Not Juliet (16 page)

“Dad, don’t
speak like that.” Then something occurred to her, something amiss
that she should have noticed earlier. “Where is Mom? I expected her
to be here, with you.”

“I’ve managed
to convince her that tonight might be a good time to cash in that
spa voucher I got her for her birthday last month. Your brother is
taking her to the hotel.”

He’d sent her
away to protect her. Kai, too. Riella worked hard to suppress the
wave of emotion that was threatening to turn her knees to jelly.
Somehow, Goliath had found out. Someone warned him, and he’d sent
away his loved ones. She watched her father’s determined expression
and understood. He’d sent them away because he knew he would
die.

One lone tear
slid down her cheek, but she bit her lip hard and stopped the rest
of the wave. With acceptance, she bent over her father and gave his
shoulders a squeeze. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her
forehead. “Blessed be, my child.”

Riella dropped her brow
to touch her father’s, as they had done a million times before.

“Now!” Goliath
shouted, startling her.

She tried to
straighten up, but he hung onto her neck with far more strength
than she would have anticipated.

From the corner
of her eye, she watched a wood panel in the side wall of the
trailer burst open. A volley of bullets issued from the end of a
gun held by a hand she knew well.

“Luca!”

He didn’t look
at her. In one leap, he landed by her side. His booted foot
connected with Zamir’s chest and the villain flew to the end of the
trailer, where he landed on top of Karalius’ two mercenaries. As
Goliath loosened his grip, Luca grabbed Riella and threw himself
through the open door, with her in his arms.

“So Kai is your
brother?” Luca grunted, absorbing the impact with his body while
protecting Riella.

“Half brother.
Wait,” she screamed when he scrambled up to his feet and dragged
her away from the trailer. “My father!”

A ripple of
gunshots shredded the darkness. More responded. Riella was too busy
running to check if they were aimed at her back. Then she heard a
louder, short, dead boom, and in the next moment Goliath’s trailer
exploded in a ball of fire.

Luca threw her
to the ground behind the nearest trailer and threw himself on top
of her, protecting her body. What was he doing? She struggled to
get up from beneath him. Her father was in there, in the middle of
that inferno.

“Let me up!”
she screamed. “Luca, let me go! My father!”

“He’s gone,
Riella,” he said in her ear, still holding her down.

A wordless
shriek erupted from her throat and she fought him tooth and claw to
get out from underneath him.

“I begged you
to leave him alone,” she screamed. “I begged you on my knees!”

Luca buried his face in
her hair, trying to save his eyesight. Riella was lethal. She would
have made a very successful cage fighter.

“I begged you
to leave him alone. I begged you on my knees!”

“He knew it,”
he shouted, trying to still her. “He gave up his life to protect
yours.”

She still
fought, but he could feel her tiring, grief weighing her down. Deep
sobs erupted from her chest, replacing her will to fight.

“Come on.” He
pulled her to her feet and towed her into the darkness, farther
away from the fire and shootings.

They made it to
the last trailer just as he heard the grenade launchers.

“Fuck. We need
to run like you’ve never run before. Over to that line of trees.
Ready?”

“No. Wait. I
can barely stand up.”

“Tough. You can
complain later. C’mon.”

Luca grabbed
Riella’s hand tight in his hand and started for the trees. They ran
for their lives, while behind them the campsite turned to churned
mud and fire. Trailers and cars alike blew up, and the few people
who hadn’t already taken cover ran away into the darkness.

As soon as they
were hidden by the first line of trees, Riella pulled her hand out
of his and dug her heels in. “Wait!”

“Riella, we’re
not safe here. We need to get farther in.”

“I don’t give a
shit! You stop and answer me one question, Luca Anziano, or you may
as well kill me here and now.”

Luca stared at
her for a split second. Dogged determination was shining in her
eyes. Hell of a gene to inherit from her father. Why couldn’t she
just have his color eyes, or same shape chin instead?

Riella stood,
hands on hips, hair wild and twisting in the wind, outlined against
the conflagration that had been her and her people’s home, like
some avenging angel come to rid the world of its canker.

“Luca,” she
panted, “when you told me you loved me… I just need to know… Were
you lying to me?”

The metallic
whizzing of several simultaneous barrels resonated over the
crackling of the fire. Sprays of bullets showered the already
destroyed site, catching any stragglers unawares.

“Who the hell
sold him a metal storm? The guy’s nuts!”

“Answer
me!”

“I’ll answer
you on the go.”

Luca grabbed
her in his arms and ran. The bullets kept coming and Riella was
shouting something over the noise, but not loud enough for him to
make out individual words. He ran, mind focused on one thing, and
one thing only: to get her away from the danger, to make her
safe.

The forest
floor was uneven, and it would have been difficult terrain even
without having to carry a struggling woman in his arms; with her
added weight, Luca felt like he was wrenching each step through a
vat full of treacle. His thigh muscles burned, his lungs were on
fire, but now he could see the road, and parked to the side, the
truck in which Karalius must have brought over his arsenal designed
to teach Goliath’s people who’s boss.

Escape was in
sight.

From in front,
someone opened fire, and Luca stumbled. Before he could work out
why, he hit the ground and knew no more.

Luca opened his eyes to
leaf mold and mud. The stench of charred earth was thick in his
nostrils, and the right side of his face was sticky with blood. His
blood. He struggled to his feet, head thick and pounding, and
looked around. Behind him, in the distance, the campsite still
burned, small explosions ripping through the darkness as the fire
caught flammable materials or gas bottles used for cooking. The
forest was quiet, and the road, too. No emergency vehicles yet. He
can’t have been out for long.

It took him a
few more seconds to realize Riella was nowhere to be seen and
Karalius’ truck had gone.

A tremor in his
pocket alerted him to the fact that someone had been trying to call
him. He took the call.

“About damn
time, son! I thought I’d lost you back there.”

“Dad! Where are
you?”

“Look up!” Luca
did as he was told and grinned when he spotted Santa Maria. “Been
watching the show. Any reason you wouldn’t want to stop a bastard
from stealing away your girl?”

“You must be
joking! Which way did he go?”

“Get to the
road. I’ll pick you up.”

Luca laughed
out loud at the cheer in the old man’s voice and ran to the road.
Once on board, he felt like nothing could hold him back anymore.
Grin plastered firmly on his face, he shouted, “Follow that truck!”
feeling only a little bit silly.

Cosimo laughed
at his exuberance and directed his flying monster after the runaway
truck.

Farther away
from the fire, the darkness was denser, but the large expanse of
truck below, recognizable as much by its shape and color as by the
fact that it was the only moving vehicle for miles, was easy to
follow. In minutes, Cosimo had situated himself directly above it
and began its descent.

“She’s in the
back,” he shouted, and Luca nodded.

He went down
low enough for Luca to jump.

Luca landed on
the truck’s canopy and crawled back until he could grab hold of the
steel rods keeping the doors shut. Once in position, he stayed on
his front, hugging the moving beast, and glanced back over his
shoulder at the road ahead. The helicopter sped up, and then
disappeared. It was almost time.

The view ahead
was cut by sweeping hills, an unfamiliar terrain for the truck
driver. Suddenly, the truck’s brakes locked on, and Luca threw his
body over the edge of the truck’s canopy, to hang behind it. His
grip on the rods across the back door tightened, and he prayed his
old man had got out in time.

In the next
moment the truck collided with the helicopter with a massive boom.
Inertia almost dislodged Luca’s grip, but he held on, knowing that
acting fast was of the essence here. As soon as the truck settled,
front end engulfed by the ball of fire created by splitting the
helicopter’s tanks in the impact, Luca dropped to the ground and
flicked the locks off.

“Riella,” he
shouted, jumping in and searching blindly between cargo nets and
metal cages.

He found her
right at the front, where she must have rolled when the truck
crashed into the helicopter. She was breathing. When he touched her
shoulder, she moved and opened her eyes.

“Do you hurt
anywhere?”

“Everywhere,”
she answered.

“Can you move
your arms? Your legs?”

“Give me a
minute! I just did a summersault in here. Have some patience!”

Her irate
response made him chuckle. Without delay, he picked her up and
hurried out. The truck could blow up any minute.

A safe distance
away, he stood her up gently.

She smiled and
leaned into him. “You came for me.”

Luca placed a
small kiss to her forehead. “I had a question to answer.”

She pulled back
to see him better.

Luca stroked
his hands along her cheeks, fingers brushing her lips, her ears,
twisting in her hair, remembering the beauty of her.

“I love you,
Riella, with everything I’ve got. I love you and I always will.
Will you please come back to me?”

She squealed
and threw her arms around his neck. “Yes!” She kissed him
passionately, and he responded, as eager as a parched desert
dweller would be to quench his thirst in a clear pool of water.
Cupping her head with one hand, he held her close, his lips on
hers, tasting, searching.

“Not
interrupting, am I?” Cosimo’s voice came from the roadside.

Luca chuckled.
The old man had such perfect timing!

“Riella,” he
said. “Meet my father.”

I know many of you
don’t believe love can sweep you away as fast as it did me and
Luca, but I assure you, when you find your soul’s other half, it
will feel just like that: a wave of emotion sweeping you off to a
magical land. Time will cease to matter, as will any other details
of the world around you.

In the end, my
life turned out just like the fairytale I was dreaming of. Luca
enthralled me with his passionate love, and I’ve been even more
spellbound by his devoted adoration ever since. The gashes from the
two bullets that grazed his head when he was saving my life (yet
again) have left clear scars, but they only add to his rugged
beauty. My husband is my hero, and I know nothing will ever come
between us again – he wouldn’t let it, and neither would I.

It turns out
being married to a gang master’s master is not so bad when he is a
creator of good, and a destroyer of evil. There was no arms deal;
it had been an excuse, a way to justify driving a large truck chock
full of weapons onto the campsite. Most of my people, those who
respected my father and didn’t want to be part of such treachery,
were warned by Luca’s men and driven off the site. Those who
remained, did so as a display of loyalty toward Karalius and the
new puppet he intended to leave in place as king.

The way I see
it, they got what they deserved. There is an order to the universe,
like my father said, and it would have been wrong for me to
interfere.

Karalius and
two of his men died in the crash with Cosimo’s helicopter, so Luca
dismantled the Lithuanian’s arms trading operation and is keeping a
much closer eye on the whole of Europe now.

Cosimo, his
father, is the most endearing man I’ve met, besides my husband. I
can see exactly how Luca grew up to be the amazing man he is now.
To say I am happy to have met him is an understatement, though he
is making Luca work hard, to help pay for a replacement for the
totaled Santa Maria.

The sadness I
felt at the loss of my father has been overridden by my knowledge
that he is no longer suffering and, of course, I know he is
watching over me now, making sure my wedding is as perfect as any
gypsy wedding could ever be.

I followed his
advice and asked Kai, the new king of the English Romanies, to give
me away. My mother cried the whole time, but I can see her starting
to relax now, as the celebrations continue. Cosimo has just offered
her a drink, and she took it with a smile. Oh! Mother! He’s just
wound his arm around her middle and is pulling her over to the
terrace, looking sheepishly over his shoulder. Maybe, between them,
Cosimo and the beauty of the Tuscan countryside can show her that
life really is worth living. She won’t forget my father, but she
could open her heart, in time, to renewed happiness.

Luca caught his
father’s eye and chuckled. We’re obviously thinking the same
thoughts. Oh, well, no reason why more than one couple shouldn’t
find happiness this day.

I shall close
off here. Judging by the glimmer in Luca’s eye, he won’t be able to
keep his hands off me for much longer, and that’s just fine with
me. All I can say is follow your heart, and I wish you can find
your own Romeo when the time is right. Fairytales do happen. Love
at first sight does exist. And the universe does work in mysterious
ways.