wasn’t Felix. I also understood that his plan blew up because Felix got free and alerted everyone. I even understood that there was a possibility that the Abellis might someday come after him and I could get in the way. But what I couldn’t comprehend was why Paolo had decided what my life should be. Again.

Maybe the real reason was he just wanted to stay with Nikki.
I didn’t know why that thought popped into my head, but it did. Nikki was beautiful and strong, and she probably didn’t give a crap if he disappeared for months at a time. I, on the other hand, wanted a full-time commitment.

Whatever. Doesn’t matter now. It’s over. He made his choice.

“So,” I looked down at my heels, speaking to myself, really, “Paolo wanted me to believe he’d died along with my father, who isn’t really dead either.”

Horse cleared his throat. “You know I can’t say anything. But I will tell you that it broke Paolo when you were shot. He fell apart.”

Oh, poor baby…
Yes, on one hand, Paolo was alive. So was my father. That felt like a damned miracle. On the other hand…I was pissed! Not like “Oh, they lied to me again. How annoying,” but like pissed-pissed.

“What about you?” I asked. “What’s your excuse for not contacting me?”

He waved me off. “Oh no…Your father told me to stay the hell away from you or he’d hunt me down. And I enjoy living.”

Nice, Dad. Really nice.

“So how come you’re out and about and not hiding?” I asked.

Horse shrugged. “My family is in prison. I’m no longer a wanted man. It’s time to move on with my life. Besides, living a life hiding all the time isn’t living.”

Well, good for him! Seriously. I wished he’d knock some sense into Paolo or my father.

Horse’s phone made a loud buzzing sound, and he pulled it from his back pocket. “I have to take this, princess. Please give me one moment.” Horse turned away, holding the phone to one ear and covering the other to block out the music.

Then I glanced over at Mandy, who looked hotter than a chocolate Pop-Tart fresh from the toaster. Two guys were talking to her, invading her personal space, and she looked super uncomfortable. Then there was me, about to blow a fuse and looking for someone to take it out on.

Uh…whatthehell?
I marched over to the two guys. One had darker skin, a shaved head, and wore an outrageously preppy outfit, like he’d just come from the driving range. The other guy, with short brown hair, looked drunker than hell—flushed face and a little stagger—and wore a white dress shirt.

“Hi.” I slid in between the two guys and Mandy, pushing them back a few inches to make room.

“Well,
how
there,” shaved-head guy slurred. Yeah, he’d said “how” not hello. “Wass your name?”

“I’m Dakota. And this is my girl Mandy here. And she may be too polite to make a scene, but I’m in a shitty mood, so I’m just going to say you’re both fucked up and should go home.”

He looked at his friend. “This little girl thinks she can make me go away.” He turned his head back toward me. “What if I give you some candy? Will that make you go away?”

Little girl?
I was about to unleash a fury that would have him slinking out of the bar in humiliation, but from the corner of my eye, I saw him reaching for something in his pant pocket. On impulse, I lifted my knee and landed it right on the mark. I watched him drop to the floor and a pack of breath mints rolled from his hand.

“Whoa! Dakota.” Horse was right there, pulling me away. “What’s the matter with you?”

I watched as the stupid drunk guy’s friend helped him up, and two security guards from the front door came to see what had happened.

“Dakota,” Mandy said, “why did you do that? They were totally harmless.”

“Well, he was—he was reaching for something and…Ugh.” I rubbed my face. I’d gotten in the guy’s face because I was pissed off. That was the reason. I was sick of men who pushed around women, who treated them like weak little children. The knee thing was just a reflex. Not that it would matter.

When the two security officers looked over at me, I knew I would be the one in trouble, but I didn’t care. I’d had it.

“Let me talk to them,” Horse said, holding up his arm and trying to prevent me from going over to where drunk-dude now screamed at the security guards and pointed over at me.

“I suggest you remove that arm if you want to keep it, Horse.”

He shook his head and lifted up his arm.

“Thank you.” I marched over to the security officers. “Hi. I assaulted that piece of shit. It was me. And maybe next time he decides to get trashed in a bar and make a girl feel uncomfortable, he’ll remember his manners. And my knee.” I grinned. Hey, if I was going to get into trouble, something good might as well come out of it.

That’s right. Dakota Danger. Just makin’ lemonade.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Yeah, so getting arrested wasn’t as bad as I thought. It was worse. Mostly because the squad car, holding cell, and everything in the police station was pretty gross. Like, covered in a solid inch of germs and grime. The people were not so spectacular either—druggies, hookers, a few drunks—and they smelled bad. But there was something profoundly liberating about getting in trouble like this. Every minute of every day, I’d always tried to be a good person and do the right thing. Yes, I’d made mistakes along the way. Doesn’t everyone? But dammit, I’d tried. I’d tried so damned hard to be good.

And where had that landed me? What did I get out of it?

A broken life, a broken family, and a broken heart. But for the first time, I’d done something wrong and gotten into real trouble and it felt great. Why? Because I owned it. Yeah. That was
my
stupid mistake back at the bar, and I didn’t need any big strong man to come save me. And when the photographers outside—waiting for actual famous people to show—snapped my photo, I’d smiled like a fiend. I had officially crawled out from under the rock where I’d been living because I’d been too afraid to really live my life because there was no one there to save me if things went wrong.

Well, no more.

No more hiding.

No more being afraid.

No more thinking I can’t save myself.

For the first time ever, I was going to put myself first.
Screw Paolo!
He could go live his little 007 life, feeling like the big bad superhero. Me? I was going to live. I was going to push back when someone stepped over the line. I was going to do things because they made me happy. Me! And if I screwed up, well, I’d just have to damn well figure it out. On my own.

“Dakota Dane?” A female officer opened the cell door. It was about four in the morning, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to see a judge.

“That’s me.” I raised my hand and went with her down a long gray hallway lined with little rooms that had glass windows on the doors.

She showed me to one on the end where Horse, Nikki, and an older, white-haired woman wearing a suit waited.

“Hi, guys,” I said, surprised to see them.

Nikki looked at me and shook her head. “A bar fight, Dakota? Wow.” She wore a shimmery black blouse and tight dress shorts with cuffs on the hem—kind of like really short slacks. Her blonde hair was wrapped up in a twisty thing on her head and her makeup was extra-heavy. No doubt I’d interrupted a fun night of club hopping.

“Nice to see you, too,” I said. Actually, it really was nice to see her.

“Well, I’m sorry I missed it.” She snickered. “Horse says the guy dropped like a bag of stones.”

I shrugged.

“You know,” she said with that faint accent, shaking her finger at me, “this is something I do not understand about you American women. You get angry when men show their appreciation. I mean, we are sexy. They can’t help but act like imbeciles. You know?”

Horse nodded. “It is true.”

I rolled my eyes.

“The good news is, the man will not be pressing charges,” said the woman in the suit.

“Oh, sorry,” said Nikki. “This is Tami Martin, your lawyer.”

I had a lawyer? “Who hired you?”

“That’s not important,” Nikki said. “What is, however, is that you go home to Miami.”

Miami?

“Why do I need to leave New York?” I asked.

The three exchanged glances. “Paolo put you guys up to this, didn’t he? He told you to make sure I went home.”

No one spoke a word.

“You tell Paolo I’m staying right here,” I growled.

“Dakota,” Nikki said, “you can’t be serious. Just come with us, we’ll put you on a private plane and—”

“No,” I cut her off, “if he wants me to leave New York, he can come tell me to my face.”

“Dakota…” Nikki said.

I turned and knocked on the door and the officer promptly appeared. “Would you please take me back to the cell?” I asked. As I left, I looked over my shoulder at Nikki. “Think about the moment you were robbed of your happy life. Now imagine it was the people you loved most who took it away, all because they thought they knew what was best.”

Some very bad people had killed her sister. Me, on the other hand? The people I loved were still alive. Their view of what was best for me and my mother had robbed us of our right to live the lives that made us happiest. Why didn’t anyone get that?

I was so, so done with all of this bullcrap.

The officer walked me down the hall, and I heard Nikki calling out.

“Please, can we have just one minute?” Nikki asked the officer, who nodded and then pointed to an empty little room.

“One minute,” the officer said.

“Thank you,” Nikki replied. “I will send you a gift card for a free pair of shoes!”

The officer rolled her eyes and shut the door behind us.

“Dakota, I need to tell you how sorry I am for everything that happened in Rome.”

Standing a few feet away, I crossed my arms. “You mean the fact that you knew Paolo was Felix and I was going out of my mind, worried that Paolo was dead? Or the fact that the fake Felix threatened me physically and treated me like garbage? Or do you mean the part where you made out with my ex-fiancé right in front of me?”

Nikki blinked her hazel eyes caked with black mascara. “Uhhh…yes?”

I shook my head.

Nikki reached out and squeezed my arm. “Yes. I’m sorry. But I hope you understand I had to help Paolo keep his cover. I never wanted to hurt you.”

I really wasn’t angry. Too much had happened, and given the circumstances of what Nikki and Paolo had been trying to do, my feelings were the least important thing at the time. “I understand. You’re forgiven.”

“Good. Because if it makes you feel any better, I’m a lesbian.”